Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Greece's Bloated Cultural Bureaucracy

The New York Times has a good story about Greece's bloated bureaucracy which has defied efforts to cut it. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/world/europe/greeces-bloated-bureaucracy-defies-efforts-to-cut-it.html?_r=2&ref=global-home

Of course, the recently announced Greek MOU is a boon to the Greek cultural bureaucracy, which will no doubt cite it as a reason not to reform it.

Yet, unless you are a State Department bureaucrat or an archaeologist, one should find it hard to escape the fact that while an oversized Greek cultural delegation was making the rounds in Washington to lobby for the MOU, rank and file museum guards were rioting on the Acropolis after not being paid. See
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/10/oversized-greek-cultural-delegation.html

Is the main purpose of MOU's to protect cultural sites or is their primary purpose protect the jobs of cultural bureaucrats abroad and thereby support the bankrupt status quo?

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