1. SUNDAY MORNING POST SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008
International9
(right), and The Kaiser
Chiefs’ tune Oh My God
for singer Lily Allen, also
came under fire.
He needs “to write
his own tunes instead of ruining
everyone else’s”, Gallagher said. “Mark
Ronson needs to learn three chords on
the guitar and write a tune.”
He branded pop band Scouting For
Girls “Scouting For Idiots” and attacked
The Kaiser Chiefs.
He said: “The Monkees haven’t split
Booze-fuelled Oasis guitarist Noel
Gallagher (inset) compared troubled
singer Amy Winehouse to a “destitute
horse” in a stinging rant on his fellow
musicians.
The surly loudmouth, known for his
scathing outbursts, hit out during an
interview on BBC Radio One. The
41-year-old rocker was also infuriated
by New York rapper Jay-Z headlining the
Glastonbury Festival.
Mark Ronson, who remixed The
Zutons’ track Valerie for Winehouse, 24
Drunk Noel Gallagher has a nag about soul diva Winehouse
Wonderful World
Wife exacts sweet
revenge in eBay sale
An Australian woman has takenrevenge
on her cheating husband by putting a
photograph of his lover’s underwear up
for sale on online auction site eBay. In
the listing, the woman says she is selling
a picture of a pair of lacy black knickers
and an empty condom wrapper “size
small” found in her bed after her
husband had an affair. She says of the
knickers: “They are so huge I thought
they may make someone a nice shawl
or, even better, something for
Halloween perhaps.” Reuters
Oops! Right name,
wrong picture
Council chiefs in the English city of
Birmingham were left red-faced when
they mistakenly used a picture of their
US namesake in Alabama on thousands
of official leaflets. Pamphlets about
recycling in the West Midlands bore an
image showing the skyline of the US city.
Under the headline “Thank You
Birmingham!,” the picture showed office
blocks in the US city, rather than its own
distinctive Rotunda tower and the curvy
Selfridges store. The council said it had
made a mistake, but had no plans to
recall the leaflets. Reuters
‘Bigfoot’ fur fails to
fool DNA tester
Bigfoot remains as elusive as ever.
Results from tests on genetic material
said to be from remains of one of the
mythical half-ape and half-human
creatures havefailed to proveits
existence.The claimed discovery had
swept the internet, fuelled by a
photograph of a hairy heap resembling
a shaggy full-body gorilla costume
stuffed into a container resembling a
refrigerator. One of the two samples of
DNA came from a human and the other
was 96 per cent from an opossum, said
Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University
of Minnesota who analysed the DNA. An
opossum is a North American marsupial
about the size of a house cat. Reuters
Traffic warden barking
up the wrong tree
A British motorist was given a £50
(HK$728) ticket for bad parking when
her car was shunted into a tree by
another driver. Joanne Billington was
fined by an overzealous traffic warden
after her Ford Ka, which she had left
parked, was hit by another vehicle. “I
was absolutely devastated,” said
Billington, 27. “I just couldn’t believe
what had happened.” Amazingly,
despite the front end of the car being in
the bushes, the traffic warden claimed
he thought it had been parked that way.
A council spokesman said the penalty
had since been written off.
Ananova.com
Noisy sex leads
to lover’s ban
A British man has been banned from
visiting his girlfriend’s home after
neighbours complained about noisy sex.
A court had barred Adam Hinton, 32,
from being within100 metres of his
29-year-old girlfriend Kerry Norris’ flat,
Brighton and Hove City Council
spokesman Mike Taggart said. Residents
of Norris’ publicly owned home had
been complaining since 2006 about
thumping music, banging headboards
and screamed obscenities, he said. AP
Great-granny Ivy’s
been there, done that
A British great-grandmother has
become the oldest person on Facebook.
Ivy Bean,102, decided it was time to get
herself some online action when she
heard about the site through staff at the
care home where she lives. Her carers
at Hillside Manor in Bradford helped set
up a profile, and the former mill worker
from West Yorkshire now uses it to keep
in touch with friends and family. “More
and more people are on Facebook now.
