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Greek government has declared a State-of-Emergency for the entire country

cnn.com — The Greek government declared a state of emergency for the entire country on Saturday after forest fires killed at least 41 people as they swept across the south of the country. Unofficial death tolls reported by local media are closer to 50. Authorities believe arsonists may be responsible for some of the blazes.

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  • endlessraining, on 10/10/2007, -2/+29They should use the water from the floods we've had here in England.
    • ericatha, on 10/10/2007, -2/+26or the endless rain from your name
      • JasonMaloney101, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Does it come in chocolate?
      • yamyogurt, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Yes, but are either of these ideas plausible? Wouldn't it be easier to get water from sources closer to the fire?
    • KCorax, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Sorry for hijacking the thread, but being in Greece I'd like to certify that none talked of political extreemists, this is plain CNN FUD.

      A couple weeks ago a member of the leading party suggested that the other parties are feeling happy about the fires granted elections are due in one month and he was immediatelly marginalized.

      When fires are put intentionally here it's because someone wants to build houses in that forest area. Forest status is generally lifted in 5 years and then they can go about various ways into buying the land.
  • vault, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Would've been nice for CNN to say what group was suspected of starting the fires, not just "extremists."
    • thewindfish, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5There are some groups of "extremists" who do what they do for the sole purpose of calling attention to their organization, and i'm sure CNN wouldn't want it to seem like they were giving into this kind of thing.
    • rkzda, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Stop watching CNN? I prefer ABC.
      • spyd3rweb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13stop watching tv period
        • klank, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Did it....Stress level went way down!
          • skulljar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2No way. The TV made me a comfortable bed of lies. The internet brings me the murky ocean of truth.
        • mike81890, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Or just mass media crap
    • MagicCake, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0What if it wasn't extremists at all but just some potheads that accidentally set something on fire out in the woods? ...Come on, I can't be the only one wondering that...
      • ipodgr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1With over than 80 fires at a small period of time.. well no there were no potheads..
        also when the fire at ymitos had stardet and the fire deparment went there to fight, they accept false calls .. making them to break into smaller pieces..
        • MagicCake, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Ah, sorry... I didn't even read the article, I was only joking around. Although...what if there were just lots and lots of potheads...
    • kettlechips, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Actually, it is real estate developers, they want to build on the protected land and get it cheap.
      • petsagouris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Its has gotten really much more difficult to make a protected forest area into a yes-you-can-built zone. So I don't really think that its this. (Greek here too)
    • OsakaWilson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It was 'them' as opposed to 'us'. Nothing more to see here, move along.
  • willk281, on 10/10/2007, -10/+3What's the problem? Did they run out of cigarettes?
    • Dementual, on 01/27/2008, -1/+1No. It's because they didn't want the greek communist party to have any, and so they (the commies) decided to burn everything. The fires have actually been going on for months now.
  • bomb288, on 10/10/2007, -6/+16I thought it said "Geek government" when i first read the title, and it confused me a bit.
    • HunterTV, on 10/10/2007, -6/+11We can haz reprezentashun?
    • sarge96, on 10/10/2007, -7/+3I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs is our president.
      • MiDri, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8Geek President, Jobs? Seriously? Think about that... put down the $8 mocachino, and think about that.
      • sarge96, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Well I's say it's him or Gates, but I know everyone here despises Microsoft.
      • netdroid9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5With Gates, it'd be closed to everyone but a select few who get to see only a part of the democratic system at a time. With Jobs, it'd *look* open but we'd all have Trusted Persons Platform chips embedded in our brain so we couldn't be a citizen for any other country. With Linus, it'd be open and free, but communist.
      • mastaphoo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3OK, really? like i know you might like apple and all, but really? do you actually know enough about the guy to say "hey he can represent us" or are you just blindly saying hey big cheese of a huge company i like, be my voice! THINK.
      • Me1000, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Actually Jobs would be a pretty kick ass president,
        Get the country out of debt, and make us profitable again,
        "make meaningful partnerships"
        discontinue unnecessary and things (iraq)
        No more CIA leaks,
        a great public speaker!

    • GafferXL, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"With the release of BioShock last Friday, the Geek government has declared a state of emergency, asking for a total cessation of work, and the captioning of all available cats."
  • bushisterrorist, on 10/10/2007, -29/+2I wonder if the people in America are ignorant enough to fall for this tactic by the world's greatest terrorists (United States Government).

    United States Government are terrorists, war criminals, and horrific liars.

    9-11 was an inside job! What happened to building 7?

    Depleted uranium is a weapon of mass destruction!
    • subterfuge, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10i prefer the lyric from the song "mass destruction" by faithless: "misinformation is a weapon of mass destruction"
      • bushisterrorist, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0The mainstream media is United States Government propaganda.

