Postcards from Calabria

  • Antonio Tiso
These images are yellowed like some old postcards. They look as if they had been taken twenty or thirty years ago, but unfortunately they date back only two years. These photographs show the suffering of Calabria, an Italian region whose development is hampered by the asphyxiating tentacles of the 'Ndrangheta. Today the 'Ndrangheta is one of most successful crime organizations in the world. It controls all the drug trafficking in Europe and it has diversified its activities as a multinational company. 'Ndrangheta operates with the same success both in the field of the illegal arms trade and human trafficking. While the families of the ‘Ndrangheta are becoming increasingly rich, Calabria remains pinned near the bottom of the economic income and employment indicators. The entrepreneurs with clean money run away from these lands. Mafia does not create wealth, but is the damnation of the territories where it operates. Here there are only degradation and underdevelopment.