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In 1991 March Windows 3.1 was successfully launched a copy of Mac OS by Apple delivered in 1984 with GUI concept from Xerox. IBM / Intel / Microsoft so dominat yet took solid over 7 years to have an answer of Apple innvation. Even Explorer was a copy of Netscape Navigator, Excel a copy of Lotus 1–2–3, Word copy of WordPerfect / WordStar / Multimate / AmniProBefore the end of 1985, Windows 1.0 was released, and Jobs was ousted from Apple, the company he founded nine years earlier. Microsoft then went on to dominate the PC industry while Jobs founded NeXT a graphical machine dominated Movies in Hollywood.The first version of Microsoft Excel was designed for the Apple Macintosh becuase no Windows in IBM platform.When Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and brought Steve Jobs back into the fold, the company was in disarray amid growing uncertainty about the future of Microsoft Office for Mac.Though, IBM PCs are solf 9 to 1 of Apple, in the innovation, these three companies can not match what appple did in over 40 years as story was told below.Still Mac sold globally after 34 years, very few products may be less than 10 survived like Mac, Coke etc.The era of great competition Apple outsmarted Microsoft from 2010 and even Microsoft plunged so bad as it acquired Nokia and saw what a blunder it was as it wiped out from OS platfomr of mobiles.The tussel between Windows and Apple follows like thisThe shipments of Personal Computers (PC) at the initial stages by Apple, Atari, Commodore and others before IBM entered household innovation with IBM PC with 8086 microprocessor from Intel and DOS from Microsoft in 1980, as shown in figure 3.1.28 MITS Altair 8080 was the first PC released in 1975 and more than 10,000 units were sold in next two years. TRS-80 was a PC launched in 1977 Tandy Corporation and sold 100,000 through their Radio Shack stores with Zilog microprocessor Z-80 which is similar to Intel 8080. They sold 150,000 in 1978 and doubled the number by 1983, but no sales by 1986. Apple sold 600 units of Apple II in 1977, 7600 units in 1978, and 38000 units in 1979. Apple sold 78,000 in 1980 and over 210,000 Apple II computers in 1981. Atari had sold 100,000 in 1979 and peaked to 600,000 by 1982 but sales dropped by 100,000 in 1983 and no sale in 1986. Other firms sold over 200,000 in 1979, 424,000 in 1980 and over 600,000 in 1981. The figure clearly shows how small IBM led PC in 1981, in blue colour with a sale of 35,000 units.The new market of PC has reshaped the economies of US, Japan, Europe and some developed countries with innovation such as access to internet through WWW by Dr. Tim Burners Lee and browsers such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, etc and Graphic User Interface through Windows operation system in 1991 from Microsoft, a copy of Mac OS from Apple in 1984, as shown in figure 3.1.[1]Figure: Sale of Personal Computers in quantity of thousands across the globe[1] http://www.retrocomputing.net/info/siti/total_share.htmlAs shown in graph below more than a billion PCs were sold worldwide between 1981 and 2000 but USA had a commanding share over 50% which began to decrease from 2005.ikskvubnpva%22IBM was the biggest in the software sector with over $11.36 billion (31.9 percent market) revenue by 1992 while Fujitsu had 9.9 percent and Microsoft had 8.3 percent market.Microsoft reported revenues of $591 million in 1988 and launched the Office in August 1989. It reported $2.76 billion in 1992. After launchin Windows 95 it had a massive run at finance by 1997revenues crossed $10 billion.Apple got $4.07 billion revenue in 1988, four years after it launched its first Macintosh in 1984. Rrevenues climbed to $5.28 billion in 1989 and reported revenues over $10 billion in 1995. But, Apple suffered three straight years of double-digit revenue declines to report sales of $5.94 billion in 1998. Even Microsoft thought of buying Apple Computers. By 2001 revival with iPod and iTunes brought glory to Apple Inc., as it changed its name. It became the most market cap firm in 2017 with over trillin dollar and a sale over $200 billion.Apple Rise a PHENOMENON:iPod went from 0.13 milion shippments to 63 million by 2008 and decimated Sony Walkman (CD based)IPhone went from 0 units in 2007 to nealy 200 million units in last three years with a revenue over 100 billion dollars.iPad brought another 100 million units last three yeariTunes continue to drive billions of applications download.In the fall of 1974,Wozniak invited Steve Jobs to join the ‘Homebrew Computer Club’ in Palo Alto, a group of electronics-enthusiasts who met at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. This group shared knowledge and helped each other with their ongoing projects. Jobs had also returned to his previous job at Atari, where he was given the task of creating a circuit board for a new game — and challenged to do so with the least number of chips possible. Jobs was no whiz with circuit board design and decided to enlist the help of Wozniak in the task, who demonstrated his genius by reducing the number of needed chips by 50, a significant accomplishment — and a talent not lost on Jobs. It was about that time that Jobs and Wozniak agreed to begin working on a personal computer together. Jobs was no whiz with circuit board design and decided to enlist the help of Wozniak, who soon demonstrated his genius… In 1975, they began work on what would become Apple I computer — essentially a circuit board — in Jobs’ bedroom.In June of that year, for example, Wozniak typed a character on a keyboard and it appeared on a TV screen — believed to be the first time this happened. During the design process Jobs made suggestions that helped shape the final product, such as the use of the newer dynamic random access memory (RAM) chips instead of older, more expensive and static versions. By 1976, chiefly by Wozniak’s hand, they had a small, easy-to-use computer — smaller than a portable typewriter. In technical terms, this was the first single-board, microprocessor-based microcomputer. It included a central processing unit (CPU), RAM, and basic textual-video chips. Wozniak’s compact little circuit board could do the feats of much larger computers and it was first shown at the Homebrew Computer Club. Jobs and Wozniak then took their new computer to the companies they were familiar with — Hewlett-Packard and Atari — but neither saw much demand for a “personal” computer.By April 1976, Jobs and Wozniak had their first order for the “Apple I” computer — a fully assembled circuit board containing about 30 chips.A local computer store, the ‘Byte Shop,’ ordered 50 of the new Apple-I creations around $600.In the fall of 1976, Steve Wozniak was working on a newer version of their computer, which would become the Apple II.They offered it to Commodore Computer Co., a leading tech company at the time, and one which had just bought the chip technology that Jobs and Woz were using in their Apples. But Commodore turned them down.By November 1976, these two received some help from ex-Intel manager named Mike Markkula, who helped Jobs write a business plan. Markkula’s plan predicted sales of $500 million for the new company in ten years.In 1977, Apple was incorporated and hired its first ad agency with Rob Janov then designing a new Apple logo. A venture capitalist named Arthur Rock was also brought in, and Mike Markkula invested $92,000 with a bank loan of $250,000. Michael Scott was hired to become Apple’s first president, and with the help of Mike Markkula, Apple had secured $600,000 in venture funding. BASIC language was a highlight to learn on Apple II.The Apple II computer was unveiled in April 1977 for $1,295, the first mass produced PC with over 15,000 applications, sales rose to $2.7 million.In the early 1970s, Xerox engineers at the Palo Alto Research Center in California — also known as Xerox PARC — had developed a computer they called the “Alto.” This computer used a pointing device called a “mouse” and also employed icons on a screen to represent documents — a combination that became known as “graphical user interface,” or GUI. This system would dramatically change personal computing, but not immediately. In fact, at Xerox in the 1970s it had gone nowhere as a commercial product. But that would soon change thanks to Apple. Steve Jobs and software engineer Bill Atkinson visited the Xerox PARC lab in November 1979, and about that time Apple made a deal with Xerox. In return for a “look see” at Xerox’s GUI system, Apple agreed to give Xerox a $1 million slice of its company. As part of the deal, Apple engineers then spent three days at the Xerox research center in December 1979 learning about GUI — which Apple would later refine in R&D and commercialize with great success in the 1980s with Macintosh.Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Apple was on December 12, 1980, Apple shares were offered to the general public at a price of $14 each. At the opening bell, the stock was priced $22 and sold all 4.6 million shares within minutes. Apple’s stock offering had generated more capital than Ford Motor’s had in 1956 and instantly created about 300 millionaires — more than any company in history up to that point. In its first day of trading Apple closed at $29, giving the company a market valuation of $1.778 billion.In August 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer to the marketplace priced at $1,565 and crossed the sales of Apple by the year end.Apple had garnered 23 percent of the $2.2 billion worldwide market in personal computers. It was then neck and neck with Tandy Corp.’s Radio Shack, a company that had the advantage of 8,400 retail outlets.In mid-February 1982, Steve Jobs appeared on the cover of Time magazine in a story about “America’s Risk Takers.” It marked the first time the mainstream national media had told the “two-guys-in-a-garage” story about Apple — and how the company’s sales had surged from $2.7 million in 1977 to $200 million in 1980, with an expected $600 million by the end of 1982. The Time story provided a big lift to Apple, but it also offered some cautions. “Apple will have to prove that it has the management talents needed in a firm that this year will join the ranks of the Fortune 500,” wrote Time. “…Jobs, who had the vision to build one of America’s foremost companies from a hobbyist’s toy, must show that he has the foresight and ability to guide a major corporation.”In the fourth quarter of 1982, Apple still led IBM in PC sales, but IBM was rapidly closing the gap selling PCs at a rate of about 20,000 per month.While Lisa received much praise for its more simplified use and its graphics abilities, the computer was richly priced at nearly $10,000 each, which was then more than twice that of a normally equipped IBM PC.Elsewhere in the computer world of 1983, Microsoft introduced its word processing software, Word. Another maker of a rival word processing program called Word Perfect, introduced Word Perfect 3. Also at that time, Radio Shack offered one of the first popular laptop computers, the TRS-80 Model 100, while the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program provided a boost to IBM PC sales. By late 1983, Apple and IBM had emerged as the personal computer industry’s strongest competitors, each selling approximately one billion dollars worth of computers that year.“1984” & The MacIn late January 1984, Apple launched its Macintosh computer with a somewhat unusual television ad that was aired on Sunday, January 22, 1984 during the third quarter of the 1984 Superbowl XVIII championship football game. The ad, known as “1984,” was cast in a Orwellian future — George Orwell being the author of 1984, the famous novel of a dystopian /totalitarian future. Apple’s “1984” TV ad — running 60 seconds at a cost of $1.5 million — had been produced by film director Ridley Scott.It featured a female athlete clad in track running clothes, carrying a heavy sledge hammer. She runs into room filled with seated throng of drone-like workers watching a huge television screen. On the screen is a giant face of a “Big Brother” figure who is dispensing propaganda to the workers. His words are heard in the ad, but not clearly enough to be made out by most viewers. Big Brother is actually giving a spiel from Orwell’s book:“…My friends, each of you is a single cell in the great body of the State. And today, that great body has purged itself of parasites. We have triumphed over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. The thugs and wreckers have been cast out. And the poisonous weeds of disinformation have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Let each and every cell rejoice! For today we celebrate the first, glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directive! We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!The running female track figure, now pursued by storm-trooper security, begins a wind-up with her hammer, and in good spinning form, lets the sledge fly, sending it dead-center TV screen. A bright, white light from the resulting explosion then washes over the audience, “symbolically freeing and enlightening them,” according to one interpretation. The commercial concludes with text which reads: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”Apple’s aim with the ad, according to various interpretations, was to free and empower people, combat conformity, and allow originality in the computer market. Big Brother in the ad symbolized rival computer manufacturer, IBM, also known by a nickname, Big Blue. The Macintosh Computer, of course, is cast as the liberator; the first computer to make personal computing accessible to average users.Source: Jack Doyle, “Apple, Rising:1976-1985,”The Pop History Dig is a website offering historical and topical stories on business, politics, and popular culture., May 10, 2010.

My answer through articles includes your question.The Mafia in Europe: in Germany, silence that smells of compromiseby Giorgio Bongiovanni and Aaron Pettinari"Mrs. Merkel, remain unshakable!" is the title of the article that appeared in the online version of "Die Welt" by columnist Christoph B. Schiltz, in which the German government is asked not to give in to Italian demands on coronabonds because "the mafia is waiting for European aid".
We say it now. It is probable that the criminal organizations will try to insert themselves in the financing folds and intercept possible liquidity, but to use the argument to abandon Italy to its destiny in this very serious moment of emergency is a serious and extremely dangerous fact, because without the intervention of the State, also thanks to the contribution of the European Union, one would risk handing over a large slice of the country to the mafias. The contributions to companies, small and medium entrepreneurs, workers, and families, want to go against this eventuality: to prevent organized crime, thanks to the rivers of money they have at their disposal, to represent the new Welfare to cling to.
The central knot that "Die Welt" pretends not to know is that that of the mafia is not an "Italian issue", but extends dramatically to the whole of Europe.Post-Berlin Wall investmentsIn Germany, silence on the subject has reigned for years, despite the numerous investigations conducted by both the Italian and foreign authorities, demonstrating how, precisely in Germany, the mafia has invested heavily "contributing" to the economic growth of the country. Because Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra continue to be flourishing also thanks to the money, coming from drug trafficking, laundered in Germany in the purchase of apartments, hotels, pizzerias and restaurants and have shares in German companies. The mafia bosses, in the nineties, were intercepted while talking about investments to be made in East Berlin. I also remember that in an interview, the collaborator of justice Gaspare Mutolo told me that already in the eighties there was an order to invest capital in German soil because they were informed that shortly afterward the Berlin Wall would fall. He also said so when he was heard before the Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission: "When the law of Pio La Torre was being spoken about - the repentant tells the repentant referring to what then became the 416 bis - we are in the early months of 1982, Madonia (Nino, boss of Resuttana's sending, an ally of the Corleonesi, ed) advised me and Micalizzi, because he knew we were working at full speed with the heroine, not to take risks. He told us that if they approved this law, they would take the money away from us and propose to invest it in Germany where there was peace of mind". Those flows of money, which prominent members and intermediaries of the various mafia families invested massively in legitimate businesses, were instrumental in restoring the German economy from the meager Soviet experience. It did not matter if at the same time the law of the free market was being altered. Everything happened without any real control.The article published in Die WeltIn the book "The mafias on the rubble of the Berlin Wall" (ed. Diarkos), written with four hands by journalist Ambra Montanari and MEP Sabrina Pignedoli, Bernd Finger, former chief investigator of the BKA, tells how at the time: "They arrived with briefcases full of cash, they wanted to buy buildings and agricultural land. Officials thought it was a curious thing, but it was nothing illegal at the time. There were no investigations at the time, nothing that was recorded was illegal". Flows of money that never stopped.In 2014, the Attorney General of Palermo Roberto Scarpinato warned: "The mafia in Germany wants the Germans to think it doesn't exist. It no longer needs to be violent. It can seduce with capital. The world today risks being conquered by the mafia through the seduction of capital and countries like Germany are at high risk". And he continued: "When you don't try to understand the source of money, and you accept the indiscriminate entry of capital into your country, then it is the very morality of a people that are at risk. In times of crisis like today, the power of money and corruption can become an epidemic that shakes a society from its foundations. Germany must decide whether to welcome the mafia or fight it.The post "Duisburg massacre"All this, however, has never been spoken of in the German country despite, on August 15, 2007, the silence and mafia invisibility were ripped apart by the massacre of Duisburg, in which six boys were killed with 55 gunshots (Marco Marmo 25 years old, Francesco Giorgi 16 years old, Francesco Pergola 22, Marco Pergola 19, Sebastiano Strangio 38, Tommaso Francesco Venturi 