64 dead, 500,000 acres of land and the birth place of Olympic Games demand Justice

I am sure that most of you have heard about the fires which engulfed the southern part of Greece this summer (click here for a pps file showing the misery-1.7 MB). It was complete destruction where 64 people died, people lost their homes, 500,000 acres of land were burnt and part of the birth place of the Olympic Games, Olympia, was destroyed. According to the BBC site, the land will take decades to recover, assuming that it is left in peace for nature to do her thing, which I doubt. I won't be surprised if, in a few years, several expensive houses appear in those areas.

I do not know if many of you have experienced the destruction of similar fires. I have not, but I have been on a Greek island a few times when the forest was burning. It is an overwhelming incident where simple humans feel unable to do anything.

Forest fires are very common all over the world, but for some reason, Greece seems to have a bigger-than-average problem with them. Every year, thousands of acres are burnt. The story is being repeated again and again and again. One has to wonder what is going on. What is the main reason behind this? Most Greek people blame arsonists. During the last fires, the government talked about asymmetric threat, language usually used to describe suicide bombers. People even pointed to neighbouring countries. I guess it is easy to blame the foreigners - the barbarians.

However, who are the true arsonists? Why would they want to destroy half a million acres of forest? According to the BBC site, there could be many reasons for starting a fire: accident, revenge, hero factor. But there is another reason which accounts for most of the fires. It is pure and cynical profit-seeking by land developers and contractors backed by members of every government who have screwed up the country for years.

As in most developed countries, it is illegal to destroy forest land to build homes. Therefore all those profiteers have come up with a simple plan. Burn the forest, wait for 10 years until everybody has forgotten about it. Bribe government bureaucrats who provide a building license. Start building a few houses here and there. Wait for election time and higher ranking politicians will pass a dodgy law and presto: the land is not forest land anymore.

The country is one of the most corrupt European countries. It is so bad that there is a well known joke about it: Greece is such a democratic country that even corruption is democratic. Everybody can profit according to their job position, even if you are a simple nurse. You can shuffle the queue according to the bribes you get.

It is sickening, yet it is absolutely true. It does not matter what you know but who you know. This is true everywhere, but in countries like Greece, it's the norm. You cannot do anything without connections. You cannot even get a job as a cleaner without connections. As for government / academic positions, you better forget it even if you have a Nobel price if you do not know the right people.

It is, therefore, not a coincidence that the devouring continues. In a corrupt country, everything is possible and a nobody becomes somebody. It is time for the Greek people to revolt against the corruption which has penetrated every inch of that great country. What would Socrates, Plato, Aristotle say if they could see the degradation of Greece?