And I thought J. Jonah Jameson was crazy for wanting to turn lemons into grenades. In all seriousness, at first you had my curiosity, now you have my attention.
As a Sicilian, I really appreciate this video. There is this kind of inertia in telling the story of how the mafia came about in Sicilian schools, mainly talking about the failures of unifying Italy, 19th-century banditry, and western powers reinforcing mafia dynamics during, for example, the World Wars. Hearing about the economic aspect of this, and about newer studies on this story, is really refreshing. Judging from other videos you made in the past, and of course your background as a historian, you are aware of the geographical power imbalances between Italy's South and the North. This has led to both systemic and non-systemic discrimination practices that now we know as 'antimeridionalismo' (anti-Southernism). The fight against anti-Southernism is also tied to the struggle against the mafia, and against the imagery and stereotypes that were brought about not only by Sicily's ties to the mafia, but also by the North of Italy and foreign countries taking economic advantage of the mafia symbol and making it glamourous. So, I really appreciate how you made sure at the beginning to make clear that the mafia is not what we see in movies, and that Sicily is not 'Mafialand' and is completely safe.
My wife is from northern Italy and you can definitely see the major differences between the north and the south. The people I am around don’t speak negatively about the south, although I know it is a common stereotype to think so.
My best friend is from Sicily and back in high school days he had acquaintances who would unashamedly say that they went out stealing lemons. One of them, I was told, was shot (but missed) by someone who caught him in the act.
i'm considering the possibility that the source of that 1.6 million gallons of lemon juice figure is an old British source. which means they're imperial gallons, not the smaller US gallon. which means it would by 7,273,000 liters. furthermore, it seemed like you where trying to use the volume of a single smaller lemon. but not all of the lemon is juice. the internet says about 2 tablespoons from a smaller lemon, so i rounded up to 30mL and got 242,433,300 lemons
7:08 reminds me of something similar i read maybe a year ago, about avocados in Michoacan (Mexico).... fruits on trees, high value, high demand, armed militia for protection, etc
The judge whose car was blown up in the 1980s was called Giovanni Falcone. Later, the methods he used to prosecute the Sicilian mafia was used by prosecutors in Rome in the "Clean Hands" operation. In Brazil, the then federal judge Sérgio Moro applied his methods in the Car Wash anti-corruption operation.
Interesting! And you're right - the word, mafia, now applies to any complex criminal organization regardless of location in the world. And your approach is wonderfully reminiscent of James Burke's old documentary series, Connections 😀
Quite different from the version of history where they developed out of the romanticised neopolitian bandits and highwaymen of the 1700-1800s, very interesting video.
There is another explanation I think you should know: You mentioned that Cosa Nostra are clans, and it is maybe a word people don't understand, because yes you are family, but how come you are so large family and united together? This is were cousin marriage comes in hand, and a specific one: the daughters marry the uncles sons. By doing this the wealth stays within the family, within the clan. You also increase the genetic similarity, marry cousins in multiple generations make you genetically similar like siblings. This means you also stick together more, people tend to take more care for a sibling than a cousin. But, the inbreeding also increase, it is easy to joke about the deformed Habsburgs, but the sickness happens to anyone. Also, the level of violence goes up, maybe to protect the clan, but also shows an heavy increase of ADHD in modern studdies. This inbreeding, with all its sicknesses, was seen so bad that the Catholic church put a lot of effort to forbid it, and did so across Europe. But Sicily sure must be Catholic? Yes, now they are, but their history is different, 827-1091 it was the Emirate of Sicily, and Christians was under the Orthodox church (banned first 1585), which did not enforce strict regulations against cousin marriages, so the practices remain in the island. This is not too uncommon in places with weak government, then the clan provides the protection that the state would otherwise do. And 1814-1861 was just that for Sicily. From wikipedia. "In Southern Italy, cousin marriage was a usual tradition in regions such as Calabria and Sicily, where first-cousin marriage in the 1900s was near to 50 percent of all marriages." (Note that Calabria also have large mafia: 'Ndrangheta) "The greater the rate of cousin marriage in a province, the higher the rates of corruption and Mafia activity.”
3:16 Since I've made that mistake in the past too: A Be{a/e}mer is a BMW vehicle. What you got there is a video projector :) Otherwise, great video. Thank you!
I am afraid it’s not correct if you talk English instead of Dutch. Making this mistake myself as well… Beamer was a brand of projectors, and the Dutch started to use the brand name for the all the projectors.
Not that it matters but I can't get over how attractive you are, anyways I love your videos and I hope you keep making them for a long time the amount of research but also visuals that go into them are seriously impressive for how small of an operation it seems thanks for bringing cool topics to us! Your east/western Germany video brought about some really cool discussion with some German friends and their parents which is awesome. You definitely deserve the explosion of success that your channel will inevitably see!
Oh... your ad read starts with "I just got a beamer", and my American ears wondered where your BMW automobile was. 😕 And lemons are one of my favourite flavours (yes, Commonwealth spelling), so this was a very intriguing topic. Thank you!
My guy how the hell did you get 173 million lemons, two google search’s and one calculation and you get 55 million (using small lemons), plus thats over 20 years so in reality that’s a pretty tiny number
Started this video hoping that someone foreign would, finally, pronounced " 'ndrangheta " correctly...you failed me. Jokes aside: this is probably one of the best videos i've ever seen trying to tackle this topic. Cheers from Italy
Isn't it true that many other plants have vit C? Were lemons the most long-lasting plant resource that they could bring on long voyages? Supposedly some conifer parts have enough vit C, yucky, but a resource nonetheless.
yes (like sauerkraut) but lemons are easy to transport and have very high amounts of vit c. The British also started to import limes, but they have less vitamin c and they also cooked the juice, which basically killed all the vitamin c in it.
in highschool history was boring lately i realiZed its fascinating, every item you pick up in your home has hundreds to thousands of years of drama, betrayal, politics that could be made into a movie subbed
