U3A Vall del Pop moves into the 21st century
By Christine Watkins of Almoradí Scrabble Club
AS PART of our continued endeavours to stay in contact with our members our president, and our committee, arranged a 21st century Zoom event to replace the general assembly (GA), on Thursday, March 4, with a talk by Ian Gunn entitled 'From Sicily to the Sopranos and beyond... the Global Phenomenon of Organised Crime’.
This Zoom event was a real technological step forward in our committee’s efforts to show this pandemic will not get the better of the Vall del Pop U3A. However, it was not the same as a face-to-face GA as it was without the reports from the committee on the association's activities. Nevertheless, it was a very positive alternative. Perhaps next month’s Zoom GA will include the association reporting, as our team become more confident in the use of 21st century technology.
Ian was the governor-in-charge of four different prisons during his 22year career in the Scottish Prison Service after a career in banking, and now as an 'enrichment speaker' on cruises. His talk took us into the murky world of 'The Mafia' and other international organised crime groups.
The Mafia originated in Sicily in the 16th century as a resistance group opposing Spanish rule, then after unification with the rest of Italy, in 1860 it spread into five other regions in the south, and the Sicilian branch becoming more widely known as the Cosa Nostra.
New York soon became one of the biggest centres for the five main mafia families, their stories and crimes made famous by the Godfather films. The TV series ‘The Sopranos’ presents an extremely accurate picture of the general structure and activities of what became known as ‘The Mob’. The Mob then spread across the USA to Las Vegas, where budding entertainers often had the support of crime families to launch their careers - Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra being two names mentioned.
When Fidel Castro closed Cuba’s gambling and got rid of all the associated criminal and illegal activities, the gambling moved north into the USA, where Las Vegas became the main town for The Mob to build their casinos.
The cartels' modern drug smuggling activities have been well documented through the media and films with Joaquin Guzmán, ‘El Chapo’ carrying out his threats with a gold plated AK47 and a diamond encrusted pistol! The infamous Pablo Escobar was known as the Cocaine King, of the Medellin cartel, exporting about 80% of his production into the USA, earning himself a mere $29 billion a year! His personal calling card was: “Plata o plomo?” (silver or lead) – “Pay me or get shot”. In 1993, he got his own fatal ‘lead payback’.
Ian talked about his work at the Cornton Vale women’s prison, and highlighted the number of women, used as ‘mules’, to bring drugs into the UK, who, on release, ended up back in the hands of the traffickers only to restart their previous activities. In Shotts prison, Ian met ‘The Iceman’ Jamie Stevenson, a drug dealer and money launderer who unusually was a model prisoner, unlike most with several life sentences, and nothing to lose, who can corrupt the staff and threaten to murder other inmates or even officers. Organised criminals in custody use a variety of ways to continue their operations, normally with the aid of mobiles and SIM cards smuggled into the prison.
Organised crime now spans the world, from the Chinese Triads, the heavily tattooed Japanese Yakusa, and the Russian Bratva, probably the most feared of the lot, fighting for their
share of the $560bn a year market. They are renowned as the best computer hackers in the world, with cyber-crime being the biggest growth industry in modern times.
All in all, really fascinating, and this brief synopsis (by Lorraine) gives an insight into a most informative and detailed talk. Thank you, Ian, and may your cruise work start again soon.
For further information on U3A Vall del Pop check our website www.u3avalldelpop.com
WELL this game has proven to be very difficult. I exchanged all my letters the third turn in and found myself playing low scoring words. Then I ended up with three ‘Is’ and two ‘Os’! I really didn't want to change again.
Thankfully I was able to play ION and then DIVING.
My opponent then played FIN, which allowed me to use the triple word score with TOUCAN. At this moment I only had a score of 181.
But at least with these letters I can get a score over 50. There are a few places to go but am I willing to take a chance?