But at102 I have a lot to put on about
myself,” she said. The great-
grandmother also plans to try out a
Nintendo Wii. Ananova.com
Bird bags another
feather in his cap
Nils Olav already has medals for good
conduct and long service. He made
honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite
Norwegian King’s Guard in 2005. And on
Friday, he was knighted. Not bad for a
90cm-tall penguin − actually, three of
them. A resident of Edinburgh Zoo in
Scotland, the original Nils Olav was
made an honorary member of the
King’s Guard in1972 after being picked
as its mascot by lieutenant Nils Egelien.
The current Nils Olav is the third
penguin to serve as a mascot. AP
US$3m reasons why
it pays to be blind
A man’s forgotten bifocals led to a
US$3 million lottery jackpot. American
Bobby Guffey plays the same set of
numbers representing the birthdays of
his five children. But he left his glasses at
home when he bought the winning ticket,
accidentally entering the last number as
48 instead of 46, reported The Journal
Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The
Hoosier Lotto ticket ended up being
worth US$3 million. “My wife says it pays
to be blind,” Guffey said after he
accepted his winnings in Indianapolis.
Guffey said he did not realise he had used
the wrong numbers until leaving the
service station where he bought it. He
went back inside to buy a ticket with his
usual numbers, which won US$1,000 in
addition to the jackpot. AP
US$5m goes down
the hi-tech toilet
City officials have finally got rid of five
hi-tech, self-cleaning toilets that cost
Seattle US$5 million – but sold online for
just US$12,549. The city installed the
toilets four years ago, hoping to provide
tourists and the homeless a place to do
their business while downtown. But they
became better known for drug use and
prostitution than for relief. One of the five
toilets sold for US$4,899, but the average
sale was just over US$2,510. AP
Fish ’n’ chip trek a day
keeps the doctor away
A couple have made a round-trip journey
of 96km for fish and chips in their
favourite British seaside town every day
for the past10 years. Ermis Nicholas, 71,
reckons the daily pilgrimage has even
saved his life. It might not seem the ideal
recovery plan for the retired restaurateur
who has had a near-fatal heart attack,
but the trip has helped him shed 44.5kg.
Every morning, the pair catch two buses
from their home in near Bristol to
Weston-super-Mare – where they have
fish and chips for lunch, followed by a
10km stroll. The couple have racked up
251,000km. Ananova.com
Facts &
Figures
People
Here’s a note for Billy Zane. If you’re in
need of ideas about a surprise gift for
fiancée Kelly Brook, maybe a hands-free
kit for her car would be a good idea?
English actress Brook (who
appeared in TV series Smallville) was
pulled over and given a fine for
nattering on her mobile while driving
last weekend. Britain’s Daily Mirror
quoted a witness as saying: “The
Why hands-free phone kit is a good gift for Kelly Brook
Tall Stories
After delivering one of the worst
performances in the history of the MTV
Video Music Awards, Britney Spears has
a chance to be crowned this year as the
absolute best.
The rebounding pop queen (below)
is nominated for video of the year for
Piece of Me, a clip that had fun with her
reputation as a tabloid queen.
Other nominees included the Jonas
Brothers for Burnin Up, Chris Brown for
Forever, the Pussycat Dolls for When I
Grow Up and newcomers The Ting Tings
for Shut Up and Let Me Go.
This is Spears’ third nomination for
this year’s awards. Earlier, fans
nominated her for best pop video and
best female video, both for Piece of Me.
The nominations are ironic
considering that neither the song nor
the album from which it came,
Blackout, were big hits. Both were
released amid Spears’ spectacular
public decline over the past year and
her performance at last year’s awards
in Las Vegas represented one of the
lowlights of her fall from grace.
She was universally ridiculed for
her unkempt look and sloppy
performance, which became one of
pop’s classic moments.
In recent months, though, Spears
has been on an upswing. Since her
father James took over her personal
and professional affairs her erratic
behaviour has virtually stopped. She
has settled her custody battle with ex-
husband Kevin Federline over their two
sons, and made appearances on CBS’
How I Met Your Mother, which were
critical and ratings successes. AP
Britney’s tabloid tune may snap up award
SUNDAY MORNING POST SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008
International9
I
t’s April10, 2006. In an old
countryside farmhouse
near the Sicilian town of
Corleone, Bernardo
Provenzano, boss of bosses
and absolute head of the
Sicilian mafia, is watching
television as he eats his
favourite meal – a plate of
ricotta and two pieces of
curly endive. Provenzano is nervous
as he watches the small television,
where a short 55-year-old man with
a big moustache and a raspy
smoker’s voice is talking about him
and his organisation – the Cosa
Nostra.
