Many Greeks were outraged by an interview with Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, published recently by The Guardian, in which she said that she thinks more about poor Africans than struggling Greeks, who are the recipients of one of the IMF’s largest-ever rescue loans.

“I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens,” she is reported to have said.

The logic seems, and probably is, impeccable. Yet, the Greeks took serious offence. That is understandable but it does not in any way diminish the validity of Ms Lagarde’s line of reasoning.

The fly – or, perhaps, dinosaur – in the ointment lies in the other point she made, as reported by The Guardian, namely, that Greeks must “help themselves collectively” by all paying taxes.

Once again, the logic is impeccable except that it soon emerged that Ms Lagarde pays no income tax at all. In fact, Greek criticism intensified when it emerged that her own salary of about €370,000 a year is tax free, on account of the IMF’s status as an international organisation. All of which tends to shed a peculiar light on Ms Lagarde’s otherwise sound advice.

Perhaps what the economic crisis needs at this moment in time are leaders who lead by example, who have a vocation to serve, motivate and facilitate by their deeds, as opposed to leaders who go on and on about what others should be doing while they do their own thing oblivious of the hardships around them.