Collateral benefits of a jailbreak
Little did the ancients know when they said «a wise man does not make the same error twice» that for some of their descendants, those who occasionally hold the reins of power, erring twice is an honor, unmatched only by doing it a third or fourth time. But, when they said you have to take the bad with the good, they certainly knew what they were talking about. So, here we are, with Vassilis Palaiocostas’s second helicopter escape from Korydallos Prison proving that there is always an upside, even if the episode has made the country a laughing stock across the globe. The first good thing was the, albeit slight, decongestion of the prison system, an aim being pursued by the Justice Ministry. The second is a string of requests from Hollywood to use the story, bringing the dreams of Dimitris Avramopoulos – who as tourism minister hoped that Greece could become a giant film set that would attract hundreds of thousands of visitors – one step closer to fruition. The third benefit deriving from the escape is that we have been granted a brief respite from all the jabbering about elections as TV stations momentarily shift their attention from the premier’s 204th call for responsibility and seriousness and the opposition leader’s assertion that he is ready to face history. We’ve also learned a few valuable lessons. First, that good behavior is rewarded, as shown by the fact that the police officer – who helped Vassilis Stefanakos (the alleged organizer of Palaiocostas’s first escape) get a fake ID card – was transferred to Korydallos, where Stefanakos is currently serving time. We also learned that the police are doing a great job, as they did everything in their power to achieve a perfect re-enactment in order to shed light on the first escape. We also learned that there is no question of political responsibility here, though this is a lesson we learned some time ago. And some poor Japanese minister may have resigned because he was caught snoozing, but how can a snoozing state resign… and from what?
