Rocky set up on my street corner in the Via Vittorio Emanuele every night and sold pane ca meuzza, in Sicilian, pane con la milza in Italian, or spleen and cheese sandwich in English, a typically Palermitan street food item.
University of Palermo anthropology professor Carlo Di Franco, who took the picture, writes on his personal Facebook page that Palermo's old knife makers appear in all the old markets of the city: the Vucciria, Ballaro`, and the Capo markets. He photographed Mr. Salvatore Cambria who for 60 years has operated out of his shop and workshop in Discesa Maccarrronai (Macaroni Makers Descent) in the Vucciria market.
Today, Sunday, alone saw 1100 migrants saved from the Strait of Sicily. The Libyan traffickers sent off eight rubber rafts all at once. Also saved were two tiny boats full of complete Libyan families. This is a new phenomenon, according to a report in the daily La Repubblica. The Libyan families are autonomous immigrants escaping (more…)
From Reuters in Rome via The Guardian:
An Italian judge has acquitted two men accused of people-smuggling and murder, saying they had been forced at gunpoint by Libyan traffickers to drive a rubber boat packed with migrants last year.
The judge in the Sicilian city of Palermo on Wednesday ordered that Jammeh Sulieman and (more…)
This Sicilian Baroque church was rebuilt, like many others in Palermo. Its original name is Chiesa di Gesu`, or Church of Jesus, established by Jesuits.
Washing and kissing immigrants' feet is all well and good. Heartwarming show but it is all theater and symbols.. The church should sell its art and help the poor, hire lobbyists to do whatever lobbyists do, including paying bribes, to change the world for them. And not just the Vatican's holdings, but every church in every parish.
More than a thousand migrants, including tiny babies, were rescued in the past few hours off the coast of Libya in several operations that involved the Italian Coast Guard and and Maltese ship. IN the video you can also see a rescuer who was overcome by the diesel fumes of one of the vessels, felt ill and fainted in the waters. Imagine having to smell the diesel fumes day and night without respite during the transit of the Mediterranean.
Sicilian judge Antonino Di Matteo is one of the most threatened - and protected - men in Italy. As the chief prosecutor in Italy's "trial of the century", he has more than 20 bodyguards, ensuring his safety around the clock. On trial are 10 men who stand accused of being part of a conspiracy between the mafia and the state. Five of the defendants are mafia bosses and five are members of the political establishment.
