Casualty of Confidence

Greeks Turn to TV in Absence of State

As firefighters slowly get the upper hand on blazes that have ravaged Greece, the country is beginning to take stock. Many are pointing fingers at the government -- and wondering why the country's media became the most effective disaster response coordinator.

Even as some of the devastating brush and forest fires that have scorched Greece for the last six days and killed at least 64 continue burning, the country has begun to take stock of the damage.

And the picture is not a pretty one: In the last six days, about 200,000 hectares (495,000 acres) of forestland, olive groves and scrubland have gone up in smoke. Dozens of villages have been destroyed with many farmers having lost their livelihood. And a number of fragile eco-systems were annihilated and will take decades to recover.

But the damage may also be political. The public's confidence in the Athens government has almost completely eroded.

"Unfortunately, the government of (Prime Minister Costas) Karamanlis has disappointed the Greek people," said socialist opposition leader George Papandreou. "It has been woefully unable to deal with the major issue of the fires all summer. Unfortunately, it didn't even manage to save people's lives, their property and their homes."

Papandreou, of course, is no doubt trying to leverage the catastrophe into votes in the upcoming election. Immediately prior to the last six days of fires, which authorities say are now largely under control, Karamanlis called snap general elections to be held on Sept. 16.

'In the Name of God and Mary, Do Something!'

But as fires engulfed village after village from Friday to Tuesday, it was the country's television stations rather than the government which took on the role of disaster coordination.

"In the name of God and Mary, do something! We've been asking for help since Friday," a caller to a TV station pleaded on Tuesday. "We can't see anything, the smoke is so thick. We can't escape any more, there is no way out. We are 40 people and we will burn."

"We have been left at the mercy of God," another caller told Greek TV at the peak of the disaster. "We have no water or electricity. We have been fighting the fires with tractors and branches."

There were, in fact, dozens of such calls, and as an editorial in the English edition of major Greek daily Kathimerini points out, editors and reporters were, in many cases, able to help direct firefighters to the sites where they were most needed. "Wherever we broadcast live links, helicopters would come and drop water," a television presenter told the paper.

"The appeals for aid made to TV channels by desperate villagers do not so much highlight people's faith in the media as their deep mistrust of the capability of the state machinery," the editorial says. "The TV channel becomes that modern-day party leader which mediates between the citizen-viewer and the heartless State."

Karamanlis, for his part, has done what he can to deflect the blame, having repeatedly raised the possibility that many of the fires were started by coordinated arson attacks. Likewise, his Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said on Sunday that the fires "constitute an asymmetric threat." The government is investigating whether arsonists can be tried under the country's terrorist laws.

Opposition politicians aren't buying it. The Karamanlis government, Papandreou said, "is dealing with and fabricating theories about terrorist conspiracies. The result is that the country is vilified, democratic institutions are undermined and the Greek people are terrorized."

The Greek people, it seems, may be siding with the opposition in the developing debate. When Karamanlis called new elections, he was confident that the healthy economy would propel him to victory. A recent poll, however, indicates that his lead has shrunk to below a single percentage point.

cgh/reuters/ap