by Gabriele Bonafede

At the borders of Europe and right at the center of Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is more and more central to nowadays news. Two days ago scores of boat-migrants met horrible death not more than a mile off the coast of Sicilian island of Lampedusa: the southernmost place of EU.

Visited by Pope Francis in July, Lampedusa asks since long for more help from EU in terms of legislation, facilities and means to face a biblical stream of immigration. An unknown number of boat-people seek landing every year on an island of a few thousands residents. Immigrants escape poverty, wars and strife. They risk costly and dreadful journeys on inadequate and crowded boats, all too often meeting their death instead of a promised land.

A few months ago, the mayor of Lampedusa, Mrs. Giusi Nicolini, wrote a touching letter to EU: “We have no more places to bury dead bodies, for immigrants and for us”.

Known more for Mafia than any other issue, Sicily is today known also for immigration-crises, although could be rather famous for her wonderful beaches, art, freedom of religion and mixture of cultures, and for richness of history.  In fact, Sicilians have always been ready to welcome all coming people, would they land for tourism, business or for desperation.

Immigration-crisis and Mafia are not the sole news flowing from Sicily. Recently, strong protests of Sicilians against the construction of USA defensive system facilities known as MUOS, (being built in the Sicilian city of Niscemi), caught interest in Italy and abroad. The island is a launching-pad for NATO (or US) strikes, populated by a large number of US Army and Air Force bases. Syrian crisis spilled as far as Sicily prompting questions on her role in supporting possible US strikes.

So far, not many EU citizens know that Sicily has a large constitutional semi-independent administrative status, which has never been fully implemented since 1946. Current head of Sicilian government is openly-gay-and-catholic Mr. Rosario Crocetta, who claims to implement a more anti-Mafia independent-oriented policy, so far with little success.

Italy is at the core of EU problems. Getting Italy right would help EU get restarted. And to get Italy on, Churchill understood, you must get Sicily first. At least, you got to know Sicily, news about her, and the mood flooding from and in her. EU officials should meditate on this and, at the same time, avoid considering it “an offer that cannot be refused”, as 99% of Sicily is not about Mafia. It is the opposite