it must be hard to walk with balls that big

Roberto Saviano - one of the few people on this Earth I would consider a hero - gave a speech yesterday. A singularly unheroic act, until you consider the fact that he is under a death sentence from the camorra (the Neapolitan Mafia) for committing the unforgivable crime of writing about them. His book was a runaway bestseller in Italy and has just been translated into English. The Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs assigned him an armed guard and relocated him out of Naples for his safety.

Saviano gave a speech on the first day of school in Casal di Principe, the seat of power of the Casalesi clan of the camorra, near the city of Caserta, not far from the palaces of the old Bourbon kings. In attendance were all the students of the city, the President of the Chamber of Deputies (analogous to the American Speaker of the House, pretty much)... and Nicola Schiavone, the father of the Casalesi boss Francesco "Sandokan" Schiavone. "There's no such thing as the camorra," the old man yelled from the crowd, and tried to take the stage before being blocked by Carabinieri (national police) agents. Saviano finished the speech, speaking calmly: "These are words that injure: that they are not whispered secretly but shouted with great pride, on a day when the president of the Chamber, and the president of the Antimafia Commission is present. I believe that nothing is changed, unfortunately.”

This is a man who must run for his life for speaking the truth... whose family is in danger because he took a stand. In a place where the price of life is silent complicity, he spoke up.

That's why I call him a hero.