18). The whole country woke up shocked and for the first time began to realize how much the mafia was permeated in the German social and economic system. But it was not enough. Since after that event, no other acts of violence were repeated, also because of the submersion carried out by the 'Ndrangheta, the German public opinion returned to underestimate the problem. But the truth is that the Calabrian organized crime in Germany can count on the settlement of about fifty active "locals". Here important families find the residence. Among these, the most influential is the Farao of Cirò Marina, the Giglio of Strongoli, the Maesano of Isola Capo-Rizzuto, the Mazzafferro of Gioiosa Jonica, the Morabito of Africo, the Muto of Cetraro, the Sanlucoti Nirta-Strangio, Pelle-Vottari (at war with each other) but in Germany also the business of the great drug traffickers, such as the Piromalli di Gioia Tauro, the Ursino di Gioiosa Ionica and the allied Sanlucoti Romeo (Staccu) - Pelle (Gambazza), Giorgi and the Mammoliti. Clans that, has emerged from several surveys, are present in almost all major German cities. In an interception, the young Vincenzo Farao, son of a Cyrò Marina boss, explains: "In Germany, we can do everything". In another Luigi Muto, a trait d'union with the German cell, stated without half measures that "Germany is a laundry". But also Cosa Nostra, Stidda, Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita have their "representations" in the territory. After all, it is no coincidence that in Germany, in recent times, several fugitives have been arrested. This is known to the Bka, the German Federal Police, who have sent an important report to the Catanzaro Public Prosecutor's Office, which has been included in the records of Operation Styx. In the pages of "Die Welt", however, these topics are not mentioned. Nor are the reasons why such infiltration into the country was possible.Absent regulationsAnd the reason is soon said. In Germany, as well as in the rest of Europe (except Italy, ed.), there is no regulation up to the task of countering the proliferation of the phenomenon. Suffice it to say that to date, there is no crime of mafia-type criminal conspiracy, which allows investigations to be opened even on the basis of a suspicion of belonging to a gang. The independent investigations, that is, not connected to a request for help in letters rogatory from Italy, in the rare cases in which they are made, in order to be successfully concluded, require that one be able to demonstrate guilt with respect to crimes provided for by the legal system of the Country - such as drug trafficking, money laundering, armed gangs, robbery and so on.Then there is the not insignificant problem of the law on the seizure of assets.Recently, the Deputy Prosecutor of Florence, Luca Tescaroli, explained it well: "The measures of patrimonial prevention are without recognition in Europe. An attempt is made to tackle the subject through the use of an instrument that is made available by a Convention of the Council of Europe signed in Warsaw, in 2005, on the laundering, search, seizure, and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.There is a rule, in Art. 21.1, which allows a request for action for the purpose of confiscation, but the concrete possibility of the use of the instrument, and therefore achieve the objective of freezing the property, is left to the will of the State to which it is requested. There are difficulties arising from the timing. Because there is no mechanism that allows immediate execution abroad and it is always necessary to go from letters rogatory with the complexity of the relationship with the requested State and the need for translations".Added to this are the investigation limits for investigators with the impossibility to carry out interceptions abroad or the numerous difficulties in enforcing letters rogatory in the verification of money laundering systems. In this way, one experiences a paradoxical situation in which the freedom of movement allows the mafia to act without difficulty, while the law enforcement action does not have the instruments and the timely ones which would be necessary to attack the mafia action.The Duisburg massacreThe Crim and the commitment to the single-textIn 2013, the CRIM Commission (on organized crime, corruption, and money laundering), then chaired by Sonia Alfano (daughter of the journalist Beppe Alfano, who was killed by the Mafia, ed), obtained in Strasbourg the approval of a single anti-mafia text in an attempt to harmonize standards at European level. In the document, in whose editorial staff the late Rita Borsellino also participated, they wondered: the introduction of the crime of mafia association in all Member States' legislation; the abolition of banking secrecy; the exclusion from tenders for companies condemned with a final judgment for crimes of organized crime, corruption, money laundering; the confiscation of assets, also through confiscation measures in the absence of conviction, and the reuse for public and social purposes of the confiscated assets; the crime of exchange voting that also includes intangible advantages; the provision of hypotheses of incandidability, ineligibility and disqualification from public office; much stricter codes of conduct for political parties (eg. control of public funding to parties) and greater protection for witnesses of justice. Since then, however, everything has remained virtually unchanged in the EU member states. If something had been done, if the Mafia problem had been dealt with as a European issue, perhaps there would have been far fewer problems today on the economic level and this "cancer", capable of conditioning a democracy and claiming as many victims as the coronavirus, would have been considerably weakened. A solution to such a global problem is clear that it cannot be found only by tightening the laws of a single country but must be tackled in a global way, as Giovanni Falcone has always asked, and for this reason there is an urgent need for legislation, at least at European level, to fill these gaps. German newspapers should talk about these topics, as well as local politicians who, like Salvini, Meloni and similar, are using the case to attack Germany and the European Union, without considering that the first ones who are opposing the sending of aid and the use of Eurobonds, because there is a mafia risk, are the so-called "group comrades in the European Parliament". Politicians are always ready to make propaganda, just as certain newspapers mix "the true with the false" to tell a half-truth. It is true that in Italy, corruption and the mafia, two sides of the same coin, have taken on a stronger form. The difference is that in our country, where there have been massacres and because of the mafias, magistrates, politicians, police officers, military, entrepreneurs, journalists, priests, and defenseless citizens have lost their lives, we have the instruments to find and hit certain criminals. Abroad, no.Before speaking, Europe, Germany first of all, should look in the mirror and break that wall of silence, on the subject of the mafia, which smells of compromise.The Mafia in Europe: in Germany, a silence that smells of compromise.Ndrangheta: the largest Italian mafia in GermanyFor German Interior Ministry in the country between 800 and 1000 affiliatesEditorial staff ANSA BERLINO June 02Th, 2019 – 02/07/2019(ANSA) - BERLIN, 2 JUNE - Between 800 and 1000 members of the ndrangheta are present and working in Germany: this is supported by the German Government in an answer to a question submitted to the Bundestag by the parliamentary group of the Greens, published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to the German Government, it is assumed that there are between 18 and 20 active bases of the Calabrian criminal organization in the country. The German security services have at the moment identified with certainty only 344 alleged members of the Calabrian mafia, so "it must be recognized that there are at least three times the number of members in local bases in Germany," said Irene Mihalic, Green spokeswoman for internal politics. "This is a huge risk to the security of the country with respect to which the attention of the institutions must be revived.The ndrangheta would be the largest Italian criminal group in Germany. Cosa Nostra Siciliana would be "represented" in the Country with 123 members. Furthermore, there are the branches of the Camorra from Campania with 94 members and the clans of the sacred united crown, which in Germany have 18 members.The Italian mafia, explains the German government, has "a high degree of organization and professionalism" compared to other criminal groups present in the Country. To hide, they have recently renounced violent actions and concentrate their activity on the influence of exponents of the political and economic world. (ANSA).Ndrangheta: in Germania è la mafia Italiana più numerosa - EuropaMafia, here is the german-connection between Cologne and LicataWho said there's no Mafia in Germany? Irpi's reporters tell of the investigation by the German and Italian police who have unveiled a network that embraces construction, drugs, and political corruption.The mafia doesn't exist. Least of all in Germany. This is what the German government says, which the citizens take at their word. But the official