Egypt still on the red list

[crewmeal]

Numbers or not I'm really surprised that India has been taken off the red list and added to the amber one. My collegue in Delhi says the covid numbers are still the same as they were when they were first put on the red list. What is the reason behind this decision?

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/c ... 2021-08-05

Why has the cost of being holed up in one of HM Heathrow prisons risen by £500. I cannot fathom out any of this. Would someone please explain, I'm totally dumbfounded.

[Yildez]

Turkey is still on the red list too

[Dusak]

Turkey is still on the red list too

That's only cos it's on fire.

[Yildez]

Turkey is still on the red list too

That's only cos it's on fire.

Not having a go Dusak, but it’s actually not funny. The loss of life - 8 people dead - the devastation of farm land, animals, areas of outstanding natural, pristine beauty reduced to ashes, is absolutely heartbreaking. We’ve only had 5 small fires near the town where I live, for which we’re extremely grateful. We’ve been collecting and delivering ice, work gloves, boots, sun cream, burn medications and water to the firefighters working in desperate conditions 30 kilometres down the round from Datca. The sky is completely overcast with smoke, and my balcony and fruit trees are covered in fine ash.

This is not something to joke about.

[HEPZIBAH]

Yildez, it must be a very scary and distressing situation for you and your neighbours. I hope and pray that the fires are quickly brought under control, and extinguished completely.

I know that forest fires in Turkey, and indeed many other parts if the world, are nothing new, but they do seem to be happening more frequently, and with more devestation.
I'm sure many must be lit, if not by arsonist, by the ignorant and careless, but I am wondering where the Turks lay the blame. With all the global warming issues, do they lay much blame on that?

[Yildez]

As is usual in Turkey, conspiracy stories abound!! The top two: 1,the terrorism organisation PKK set them, as they’ve done before; 2, all the areas affected vote against the government and elect opposition MPs, so government agents set the fires in order to discredit local municipalities, and to encourage voters to change their votes in the next elections.

Unfortunately litter, especially broken glass and cigarette ends, is a problem here, although not as bad as in Egypt. In Datca, and elsewhere, teams of local people have been collecting litter from the forested areas in order to minimise the danger - the amount collected is truly horrific - and in one of this mornings newspapers I saw a report that 4 people had been arrested for starting a fire by throwing lighted cigarette butts out of a car.

I’d be inclined to think that it was the high heat/broken glass at fault, BUT the majority of fires across a very, very large geographical area all started at the same time, which seems too much of a coincidence This of course exacerbated the problem as the local fire teams found it difficult to cope. Azerbaijan sent soldiers to help them, but our own government did not mobilise troops to aid the firefighters, which seems very strange given the severity of the situation. There’s still been no direct help from government to the affected areas.

Government funds to fire and forestry departments have been drastically reduced for quite a few years, and the president has already started to lay the blame on the municipality’s mayors, who of course are from the opposition party. Quite how they were supposed to provide fire-fighting planes etc without sufficient funding remains unanswered. The government has not shown itself in a good light at all over the last 10 days.

Will we ever know for sure? My guess is not. But there’s a huge amount of anger here at the failure of government to handle the disaster - and it is a disaster, believe me! I feel enormously sad for all those people affected, and very, very grateful that Datca escaped so lightly.

[HEPZIBAH]

Yildez, thank you for your response.

I had imagined, when I said 'the ignorant and careless', that many of the fires would have been started by discarded bottles, ciggarettes, even badly managed bbq's. That local and national politics could be a reason never entered my head. I find the latter possible reason, with potential 'professional' arsonists more scary than any other explanation, even though the outcome to land, property, and life is the same.

[Yildez]

Yep,you and me - and millions of Turks - both Hepzibah

[John Landon]

In the forests around Hisaronu, whenever you came to a bend in the narrow road with a passing place, there was always rubbish below it. Though not immediately visible if you didn't look.
Such a shame, as those mountains are beautiful,. Infact a town near to where we stay had its forests in fire at the same time as by Yildez.

But then it's the same in Greece as well out of the town of Athens.

I'm sure many of you will have realised by now that things are never going to return to what people class as normal post covid.

The environment is next on the agenda, and quite frankly I agree about the pollution we are causing and it must be addressed very quickly. I however do not think that the problems this earth is facing is all human caused, but the good news is that at least we can hopefully address what needs to be done very quickly.
This of course means putting down our guns and working together...
If we manage this situation well, we will have at least achieved something previous great civilisations did not.

Interesting times ahead, as I have said before.

[carrie]

As you know Yildez my thoughts are with you at this terrible time.
I hope you all continue to stay safe in Datca give my love to all.
Just thinking of our drives over the mountains to Knidos etc all the lovely little villages we passed through, the views over the forests that might well have been destroyed together with the loss of life and property. Heartbreaking.