The man on TV is Pino Maniaci
and he is the director of Telejato, a
tiny Sicilian television station and
thorn in the side of one of the most
powerful criminal organisations in
the world. The mafia wants his head
on a platter, but Mr Maniaci doesn’t
care. Every evening, with his old
video camera and big microphone,
Mr Maniaci goes on air and reveals
the links between politicians and
mafia bosses.
As he watches Telejato,
Provenzano has no idea that he will
be arrested the following day. And
he has no idea that along with the
hundred or so police officers that
will burst into his den in the
morning will also be Mr Maniaci –
the first to document his capture.
At 8am last week, two policemen
armed with megaphones stand in
front of a house in Partinico – a small
town in the interior of Sicily some
30km from Corleone.
“Pinoo,” they boom into the
megaphone, “Come out. Have you
finished using the bidet? Hurry up.
Come down.” They are Mr Maniaci’s
personal bodyguards, or, as he calls
them, his “guardian angels”. Ever
since the mafia decided that Mr
Maniaci must die, they have been
guarding him 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
“They’re my morning wake-up,”
he says. “They bust my balls at
times, but they’re good guys … and
anyway, I don’t have a car since the
mafia set fire to mine, so having a
ride is always helpful.”
About a month ago, a group of
“unknown suspects” set fire to the
“Pino Mobile”, an old Fiat Tipo that
was considered a historical part of
Telejato. “What a shame,” Mr
Maniaci laments. “We were so
attached to that car. It was a part of
Telejato.”
The Pino Mobile had been
tracking down mafia stories for the
past15 years. The burned carcass
now sits in the Anti-Mafia Museum
in Corleone, where one can view it
alongside other symbols of the
struggle against the Cosa Nostra.
The attack on the Pino Mobile is
only the latest in a series against Mr
Maniaci and his family. The number
of attacks they have suffered is
frightening: “They have slashed my
car tyres 60 times,” he says. “Almost
every weak threatening letters arrive,
[I’ve had] a hundred anonymous
telephone calls, they shot at the Pino
Mobile a couple of times and they
beat me very badly a few times.”
But the record he is most proud
of is the number of libel notices that
he has received – almost 300. To
celebrate the 200th notice, he
stripped off his clothes in front of the
cameras of Telejato in downtown
Partinico.
Mr Maniaci’s day starts at Café
Alessi, a few metres away from
Partinico’s Cathedral. This morning
he sits drinking a coffee with one of
his informants. They talk about
mafiosi, politicians and business
owners. The guardian angels stand
nearby and watch. Their discussion
comes to an end and Mr Maniaci
finally approaches, offering to buy
us a coffee. “Do you know why we
have the problem of the mafia in
Sicily?” he asks, as he sips his
espresso. “The police. Look at
them,” he says, pointing at the two
officers. “Look how ugly they are.
How can you fight the mafia with
such ugly police officers?”
The two police officers laugh
along with him. This is how our hero
deals with his work, his life – with
humour. Maybe, in this way, he
doesn’t have to think about being
afraid, about how sooner or later, he
might end up inside that burning
car.
The offices of Telejato comprise
three rooms on the second floor of
an old building in Partinico. The
battered desk where Mr Maniaci
works is the same one that appears
on camera when he reads the news
each day. A satellite map of Sicily on
the wall serves as a backdrop.
Telejato used to belong to the Italian
Communist Party, who used it for
their electoral campaigns during
local elections. In1994, it was passed
over to Mr Maniaci and his family.
“We live in an area of Sicily
surrounded by cities with a large
number of mafiosi,” he explains, “
but no one on TV talked about the
mafia. I decided that that gap
needed to be covered!”
Today, Telejato is a family-run
station. The executive editor is Mr
Maniaci’s 42 year-old wife, Patrizia,
the reporter is his 23-year-old
daughter, Letizia, and the
cameraman is his18-year-old son,
Giovanni.
