Overcoming a History of Tragedy

An unusual story with a tragically typical outcome unfolded in Greece this week.

The area around the village of Mati, east of Athens, was devastated by wildfires that quickly overran homes and claimed the lives of 83 people (so far—dozens are still missing and 60 victims, many critical, are still in hospitals). Many that survived had rushed to the nearby seashore to escape.  According to a news report, one group of victims--many members of the same families--had been trapped in their escape and died huddled together in a "final embrace," parents trying to shield children from the flames.  It was nothing short of horrendous.

The area is home to many retirees whose grandchildren come to visit during the summer.  Many of the fire’s victims were the elderly who couldn’t flee as quickly as their younger neighbors. Cars escaping the neighborhood were caught by quick moving flames and destroyed, their occupants killed.  (News and photo source, here.) 

The BBC reported that Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos visited the site of the disaster and was confronted by angry residents who claimed the Government (and first responders) didn’t act quickly enough to save them. 

A combatant Kammenos replied angrily that the severity of the devastation was due to “the actions of some residents (who) had closed the roads to the beach.”  He said building by residents between wooded areas was a "crime" that had resulted in blocking escape routes.  “This is a crime from the past," he said. "This coast of Athens, all these properties, the majority are without a licence, and they have occupied the coast without rules."

In my opinion, the first major government official on the scene should try to show sympathy and encourage victims, rather than point fingers.  We’ve seen that behavior before following other disasters and it doesn’t come out well for the government’s credibility.  Even so, the defensive Defense minister has a point: There’s a reason development laws are in place. 

What I’d like to know is, if these violations were known, why weren’t the laws enforced? Without enforcement, the government itself is as culpable as those who built all the nonconforming structures. Either way, the tragedy affects all and now’s the time to pull everyone together—first for the victims and then to rebuild in a way that provides for safety in the future.  Other communities in the country (and even around the world) should learn the same valuable lessons from this disaster.

A former government official himself, Yanis Varoufakis, wrote a particularly pointed commentary, steering blame for the tragedy on bad decisions a series of unfortunate events. He said:

Why did it happen? A dry winter had produced large quantities of parched forest and bush, which, on a day when temperatures reached 39ºCelsius (102º Fahrenheit) and winds gusted at 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour, fueled the conflagration. But on this, our Black Monday, the weather conspired with the chronic failures of Greece’s state and society to turn a wildfire into a lethal inferno.

Greece’s post-war economic model relied on anarchic, unplanned real-estate development anywhere and everywhere (including ravines and pine forests). That has left us, like any developing country, vulnerable to deadly forest fires in the summer and flash floods in winter (just last winter,  20 people died in houses built on the bed of an ancient creek).

That collective failure is, naturally, aided and abetted by the Greek state’s perpetual lack of preparedness: its failure to clear fields and forests of accumulated kindling during the winter and spring, for example, or to establish and maintain emergency escape routes for residents. Then there are the usual crimes of oligarchy, such as the illegal enclosure of the coast around seaside villas for the purpose of privatizing the beach. Eyewitnesses I spoke to said that many died or were badly injured struggling against the barbed wire that the rich had put between them and the sea.

And, last but not least, there is also humanity’s collective guilt. This catastrophe demonstrates nothing if not the manner in which rapid climate change is turbocharging the natural phenomena that punish our human foibles.

Mr. Varoufakis closes by saying he expects nothing more than “crocodile tears” from the EU over their victims and predicts nothing will change in his country. I hope he’s wrong. I truly do.