The ring of fire

This piece starts out 30,000 feet above greek ground. The now infamous satellite picture of the flames raging is literally recreated in front of my eyes, and the combination of “Indian in Me” by Cobblestone Jazz playing in my headphones renders it even more horrendous. Now that I am back, and that everyone wonders what the “hell” happened to their country this summer, during which 66 people have lost their lives, theories (conspiracy and others) have emerged… and I question…
Someone told me the other day “you know Greg, there are always fires BEFORE election period…”, some kind of rule of law which in my head sounded like “there are always fights between supporters AFTER an Italian football game”. What do I know? Indeed Prime Minister Karamanlis has decided on August 15th to call for early elections, initially scheduled to take place in March 08’. Even though many analysts had predicted this very “strategic” move a long time ago, everybody seemed surprised and the MP’s were called back from their luxurious holiday homes to come and help out for the upcoming campaign. In batallion formation On the right corner we have New Democracy (the blue ones) vs. on the left one, PASOK (the red ones) are now throwing the fires’ blame at each other… lovely political turmoil. ND, which had a large edge in pre-summer political poles is suddenly paying for its devastating lack of fire prevention and forth stalling, and has fallen drastically leading now with only 1 point ahead of PASOK. My question might sound silly, but why the heck do they organise elections in the summer, when Greek soil is so conducive to hungry blazing flames??? Anywayz, just a technical detail in this gigantic mess… On top of that is the issue of the land itself. Yes, in Greece you need to burn to get land, and this theory, much more probable than any scandalaous political sabotage is well explained in the following Financial Times article : “You could say that sparks from electricity pylons cause about 20 per cent of fires and human error another 20 per cent. The remainder are set deliberately, usually to clear land for development,” said a recently retired official.
While Greece requires burned forest areas to be immediately replanted, devel­opers have few problems in finding a way round the law. Burned areas are re-classified by local officials as farmland that can be sold for development.
“Because of the lack of political will to implement the law, it’s easy to build on forest land,” said Theodota Nantsou, policy co-ordinator in Greece for WWF, the conservation agency. “Ahead of an election, for example, thousands of illegal buildings suddenly become legal.”
Fast-growing demand for second homes, driven by north Europeans as well as Greeks, has increased pressure for development of forests, especially in the Peloponnese and near Athens.
Alexia Papadakis, a real estate agent, said the island of Evia is a prime target for developers because of its proximity to Athens and improved transport connections. “Sadly, it’s no surprise that there is a big fire on Evia,” she said.
Greece’s next government would come under pressure to complete a much-delayed land registry, establish a separate registry of forest areas, and strengthen the forestry service, Ms Nantsou said. “As a tourist country Greece needs year-round fire-prevention measures,” she said.