[ExI] Italy's Social Capital

[Lee Corbin]

Serafino writes


> Lee writes:
> 
>> My [second] outrageous idea is that instead of trying to subdue
>> Ethiopia, what if Sicily and other areas of the south could
>> have been "subdued" instead?
> 
> Something like that happened during Fascism. In example
> (as far as I remember) 'mafia', in Sicily, has been defeated
> during Fascism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Mori

Thanks very much for that!  Cesare Mori's activities remind
me of how Mao Ze Dong cleaned up crime and prostitution
in China's big cities.

The article does not mention it, but didn't the United States
succeed in forging an alliance with the Mafia during WWII?
Didn't this help get organized crime back on its feet in Italy
and in particular in Sicily (as well as the U.S.)?

> Mussolini also tried to 'colonize' central & southern regions.

Ah, great minds think alike.

> After 1931 vast tracts of land were reclaimed 
> through the draining of marshes in the Lazio region, 
> where gleaming new towns were created with Fascist 
> architecture [1] and names: Littoria (now Latina) 
> in 1932, Sabaudia in 1934, Pontinia in 1935, 
> Aprilia in 1937, and Pomezia in 1938. Peasants were
> brought from the regions of Emilia and, mostly, from 
> Veneto, to populate these towns. Btw in these towns,
> at present time, you can still hear people speaking 
> their original dialect (from Bologna, or Verona)
> and not the local one. New towns, such as Carbonia, 
> were also built in Sardinia to house miners for
> the revamped coal industry.

Wow.  I would like to know if the new towns make a 
positive contribution to the economies of these regions,
i.e., in excess of comparative communities with a longer
history in the given region.

Lee

> [1] May I say here that the only 'modern' Italian 
> architecture was the architecture made during
> Fascism? Yes I think I can say that.
> http://www.romeartlover.it/Eur.html
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/antmoose/sets/1239273/