“They are the real heroes,” a
proud Mr Maniaci says. And indeed,
it must not be easy for a family to
stand behind a man such as him.
They risk their lives for him.
“Sometimes I feel like **** for
putting my family’s lives at risk,” he
admits. It is clear, however, that they
too believe in what they are doing.
“This station has given us many
friends, but also many enemies,”
Mrs Maniaci says.
“In court, the mafiosi insult us
like crazy, ‘Look, the pieces of ****
have arrived’, they say. “But we go
on all the same.”
Are they ever afraid? “There’s
always [fear],” she says. “We’d be
crazy if there wasn’t. But we try to
think about it as little as possible.”
Telejato is one of the most
popular television stations in Sicily,
with150,000 viewers – a number that
includes many mafiosi.
The Maniacis have accumulated
these numbers with the important
scoops that they dig up. On one of
the most recent shows, there was a
filmed exclusive of the wedding of
the daughter of Totò Riina. Riina,
who has been in jail since1993, is
one of the most violent mafia bosses
in Italy’s history.
There was also the time when,
after being beaten by the son of a
mobster, Mr Maniaci went on air
with his black eye and broken bones,
and recounted all of it to his viewers.
“I said that a black eye and a couple
of bruises wouldn’t stop me. I would
continue to do my work.”
Telejato’s most important report
was on the Bertolini Distillery,
owned by the daughter of a man
who was one of Al Capone’s drivers
in1930s Chicago. It had been
polluting the city’s air for years.
Telejato denounced the distillery
and, after some 200-odd legal
actions against the television station,
the distillery was finally closed when
the Public Prosecutor’s Office
discovered environmental
irregularities at the company.
It was an historic victory that was
celebrated by the nation’s media; Mr
Maniaci, the little moustachioed
David, had succeeded in taking
down Goliath, the millionaire at the
head of the Bertolini company. To
show their respect, the city of
Partinico dedicated a float to Mr
Maniaci during its annual carnival;
on it, a paper-machée figure of him
rides a giant microphone as he
chases after the distillery’s owner.
He says that all this journalistic
success, however, has not helped
the station’s finances. In fact,
advertisers are becoming fewer and
fewer. The mafiosi put pressure on
businesses. How do the Maniacis
keep the station running and feed
their family?
“We’ve been eating just one
panino a day since1994,” he says
with a laugh.
He shows us the trailer for a new
documentary film about Telejato
soon to be released in cinemas. “The
film is already ready, but they are
waiting until they kill me before they
write the end,” he jokes.
We ask him one last question,
one that everyone has asked him:
“Pino, are you afraid of dying?”
He pretends to think about it for
a moment – the wrinkles of his
forehead deepening, his eyes getting
a little smaller – then he replies: “I
won’t die even if they kill me.”
Pino Maniaci has used his tiny television station to strike at the mafia in Sicily for the last 15 years, and has survived beatings, a shooting and lawsuits. Photo: Antonio Giordano
Newsman fights crooks with a strong heart and a dose of humour, says Lorenzo Tondo
The man
taking on
might of
the mafia
Do you know why we
have the problem of
the mafia in Sicily?
The police. Look how
ugly they are. How
can you fight the
mafia with such ugly
police officers?
......................................................
Pino Maniaci, head of Sicily’s
Telejato television station
officers didn’t treat her differently than
anyone else. They explained it was
against the law and gaveher a stern
talking-to. Kelly became really tearful
and seemed incredibly embarrassed.
She was apologising over and over
again. She wasn’t looking for any
special treatment despite being
famous and accepted the ticket in
good grace.” Ananova.com
up, they’re just going under the name of
The Kaiser Chiefs.
“I did drugs for18 years and I never
got that bad as to say, ‘You know what? I
think The Kaiser Chiefs are brilliant.’
“Anybody whose drummer writes the
songs are not to be trusted.”
Songwriter Gallagher also compared
British celebrity Jade Goody’s perfume to
“stale urine” and suggested Live Aid
supremo Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches
should be stamped on. Gallagher
admitted he was drunk. AFP