Sicily is hot in summer.

On the left you can see a lava tube forming at a recent eruption Mount Etna in Sicily and this is the way these tubes form.

The result is that Berlusconi s supposed allies such as former Minister Gianfranco Micciche and current Governor of Sicily Raffaele Lombardo, are seriously thinking of setting up a Party of the South to ensure that Italy s southern regions have enough clout to withstand the Lega Nord s onslaught.

Property, construction, and land are the common currencies of power in mafia societies in China and Russia no less than in Sicily. One reason China has been transformed into a gigantic building site, with huge new cities emerging almost overnight, is that this drives a red hot and highly corrupt economy, ruled by a Leninist party that has monetized political power by asset stripping and construction.