Benefits Provided by Mafia to the American Society - Essay Example

Faraz Saeed Academia Research 24 January 2006 Benefits provided by Mafia to the American society Louis Blanc in 1840 said one of the most thrilling facts of that time, "Crime was long concerned only with brutal, solitary and personal impulses. But nowadays the murderers and robbers are forming ranks, they obey discipline, they have given themselves a code and a morality, they work in gangs with well-devised schemes" (Maltz 21). The Term Mafia itself brings some menace in the mind of people of today's society, no matter which region they are from but it has a strange effect on their thinking, this is perhaps because of the sources associated with the word Mafia. The word Mafia means "an organized international body of criminals", today the people working for mafia have performed the roles of murderers, robbers, and smugglers as common, and however they are also involved in small crimes. In Mafia no body is associated with each other as a friend or brother, if you would look closely to the history of Mafia you would find the leaders of Mafia killed either by their own family members or people relatively closer to them, "a world in which a man's murderer was most apt to be his best friend. Intrigue was the name of the game, and the intricate deals that were hatched threaded the national and international scene" (Cook 3). These people of Mafia work as a unit for the benefits of their own, and not for the society, they often have conferences for the planning of events they would be doing in that year or so, "On December 8, 1959, some 150 Mafia dons gathered in secret session in a suite of fifteen rented rooms in a hotel in Worcester, Massachusetts. Their night-long conclave was later described by Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, of Massachusetts, as a "Little Apalachin" conference" (Cook 36). It seems very strange to hear that Mafia can help anyone, but in fact Mafia has helped numerous countries of the world. In United States of America there are about 26 cities in which Mafia is working, "When some people think of the Mafia, they think of New York City, or may be Chicago. But for a long time, there were roughly twenty-six American Mafia "families" going strong across the United States and in Canada"(26 Family Cities). It would be really unfair to say that Mafia helped the people of the society in a direct manner but somehow it did benefit few people of the society and mentioning here that not every person in the society was helped by the Mafia but only people who had status and powers, however in future most of the people benefited from the activities of Mafia, there were two way benefits that were quite prominent, people helped the Mafia and Mafia helped the people, in an interview I heard that, Mafia used to kill people for the benefits of few people who were previously in negative relations with the people who asked to be killed, at numerous occasion mafia helped tycoons to win their bets, perhaps by persuading or threatening the player who was betted upon, and at numerous occasion it has been seen that the Mafia themselves prepared tycoons in the business world. (Barringham) So these points are justifying few of the bitter realities of the American society, it is quite obvious that fewer people of the society were helped by the Mafia directly, so it would be unfair to say that every one was helped by Mafia but relatively upper society is getting the benefits. There are few more points to justify that who is helped by the Mafia, "In 1957 Joseph Barbara was a successful immigrant living near Binghamton. His hilltop estate boasted seven bedrooms and two horse barns. He also was "connected": He had friends in what would come to be known as La Cosa Nostra [mafia]" (Jack Kelly). There is another interesting point that I would like to bring in your view and that is the related to the money, when the underworld dons or Mafia leaders smuggled different materials, perhaps drugs, precious gems etc. they brought a lot of money in the country which could be very useful for stabilizing the economy of the society, so if there are few states in which Mafia was operating such terrible operations, they were also bringing in a lot of money at the same time, and it is very surprising for a person like me and you to see that all of the classes have had some involvement in the operations conducted by Mafia, classes consisting of people owning top organizations, top ranking lawyers, top politicians etc. another fact that should be brought in view is that the success of Mafia is based upon the unique operations known as "fix", it was a complete arrangement for work with the elected police officials and at times with tycoons and business executives. There are so many other points that are coming in view more clearly, like the Mafia helped so many people from different countries to migrate to United states, where they can live more healthy life, people were getting to USA from the countries such as U.S.S.R, Italy and specially countries like China, however this point is controversial and one can say that it is criticized severely by the people, but that is one of the major facts. The other good points that one would like to emphasize on include, the American Mafia knew that the place where they are living right now that is USA, should be a world's super power, so to make USA a super power, Mafia played a vital role perhaps in the destruction of the other small countries where they previously have had links, a good example is Cuba where the Mafia did some damage, "The conversion of Cuba into a tourist Mecca for cocaine, prostitution, and gambling, and the criminals' penetration of many sectors of the Cuban economy did much to delegitimize the Batista regime, offering a convenient political pathway for Fidel Castro's rise to power" (Farer 9), similarly damage was done in the Russia. With the help of Mafia there were so many businesses opened, perhaps few of them were illegal but overall so many businesses grew and now the increasing population of United