Letter from Strasbourg
There have been a number of fires in the area. Herr Gottlieb Biedermann (the name is satirical, Biedermann in German means a proper, normal, middle-class person) is reading an article about fires in his newspaper. According to the article, the fires always start in the same way: a peddler comes to the door, offers some goods and then begs to stay in the house for a few days. Within a short time, the house is burned to the ground. After Herr Gottlieb (which in German means ‘God-loving’) has finished reading the article, his maid comes into the room to tell him that there is a peddler outside. His name is Schmitz. He comes into the room and speaks in such a clever way, intimidating Gottlieb and manipulating his emotions, so the latter lets him stay in his attic. The next day, Biedermann discovers that another peddler has moved into the attic. Schmitz’s friend is called Eisenring who has brought with him some barrels with gasoline and sawdust. That same evening Biedermann invites his guests for dinner. Schmitz and Eisenring start teasing their host about burning his house down, which Biedermann decides to take as a harmless joke. During the meal fire sirens are heard and both Biedermann and his wife jump up to the window to look. The pair vehemently refuse to accept that their guests are arsonists. Yet, in the end, they burn his house down. Epilogue: Biedermannn and his wife, Babette, roast in hell. The firebugs turn out to be Satan and Beelzebub. Written by Swiss Author Max Frisch around 1958, the play «Biedermannn and the Arsonists» (or «The Firebugs») was one of the stage successes of the 1960s. Renowned theater personality Karolos Koun directed it in his famed Art (or Technis) Theater in Athens. Some months ago I saw a remarkable production of the play in Strasbourg, directed by Francois Rancillac. Yet it is not only in Max Frisch’s play that fires were, essentially, a disaster waiting to happen. Due to a combination of hazardously dried-out forests and poorly equipped firemen, Greece recently experienced the lethal spread of fires with some 65 victims. One Greek prosecutor has ordered an investigation into whether arson attacks, which have been blamed for some of the worst forest fires in decades, could be considered terrorist acts. «The government is playing the role of victim, speaking of conspiracies to cover up its own responsibility for the breakdown of the state,» said opposition leader George Papandreou. «Greeks do not feel safe.» How, not why As in Frisch’s play, thoughts in this country have turned to how the blazes had been able to lay waste to such huge areas of the country. But unlike the play, there are no doubts that there is «a lack of fire prevention, lack of training for firefighters, a terrible lack of coordination and a shortage of funding and equipment,» as Nikos Georgiadis, a forestry specialist at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), told AFP. Others – particularly politicians from the governing party such as Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis – suggested quite astonishingly that Greece is facing an «asymmetrical threat.» Indeed. Although the rumor of arsonists is generally greeted with skeptical mirth, some politicians have insisted on spreading unfounded gossip. It is like the madness of those citizens of Cavafy’s Hellenic city who lived in terror of the Barbarians whose coming would destroy the country. But the Barbarians never came. Possibly because the citizens themselves were the Barbarians and, as the former waited, they destroyed themselves within their own high walls. Even the prime minister himself, Costas Karamanlis (who appears to be closely adhering to the first law of politics: when in doubt, do absolutely nothing) insists: «So many fires at the same time in so many parts of the country, this cannot be a coincidence.» Well, as he is destined to govern a country where ambiguity and corruption have been more the rule than the exception in our political life, he should know better. In any case, invoking arsonists, our «criminal society,» the system in general or whomever and whatever else, is a great way to shirk one’s responsibilities. Max Frish created a metaphor with a protagonist who also shirks his responsibilities. Yet in different ways. Sure enough, in Biedermann’s case there couldn’t be more evidence of what is about to happen, with an attic full of petrol, and fuses. However Biedermannn chooses not to see. Ultimately it is Biedermannn who hands over the matches that the arsonists use to raze his home to the ground. Nonetheless, in our case there still isn’t the slightest evidence of any arsonists or terrorists. Unsurprisingly, with a general election fast approaching on September 16, the allegory of the ostrich mentality that denies the obvious, represents all those who look away. As things now stand, there are many Gottlieb Biedermanns in Greece. People who refuse to open their eyes and ears and then blame their own mistakes – or wildfires – on fate.
