The Men Who Lead Stravaraland
However sad we, and the rest of Stravaraland, might be with the loss of Pefkios, we need to take stock and examine the capacity of the men in power to lead the land.
I realize Aristotle defined the qualities of a good statesman to be (roughly) virtue, cleverness, courage and experience but the way "experience" has been interpreted in Stravaraland defies belief.
Let me give you a few concrete examples. Pefkios must have had a problem with his heart, therefore his death must have not come as the surprise it has been made it out to be. At 72, very overweight, with a previous open heart surgery, a tough schedule is probably not something he could handle. Dying on the job does not make one capable, instead it makes the rest of us wonder whether he could actually perform well on the job before hand.
This example is not the only one. The current minister of defence (the successor of Kokkalis if you want to know) has been in the hospital for the last month. The minister of social security has also been away from his duties for the last month because of health problems. These ones are the ones that receive media attention, I am sure there are a lot more about lots o men in power in Stravaraland that are conveniently hidden from wider public attention.
Now I do not consider age to be a disadvantage by itself, but when age (through health problems) interferes with the day to day job, I think it does become a disadvantage.
How many democratic countries have so many old (and in poor health) men running them? How many more men must die on the job before they realize it is best for everyone if they remained at home attending their grandchildren? How many days off do they take for health reasons every year and how do their health problems interfere with their jobs? Is this really the governance that the citizens of Stravaraland aspire to?
originally posted by Apodimos Kypreos
I realize Aristotle defined the qualities of a good statesman to be (roughly) virtue, cleverness, courage and experience but the way "experience" has been interpreted in Stravaraland defies belief.
Let me give you a few concrete examples. Pefkios must have had a problem with his heart, therefore his death must have not come as the surprise it has been made it out to be. At 72, very overweight, with a previous open heart surgery, a tough schedule is probably not something he could handle. Dying on the job does not make one capable, instead it makes the rest of us wonder whether he could actually perform well on the job before hand.
This example is not the only one. The current minister of defence (the successor of Kokkalis if you want to know) has been in the hospital for the last month. The minister of social security has also been away from his duties for the last month because of health problems. These ones are the ones that receive media attention, I am sure there are a lot more about lots o men in power in Stravaraland that are conveniently hidden from wider public attention.
Now I do not consider age to be a disadvantage by itself, but when age (through health problems) interferes with the day to day job, I think it does become a disadvantage.
How many democratic countries have so many old (and in poor health) men running them? How many more men must die on the job before they realize it is best for everyone if they remained at home attending their grandchildren? How many days off do they take for health reasons every year and how do their health problems interfere with their jobs? Is this really the governance that the citizens of Stravaraland aspire to?
originally posted by Apodimos Kypreos
posted by Noullis at 16:02
6 Comments:
Yet, living in the shadow of the ethnarch's death and within the echo of the act of constantly living with the threat of dying while in office, serving the topos, enabled by the post-EOKA mentality as well as by the local adaptation of the Mediterrenean diet, isn't the death of Pefkios the exemplary death of any official (governmental or not) of this land?
And thus isn't the answer to your last question a loud 'YES' taking into consoderation the love affair of the citizens of Stravaraland with the Service?
I thought you knew better not to use rationality in discussing Stravaraland.
Actually, I do not really think rationality is the problem in the land...
You can call it immaturity, you can call it closed-shop politics, you can call it the inability to deal with pain of a massive loss, but I do not think it is irrationality...
When you have an old president, he will appoint to key offices his old friends. Who occassionally die.
Simple maths.
Wisdom does not necessarily come with age.
I do not disagree...
But wisdom is more likely to come with age...
Imagining the opposite, a backlash against gerontocracy, and Nikolas of Tassos coming to power instead, with all HIS friends, I would rather take the current situation....
Funny thing, though,how everyone in this land loves th deceased politicians........creating the icon of a beloved man for the goofy of stravaraland politics
It actually happens in most countries, what you describe. They dont have to be deceased, as long as they lose the elections... As long as they are not political opponents, you might as well glorify them... Witness Spyros, Ford, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Thatcher, Papandreou, Karamanlis, Mitterand and very soon Blair... Even their harshest critics elevate them once they are gone from this world or from politics...
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