It has been one year since a wildfire destroyed a seaside resort and claimed over 100 human lives.
The first, tragic anniversary of those deaths reminds us that this unspeakable tragedy – for the extent of which the state bears indisputable responsibility – has evolved into a crime in perpetuity, a crime which bears the same characteristics as those which brought disaster upon us – a lack of coordination and a lack of empathy from a state that drowns in bureaucracy every need of citizens for assistance.
It is indicative that of the 3,000 homes in Mati only 300 have received repair permits.
Instead of embracing the fire victims and doing everything possible to relieve their pain, the state continues to move at a turtle’s pace.
The image of complete abandonment of the area that emerges from a Ta Nea expose intensifies the impression that instead of care from the state what one is witnessing is indifference.
That impression is transformed into certitude by the fact that the testimony of dozens of burn victims bears witness to the fact that that they are struggling to remove the marks of the inferno from their bodies.
There are responsibilities for the extent of the tragedy, and to those responsibilitities one must add the responsibilities of the perpetual crime that one has witnessed over the last year.
Even at this late date, the state has a duty to act in a manner that will not offend either the lives of survivors or the memory of the dead.
