A crime against our common future

Agencies reported that experts said half of the forest fires were the work of arsonists, who are seldom caught because their crime is so easy to commit and comes without an obvious motive to help police in their detective work. The rest of the fires are caused by carelessly discarded cigarette butts, lightning strikes and accidental ignitions from vehicles and electrical equipment.

Arsonists putting up forests on fire is not of course a problem peculiar to Australia. Turkey is losing some of its precious forests every year to such heinous acts. The lungs of Turkey are burning out little by little every summer. Sometimes the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party terrorist gang, sometimes some other urban terrorist gangs are blamed for the forest fires but it is almost certain that most Turkish fires are products of neglect, ignorance and selfish behavioral patterns of our picnickers. Naturally, carelessly discarding cigarette butts in a forest or leaving a forest area without extinguishing the picnic fire (though picnicking in forests is prohibited) are acts no less deplorable than terrorist acts. Terrorists are aiming innocent people to attain whatever their political aim is. People with sick minds, or some careless people throwing cigarette butts in a forested area or abandoning a picnic fire in a forest are indeed committing even a more serious crime that terrorists because they aim not only innocent civilians but also the global common natural treasure.

The immense disaster Australia suffered cannot be better explained than what Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who described the work of arsonists as "unspeakable murder on a mass scale." Over 100 detectives were reportedly deployed to catch the arsonists. Will this hunt for the arsonists succeed in grabbing at least some of these mass murderers and bringing them in front of justice? If captured, unfortunately a very low probability, they naturally deserve no mercy. They have committed a crime against humanity as well as a crime against the common global future. Their capture will not heal the wounds and will not bring back those lost loved ones, but their capture may at least offer some consolation to the grieving families and the enraged environmentalists.

Thanks David Tree
Australia’s forest fires were of course an immense trauma. The claim that most of the fires were products of some arsonists was shocking. How could man develop such a sick mind? But, there were as well some bright movements during the firefighting. One of such moments is now making headlines all around the world and people are sending each other that video clipping. The video shows firefighter David Tree and his crew. They were patrolling land already burnt out by Australia’s devastating wildfires looking for flare-ups when he spotted a koala moving gingerly across the blackened landscape. The koala, clearly in pain from scorched paws, stopped when it saw Tree following behind. "It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery," Tree said. "I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally. He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby."

The photograph of the koala (apparently a she) reaching for the bottle of water offered by Tree has not only become the symbol of Australia’s fire but also a striking reminder of the need to maintain humane behavior even under such terrible conditions of fighting a forest fire.

Thank you Tree of reminding us humanely values at a time when men is at men’s throat in this worldÉ