Headless ministry

Actress-turned-politician Lydia Koniordou was impressively quick in adapting to her role as culture minister - at least as far as she's concerned, because she doesn't seem to have learned much about the actual job itself. There is obviously a certain degree of histrionics involved in politics but when the drama is allowed to take over, then politics is reduced to little more than a caricature in an outdated and tired play.

The culture minister has been very active outside her home base in Athens - the real decision-making center - over the past eight months, touring the country for this and that, yet seems remarkably stagnant nonetheless. For example, one of the most pressing issues she ought to be dealing with is finally getting electronic tickets into Greece's museums and archaeological sites to stem the outflow of millions of euros in lost revenues. From the start of her...