Monday, September 28, 2009

Leave the gun. Take the jilebi?

Yet again, truth is stranger than the Onion's reports.  Here is the BBC explaining how "British Asians are outsourcing murder":
In India, murder is cheap, with hired assassins paid up to $800 (£500).
Formerly, the modus operandi was a drive-by shooting, now it is likely to be a staged road accident.
And it appears there are few risks.
The Godfather with an Indian twist. (ed: it is stupid to explain this way the title of this post!)

Speaking of the Godfather, Professor Diego Gambetta, has some fascinating observations (HT):
IDEAS: In the Mafia underworld, how celebrated is the movie ”The Godfather”?
GAMBETTA: It is very celebrated. Not just by the Sicilian Mafia and by the Italian-American Mafia, but oddly enough by people in the same line of business in Russia, in China, and in Japan. We have evidence that they understood that that was the sector of the economy in which they themselves moved, and there’s lots of evidence that they liked the film, that they could recite, by heart, bits of the film, in countries which you would think would have nothing to do with it.
IDEAS: We’ve got criminals out there in China and Japan who are modeling themselves after Michael and Sonny Corleone?
GAMBETTA: We do have evidence of that. Yes.
IDEAS: What are some other ways that criminals are modeling themselves on film portrayals?
GAMBETTA: Well, I guess ”The Godfather” is the big example because, for example, they don’t like movies like ”Donnie Brasco.”
IDEAS: Why not?
GAMBETTA: ”Donnie Brasco” is a very good movie, but it shows them as losers, as being taken in by this extremely skillful FBI agent, Joseph Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco. Several of them landed in jail, thanks to his undercover operation. And so, the movie portrays them at the losing end, and they don’t like that. Movies for them are a way of advertising, a way of gaining legitimacy.

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