Sanne de Boer

And it was so unfamiliar to me to live in such a small community where there...

where there's a lot of unemployment and I wasn't aware of my power in that moment, even as a young woman to renovate my house, you know, I mean, small old house, but still.

But that's exactly what is sometimes so difficult.

There are some cultural aspects that are very well manipulated by the Nrengete or there are, let's say, aggravated into a criminal kind of conduct.

I've had that happen to me for quite some time.

Fortunately, I grew over that because that's definitely not the way to live.

It's very... But...

I do believe, okay, can I tell you a story of what happened to me?

It's not in the book, but it's something I still think about often.

When the first time I went back from Colombia to, I flew back from Colombia to Amsterdam, seated next to a man, a very friendly old man, and he asked me,

did you like it in Calabria?

And I was like, I had such basic Italian say, I was like, oh yeah, la Calabria bellissima.

And he said, oh yes, it is beautiful.

And you know, we have the best fruit and we have the cleanest air.

And what you learn in Calabria is which fruit you want to eat and which fruit you might want to leave aside.

And that is something I never forget.

And over the years, I've learned that in a society like Calabria, where the organized crime is so deeply ingrained into every... It could very well be part of any legal business you encounter.

it becomes also a little bit of our responsibility to try at least to see which products, which networks, which opportunities are connected to these sort of systems of exploitation, of corruption, of silence, and which are not.

And it's very often very difficult for us as consumers to do so.

But it's a responsibility, I think, and that all of us are aware of in the world right now,