 One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning and shameful to betray even one's deadliest enemy to the authorities.For that reason, many Mafia-related crimes go unsolved.Observers of the Mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus for the Mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear, as implied by a popular Sicilian proverb "Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci" ("He who is deaf, blind and silent will live a hundred years in peace").