The sun falls to earth
Every tragedy has an image with which we associate it. The crash of a Cypriot passenger aircraft in the mountains above Grammatiko last Sunday immediately acquired such an image – the golden likeness of a surprised and melancholic sun, on the back tail of the destroyed aircraft… And so it was that the sun – symbol of divine pride and supremacy – fell to earth, like another Icarus, and its 121 passengers and crew were all dead. Before it was clear what was going on, we were subjected to the nonsense which generally follows such tragedies, at the initiative of certain television channels. First of all, we were told that the aircraft had been shot down. Then someone opined that the plane could have been carrying dangerous cargo that may have provoked the tragedy. We were then told that some passengers had survived the crash but had then been left to die, either due to negligence or due to some inexplicable plot. We always have to blame someone. How could we have known that the insights we would subsequently acquire would make things far more complex than predictable conspiracy theories? Apart from the pain provoked by the tragedy, there is also fear – fear that so many people can die so suddenly at once…
