Mr Poul Thomsen is the IMF prong of the three pronged harpoon sticking it into Greece aka the Troika. This gentleman has come in for a lot of bad press here in Greece. Primarily for the recession inducing policies he has been instrumental in imposing but also for his reported brusque and rude manner. He has the image of behaving like a colonial governor at best, a German gauleiter at worse.
However, for all his overbearing manner (and rather inept way of doing his job perhaps) the man has an assignment. This is to implement the provisions of the so called memorandum or contract obligations for the loan granted Greece. So when, for instance, he is told either that one measure he demands will only deepen the recession, or another is constitutionally impossible and he answers ‘I don’t give a damn about that’ (or words to this effect), he is not being abrasive. He is merely trying to do his job.
He is following orders. He may be assisting in the total destruction of a country’s economy, but he didn’t design this. He is only following the orders he has been given. Can’t he understand that the recession he has already achieved, i.e. the free fall the Greek economy is in which looks set to worsen if all he demands is implemented, only ensures that the dreaded default will happen?
It’s not his job to think about things like that. His job is to enforce the terms of the contract. He is only following orders.
Sort of a bit like the Nuremburg plea. Why did you send all these people to the gas chambers? I was only following orders. Couldn’t you see that this was a crime against humanity? I had to carry out my assignment. And stuff like that.
What comes to mind in the way Mr Poul Thomsen is carrying out his duties is that excellent film The Reader. In her defence when the heroine is asked why she sent all these women to the gas chambers, she answers that they kept sending her more and more prisoners and she had to make room for them. How else could she do it? In fact she even turns to the judge in despair and asks, “What would you have done?”
She had an assignment. She carried it out. It was not her concern what happened to these women she packed off to the gas chambers. Her concern was to make room for the new prisoners coming in. That was her assignment.
Now why have I remembered The Reader and the Nuremburg plea of ‘I was just following orders’ in connection with Poul Thomsen of the IMF? Well, he’s just doing his job as best he can like the heroine of The Reader regardless of the consequences.
However, if I am not wrong, the ‘I was just following orders’ is no longer valid where crimes against humanity are concerned. But of course the Nuremburg trials were a long time ago. In another world, in another era. Who gives a damn about human rights any more? Certainly not Poul Thomsen. It isn’t his job to do so and he tells us that to our face.