OPINION

Positive signs for a catharsis

There is a sense that a painful, yet absolutely vital, process of catharsis has been set in motion in Greece as of late, considering the revelations regarding the world of soccer, the consensus on the crucial changes in education and bank audits.

Of course this is not going to be a straight-forward matter that will not create a stir, as it is certain that we will see conflict between the cover-up rationale and that of disclosures and catharsis.

The collision is evident judging from the way politicians and other public sector officials are dealing with all that is rotten: deep-rooted corruption in Greek soccer, the situation at universities and the mismanagement of and irrational loans handed out by banks, among others.

Fans of dodgy deals and cover-ups have a well-documented and somewhat convincing point of view. They believe that Greece is a country which, give or take a few intervals, has relied heavily on doing things its own way and flouting laws for the last 150 years. They don?t actually believe that this is something that can change or that they themselves are interested in making the effort and spending the political capital to change it.

So, their take is something along the lines of ?let it go, don?t get involved? and ?isn?t everyone doing the same thing anyway?? or even, ?so what are we supposed to do now, bring down the whole system? This is no time for this.?

They are the kind of people who are asking for the Super League soccer tournament to start, for BlackRock to keep clear from the portfolios of banks and for university asylum to remain a shield for whatever offence is committed at university grounds.

Friends of this school of thought are divided into two categories: on the one hand those who are directly implicated in the various systems and subsystems of give-and-take and corruption, who do not want to see their achievements be brought to light, and, on the other, politicians, judges and public servants who were brought up in this system and are unwilling or unable to go against it.

The second school is based on the idea that the situation cannot go on any longer, that we have reached rock-bottom because we allowed these sores to fester. That we cannot move on if we don?t clear things up out now.

This ?crazy? bunch is fully aware of the fact that it is facing a mighty block of self-interest whose allies include highly competent lawyers, scared judges and civil servants, and a judicial system which, unfortunately, is unable to assist in the catharsis process.

It is interesting to observe that the latter are not led by moral codes. For them it is a practical issue, because they believe that the economy will not reboot if the credibility of ailing banks is not restored and that soccer will never improve if it carries on being held hostage to dark interests.

No one knows which school of thought will prevail in the end.

The cover-up school is terrified of ?foreign? intervention because the revelations about match-fixing in soccer came from UEFA in the first place, while the bankers are afraid of no one, except foreign auditors.

The outcome of this battle of titans carried out by politicians, judges, civil servants, sport judges and so on will be pivotal. While the former are threatening that the entire system will come crumbling down if the foundations are closely inspected, the latter respond by saying that the system is rotten anyway and should be torn down so that it can be rebuilt on a healthy foundation.

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