figures are inaccurate and the truth is sadly the opposite. The Mafia is increasingly present in Germany. And it's strong, very strong. It is only by analyzing the judicial papers of investigations still in progress, carried out in collaboration by the Italian anti-mafia pools and the German Federal Criminal Police, the BKA, that the overall picture emerges. On balance, in Germany, there could be even more than 1200 members ascribable to organized crime in our country. A small army or, if you prefer, a social network.So there is the mafia. But you'll only find it in the statistics if you look for it. "Organized crime from Italy to Germany has infiltrated every sector. From construction to alternative energy, from waste management to the shareholding of large companies or banks. They buy votes and influence elections through corruption," says Roberto Scarpinato, Attorney General of the anti-mafia pool in Palermo.One of the most striking examples of the strength of the mafia in Germany is "Operation Scavo", which began as an investigation into tax evasion, but which shows that crimes committed across the Alps are much more important. The operation begins on January 17, 2013, when 17 people are arrested. Some in Germany, some on international letters rogatory in Licata, a small town in the Agrigento area. It seemed only an operation against tax evasion, construction companies opened by Sicilians in Germany who did not pay taxes. But soon it was discovered that there was much more to it.Thanks to documents obtained exclusively by FUNKE Mediengruppe and joint research carried out by editor-in-chief David Schraven and journalists from the Irpi center of investigative journalism in collaboration with the Agrigento newspaper Grandangolo, Wired can now tell a new story.Someone, one day, must have commissioned Gabriele S., originally from Licata and a frequent visitor to Cologne since the 1990s, and Rosario P., from Riesi but in Germany since 1972, to manage what German investigators have dubbed the Baumafia, the "construction mafia". Gabriele P. in Cologne, Rosario P. in Dortmund. What was in between, namely Essen and Bochum, was divided according to business and moments.The two had to coordinate the so-called 'pretender hunters', who had to find among relatives and friends in Sicily poor devils who would sell themselves for a few thousand euros. The procurers were undoubtedly the accountant Massimo E., Biagio S., Agatino F., Vincenzo S. brother of Gabriele S. and Salvatore V.. (until he decided to start cooperating with the German authorities). After that, among the arrested and investigated are Domenico I., Giuseppe C., Lisa Maria F., Giovanni D., Salvatore A., Fabrizio R., Antonio C., Angelo C., Michele F., Antonio D., Giuseppe M., and Gabriele F.Using these prenames, Gabriele S. and Rosario P. opened a series of construction companies that had the sole purpose of operating as "shell companies", i.e. as recycling boxes. The mechanism worked like this: the money was transferred to the current accounts of the companies in question to pay false invoices, which did not correspond to any construction service. At that point, the loan-owner withdrew the money in cash. The 90% of the money was returned to the entrepreneur who had bought the false invoice, 10% went to the "managers" Gabriele S. and Rosario P., who used them to pay the accountants, the loan sharks, and the big cars for themselves.A brilliant system. From millions of money transferred legally, they create millions of black funds, reproachable in the same Baumafia, to corrupt politicians or to finance other illegal activities. A money transfer that is first "dirtied" and then promptly cleaned.This, it emerges from the BKA investigations, was done for at least 430 companies. Certainly, Gabriele S. - flunked three times in primary school - is not the creator of this system.Gabriele S. and Rosario P.'s "Baumafia" was a "disorganized" crime. The two discussed practically every day, and often, meetings were scheduled to resolve disputes. The discussions had to take place in some specific meeting places: the Bistrot in Dortmund, and the bar Italia90 in Cologne, run by Mario G.Bars are important. Gabriele S. himself had been running a bar in Cologne since the end of 2011, the Jolly Bar, also a Baumafia meeting point. I had had the test bench from 2009 to 2010 in Licata when he also ran a bar there. More than a bar, explain the Carabinieri, a black hole in the cocaine traffic. A business, that of cocaine, that Spiteri had also imported in Germany, and more precisely, in his bakery in Cologne, the Pasticceria Centro Italia.Customers ordered cocaine by telephone: "pasta in Bianco without sauce". Or, in the case of large quantities, we talk about white cars. One hundred, two hundred grams of coke a week sales.But Gabriele S. is a consumer himself. A vice that he also brings home to Sicily, during the parties he gives in Licata, in the villa - now seized - which was built thanks to the earnings of years of alleged illegality in Germany."Gabriele S. consumed as much cocaine as the entire Colony," he tells investigators Calogero D. di Ravanusa, born in 1963. Arrested together with the S. brothers he is, for the German investigators, a collaborator of the trafficker. Yet he is called whenever there is a problem to be solved and - they add the investigations - he seems to be the one with the highest contacts.For those who know the mafia mechanisms, it is evident that neither Gabriele S. nor Rosario P. acted on their own. The two had been put there, with precise orders, and they had a handsome mastiff on their heels, Calogero D. precisely.Calogero D. tells the Germans that he is not mafia: "Some years ago the Italian authorities were wrong, but everything was clarified". Not exactly. Calogero D. was released in 1994 after two years and four months in prison for having taken part in a mafia murder. At the time, known by the nickname of Lillo Aglialuoro, he was the shoulder-guard of Vito Mirabile, a man belonging to the boss Angelo Ciraulo, who was later killed by Giuseppe Falsone in a power war that shifted the command of the send from Ravanusa to Campobello di Licata for many years.After Ciraulo's death, Calogero D. decides to collaborate with the justice system and finds an arsenal. But his repentance is considered partial by the authorities, who do not consider him reliable. Although at first 'condemned to death' by the remaining Calogero D. bosses, he is left to live and, evidently, grow up. In the shadows, he must have made a career until he arrived in Germany. In fact, he goes to Cologne as soon as he manages, at the end of the nineties, to get out of prison.There he made his way by opening a cleaning company and then gave himself to Baumafia. The German police file on Calogero D. thickens. He's convicted of tax evasion, extortion, robbery, fraud, assault. The file also reveals contacts in the world of drug trafficking and prostitution.But who gave Calogero D. the power to act within the Baumafia? A suggestion emerges thanks to a curious episode that takes place around the Jolly Bar of Gabriele S. in Cologne, in mid-January 2013. Just before the snapping of the handcuffs. It's January 14th and in an interception Gabriele S. talks to Biagio S. about the new arrival, a boy, Angelo B., born in 1977, from Gela. Most likely a new frontman. The police intervene. This is the moment when the arrests are made for all 17 Baumafia. Angelo B is also arrested, questioned, and released. But a few hours later he is stopped again, while in a special car. A car registered in the name of Angelo O...Angelo O. is not just any man. Born in Licata in 1954, Angelo O. has a much more significant criminal record than Calogero D. Already at the end of the '80s, according to the DIA, Angelo O. operated in Germany in very close relations with Carmine Ligato, an influential boss of the 'Ndrangheta. The referent of all the commercial operations between the Agrigento Mafia and 'Ndrangheta, Angelo O. was already under the radar of the German police in 1997.In Sicily, he was Giuseppe Falsone's man, and it seems that it was the Agrigento boss himself who indicated him as head of Licata in his name.Angelo O., together with Pasquale Cardella, had taken control of the town after the quadruple murder of Brunco-Lauria-Greco-Cellura. In 2011, Angelo O. ends up in jail for extortion, and Cardella tries to keep the mandate for himself. Shortly after Angelo O. gets out, but his reference, the boss Giuseppe Falsone, fugitive for many years, had been captured. At that point, Angelo O. aims to bypass his partners and take control of Licata for himself, going to ask for the blessing of Canicattì's then head of the command, Calogero D. (homonymy with the Calogero D. of Baumafia, n.d.r.).Why his car was at the disposal of the young Angelo Bugiada is not clear, but the presence of Occhipinti in Germany could indicate him as the head of Cologne. And it would explain who answers Calogero D., and the whole "Squadra Scavo" of Cologne.Gabriele S. owes his life to the BKA, the German anti-crime unit. Because for behavior comparable to his own, cocaine abuse and unreliability, in the past, someone much more important than him had been eliminated."Yes, the mafia today as a rule no longer kills, since we follow the mafia pax mafia and the "business model" dictated by Matteo Messina