Dangerous games

By Alexis Papachelas

There are three anecdotes on my mind that illustrate in the clearest way how dangerous it is to toy with institutions in order to secure a position for yourself or a crony.

1. I once wrote a commentary protesting the fact that nothing was being done to remove illegally parked cars from a certain central Athenian thoroughfare. The next day I got a call from the then traffic police chief, who said that if my problem was that my license plates had been removed because I had parked illegally then he would be happy to return them, just as he did for other well-known individuals. Sure, he could have made things easy for me but his call showed just how neglected the city is when such a high-ranking official thinks this way.

2. Again a few years ago, I received a visit from a high-ranking employee at the Finance Ministry. He confided that he regularly received memos from the office of the minister ordering him to take a name off some list or to re-examine a case that had already been investigated. He admitted that if this practice continued, revenues would suffer, but added that he was not adverse to “tidying up” a case here or there, just not on such a scale. I tried to look into what he had told me further, but met with a wall of silence. When I eventually turned to a higher authority for some answers, he brushed it off as hyperbole and ill-meant rumors.

3. While investigating the Imia crisis in 1996, I came across a high-ranking officer who made me feel something between pity and rage for how clearly ignorant he was about the issue (don’t get me wrong, I also met a lot of excellent officers who were doing their job professionally and without thought for their own well-being). I pushed him hard and then he broke down crying...