Omertà is a popular attitude, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria and Campania, where the criminal organizations like the Mafia, 'Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.”[1] Even if somebody is condemned for a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal. A common definition is the "code of silence". Within Mafia culture, breaking the oath of omertà is punishable by death. A common misconception is that the Mafia created or instituted omertà, when, in fact, the code was adopted by Sicilians long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra (some observers date it in the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule [2])

The origin of the word is often traced to the Spanish word hombredad, meaning manliness, through the Sicilian word omu for man. According to a different theory, the word comes from Latin humilitas (humility), which became umirtà and then finally omertà in some southern Italian dialects.[3]

Omertà is a code of silence, according to one of the first Mafia researchers Antonio Cutrera, a former officer of public security, that seals lips of men even in their own defense and even when the accused is innocent of charged crimes. Cutrera quoted a native saying first uttered (so goes the legend) by a wounded man to his assailant: “If I live, I’ll kill you. If I die, I forgive you.”[4]

The suspicion of being a “stool pigeon”, a cascittuni (an informant), constituted the blackest mark against manhood, according to Cutrera. Each individual had the obligation of looking out for his own interests and of proving his manliness by not appealing to legally constituted authority for redress of personal grievances. A wronged person is expected to avenge himself, or find a patron who will see to it that the job is done.

Omertà is based partly on fear and partly on idealism – it is an extreme form of loyalty and solidarity in the face of authority. One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning and shameful to betray even one’s deadliest enemy to the authorities. Observers of the mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus surrounding the mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear. The point is succinctly made in a popular Sicilian proverb Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci ("He who is deaf, blind, and silent will live a hundred years in peace").

In recent years omertà has been broken by mafiosi. Joe Valachi was one of the first persons to betray the omertà when in 1963 he publicly spoke out about the existence of the Mafia and testified before the United States Congress. In Sicily, the phenomenon of pentito (Italian he who has repented), broke omertà in the 1980s.

Among the most famous Mafia pentiti is Tommaso Buscetta, the first important state witness who helped judge Giovanni Falcone to understand the inner workings of Cosa Nostra and described the Sicilian Mafia Commission or Cupola, the leadership of the Sicilian Mafia. (A predecessor, Leonardo Vitale, who gave himself up to the police in 1973, was judged as suffering from 'mental illness' so his testimony led only to the conviction of himself and his uncle.)

In English, it is often rendered omerta, without an accent, leading to frequent mispronunciation. This grave accent in Italian and Sicilian indicates that the final a is stressed.

he Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra), is an Italian criminal secret society which first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily.[citation needed] An offshoot emerged on the East Coast of the United States and in Australia[1] during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration (see also Italian diaspora). In North America, the Mafia often refers to Italian organized crime in general, rather than just traditional Sicilian organized crime. According to historian Paolo Pezzino: "The Mafia is a kind of organized crime being active not only in several illegal fields, but also tending to exercise sovereignty functions – normally belonging to public authorities – over a specific territory..."[2]

Some observers have seen "mafia" as a set of attributes deeply rooted in popular culture, as a "way of being", as illustrated in the definition by the Sicilian ethnographer, Giuseppe Pitrè, at the end of the 19th century: "Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth, the exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas."

Many Sicilians did not regard these men as criminals but as role models and protectors, given that the state appeared to offer no protection for the poor and weak.[citation needed] As late as the 1950s, the funeral epitaph of the legendary boss of Villalba, Calogero Vizzini, stated that "his 'mafia' was not criminal, but stood for respect of the law, defense of all rights, greatness of character. It was love." Here, "mafia" means something like pride, honor, or even social responsibility: an attitude, not an organization. Likewise, in 1925, the former Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando stated in the Italian senate that he was proud of being mafioso, because that word meant honorable, noble, generous.[citation needed]
Contents

I had my operation It all went swimmingly, my hip is growing back well and the nail in my foot has not rusted. Yeah what has I been doing all summer? On the computer and down at my caravan being a dick to people.

Yeah I am back on my feet and its good.