        The mainsteam media uses misinformation to control the public.

        Omission is the worst form of a lie.
    • knobidy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Okay, this is the sixth or seventh time I've seen you posting the same comment. I don't like Bush either, but trolling is not the way to get the word across. Grow up, and get a life.
      Welcome to the blocked list.
    • SopMan99, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2What the ***** are you talking about? How does 9-11 have anything to do with arsonists in Greece?
      • bushisterrorist, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0We don't know who set the bombs on 9-11, but we saw three controlled demolitions! We only were able to see how complicit the United States Government was.

        Perhaps Silverstein could answer who set the bombs in building 7!

        Don't forget to ask Marvin Bush who set the bombs in the other two.

        Could those fires be staged terror?

  • gojcaj, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4"Authorities believe arsonists may be responsible for some of the blazes."

    whew only some of them. thankfully not all.
  • UtopiaInTheSky, on 10/10/2007, -10/+3I hate the damn Greeks. Err, I mean the ones on college campuses. You get the idea.
    • crushfan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Oh, you're never invited to the parties, aren't you? Poor baby. But they've made the right decision, believe me.
  • filemeaway, on 10/10/2007, -11/+3I first read the title as Geek government.. odd.
  • spyd3rweb, on 10/10/2007, -1/+29Upcoming Story: War on Arson declared by Bush.
    • Puppetfunk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8And then he has us invest half our military budget in outfitting all the troops with flamethrowers so we can fight the arsons, fire with fire.
    • mike81890, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1We will burn every arsonist to the ground! Those bastards have been burning things too much! Light those Muther ***** on fire!
    • mike81890, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1ignore :(
      sorry for the double post
  • guillermox, on 10/10/2007, -11/+4If only George W. Bush had of implemented the Kyoto Treaty, none of these fires (or hurricanes, floods, drought or earthquakes) would be occurring.
    • cmpshotty, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1Hahah. Awesome post.
    • skulljar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1but then we'd be up to our necks in owls, and out of a job.
  • Puppetfunk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"Every piece of Greek parchment shall be burned. Every Greek historian and every scribe shall have their eyes put out and their tongues cut from their mouths!"
  • mikev, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I'm from Greece and I must say, we're the most careless country. The fires have been going on since June and all that is being done is constant media reporting. The actual efforts to do anything are quite pathetic. At first they were due to natural causes (quite popular here) however now 150+ fires after 9:00 means it has to be organised criminals...
    • curlymonkey9, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Greece is not a careless country, Im from Greece also and the Greeks are doing whatever they can to contain these tragic fires. I definitely would not call the country's effort pathetic. The strong winds and high temperatures are not making it any easier.
    • thatgreekguy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2It really isnt a lack of effort. If anything, its just a lack of planning. Remember back in 02 or 03 when Greece was hit with its first severe snowstorm in years? There were only like what...4 snow plows in the entire country? people had to get on their pickups and drive around throwing salt from the trailers! Its the same scenario to an extent. Im not saying greece cant control a fire, but it doesnt have the firefighting force of lets say NYC. On top of that, the sheer magnitute of the fires is incredible. And they are out of control due to the seasonal heat and windy conditions, and that half of whats burning is dried up grass and weeds from unkept farmland.
    • Christ0s, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I'm going to agree with you careless and short sighted. It will be interesting with the upcoming elections what happens the fires will be a political issue.
      • Kniggit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I've heard rumors that this was supposedly fringe elements in the political party PASOK that organized this to create a scandal to get rid of the currently ruling party. It's certainly far fetched considering that years ago it was the illegal Albanian immigrants or Turks or Greek land developers or some such blamed for doing the same thing.

        (And I don't know what to believe, though it's theoretically possible to be one of those things above.)
    • there, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Not care less.... care free.
  • Sexton65, on 10/10/2007, -7/+0They should have installed Linux.
    • Dementual, on 01/27/2008, -0/+2I don't even know how you found that funny before you posted it.
  • Skooma714, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1In before Sparta
  • fuckingusername, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1usa would help you but we spend are money to foolishly sorry
  • SopMan99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Any specific mention as to whether the fires are on the mainland or the islands?
    • curlymonkey9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the fires are on the mainland in peloponesse which is southern Greece.
    • ipodgr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The fires are all in the mainland ..
    • Dementual, on 01/27/2008, -0/+1Mainland. They've been raging through the country for months.
  • VodkaAvenger, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Nobody else is going to say it?

