Posted by I have written an article in CNN Greece (in Greek) claiming that even if the fire was inevitable, the deaths were not. The reason so many people have died is that the State Officials and the Government did not declare the area under emergency and did not evacuate the area of Mati and other adjoining areas on time and in a disciplined way. As a matter of fact, they did not even try to evacuate, even when it was too late.
The people died on Monday 23rd 2018 in the evening.
Today is Friday, 27th July 2018.
Since Monday, after 4 whole days, not only there has not been any assumption of responsibility, not only there has been no statement of apology for the deaths, but the State and the Government now come forward with assertions that it was an arson, that the area was full of illegally built homes, and so on.
No apologies, no responsibility, everything was done as it should have.
This is outrageous.
But what the Government does not realize is that with this behaviour they signed for good their departure from power, let alone everything else.
The blood and the ashes of the dead are on their hands and they will pay for it, starting with the next elections, where they will lose power.
When people make a mistake most will become defensive and try to evade responsibility. They will distort reality, present “fake” news, and so on. However, as time goes on after the event, the same people who have initially denied responsibility, start having second thoughts. Ordinary people are not comfortable with this denial, because they know it is wrong. After all, there is a moral code in society, and this code is embedded in most members of this society. Eventually many of the people who have erred and initially denied their responsibility come to reverse their position and say “mea culpa”, my mistake. Such an admission in a sense exonerates the culprit as it makes him a human member of society, and not an irresponsible animal. Punishment is another story. The important issue is that admission reunites the individual at fault with society. It is quite interesting that we do not observe such behavior in the comings and goings of the people who are responsible for managing crises in the state machinery of Greece. Not only they do not seem to have some doubts about their mistakes and responsibilities, they now blame the disaster on arson. I can only say that this behavior separates them from society in a very serious way. This is the society that tomorrow will burry its dead and attempt to rebuild its homes. This is the society that voted the politicians into power and trusted positions of responsibility in the state machinery to the administrators who comprise the crisis management body. But societies have memory. And this memory will come to haunt the culprits in a big way.
Justice is an important institution in society. If there is Justice in Greece, the people responsible for the deaths must be prosecuted and punished accordingly.
There should be no escaping for the culprits.