All at sea
It would appear that according to the latest scientific studies, Greece is not a Mediterranean country but a landlocked one nowhere near the sea and therefore need not worry about reefs and shallows as it would if it were washed by the Aegean, the Ionian and other seas whose praises have been sung by poets who obviously knew nothing about geography. We might still believe that our national hero is Odysseus, whom we apparently chose not for his nautical skills but his cunning. How else can one possibly explain the statements by Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis after the Theophilos passenger ferry hit a reef, other than that Greece has no reason to worry about the safety of its shipping. Do we have so few islands, so few ports, that the dangers are equally few and therefore we need only take the most basic precautions? After the third serious accident (off Paros, Santorini and now Oinousses), Voulgarakis, true to his ministry’s commitments to shipowners, declared in PASOK-speak that «from now on penalties will be stiffer» for ship’s captains who violate the international code on the prevention of maritime accidents, either out of arrogance or in order to save fuel. «From now on» officers on bridge duty will be evaluated annually. «From now on,» because Greece has only just become a maritime country. Our leaders have just discovered that there are sea captains responsible for hundreds of lives, who run their ships as if they were driving their cars at top speed on the country’s highways. Let’s not delude ourselves. These are «stiffer» statements, not «stiffer» penalties. The state has not yet discovered that ships are states within a state, where the price of fares and goods sold on board are set at will, and where there is no accountability even with regard to the safety of those on board. Even if the state has now discovered this, it doesn’t seem to care.