States had some chance to work with those organizations, no matter that it was an indirect help from Mafia but sure it was up till some extent. The other helps of Mafia to USA and people of its society include trading or its extraordinarily diverse form "Smuggling", which is very much promoted by the underworld leaders, the smuggling include weapons, arms, precious stones, metals, nuclear material, psychoactive substances (drugs like cocaine, heroine etc.), money, stolen cars, pornography, and other types of high demanding material such as babies, livers and kidneys, but the greater concern is about the imports not the exports. So one can say that the Mafia or the under world leaders played two roles at the same time a role of saint and a role of sinner for the people of the society, and it can be said on the basis that the Mafia helped people of American society by providing a dangerous and life threatening goods such as drugs and by promoting prostitution at one hand, and at the same time they helped the people of American society by providing them high demanding life saving materials such as livers and kidneys. One of the most exciting facts that one would notice here about Mafia is that, these people were giants as far as their sources were concerned and they found it very difficult to work with the technologies and the working environment of that time, so they were much more interested in improving the situations where they cannot only live well but can also work effectively, so what they did was quite simple, they started so many corporations and they helped improving the communications system, they improved the information technology, as they had to work through these things, also they improved the transportation system that was through sea, which was perhaps in their biggest use, so one can say that it was an indirect help to the people of society but sure it was. The Mafia groups and families are also proved to be a role model for many people in the society not only in negative ways but in positive as well, one can find so many entrepreneurs in today's American society who initiated their businesses after being inspired by most of the God Fathers or underworld leaders who showed success in their businesses, there was a time when the companies operated by Mafia were ranked in the top 500 companies of US, one can look at the history and find the role of the corporations that were promoted by the help of Mafia and underworld which includes banking sector, a lot of black money that was brought into the country is utilized in proper development of the states and businesses that today are transformed into big business empires. This is another interesting fact that Mafia not only played the role of a menace to the people of the American society but also the role of an entertainer, one can find so many films produced on the Mafia, underworld and so called God Fathers, which entertained the society so well. There is a lot more happening in the agricultural sector of US where there are big farms producing marijuana and couple of more drugs that are being traded to other countries, this also helped people in a way that they got employment and else the agricultural sector got some growth in its GDP/GNP which is a healthy sign. Today you would find numerous well equipped laboratories producing cocaine, and it has been an estimation that the cocaine produced in US is 98 percent pure, the mafia is in relation to drug production since 1960's, today about 50 to 75 Tons of cocaine is traded annually to United States, the net sales through the illegal drugs worth millions of dollars and the money is getting into the American economy and is being used today by many of us. One more thrilling fact that can be seen here is that Gambling was actually brought by Mafia in the United States of America, if today Las Vegas is the home for Gamblers and a highly entertaining place for the people of the American society than all the credit should go to the Mafia. By the mid of 1980's there were about 50 leaders who were at the top of their career, 60 percent of them used to make money through gambling and one can think that how well the gambling network is going today, about 38 percent is union business accounted for and narcotics is far more down. So these are the other sources through which the people of American society are being helped. So keeping in view all the above mentioned facts about the Mafia, one can be turned into the favor of Mafia, the actions taken by Mafia, however what ever they did was for their benefit but it had some positive and negative effects on the people living in the American society, one can find that the American society is greatly helped by the Mafia in terms of acquiring the modern change prevailing in the world, else so many new activities that people would never have thought without the role of Mafia, so its great to see such changes prevailing in a positive manner. Work Cited Maltz, Michael D. "Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States". Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Cook, Fred J. "The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and How They Control the U.S. Underworld". New York: Duell Sloan & Pearce, 1966. 26 Family Cities. < http://www.americanmafia.com/26_Family_Cities.html> Barringham, Charles. Personal Interview. 24 Jan. 2006 Kelly, Jack. "Mafia Souvenirs From Connected to Collected". http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2003/2/2003_2_13.shtml Farer, Tom. "Transnational Crime in the Americas: An Inter-American Dialogue Book". London: Routledge, 1999. Other sources Paoli, Letizia. "Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style". New York: Oxford university press, 2003. Chepesiuk, Ron. "The Bullet or the Bribe: Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel". Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Cavaioli, frank J. "The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia". New York: Garland, 2000. Lopreato, Joseph. "Italian Americans". New York: University of Texas at Austin, 1970. Read More