For the past eight days we have been watching several fires all over Greece burning an estimated 12% of the total forest area of the country. We have also been watching an incompetent government ignoring the cry of people for help, particularly those in small villages, who are desperately trying to protect their houses from the fires. When Nature strikes one cannot hide the mistakes and lack of planning with the usual propaganda and lies that this government so often uses through the media it has under its control. Natural phenomena such as earthquakes, fires and floods do not care for words, ideologies, promises, wishes and prayers.
The starting point for dealing with situations of this type is for the government and people to care. During these days we saw a lot of the latter and none of the former. We saw people getting together to protect not only their own homes and properties but those of others. We saw them all together joining forces, struggling to fight the fires with branches of trees and bottles of water, the only means available to them. We also saw old people abandoned from their families, all alone in villages, trying to survive on their own.
At the same time we witnessed the complete abandonment of these people from their own government. And this is not only the result of lack of organisation and poor planning and execution. It is because this government does not care for simple people living in villages struggling all their lives to build a house and a family. This government has a right-wing ideology which considers these people to be of lower quality and value compared to that of themselves and their rich friends. Not surprisingly, we saw houses and other properties of their friends and supporters having firefighting vehicles on standby while at the same time entire villages were encircled by flames with no intervention from firefighters.
This Prime Minister has a huge ego and he considers himself to be a CEO running a company by sending commands to mobile phones for his managers to execute. If this reminds people of Donald Trump it is not by coincidence because he sees himself in the same manner. So, the plan for a disaster of this type was for the Civil Defence to send SMS messages to the people who live in an area threatened by fire and order them to evacuate. And that was all. Fortunately, most people in the villages did not comply otherwise there would be nobody to fight the fires.
People were asking for help. They requested firefighters and the government sent them police officers because the first priority of this Prime Minister when he came to power was to hire police officers and police vehicles and therefore there are plenty of those to spare but no firefighters. This choice, however, is not surprising for a leader of a conservative political party. They requested firefighting aeroplanes and they were told to find some political connection to the government in order to intervene on their behalf as a favour, a way of doing things in Greece as old as the current governing political family which excels in this tradition. Note that the forest authorities had requested 17 million Euros for doing work which would protect the forests from fires during the summer and this government gave them 1/10th of this amount i.e. 1.7 million Euros only.
Some people claim that these fires were set on purpose in order for companies to place wind turbines to produce electricity because the local government has recently rejected this proposal in order to protect the natural environment. The government claims that these fires are unusual and the result of climate change due to the phenomenon of global warming. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that thousands of people are left without a house and an income to live and therefore they now have to rely on this corrupt and incompetent government for financial support and the restoration of their houses.
Greek governments are notoriously slow when they have to give financial support to people and extremely aggressive when they need to collect taxes, bills etc. There is a long tradition of corrupt and ignorant government officials who are mainly interested for their re-election and how to make money for themselves and their friends. Most of the victims of these fires are people who had jobs related to the forests so even if their houses are rebuilt they will be unable to have an income since a forest destroyed by fire takes 20-30 years to regrow. Given the profound lack of empathy that this government exhibits and the way they manage compensation funds (or funds of any type for that matter), it is unlikely that the victims of the fires are going to be able to rebuild their lives and there are examples of other older natural disasters and promises which were never fulfilled because they were meant to be used only as propaganda to pacify the rage of the citizens. In the meantime, the main opposition parties are half asleep, mainly because they have sins of their own from similar disasters and display of incompetence in the recent past. Greek politicians have failed their citizens again and again with the greatest example the collapse of the Greek economy in 2010 because of wrong management.
In moments like this, one has to remember how important the right to vote is. This is not to be taken likely or used in order to gain some favours in the future from government officials. The vote affects the life and prosperity of a whole country and it has to be given to people who have been vetted and tested. After voting, one cannot change his mind and change his choice. Choices matter and mistakes are paid here and now, in real life. It is about time for people to learn this lesson and do not give their vote without a great deal of thought in the future. But first of course they need to learn how to think critically and objectively so that they can see through the usual propaganda and lies of politicians, particularly those who come from notorious political dynasties who have made a fortune over the years taking advantage of people.
Prometheus Unbound 