{"id":7766,"date":"2012-10-06T19:23:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T19:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/?p=7766"},"modified":"2012-10-08T20:25:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T20:25:48","slug":"larba-sicula-the-ongoing-crisis-in-sicily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/larba-sicula-the-ongoing-crisis-in-sicily\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;L&#8217;arba Sicula&#8221; &#8211; The ongoing crisis in Sicily &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lS6PIJCBw_U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video translation: (both in Sicilian &amp; Italian)<br \/>\n<em>&#8220;&#8216;nnipinnenza &#8211; Isula sugnu, e Isula vogghju ristari&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; Independence &#8211; An island, I am &#8211; An island I want to remain&#8221;(Sic.)<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Dal 1945, al giorni nostri &#8211; un solo grido&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; Since 1945, to our present day &#8211; one single cry&#8221; (Ital.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Austerity crisis<\/strong> &#8211; spreading beyond Sicily to the rest of South Italy and other locations &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Most likely this news will eventually spread to the mass media in the times to come &#8211; but i wanted to share some world news that has been making headlines overseas&#8230;.and is something that I have been watching closely since it began and affects me deeply as it is a part of my heritage, as one of part Sicilian descent &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Since as long as i can remember, the little island of Sicily, a nation-island in the heart of the Mediterranean &#8211; has been plagued for many centuries under oppression from foreign rule &#8211; lending it to its unique and distinctive culture, as well as its very own history (which could fill an entire book on its own) and its own language <em>(La Lingua Sicula)<\/em> &#8211; from the ancient Greeks, to the Sarecens, Arabs, and Normans &#8211; each civilization has left its mark on the island&#8230;..and overtime has shaped a culture and a people that are at once, passionate of their own identity and together &#8211; with strong roots and blood&#8230;.it is not uncommon for many to claim &#8220;Sicilian&#8221; ethnicity, instead of &#8220;Italian&#8221; &#8212; and in fact&#8230;.are indeed a distinct ethnic group (closely related in many ways to the &#8220;Maltese&#8221; in the South &#8211; Malta is considered, &#8220;the mirror of Sicily&#8217;s past&#8221;) &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>It is no wonder why, for so many times over&#8230;.the Sicilian people continue to fight arduously for an island that has essentially belonged to every civilization that has passed through it except for its own native inhabitants &#8211; an island that is, since the &#8220;Risorgimento&#8221; era of Giuseppe Garibaldi (the unification of modern Italy) &#8211; and officially since 1945&#8230;has become a region of Italy, an autonomous region&#8230;.But as some come to know&#8230;.Sicily has never been exactly Italy&#8230;..the flavors of North Africa and Greece still echoes in in the Sicilian air&#8230;&#8230;and still to this day &#8211; That has always remained&#8230;..pumping in the hearts of <em>&#8220;Li Siculi&#8221;<\/em> ~<\/p>\n<p>Right now &#8211; there is a very significant political and cultural revolution going on in present-day Sicily&#8230;.that has sent waves of uprising across the island&#8230;..which recently has even begun to spread beyond Sicily itself, into South Italy and into the very heart of the Italian govt. itself, &#8220;Rome&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Sicilian uprising, in short, began last January. &#8211;\u00a0 as the Italian govt (w\/ president Giorgio Napoletano and controversial Prime Minister, Mario Monti) &#8211; decided to place pressure on Sicily&#8217;s own economy by rising prices on its exports (primarily its petrol, which makes up almost half of Sicily&#8217;s economy&#8230;and much of it is taken from Sicily to much of the profit, North of Italy) &#8211; and raise the price of gas to excessive levels&#8230;..(as part of the overall sovereign debt crisis in Europe) &#8212; Already striken by long-term widespread poverty for many many years&#8230;..taking it as a direct insult, the Sicilian people decided that &#8220;enough was enough&#8221; &#8211; and took matters into its own hands, which began the revolt against the Italian state, dubbed, &#8220;The New Sicilian Vespers 2012&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Named after the Sicilian Vespers, which was a major rebellion that took place against French Angevin rule in the 13th century&#8230;..the people of Sicily took it to the streets and for five days, essentially blocked all the major ports and roads (esp. in Messina&#8230;considered the entry point into Sicily) &#8211; a major political organization, called&#8230;<strong>&#8220;Shock Force&#8221;<\/strong> &#8211; organized the &#8220;Pitchforks Movement&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Il Movimento dei Forconi&#8221; &#8211; which represented all the poor sheepherders and farmer unions&#8230;..and protested against the unfair rise in costs &#8211; As each day went by, more local support came from trucker unions and even including the fishing industry&#8230;.small businesses&#8230;.as well as school students&#8230;..local citizens, learning about what was going on&#8230;.angrily protested alongside &#8211; Which then continued well beyond the 5-day blockade into what is going on currently ~<\/p>\n<p>Evoking its long history of past oppression under foreign rule&#8230;.Sicilian outrage began to cry throughout the island&#8230;..as continued poverty and homelessness increased&#8230;..blaming