[Europe] [2007.12.06]The Mafia in Italy-A declining family business Mafia, business, The, family, declining

jerrywhitt

The Mafia in Italy 意大利黑帮

A declining family business 黑帮家族生意的衰败
Dec 6th 2007 | ROME 写于2007年12月6日
From The Economist print edition 摘自经济学人杂志印刷版

The godfathers are under pressure from police and businessmen alike
教父们同时受到来自警察与商人的压力

BEFORE flinging himself out of the window when surrounded by police, Daniele Emmanuello, the Mafia “godfather” of Gela, a port in Sicily, managed only to pull some clothes over his pyjamas. Or so it seemed. He was shot dead as he fled on December 3rd, and during the autopsy pathologists discovered that Mr Emmanuello had done something else in his final moments: he had swallowed a small plastic bag containing tiny coded notes.
西西里一港口城市格拉的黑帮“教父”丹尼尔•以马利罗（Daniele Emmanuello）在被警察围住并导致跳楼之前，他最后的垂死挣扎也仅仅是向自己宽松的睡衣上添加了几件衣服，或者说看起来是这样。2007年12月3日，他在跳楼时被枪击身亡，而在验尸的过程中，医师发现以马利罗先生在他人生的最终时刻做了一件其它的事情，那就是他吞下了一个装有一些微码便条的小塑料袋。

Similar notes were found last year in the hideout of Bernardo Provenzano, capo di tutti i capi of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, and on Salvatore Lo Piccolo, his would-be successor who was arrested last month. This wealth of evidence is perilous to the Mafia. Once deciphered, it leads investigators not only to associates but also to businessmen who pay protection money.
西西里的“科萨•诺斯特拉”组织大佬伯纳多•普洛温扎罗（Bernardo Provenzano）是以马利罗先生顺理成章的继任者，去年，在他的藏身处也发现了类似的便条，该团伙大佬上个月被警方逮捕。证据的之多让黑帮处于危险之中。一旦这些微码被解密出来，政府调查官不仅会调查与黑帮有联系的人，而且会牵涉支付保护费的生意人。

Sicily's entrepreneurs pay Cosa Nostra an estimated euro8 billion ($12 billion) a year. Now that the Mafia is less involved in international drug-smuggling, extortion has become its main source of revenue. As a result, it appears to be more vulnerable to the combined pressure of the government and of businessmen who refuse to pay.
西西里的企业家每年大概会向“科萨•诺斯特拉”组织支付80亿欧元。目前，黑帮较少参与国际毒品走私，因此强取豪夺便成了其主要的收入来源。结果在受到政府与不愿支付的生意人的双重压力下，黑帮就显得更大难临头。

The day after killing Mr Emmanuello, police arrested dozens of Mafia suspects and seized the libro mastro, or central register, of all the firms paying money to a rising clan in the eastern city of Catania. Last month a similar document was taken from Mr Lo Piccolo, which has led the police to question, among others, the head of the Palermo doctors' guild (who denies it pays the Mafia).
在以马利罗先生被击毙后的第二天，警方逮捕了大量的黑帮嫌疑犯，并且获取了西西里东部城市卡塔尼亚（Catania）给一个新兴帮派支付保护费的所有公司的总清单（libro mastro）。上个月，警方从鲁•皮科洛（Lo Piccolo）先生那获得了一份类似的文件，这份文件让警方着手调查马勒莫城医生协会（该协会否认了向黑帮付费），其它一些协会也受到调查。

At the same time a small but growing band of mainly young businessmen is defying the mob. The improbable centre of the revolt is Caltanissetta, a town in traditionally backward central Sicily. Last month mobsters showed how seriously they take the rebellion when they torched the local offices of Italy's employers' federation, Confindustria, which has enthusiastically supported the revolt. Menacingly, they also stole computer discs listing the businessmen involved.
与此同时，一个主要由青年商人组成的小的新兴协会正公然抵制着这群暴徒。不敢相信的是，这次抗议的主要地点竟是卡尔塔尼塞塔（Caltanissetta），这是西西里中部并在过去较落后的一个城市。上个月，暴徒表现出了他们抵制抗议的决心——焚烧了意大利雇主联合会（或称Confindustria，意为工业联盟）（注1）的本地办事处，因为该联合会狂热地支持着这次抗议。为了表示出他们的威胁性，他们还盗窃了列举有关商人清单的电脑光盘。