Denaro", says a former killer of Cosa Nostra heard exclusively from the Mafia project in Deutschland. "But if things get bad, he kills himself. And of course, you don't do it in Germany, where it's important not to arouse any suspicion."Murder is therefore a solution of extreme reason but always used if it serves to protect the business. This is clearly stated by two recent and brutal murders of Manneheim's palmesi, both wanted in Sicily. One, that of Calogero Burgio, riddled with blows in Palma, under the house, as a warning. The other, shortly afterward, a typical white wolfhound, for the unfortunate Giuseppe Condello and Vincenzo Priolo. The latter only a driver, but the other, Condello, no less than the head of Mannheim.But why was Condello eliminated?We are told exclusively by the former killer of the Cosa Nostra in Trapani, who had met the two dead people killed in the past and met them again in Germany."Condello was the head of the Mannheim assignment. They are stiddari, but now Stidda and Cosa Nostra are the same things. Since Matteo Messina Denaro commands, the rule is one: business. Today you don't shoot anymore unless it's strictly necessary. And Condello's death sentence has been discussed among all the other leaders of the Agrigento. No one made up their mind. But Condello was now a mad dog using too much cocaine and out of control, he was no longer reliable." Condello dog-crazy had annoyed the boss of bosses, Denaro tells us the ex-killer: "What did he tell the Agrigento bosses: I'll take care of it."And so, the death sentence has been signed. At the end of January 2012, Condello was killed together with Priolo and stuffed into a water drain in the countryside of Palma di Montechiaro.Condello was shuttling back and forth, despite a restrictive measure, following the Mafia logic that requires, first of all, a constant presence in the Italian army, and, secondly, in his German reflection.But what counts is not the murder itself, but that under Matteo Messina Denaro the Mafia changed its face, and made a pact, perfectly working in Germany, between various Mafia provinces. We speak of Trapani, which holds the reins, Palermo and Agrigento.This has also been confirmed by our research. In particular, it emerges from the ties that the German company CEON had with some of the companies in the Calogero D. galaxy in Germany. This company is controlled by B-P. family, very close relatives of Matteo B., sentenced to 23 years for international drug trafficking. The B. Family, from Partinico, is recognized to be close to Vitale, the bosses of that area of Palermo.How wrong it is to think that the Baumafia is only a small group of self-organized criminals, confirmed to us by the statements of a new repentant. We speak of Giuseppe Tuzzolino, an architect who - notwithstanding the investigations of the DDA of Palermo still conceal most of the details - has been discovered to have been Condello's right-hand man in organizing millionaire scams in the very Municipality of Palma di Montechiaro. Fraud, however, Tuzzolino assures, goes well beyond the Municipality of Palma. In fact, they would go all the way to Germany, in the network of millions of black funds that the BKA has nicknamed Baumafia.There is no lack of connections with politics. The Baumafia of North Rhine-Westphalia seems to have understood how to find support even beyond the simple mafia affiliates. He understood that to better hide his face, he must also work on politics. And he does it in two ways. First of all, he tries to permeate the German one: either by corruption or by buying and selling votes.In Nuremberg a few years ago, a real mafia strategy for buying and selling votes was developed. Italians in Germany could vote for the chosen candidate and earn 50 euros in exchange, a well-known practice in Sicily.The second method that seems to have been adopted is that of supporting Italian politicians in Germany, at least judging by the countless business cards of Italian politicians, all close to Berlusconi's right, that Calogero D., the leading man of the 'excavation team', had in his agenda seized.Contacts with Italian politicians in Europe.Questioned by the investigators, the Baumafioso says: "It was only politics". A great civic sense, that of Calogero D., who, he says, was in charge "of pulling upvotes for Italian parliamentarians abroad". And he did it also for the Sicilian pidiellino (PDL):The People of Freedom was a center-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia and National Alliance, which participated as a joint election list in the 2008 general election.Massimo Romagnoli, during the last electoral campaign. He was a certain success. In 2006, in fact, Romagnoli was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 8,700 votes from abroad. Most of these had been collected in Cologne.It is possible that Massimo Romagnoli did not suspect at all who Calogero D. was doing with, but the latter also mentioned him during his interrogation with the German BKA. He tells the investigators that he had a request for help from Massimo E., the accountant of the Baumafia when he was in prison in Germany. He needed a passport. Calogero D. says he thought of Romagnoli. Then, he says he "moved on with my contacts, and in four weeks I got it to him."Massimo Romagnoli denies ever having received such a request. "I know Calogero D., he helped me with the election campaign," he explained to Irpi, "he had a cleaning company. But this Massimo E. is the first time I've heard of him.""Personally I have never received requests of this kind" continues Romagnoli, currently engaged with Forza Italia in the election campaign for the European elections "neither from Calogero D. nor from anyone else".Roberto Scarpinato, Attorney General in Palermo, is categorical when he speaks of the power of seduction inherent in Cosa Nostra. "The Mafia in Germany wants the Germans to think it doesn't exist. It no longer needs to be violent. It can seduce with capital. Of course, there's still a violent face of the Mafia in Italy, but it only shows itself when the power of persuasion of money is not enough. In reality, the world today risks being conquered by the Mafia through the seduction of capital, and countries like Germany are at high risk. When you do not try to understand the source of money, and you accept the indiscriminate entry of capital into your country, then it is the very morality of a people that are at risk. In times of crisis like today, the power of money and corruption can become an epidemic that shakes a society from its foundations.Germany must decide whether to welcome the Mafia or fight it."La Mafia in Germania: il pm Lombardo spiega il livello alto della 'Ndrangheta in Europa - The Mafia in Germany: the pm Lombardo explains the high level of the 'Ndrangheta in EuropeTesto unico antimafia in Europa: un cambiamento epocale - Unique anti-mafia text in Europe: a momentous changeLa mafia è un fenomeno mondiale! The Mafia is a world phenomenon!Magistrati e poliziotti tedeschi a lezione di lotta alla mafia a Palermo - German magistrates and policemen in the fight against the mafia in PalermoGerman magistrates and policemen at a lesson in the fight against the mafia in PalermoPRESSDetails Published: 04 November 2019of AMDuemilaAlso present is the Minister of Justice Peter Biesenbach.Scarpinato: "Germany has underestimated the problem for a long time."The mafia, ça va sans dire, is now present, in various forms, within most of the member countries of the European Union. Italy before any other nation on the continent has had to learn how to defend itself and how to fight back. For this reason, today prosecutors, judges, and journalists from Europe and beyond are studying the methods of their Italian colleagues to learn their strategies in this difficult fight against organized crime. This morning, for example, a large German delegation of magistrates and policemen, led by the Minister of Justice of Westphalia, Peter Biesenbach (photo), met the Attorney General of Palermo, Roberto Scarpinato, and the Attorney General of the Republic, Francesco Lo Voi. "Our judicial system is not efficient to fight the mafias. - said Biesenbach - In our history, we have had no attacks or murders against judges. It is a question of culture, of approach: we have always been accustomed to investigating individual crimes or people. But we have to change our point of view and focus on organizations and learn a new method of investigation". The German judges explained that in Germany there are "many organized crime groups, for example from North Africa, the former Yugoslavia, which are particularly violent". "Finally the public opinion has understood that there is a problem - the Minister explained again - For this reason, we take advantage of this moment to re-launch our project to modify our legislation taking as an example the Italian one for a more effective fight against the mafias". "We need new laws and means to face this challenge. For two years we have modified our law on conspiracy to commit crimes - said the minister - this allows us to deal also with criminal groups to hit them".During his speech, the pg Scarpinato denounced that in Germany "the problem of the mafia has been underestimated for a long time. The German public opinion considered that the presence of a few hundred Mafiosi as extortionists could be reduced. Then, they became aware of the existence of the mafia in Germany after the Duisburg massacre". "Last October 23, I participated in a conference organized by the German Police on the subject of recycling in Germany - he continued - and I was very impressed by the Minister's in-depth knowledge of the problem of the mafia and recycling", Scarpinato said again. "They became aware after the massacre of Duisburg in 2007, but since after that event, other acts of violence have not been repeated - said Scarpinato - also because of the submersion of the 'ndrangheta, the German public opinion has returned to underestimate the problem of the mafia, which is a problem which manifests itself in all its gravity from the point of view of recycling".You've come to the endDIANA KRALL Peel Me a Grape Sessions at West 54th. 1999

