Google made another -unbelievable but totally true- cartographic mistake as they renamed Samos island to Macgyver! Since yesterday, anybody who uses the Google maps service in search of Samos island, will not find it. Despite the fact that many users have saint e-mails of complaint, the Google Company did not inform anyone of them that they are trying to fix this mistake. On the contrary, the Greek island remains enlisted as Macgyver!
However, this is not the first time that Google makes a mistake like that. A few months ago the city of Xanthi, in Thrace appeared in the map with the turkish name Eskige, and it took them many days to fix it. Furthermore, a few days ago the Skopje flag appeared in a Google map next to the White Tower of Thessaloniki! The Greek google partners are aware of the problem, but they are unable to do anything as only the central office in the USA can change an enlistment.

Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2010/08/09/google-renamed-samos-island-to-macgyver/

It is hard to explain the devastation and mess a forest fire leaves behind in a place where everyone is so used to having rain in the summer and seeing green everywhere…We take it for granted…

Samos is one of the most beautiful islands but years of summer wild fires have turned beautiful mountains of pine forests, and olive trees into ashes…

It has been ten years since a fire burned out of control for 7+ days on my home island burning land that I grew up on… I was here knowing the fire was burning our land and threatening our home…There was nothing I could do other than pray for the safety of my family. After that everything had changed. My childhood memories of green were now just memories. The once green mountains where now black and gray waiting for the winter rain to wash everything to the sea leaving nothing.

The once untouchable and fire-free part of the island…the heart of the island was gone. One-hundred-year-old olive trees, thirty foot pine trees all gone not to be seen again in our lifetime.

Every year… the same thing… Why? I ask myself again and again… Why?

Since 2000 the island had not made many headline and that was a good thing considering nearly ¾ of the island was burned so what was left to burn?

Ten years later Samos has made the headlines again..

“Large fire rages on Samos island”

“State of Emergency Declared for Fire-struck Samos Island”

“3 Arrests Concerning Samos Fires”

Arsonists? Arrogant careless people? Why?

Why destroy what is left of this beautiful place? I ask my self again…Why?

In a span of 10 days arsonists have managed to burn sections of the island that had not been burned before… sections that had survived all the other great fires.

And then with the help of high winds the fire moved and managed to burn areas that were still recovering from the previous destruction…Small trees just now popping up after ten years gone…Not a chance…

And now what is next? Who takes advantage of buying the now cheap land and get away with it? The same story over and over again…