Up in Flames

How tragic! How tragic it is to watch people lose their homes and to witness the utter destruction of the much-needed forests in Attiki, Karistos, Viotia, Zakinthos. The biggest question everyone is asking is Why? Why is it that we never learn from our mistakes? Why is it that we don't have enough hydroplanes and firetrucks to go around to all locations that are up in flames? Why is it that every year our government prefers to shovel out money at the end of a destruction rather than to give a quarter of that money beforehand in order to prevent it? Whose fault is it afterall?

It's the government's fault for choosing to cover up big problems instead of deal with them at the root and get rid of them: i.e. hire more firemen, spend more money on protecting the environment, ensure that all public forces including the fire service have a healthy structure, good leadership and honorable organizational culture, etc.
It's the local authorities' fault for showing such short-sight when it comes to protection from a phenomenon that is seen every summer in Greece.
It's the Head of the Fire Service's fault for failing to coordinate his forces and show readiness when dealing with one or multiple fires.
It's the media's fault for magnifying the destruction of certain areas while ignoring others and for exercising judgement over the efficiency of the fire service in order to get ratings.
Finally, it's our fault. All of us are to blame for complaining that the government and authorities are inefficient when we were the ones that put them into power. We speak of conspiracies to clear our forests in order to build more and more houses, yet many of us have houses in forests that are illegally built.
Unless we all change the way we deal with major catastrophes and their avoidance, unless we start worrying more about the future and not just the present then none of our elected officials will change their ways either.