This answer is referred to this article.“Since I have had the honour to preside over the Government, I am only too well aware that once Mr Seaga takes his seat, irrespective of the numbers beside and behind him, Her Majesty's loyal Opposition is alive and well.” — P J PattersonI grew up in Kingston 12 during the 1950s and the 1960s, where we recognised the unsmiling, coldly handsome Edward Seaga, as 'the white man in dark glasses' and 'the poco man', because we heard that he 'jumped pocomania' with the practitioners of that form of worship. He was also seen as the 'Godfather' of the area, wielding an iron fist and exercising total control over the entire community, including a core of feared political operators.The lives, reputation and activities of some of the men that were protectors of his political machinery, have in some instances portrayed him in a totally unsavoury light.Seaga himself, in his book, My Life and Leadership Volume 1: Clash of Ideologies 1930-1980, has placed the most popular of them, Claudius Massop, within the political structure of West Kingston in the 1960s and the 1970s:“He was also the enforcer in the downtown Kingston area which was supportive of the JLP. As such he was regarded as the protector of the area from external attacks.”It is true that early community leaders like Zacky Lewis the 'High Priest', who had an official pathway in Tivoli named after him and Massop, who was my brother's close friend, were more peacemakers than aggressors but they did give cover to others more deadly and cruel. This was evidenced by the violent activities of their successors, Carl 'Biah' Mitchell, Jim 'Ba Bye' Brown and lieutenants such as: 'Blood', 'Jonathan', 'Bouyork', 'Baskin' and the vicious 'Curly Locks' in nearby Rema. But any simplistic conclusion as to Seaga's unfettered complicity in that season of depravity belies the complexity of the setting.The battle for West Kingston— Seaga and the 'Burning Spear'Confronted in the 1962 and 1967 campaigns by a formidable political rival, the resolute and combative Dudley Thompson, supported by 'Group 69' from Matthews Lane, a collective of hard political activists, Seaga quickly adopted an aggressive posture. In addition, Group 69 would have predated Seaga's entry into the crucible of political strife in the Corporate Area and beyond. Thompson, who is unfortunately remembered for his statement that “…... no angels died at Green Bay,” in reference to the murder by agents of the State, of five young men lured to pick up guns in the foothills of St Catherine, was certainly an equal participant in that regrettable period of tribal hostility.Many Comrades would, however, argue that it was in fact Seaga's proactive stance, which pushed Thompson to marshal his forces for inevitable political conflict. But the Miconian Dudley Thompson, a Rhodes Scholar, erudite Queen's Counsel and RAF World War Two fighter pilot who adopted Jomo Kenyatta's nom de guerre 'The Burning Spear', was fully cognisant of the dangers of political battle. As one of the Kenyan leader's defence counsels in the aftermath of the 1952 to 1960 Mau Mau Uprising … he would also have been equally attuned to prepare his people for a long and dangerous struggle of attrition.To underestimate Thompson would be fatal. Apart from his Kenya sojourn on the African homeland, he had sharpened his spurs through his association with many of the anti-colonial struggles of the 1940s and 50s - from the turmoils of KwameNkrumah's Ghana to Mandela's revolutionary surge in South Africa and relished the battle for power.Cognisant of Thompson's background and his will to prevail, Seaga perceived that victory could only be guaranteed by greater vigilance, organisation and ruthlessness.As a consequence, Seaga did not seek to have consensus around a set of non-violent, non-tribal measures but rather considered discretion and dialogue, as unaffordable luxuries in the bitter and intense political cauldron of the time.Instructively, Eric Frater recounts that one night in the closing stages of the 1962 campaign, after Dudley Thompson gave one of his usual upbeat briefing to the party executive on the effectiveness of his strategy to control the streets of West Kingston, Norman Manley, the senior Queen's Counsel, gave his own logical assessment with uncontested finality:“Dudley, you are being out manoeuvred and outgunned.”Inexorably but inevitably, Seaga eventually prevailed over the Panama-born Thompson by 780 votes in the 1962 general election and expanded his margin of victory to 2,772 in 1967. However, old Comrades from West Kingston are adamant that it was the intervention of Superintendent Howard and Inspector Joe Williams, the PNP's nemesis, who with his men tear-gassed hundreds of Dudley's supporters on their way to the voting booths at the Queen's Theatre, Spanish Town Road, that led to Seaga's victory in 1962.They further insist that were it not for the unashamed partisanship of Inspector Joe Williams, who was appointed commissioner of police by Seaga during his tenure as prime minister in the 1980s, the history of Jamaica would have positively changed.Ever mindful of the PNP's anger and hatred at the bitter defeat of the 'Burning Spear', Seaga moved to consolidate his fiefdom in anticipation of the difficult struggles ahead.And come they did. With Michael 'Joshua' Manley's PNP riding a tidal wave of hope to power, winning 37 seats to the JLP's 16 in 1972, Seaga stood almost alone surveying the ruins of his party, gaining little comfort that only his bitter JLP rival Wilton Hill in South West St Andrew survived alongside him in the Corporate Area.From the ashes of 1972, Seaga emerged as leader of his party in 1974 and set about to rebuild its organs and champion his 'anti-communist' crusade against the PNP. But back in his domain, he was confronted by even more redoubtable opponents than Thompson could ever be. To his northern border was 'Tony' Spaulding, 'the Trench Town Rock' and his Arnett Gardens posse led by the feared 'Tony' Welsh and Anthony 'Starky' Tingle. Hovering to the east was the near-invincible Michael Manley and his 'garrisons' led by intimidating activists such as Burry Boy, Feather Mop, Vinnie, Ozzie, and Lenniments, and with the contentious exit of Wilton Hill in the west, emerged a young, vibrant and formidable Portia Simpson. There was also the forceful Carl 'Russian' Thompson and his Marl Road enforcers in West Central St Andrew. Any gaps, real or imagined, were closed by the then militant Dr DK Duncan, the PNP's general secretary in East Central St Andrew, completing a solid group of stronghold constituencies that the PNP dauntingly referred to as 'the Western Belt'.Whether fair or unfair, in a real sense this encirclement resulted from the voters' disgust at the major role they attributed to him, in disrupting their conservative way of life with alien political violence. In response, Seaga created a fortress-like organisation with an aggressive cohort, ready to pounce at the slightest attempt at any incursion on his territory.He understood fully the consequences of his actions and played the hand he crafted:“They wanted…to cripple…my presence in the area so as to reassert their dominance which would allow them to do what they want. The (JLP supporters) were being gunned down…I built for them what people called an enclave, and I make no apology for that.”His strategy was consummated by 1980, receiving 9,335 votes to his opponent, Chaderton Ward's 575, and his party winning massively, capturing 51 seats to the PNP's nine. This included all in the St Andrew “Northern Belt” which has remained largely unchanged until the general election of 2011.Herein lay the complex contortions of Edward Seaga.Could the same individual who lived among the poor at Buxton Town, St Catherine, for several years, studying their rustic and cultural habits to fashion a path to their upliftment, promote a system which offered self-destruction to the urban poor?Obviously, Seaga was a central figure in that dispensation of heightened electoral violence, that in his mellow years, he would have found reprehensible.Towards the end of his tenure, with his life's work in Tivoli threatened, he would also have seen clearly the destructive potential of the offspring of the earlier activists and summarily present the police, with the names of gang members who breached his unwritten edict and undermined communal order and stability. Their leader was none other than Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, son of 'Jim Brown', the subject of the April-June 2010 