The NASA Photo of the Fires

The whole of Attica smells like a fireplace. Over 60 people have died. The few once-green parts of Southern-Greece have now also taken the cement-grey colour of Athens. Ashes spread everywhere ... beyond the centre of the city ... even to the beach-side community where I live.

Only a few places were saved ... and this because the people there had figured soon enough that ... the lack of snows in the past winter, the lack of rains in May, the heat and the winds were just too dangerous. Some villages had thus organised themselves into 24 hour patrols in shifts: the women until midnight and the men after that. They also assigned some people to the top of mountains with binoculars. Where this was done, fires were extinguished before spreading ... but even then barely so.

You see ... these fires were arson ... as in ... they were started on purpose! The motivation behind this is still a mystery. One cannot even begin to imagine what kind of sick persons would do this ... but there you have it ... they did. In any case ... with the start of hunting season ... these patrols will now have the added factors of shotguns.

In the meantime, there is even talk of cancelling the upcoming elections. It won't happen of course. But it just goes to show you.