Commentary
If there were not a real war going on, then we should have been terrorized by the results of another, apparently milder war, a war we declared a long time ago, and almost unanimously, against the world around us. Nature all about us is changed and contrary to the normal. An annoyingly clear example of this is the fact that the first rains now come in November instead of September. The long dry spell, which can only be considered manmade and not a mere whim of nature, broke cataclysmically over us, giving us the lazy and unethical right to claim once again that this was an act of God and that there was nothing we could do about it. And so the Athens of the great projects became a lagoon; avenues envied the glory of the buried Ilissos River and became navigable, thanks to the contribution of blocked drains; rubble-filled streams went wild; and the highways to which half the EU funds have been sacrificed simply closed up for hours on end, as if they were pathways winding among the crags of Parnassos. And why did this happen? Because we have accepted this unnatural and now expected expression of nature, armed with our own absolute normality. It is normal, supremely normal, for the state mechanism to trust to the solar god of Greece, and not to take timely measures; to say Never mind, there’s always tomorrow. It is absolutely normal for the numberless individuals who are responsible for dealing with problems when they have already arisen to employ the nostrum that the only culprit is a government in power 12 years ago (as if there has been no government since). And it is normal, completely normal for the water utility EYDAP to warn municipalities, for municipalities to warn EYDAP, for EYDAP and the municipalities to warn the ministries, and for all of them together unjustly to enjoy the sleep of the just. Besides, what is Greece famous for? A dozen such normalities. During the ensuing fight, Osmani stabbed Rolas in the thigh with a knife, severing the aortal artery and causing his death from loss of blood.
