VIP Class Notes (Nick)

Two obituaries for Tomaso Bucetta:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/06/guardianobituaries.philipwillan
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/06/world/tommaso-buscetta-71-dies-first-italian-mafia-informer.html
https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Buscetta

A story of a more recent gang, in Mexico:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/07/el-chapo-the-last-of-the-cartel-kingpins
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/world/americas/mexico-el-chapo-sinaloa-sean-penn.html

Vocabulary

Mafia – organized crime, especially in Italy

Capo – a chief within the mafia, usually just under the head of a mafia family; like generals

Omerta – the law of silence in the mafia
e.g. The mafia boss (or don, like in the Godfather) is protected from capture by the police by the silence of the lower levels. If the lower level criminals who are captured remain silent, then the mafia will  take care of their families, try to get them out of jail early, and give them a good position when they get back out.

el Chapo – “Shorty,” a Mexican drug lord recently tried in court in New York
Cartel – an illegal organization controlling some area of a business (usually the business is illegal too)
Sinaloa – the region of Mexico controlled by el Chapo’s cartel

Dining Hall / Canteen – 食堂

Subsidy – when the government pays part of the cost of something because they want to help out; either because they like the group or they like what someone is doing
e.g. The dining hall at 交大 is subsidized.

Clickbait – a story of low quality but with an extreme title that gets people to open the link and increase traffic to a site

Contradiction – when one thing or person says both yes and no, true and false
Conflicting – when two things or people say opposite things
e.g. This article is contradictory because it has two conflicting conclusions.

Put a new face on [something] – to do the same thing with a new name, usually because it became unpopular, or isn’t finished but doesn’t inspire anymore; change the focus of something
e.g. Perhaps the “扫黑除恶” campaign is just putting a new face on the same kind of anti-corruption campaign that they were doing before.

Boot (verb) – to kick someone out of a group, usually roughly, indelicately
Boot (noun)

Grammar

How do you think about that? – What
— How do you think about that? With my brain / With difficulty
— What do you think? Good/bad/sweet/tasty (opinions)

Something about the society safe – society‘s safety