Slipping standards

An image can often help you realize a lot of things all at once. Having stopped recently at a traffic light, I noticed the bus beside me, where the driver was smoking a cigarette, tapping the ash every couple of drags onto the street from a small open window. It shouldn't have surprised me because I've often seen bus drivers smoking or talking on cell phones. But the fact that we tolerate it - and even more so are no longer shocked - shows that we are sliding back again.

Such signs of unprofessional behavior have become a daily occurrence in the broader public sector. Since its birth as a modern state, Greece has always had one foot in the West and the other in the East, with the image of the smoking bus driver obviously being more suitable to the latter. Right now, the country is leaning further in that direction, and the reason is that when Greeks start to "relax" or get...