Maria Spassova

It is already the third week since the Greek news entertain the people with the most intimate details of the private and professional life of the former secretary general of the ministry of culture Christos Zahopoulos. And actually no matter from which point of view we look at it, a scandal involving the power, lust, extortion, a compromising video and a famous journalist really is a bestseller. Many people not on wood and wish “Never to be in the shoes of Zahopoulos not”. Who would want to be in the shoes of a man who jumped from the fourth floor and is currently in his death bed in an elite Athens hospital!

I however do not want to be in the shoes of Mrs. Zahopoulos who as it turned out, was the last to hear about the dirty little secret which was so critically binding her husband to a much younger assistant of his. While the woman was waiting for her husband in the car he jumped from the fourth floor. It is completely different matter that being unfaithful to his wife is not worth it jumping from so high. Usually men put ashes on their heads, they put their tail between their legs and wait for the storm to pass. They say its not so bad after all. If you don’t believe ask Bill Clinton.

I don’t know if you remember about a year ago when Greece was interested in another bloody love scandal. The director at that time of the Greek National Insurance Institute Yannis Vartolomeos found his death after an intimate date with a 47 years old employee. Exiting her apartment her husband was waiting for him, they exchanged some not so nice words between each other, the jealous man pushed Vartolomeos on the stairs and… he passed away on his way to the hospital. His wife also was the last one to hear the news – when she had to urgently return from a scientific conference in Frankfurt for the funeral of her husband.

A recent cross section scientific research shows that in the seventh year of the married life 65 percent of the Greek men and 64,5 percent of the Greek women cheat on their partners. Can you imagine what happens on the seventeenth or the twenty seventh year? Especially if the husband or the wife are climbing up the ladder of the power or the money and they are circled by beautiful people for all tastes?

You have to be careful with the lust and this is the simple moral of the two cases of Zahopoulos and Vartolomeos. Actually about the risks of voluptuousness talks in details Ang Lee in his last movie. I just have nothing to add.