extradition impasse with the United States of America. That was a defining moment, which showed that he could no longer control that which his tenure had spawned. Seaga's own revelation on the issue is frightening:“I have no control over these 13 men who have a pattern of brutality that I will not tolerate, will not accept and will fight against. They have blown off the leg of a young girl who at 20 years old has to walk with crutches. They have killed two sons of one lady within three days; they have killed a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old boy. They sent 15-year-old boys with pack guns into the Rema community in order to chastise, in order to mete out what they call justice. To fire six shots into a man and kill him and that sort of thing I am not going to tolerate it…”It showed too that his laudable integrated community planning model was fatally compromised by the protective system he had put in place. Questions will long be asked, why not earlier? Why wait until his back was against the wall to engage the police?'Light a candle, sing a sanke...'There were others in the formal political arena like the 'Gang of Five' who challenged his authority and were summarily crushed, then later reprieved and told to “light a candle, sing a sankey, and find your way back home'. The 'Gang' was never identified by Seaga, the names were inferred. They would in time return to the fold in full acceptance of his leadership. They would also outlast him to be returned as senior ministers in the 2007 Administration of Prime Minister Bruce Golding. There was also another challenge, the 'Gang of Eleven', which led to the formation of the breakaway National Democratic Party. Again Seaga would prevail, with most of the rebels finding their way back to the JLP, including their leader Bruce Golding.Nation building and lasting glory?Unquestionably possessed of a sharp mind, the Wolmer's and Harvard-educated Seaga could never be taken lightly or dismissed as inconsequential. A perfectionist, he was always impatient with mediocrity from any quarter, which might have led to some of the celebrated clashes that have been twisted to demonise him. His often tumultuous years in politics and governance have yielded many far-reaching changes to national life.In that context, he stands above all others in the creation of some of the most significant financial institutions in the modern Jamaican economic firmament: the Urban Development Corporation - UDC (1968); the Jamaica Stock Exchange (1969); the Jamaica Unit Trust (1970); the Jamaica Mortgage Bank (1973); the Jamaica National Investment Promotion Ltd — now JAMPRO (Jamaica Invest) (1988); the National Development Bank and the Agriculture Credit Bank (1981), both now fused to form the Development Bank of Jamaica; the Ex-Im Bank (1986) and the Self Start Fund (1983).In our recent economic history of unending outturns of negative growth, we often forget that his policies led to increases in growth rates of four per cent in 1987 and 1989, despite the ravages of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.He should also be recognised as a visionary who fully understood that sustainable development required companion educational institutions and strategies. This is why he engineered and established the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust (HEART) and the Learning for Earning Activity Programme (LEAP).Being fully cognisant of the educational and other social challenges of West Kingston, his early initiatives as MP led to the transformation of the degrading slums of Back-A-Wall, into the functioning community of Tivoli Gardens, offering high-rise apartments and social amenities. On the downside, many PNP supporters had to seek refuge at Wareika Hill, Sufferer's Heights, Taylor Lands, Trench Town and the wastelands alongside the dump at Riverton City. Some would return to populate a small high-rise apartment complex at the southeastern tip of Tivoli Gardens, north of the Railway Sports Club, then known as Lizard Town, now only a memory after they were chased out by JLP aggressors before 1980.His initiatives also saw the creation of Operation Friendship, a sanctuary for physically challenged persons; the upgrading of Denham Town High School; the construction of Tivoli Gardens High School and the establishment of the Tivoli football, basketball and netball clubs. More importantly, as the president of the Premier League Clubs Association, he has impartially promoted a sense of camaraderie and discipline among member organisations from many inner-city areas, regardless of political affiliation.Although little known, his acute awareness of social transformation through sports led to the creation of defined playfields on the original All Saints School sports ground and the adjoining lands that once comprised New Town and Victoria Town. These playfields were designed to support sporting aspirations of youths from the adjoining communities of Denham Town, Hannah Town, Trench Town, Jones Town and Craig Town. Sadly, after he left office in 2006, only two of those playfields survived — both at the Hannah Town/Denham Town section of the zone. Inevitably, without his guidance and control, irreparable vandalism took place, involving the unconscionable scrapping of the underground irrigation pipes and other infrastructural provisions.Cultural pioneerHis affinity for cultural upliftment led him to promote the establishment of the Tivoli Cultural Programme; the Jamaica Festival, the National Heritage Week and the designation and award of National Heroes. His thinking on the elevated honour is profound:“The concept of National Hero was wider than creating a national honour…in the context of colonialism and slavery, other pressures were molding the identity of Jamaicans to accept subjugation to a master class, denial of freedom and economic serfdom…. The order of National Heroes encompassed all those who removed these shackles so that Jamaicans could be identified as a free people of equal stature, endowed with a rich heritage in which there was no longer weakness but strength.”He was also the principal proponent in the founding of the Cultural Training Centre for the Arts and the upgrading and conversion of Devon House to a heritage centre.His pioneering role in the popularising of Jamaican music as a producer and promoter has been fully acknowledged. It was also Seaga who led the way in providing institutional support for our cultural products by establishing Things Jamaican Ltd to create a captive market for Jamaican handcraft. Most admirably, he has sought to engender national appreciation for our indigenous art forms, by showcasing the work of the outstanding creative artist and revivalist Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds to Jamaica and the world.Seaga's tribute to GarveyAlthough largely unremembered and unappreciated, it was Edward Seaga who took the lead in the atonement of his nation's ill-treatment and historical injustice to Marcus Garvey, by presiding over the return of his body from England for burial in the National Heroes Park. In that redemptive process, he also ensured that Garvey was conferred with the first Order of National Hero of Jamaica. In perhaps his finest moment, Seaga's tribute at Garvey's commemorative service at the Roman Catholic Cathedral, North Street, requires highlighting:“Garvey's stage was not Jamaica; it was the continent of colored peoples. Yet he is a National Hero of Jamaica and his works carried a message which helped to shape and structure the whole character of the people of his own country, among millions of other people around the world. Men shape, build and extend the boundaries of nations; some are economic giants… still others are heroes because they battle nature and extend the frontiers of knowledge; and then there are national heroes, those who belong to no category because they are all. They are those who shape the character of a nation to build and unleash the spirit of a people that the germ of their works and thoughts affect all aspects of a nation's life. Of such was the man Marcus Mosiah Garvey.”On his retirement from politics in January 2005, Seaga was honoured by the University of the West Indies as a Distinguished Fellow and later appointed pro-vice chancellor of the University of Technology and chancellor in 2010. From both vantage points, he has pursued research and enriched the intellectual and academic landscape with thought provoking insights and articles on major socio-economic issues of the day. In the process, he has completed two books on his personal life and the political history of his time, Edward Seaga: My Life and Leadership Volume 1: Clash of Ideologies 1930-1980 and Volume 2: Hard Road to Travel 1980-2008.The fact that a powerful, deadly, well-organised patron system existed and is survived by uncontrollable factions in Tivoli and Denham Town does detract from his profound community development achievements. Admittedly, part of his intent was to create a model community out of a slum. He sincerely believed this could not be achieved without protection, given the PNP's personal enmity of him, with destabilisation expected from the earlier dispersal of PNP supporters and the violent political clashes with the Burning Spear at his coming.Though unacknowledged, Seaga's control of the area was not simply borne out of aggressive tactics