OPINION

An entirely misbegotten plan

…It is excusable if Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou and her team were a bit excessive in the statements they made following their victory. A young woman is justified in embellishing her success with a bit of grandiloquence… But this is as far as it should go. And the congratulations have been earned by the performers, not by our politicians, who have been promoting the Kiev victory as evidence that «Greece can excel on every level.» In contrast to the sober observation by renowned singer Maria Fantouri about the Eurovision song contest being «not art or culture… but a commercial product,» government officials described the victory as the exportation of Greek culture and tourism. Unfortunately – and this is the worst thing – they seem to really mean it. If this is the case, and the government is confusing commercial music with Greek culture and with Greece as a tourist destination, it is counting on an entirely misbegotten plan. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that our victory at Eurovision will attract more tourists to our country, already a well-known holiday destination. Moreover, if government officials regard Greece’s Eurovision victory as a cultural export, this explains why there are insufficient funds left over to restore the monuments of the Acropolis.

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