Sine cura
Demades, an Athenian orator who took the side of Philip of Macedon (although he was later put to death for treason by Cassander), was a bitter enemy of Demosthenes. When Demosthenes, who was accused of accepting a bribe by Harpalus, a boyhood friend of Alexander the Great, remained silent over the charges, Demades went on to accuse him of feeling bribery-induced guilt. Bribery-induced guilt often keeps lips sealed. People who are guilty of accepting bribes or of squandering public wealth keep mum for days, invoking poor excuses to justify their silence. It’s the same old tactic of «let them talk themselves out.» And as a result, we hear vague answers to very specific questions posed by organizations, parties and the media: questions about how the managers of 24 social security funds could possibly coordinate (particularly in a country like this, where coordination is so scarce), about how they indulged in such wild gambling, about who pocketed the commissions and over the size of the kickbacks in each case. The cliched pre-election rhetoric will simply not do here. When 73 percent of voters, according to a VPRC opinion poll that was aired on Skai Radio on Sunday, believe that some people (working for the conservative government, the pension funds or the stock market firms) made money from the pension funds scandal, then the situation calls for something more than a rehash of the zero-tolerance sound bite. The Romans used the expression «sine cura» to refer to people who are excessively carefree, those who hold administrative offices without feeling any responsibility or pressure.