but more profoundly, he attracted many of the original PNP activists to his fold. He maintained their support, by his legendary attention to details and concern for his constituents. Claudius Massop, whose father was a fervent PNP supporter, became an early convert as did Veronica Carter-Brown, his constituency secretary who was one of the mainstays of the PNP's Iris King organisation in Denham Town.Mrs King, representing the PNP, entered the politics in 1947, winning a seat on the KSAC Council, serving from 1947-50 and 1956-59. Denham Town was then a part of her council division. In 1958, she created history with her appointment as the first female mayor of Kingston and St Andrew. She later contested at the national level, won and served two terms as MHR of Kingston West Central (1959-1962) and (1962-1967).In his book, My Life and Leadership Volume 1(91), he emphasises this reality:“My public credentials did not match up well with Dudley Thompson's but my hands-on experience of living in West Kingston....and ….I had endeared myself to the people by constant effort on their behalf, helping them to overcome problems and building a solid organisation. The young people especially identified with me, a young man of 31 years, a mere youth myself among political elders.”There can be no debate that violent enforcers were used to maintain and protect his constituency. In this, he paid a heavy price. And yes, he did decide to meet “fya fi fya and blood fi blood”, but the transformational ethos he engendered as Member of Parliament was the predominant force behind his peoples' undying loyalty. He had a call to make and made it. He sought not another path nor did he walk away; his political reality told him he could not and so became identified with a tribal conflict that has spawned the proliferation of political garrisons islandwide.Although his West Kingston people rewarded him with 45 years of unbroken confidence as their member of parliament, the wider Jamaican public gave a harsh verdict on his national stewardship, one victory in six general elections. But then, in his writings he seems to have consoled himself with the thought that in a democracy the people have the right to be wrong.At the same time, the impressive list of his accomplishments not only tower beside his socio-political vicissitudes but, when juxtaposed with his searching intellect and deep understanding of the have-nots, unquestionably, an unflinching and perhaps one of the most misunderstood political leaders of our time emerges.Moved by Michael Manley's soaring oratory, we did not stop to look at Seaga's record, nor did we care. As finance minister in Hugh Shearer's Administration of 1967-1972, he coordinated record GDP cumulative growth of 38.8%, which Professor Trevor Munroe and Arnold Bertram in their seminal work, Adult Suffrage and Political Administrations in Jamaica 1944-2002, remind us that it was:“...the highest overall and per annum growth achieved in comparison to all administrations between 1962 and 2002.”That record was, however, undermined by unbearable increases in total unemployment which, the Department of Statistics reports, stood at 22.8% at the end of his first tenure as finance minister in 1972. This included female unemployment of 33.3% and male unemployment at 14.4%, classifying the period as one of 'growth without equity'.Inevitably, the socio-economic anomalies compounded by the widening inequalities between the haves and the have-nots, led to Michael Manley's massive victory in 1972.In his book, Edward Seaga, My Life and Leadership, Volume 1, Seaga himself has pointedly cited the words of a hit song at the time, Everything Crash by The Ethiopians:“Look deh now…Everything crashFiremen strike …Watermen strikeTelephone pole men tooDown to the policemen tooWhat gone bad a morningCan't come good a eveningEveryday carry bucket go a wellOne day the bucket bottom must drop outEverything crash.”Critically also, for many of us, he was on the other side and we had long since decided not to love him. We were going to the mountain top with the tall, charismatic 'Joshua', regardless of what the cold 'Eddie' and the 'Labourites' or 'the wicked capitalists' had to say. After all, Michael told them, if they didn't like our 'revolution', there were always “five flights to Miami daily”.Michael had promised us a new and better Jamaica and we would not be denied. He took us to the slopes of the mountain, with grand social legislations that lifted the self-dignity of the masses but failed to fashion short-term strategies to change their economic status. In his 1972-1980 tenure of struggle and turmoil, Jamaica's GDP fell by 16 per cent. By 1980, undermined by sabotage and mired in desolation, shortages, depression and our own incompetence, the masses could bear no more. With bitter acceptance, we bowed to the will of the people and left the State for Eddie to fix.Despite the world recession of the mid-1980s and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, Eddie again oversaw instances of growth, boosted by over US$1billion in support from the United States. He gave his all, but he ran out of time. As was the case at the end of the 60s, with the social gaps widening and rigid class divisions reappearing, in addition to a closing debt to GDP ratio of 164% in 1989, from a high of 212.4% in 1986, he sought another term which, in such a situation, we were unwilling to give.Love affair with Michael re-kindled, we returned Seaga to the wilderness in 1989.Michael came back, a chastened wiser elder statesman, bedevilled by ill-health, pursuing what he called 'market socialism', his 'Third Path' to the elusive just society he had promised. He never found it. And when Patterson came in 1992, we signed on to his carefully plotted course that thrice won the people's vote, with towering advances in education, telecommunications, land reform and physical infrastructure development.In that long 1992-2005 Patterson dispensation, we continued to blame Eddie for every evil known and gave him not a second chance.Now in the winter of his years, away from the political stage, we can at least be fair and set the record straight. In the early days, before Michael and PJ came to centre stage, it was Seaga who studied the world of the common people he called the have-nots and swore to change their circumstance. “It takes cash to care” he declared. And yes, he did find growth, but very little of the allied wealth trickled down to those he said he cared about. At the end of his 1980-1989 Administration, his party argued that another term was needed to undo the damage done by the PNP. Although the actual economic performance of both parties over the period presents some merit to the JLP's position, the Comrades often counter, that it was the rising poverty indices experienced during the JLP's tenure of the 1960s and 80s which led to his fall. Moreover, they have maintained that in both cases, a decade in power offered enough time for policies to work and if the JLP were allowed to continue, the socio-economic order would have been irreparably breached.There will long be varying views and analyses on whether the additional term he sought, would have brought us the prosperity that has so far eluded our troubled State.Undoubtedly, his growth-oriented policies pointed in a positive direction, but that could have been undermined by a return to the trickle-down policies he practised in his tenures as finance minister and prime minister. On the other hand, his later dogged conviction to peg our currency to the US dollar in the face of our chronic indiscipline, destructive criminality, high propensity to consume foreign products and anemic export earnings, could have led to a dangerous run on the NIR, significant funding gaps and eventually, intolerable shortages, economic dislocation and a national crisis. It is also clear that even with a managed monetary regime to protect our pegged dollar, only real increases in production will ensure the viability of such a mechanism.At the same time, if there was less polarisation and greater equity under his watch, along with some of the policies he now promotes — such as a national cultural mobilisation of our human resources and talents; alternate energy production to reduce our reliance on oil imports; a sustained focus on early-childhood education, scientific research, technology and a revolutionary programme of highly specialised skills training for value-added production, we could have been closer to the modern and just society our people have yearned.Unfortunately for Edward Seaga, men write their history only once. His time is done.Sadly, it will record the bitter rejection of the people. Now, as the sun goes down on his remaining years, he will begin to understand why we were so harsh, as despite his significant contributions, it was he and he alone, who set the stage without apology or regret, for the people's damning judgment on his troubled time. But perhaps, looking back, historians will take another view and render a more favourable verdict on the totality of his work, at last.(Taken from the book Jones Town Trench Town The Journey Back, in light of Seaga being recognised tomorrow at the Grand Gala at the National Stadium by the Government as “the only living member of the committee that established the Constitution of Independent Jamaica and the Jamaica Festival 1963”)