The revolt against the pizzo—slang for a protection payment—has spread to the southern city of Agrigento and, after the death of Mr Emmanuello, could extend to Gela. More important are the first signs of defiance in Cosa Nostra's home town of Palermo. On November 16th three men, including the son of a noted clan boss, were sentenced to between ten and 16 years in prison for extortion. They had been reported by a well-known restaurateur. Less than a week earlier the city got its first anti-racketeering association.
针对收取保护费（pizzo，意大利俚语）的暴乱已经蔓延到了西西里南部城市阿格里琴托（Agrigento），并且在以马列罗先生死后又进一步蔓延到了格拉。更重要的是，这些抗议是在“科萨•诺斯特拉”组织的家乡马勒莫城对其进行反抗的初次表现。2007年11月16日，三个黑帮人士因强取豪夺而被判10-16年的入狱监禁，其中还包括一位大名鼎鼎黑帮大佬的爱子。这些人都是被一位大富大贵的餐馆老板揭发的。不到一星期前，马勒莫城也成立了反敲诈勒索联盟协会。

At least two factors underlie this change. One is the power vacuum in Cosa Nostra caused by Mr Lo Piccolo's arrest. Another, more surprising, is the spread of liberal economic views in a society hitherto used to doing business through cartels and political patronage. Giving his reasons for standing up to the Mafia, Enrico Colaianni, head of Palermo's new business resistance movement, told Milan's big newspaper, Corriere della Sera, last month: “Racketeering rigs the market, and if you pay you agree to be part of a system that rejects...free competition.”
这种情况之所以出现，至少有两个因素。其一，鲁•皮科洛先生被捕之后，“科萨•诺斯特拉”组织出现帮内的“权力真空”。其二，社会上广泛时兴起一种自由化的经济观点，即通过企业联合与政权保护来做生意，这是让人和吃惊的。马勒莫城新商业抵制运动的主席恩里科•科莱安利（Enrico Colaianni）说明了自己反抗黑帮的各种原因，并在上月对米兰的一家大型报纸《意大利生活》讲道，“敲诈勒索约束了市场的发展，如果你向他们付钱，那么你也就参与了阻止自由竞争的行列。”

Giuseppe Pace, the leader of Sicily's chambers of commerce, has rightly called it “an extraordinary moment”. But he and other entrepreneurs cannot defeat Cosa Nostra alone. They need political support. Last month parliament slipped a clause into the 2008 budget providing tax breaks to businessmen and women who refuse demands for protection money. But more is needed. A well-publicised visit by the prime minister, Romano Prodi, to gladhand rebel businessmen would help persuade the doubters that standing up to the mob is more than just brave eccentricity.
西西里商会的会长朱塞佩•培斯（Giuseppe Pace）恰当地称之为“一个非凡的时刻”。但是他与其他的企业家们却无法仅靠自己就打败“科萨•诺斯特拉”组织。他们需要政治上的支持。上个月，意大利议会在2008年的预算方案中新加了一个条款，即对那些拒绝支付保护费的商人们给予减免税款。但是，商人们还需要更多的有利措施。意大利总理罗马诺•普罗迪（Romano Prodi）走访了生产gladhand制动系统的叛逆商人们，此次倍受关注的访问将有助于让心存疑虑的人明白反抗黑帮最多也只是胆大的反常行为罢了。

Remark:
Confindustria is the Italian employers' federation, founded in 1910. It groups together more than 113,000 voluntary member companies, accounting for nearly 4,200,000 individuals. It aims to help Italy's economic growth, assisting, in doing so, its members. It is a member of the International Organization of Employers (IOE). Members of Confindustria include ANIMA, Federation of the Italian Associations of Mechanical and Engineering Industries.
“工业联盟”是意大利的雇主联盟协会，成立于1910年。该协会聚集了超过十一万三千的志愿企业成员，共有几乎四百二十万人。其目的是促进意大利的经济发展，并在国家经济发展的情况下，帮助成员企业发展。它是国际雇主组织的一个成员组织。“工业联盟”的成员组织包括了意大利机械与工程行业联盟。

[ 本帖最后由 jerrywhitt 于 2007-12-14 16:07 编辑 ]