    Fine. *sigh*

    This is madness.
    • Puppetfunk, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2MADNESS!? THIS. IS. LOTS OF FIRE BURNING STUFF!
  • nissansupragtr, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0Greece will burn to the ground!!!

    sry, had to do it
  • Nudar, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1This is SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Jerky1312, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Someone mentioned it in a reply, but this is the act of real estate developers who need more land to develop, but can't legally due to forrestry protection laws. 20 fires don't just erupt over one night. It's unfortunate, but this is what money does to people. This is not something specific to Greece, the same thing has been occuring in Southern Turkey, in resort cities. Protected forrests are burned down and eventually real estate developers just build on those lands.
    • petsagouris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Don't compare one to another,... in Turkey (our neighbors, that haven't sent any help to now... we are watching... anyway ;) ) the land belongs to the government anyhow. You just buy the house,.. you can't even buy the land that the house is sitting on... so the legislation is much different. different stuff over there.
    • Kniggit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1These laws have existed in Greece for many years. The problem is the Greek police and government officials never enforce the laws that prevent land developers from taking advantage of land destroyed by these fires. Maybe they should wait to see who comes in to try to build on that land and arrest the whole group of bastards then.
  • 15charmaxwtf, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I wonder if the amount of stuff to burn is bigger than normal because environmentalists have been successfully at trying to ban the burning of forests.
  • xNIBx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Some fires started due to natural causes(high temperatures, low humidity, high winds) or accidents. Some fires were probably initiated due to real estate interests. But there are many fires which took place in areas with little real estate value and which started close to each other and during the night. This gives the illusion that they were planned by someone.

    So who started those fires? Some say "extremists" started the fires but what "extremists"? Greek anarchists/leftists? Most leftists/anarchists are environmental "friendly" :P, not to mention that if you want to make an anti-government statement, you wouldn't burn a damn forest in the middle of nowhere.

    Maybe it was some Turkish, Albanian, Jewish, Martian, Inner Earth saboteurs? Yeah, whatever. I am sure they tried to start fires all over Greece in the past, but the Epsilon team stopped them by using advanced subatomic technology from Andromeda. So it cant be foreign saboteurs.

    It doesn't make any sense. But it isn't that important IMO. What is really sad is how our political parties are trying to take advantage of this situation. The government wants to convince us that this is "an attack against Greece", a bit like 9/11 so that people will gather around and support the government while the opposing parties try to point out how useless the current government is(but somehow forget that when they were in government, they were equally useless).

    The truth is that our current government is indeed useless.That combined with "ideal" weather conditions(temperature/humidity/winds) that favored fire spreading, brought us to where we are right now.

    And no, these fires ha vent been raging at the damn countryside for months. Yes, we do have fires in the summer but all fires are extinguished within hours or couple days(and current fires are no different). But this time we had more than the usual amount of fires combined with adverse weather and useless government which lead to loss of lives.

    I find it unacceptable that people lost their lives because of fires. Send the ***** helicopters and evacuate everything(forcefully if you have you). If civilian rescue helicopters aren't enough, use military ones. Why did it take them for so long to evacuate the villages? Why are they still completely uncoordinated? Why didn't they use the damn army to open fireproof zones in order to prevent the fire from further spreading? Why didn't they ***** nuke the damn fire and show it who is the boss?

    Btw, a Greek tv station(think of it as the equivalent of "Fox Network" in Greece) offered a 1.000.000euros(that's around 1.350.000 US dollars) to anyone who gives information which leads to the arrest and conviction of arsonists. Rofl, whatever.
    • mikev, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You obviously don't know Greece. The anarchists here burn things down, bomb restaurants and political buildings, etc. The country is more corrupt than people think. Fires are a serious thing because the windy nights and the very dry climate.


      • xNIBx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1[quote]You obviously don't know Greece. The anarchists here burn things down, bomb restaurants and political buildings, etc. The country is more corrupt than people think. Fires are a serious thing because the windy nights and the very dry climate.[/quote]

        I am greek and i live in Greece, how can i not know about Greece? Yes, we had leftists bomb places(not for blindly killing people, but just for destroying the building or killing a specific person) and assassinate specific people. But that has nothing to do with burning forests. Even if they wanted to burn a forest in order to pass an "antigovernment" message, they would/should have burnt some forest near a city.
  • nzanjani, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0< sarcasm> DAMN TURKS!!1111!!1!ONE! < /sarcasm>
  • proithero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Ella vre Malaka!!!....Who left the souvlaki stand unattended?
    • mikev, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Pour some frappĂ© on it!
      • proithero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0 this fire is not even contained yet...I hope they can get it under control.
  • xNIBx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The greek government offers 100.000 up to 1.000.000 euros as a reward to anyone who offers information which leads to the arrest of the arsonists.
  • Fluffiness, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Did anyone else tear up a bit about the dead couple found embracing each other? That's really sad because it's so easy to picture their last moments together, instead of just reading "a person died."
  •  

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