Greeks complain 112 emergency alert reminds them of boy who cried wolf

One of Aesop's widely known fables is about the shepherd boy who cried wolf. After repeated unwarranted warnings, when a wolf actually appears, the disillusioned villagers no longer believe his cries and the town's flock is eaten by the beast. The message of the folktale is quite clear: Repeated false alarms can make a population skeptical, leading to disbelief or inaction even when some end up actually being true.

This sentiment seems to be shared by some Greeks today, with regard to the country's emergency notification system, known as 112, which has been sending repeated alerts as Greece is battling numerous wildfires and facing unusual weather phenomena. 

"I have received countless alerts these past few weeks, some for fires happening several kilometers away and some for weather conditions that were not actually that extreme," Eleni Tsaliki, an architect based in...