the Italian state for its, &#8220;failed promises and political lies&#8221; &#8211; and essentially treating the island unfairly as a &#8220;colony&#8221; of sorts&#8230;.failing to fully instate the &#8220;Sicilian Statute&#8221; which was promised to Sicily when it became a part of Italy under the Italian constitution in 1945&#8230;..hence, the continuing poverty and prejudice that exists today &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><em>(In short, The special &#8220;Sicilian Statute&#8221; &#8211; grants Sicily, full autonomy and its benefits of a self-ruled government and economy within Italy&#8230;as well as equal fairness towards Sicilians under the eyes of the govt)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Shouts of &#8220;Per lo Statuto&#8221; (for the statute) started to ring through the streets as things became more heated&#8230;..focusing on not just politics, but on the very core identity of the Sicilian people&#8230;..Since 1945, waves of independence movements have emerged, most most notably the M.I.S. (<em>Movimento Indipendentista Siciliano<\/em>) &#8211; and once again, calls for independence from Italy have become more stronger and passionate than ever&#8230;..As marching protests spread across the entire island, from the capital of Palermo, to Catania in the East, the 2nd largest city&#8230;..raising the flag of Sicily, the ancient &#8220;Trinacria&#8221; &#8211; the three-legged ancient symbol &#8211; and wearing the &#8220;Red and Yellow&#8221; (the Sicilian colors) &#8211; with pride&#8230;..and shouting, in Sicilian, <em>&#8220;vogghjamu &#8216;nnipinnenza! &#8211; Nuatri Semmu Siculi &#8216;nzemmula pi sempri&#8221;<\/em> (We want independence! We are Sicilians together forever)<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, much of the protests&#8230;.although full of passion and earnest determination&#8230;.have been peaceful&#8230;.but it is only a matter of time before, things start to churn and burn ~ <em>(in the past month or so&#8230;.people started fighting back against police, sent by the Italian state, from evicting them from their homes&#8230;unable to pay the rising costs in living as well&#8230;.forcing residents to live in more homeless and poverty&#8230;.violence against the police has sprung&#8230;.with people getting injured, to some self-immolating themselves as a last resort)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Going on currently:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With local Sicilian presidential elections coming up in the next 2 weeks (yes, they do have their own president) &#8211; things have begun to heat up&#8230;..as the people of Sicily decide on their future &#8211; many want a change&#8230;.from the old&#8230;.into the the new &#8212; so it will be very interesting to see what will happen! (One of the candidates is Mariano Ferro, who strongly supports the spirit of the Trinacria and the liberation of its people&#8230;..)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Ahead of the elections, I just learned that even school students&#8230;.just yesterday&#8230;.protested in the streets, about 5,000 students in Palermo, burning their school I.D&#8217;s in unison while shouting cries against Italian prime minister Monti&#8217;s austerity cuts also affecting school tuition fees&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.demotix.com\/news\/1502669\/5000-students-palermo-set-fire-their-voting-cards-protest#media-1502612<br \/>\nAlso, with the Austerity cuts continuing, the situation is also beginning to spread beyond Sicily&#8217;s borders (the hardest hit area) &#8211; into the also poverty-stricken Southern Italy and some places in the North (such as Turin) &#8212; students there also protesting against the exorbitant fee increases&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Will be watching this closely as things progress&#8230;..but It&#8217;s quite sad though&#8230;.that what is going on in my ancestral island&#8230;.isnt being given much attention in the news or major humanitarian organizations&#8230;..<em>(it is difficult, in fact, to find all this information i&#8217;ve shared)<\/em> &#8211; I feel it&#8217;s a situation that must not be ignored and should be known to others&#8230;&#8230;by raising awareness and educating others ~<br \/>\nMay the undying spirit live strong&#8230;&#8230;&#8221;Trinacria&#8221; &#8211;<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/photos4.meetupstatic.com\/photos\/sponsor\/7\/2\/a\/8\/iab120x90_149352.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"101\" height=\"68\" \/><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/soT4B1nUoT4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the protests from Catania&#8221;<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UtqHLg2ThGk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The unofficial Sicilian National Anthem &#8211; &#8220;L&#8217;innu Nazzjunali ra Sicilia&#8221; (translated into Italian subtitles)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video translation: (both in Sicilian &amp; Italian) &#8220;&#8216;nnipinnenza &#8211; Isula sugnu, e Isula vogghju ristari&#8221; &#8211; Independence &#8211; An island, I am &#8211; An island I want to remain&#8221;(Sic.) &#8220;Dal 1945, al giorni nostri &#8211; un solo grido&#8221; &#8211; Since 1945, to our present day &#8211; one single cry&#8221; (Ital.) \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/larba-sicula-the-ongoing-crisis-in-sicily\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,13,19,5,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-human-rights","category-people","category-places","category-politics","category-video","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7766"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7774,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7766\/revisions\/7774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}