Out-of-touch politicians
The public frustration caused by repeated power cuts as the country sweltered under a heat wave once again underscored the failure of politicians to deal with day-to-day problems because of petty politicking. «But what could politicians have done about the heat wave?» one might ask. «Could they have kept it outside Greece?» Of course not. But a political leader’s sensitivity is judged by his actions in extreme conditions: when floods destroy harvests, when bad weather destroys properties or results in deaths. This time, power cuts lasted up to 23 hours. Run-down areas were the ones that suffered most, as Public Power Corporation officials did just what the state always does, namely shift the blame on to the shoulders of the weakest. So what should our politicians do? Back in 2002, Gerhard Schroeder came from behind to win the German elections by visiting the flood-ravaged villages and townships. Our politicians were nowhere to be seen. When Costas Karamanlis does show up in public, it’s to rehash tired cliches about reforms that never come, while PASOK leader George Papandreou offers little but populism and scandalmongering. One official who did make an appearance was Development Ministry general secretary Nikos Stefanou. I saw him on a NET television talk show on Thursday bragging about the handling of the heat wave. When Maria Damanaki politely countered that there had been no blackout simply because thousands of people suffered lengthy power cuts, he rebuffed the criticism by saying that the PASOK deputy was clueless on energy issues. «I graduated from the Polytechnic after submitting a dissertation on energy issues while, as I read recently, you are an accountant,» Damanaki retorted. When governments leave burning issues in the hands of unqualified officials, ordinary people have every reason to feel abandoned.
