THE RESTORATION of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel are not directed against Cyprus and do not affect relations between Cyprus and Israel, government spokesman Marios Pelekanos told our own Tass news agency on Thursday.
It was admittedly a bad week for news with everyone in the business scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something interesting to report. Even the stating of the bleeding obvious and presenting it as news was acceptable, as was commenting on it by our establishment.
To reassure all those who feared this development would affect our ties with Israel, Pelekanos insisted our relations with Tel Aviv would be unaffected. He said: “These, after all, were the very clear assurances we received from the Israeli side, at the highest level, in the framework of full transparency and the close ties we have.”
Relations between countries were not a zero-sum game, said the spokesman of the bleeding obvious, feeling duty-bound to carry on his reassurance gig. “Our bilateral cooperation with Israel is of a strategic character and is based on International Law, honesty and mutual respect.”
But there is no love. Could a relationship survive on honesty and mutual respect, when there is no love? We await Pelekanos’ response.
PREZ NIK will return from the presidential holiday residence in Troodos this week but not before chairing the council of ministers meeting there that will make a decision on the resignation of the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) chairman Thomas Antoniou, regarding conflict of interest.
Antoniou was involved in conflict of interest because his physiotherapist wife was offering services to Gesy. Odysseas, who decided to investigate, decreed there was conflict. Antoniou had threatened to resign from the board if the head of the medical association Dr Petros Agathangelou, seen as the Gesy anti-Christ, took his seat on the HIO board.
Now, rather than resigning over the conflict of interest, he has done what officials, who do not really want to step down, always do. He has placed his resignation at the disposal of the Prez in the hope the Prez will not accept it.
My guess is he will not, because the HIO/Gesy big-wigs have become untouchable, a big power that even the politicians are afraid of. Antoniou and the rest of the board, together with the Gesy executives, pose as public benefactors (using the taxpayer’s money) and have made people feel indebted to them for the free healthcare they are administering.
THE QUESTION is whether Antoniou was aware of the conflict of interest and tried to hide it? In the official records of the Cyprus Physiotherapists Registration Council his wife is listed as ‘Niki Stavrou Antoniou’. In the official list of Gesy Service Providers, the ‘Antoniou’ has disappeared and she is listed as just ‘Niki Stavrou’.
This does not mean the couple tried to hide the conflict of interest. It may have been that Mrs Stavrou decided, for feminist or other reasons, she did not want to use her hubby’s surname.
This would be the exact opposite of what the wife of Diko presidential candidate Nikos Christoulides had done.
Until a few months ago, she went by the name Philippa Karsera, but as soon as her other half announced his candidacy she became Philippa Karsera-Christodoulidou, presumably so as not to alienate conservative, traditionalist, churchgoing voters who do not approve of a married woman using her maiden name.
Karsera-Christodoulidou needs to keep the religious fanatics, unleashed by the Bishop of Limassol Athanasios to campaign for her Nikos, assured that they are doing this for one of their own.
MOANING about the high electricity prices and demands for state help were bound to be stepped up. This week, Tass reported “a cry of anguish from the shopkeepers of Paralimni to the authorities for support.”
They were “on life-support” and needed help “before it is too late.” Rents and electricity bills were “unbearable,” said head of the Paralimni shopkeepers Koula Goumenou, explaining that tourists to the area were very few and consumers “were careful about what they bought.”
The problem was that the “quality tourism of the past” had not shown up this year to the quality resort of Paralimni. “In previous years, said Goumenou, “there were the Russians who bought products from shops without taking into account anything.”
This provides us with a clue as to the definition of ‘quality tourism’ which has always been a vague concept despite everyone paying lip service to it. ‘Quality tourists’ are primarily Russians who are happy to pay the rip-off prices charged by greedy shopkeepers, no questions asked.
Considering the “quality tourism” might not be back next year, for how many years would the taxpayer be obliged to keep Paralimni shops on life support?
UNIVERSITY students have also been demanding state help because rents have increased and they can’t afford to pay them. Akel and its student movement Proodeftiki have taken up the campaign for “dignified housing for students.”
They want the government to increase student grants, broaden eligibility and a change of the law so ceilings could be imposed by the state on rents, which have become unaffordable for students. Making the taxpayer put hand in pocket and getting the state to intervene in the market, for communists is the solution to all problems.
How about the cheaper solutions for the taxpayer, like students staying at home, renting a cheap old flat in an undesirable part of town? But if they insist on leaving home and living in “dignified housing” how about taking a part-time job, like students all over the world do, to supplement their income?
Or perhaps they could sell the car their parents bought them, to pay for the rent, and move around on a bicycle, thus also eliminating the monthly petrol bill, which could go towards the rent for the dignified housing that Akel informs us “cannot be a privilege but a right.” Like it was in the Soviet Union.
THE ANIMAL Party refuses to give up its campaign for justice for Berton, the crossbreed savannah cat that died after it was taken into the care of the veterinary services and having an operation.
On Thursday, party leader Kyriakos Kyriakou called a news conference, presenting the ‘guardian’ of Berton who had brought it to Kyproulla. His party position was “based on three pylons,” the third of which was the procedures of keeping the cat that led to its “unjust death.”
There was a full report on how the “unjust death” came about in Politis, which read like a mystery story. “Berton’s death is not related, in any case, with the problem to its peptic system,” the paper said. The unjust death “was caused by an injury inflicted by the cat on itself, and specifically its legs.” The self-injury was “absolutely confirmed by the necrotomy.”
The mystery that needed to be solved was “what was it that caused this behaviour by the cat?” It could have suffering from low self-esteem, but the Animal Party never thought about seeking the help of a savannah cat psychologist to get to the bottom of the Berton death mystery.
THE SPYVAN saga, and efforts to link the eavesdropping scandal that broke in Greece to poor old Kyproulla, continues unabated. Phil has been leading these efforts with reports about the links of Cypriots with companies offering ‘information services’ in Greece and about the involvement of Israeli nationals based on our island.
The saga will go down in history as the first issue of public interest about which Christodoulides, who never takes a public position on anything, actually expressed an opinion. It was pretty bland, but it was a stand.
He said, he “considers it a legal and moral obligation of the state to investigate possible links of Cyprus with the case so as to eliminate, if there is no connection, any doubts in relation to Cyprus. Cyprus should contribute constructively to any investigation that might be carried out by European institutions.”
This was another statement of the bleeding obvious. Did he have any doubt that his mentor, Prez Nik, would contribute constructively to any investigation?
MARKET forces could eventually break down the barriers that divide our Kyproulla. According to a report in Politis, based on Turkish Cypriot sources, the number of crossings by Greek Cypriots in the first six months of 2022 were 1,571,000.
To understand the significance of this number it should be said that since 2006, the annual crossings of GCs never exceeded 800,000. In short, the figure for six months is double what it had been in any previous year. The reasons as everyone knows are not political but economic.
The devaluation of the Turkish lira has made prices in the north, which were always lower, far too attractive for GCs, always looking for a bargain. As prices soar on our side, it seems more and more GCs are heading north to do food shopping, fill their cars with cheap petrol, eat out, and buy cheap fags. The savings they make are significant.
This brings more and more people from the two communities into contact and improves relations. I am not suggesting that this will end the division, but there is a bigger chance of market forces making this happen than politicians.
Tashinopittas in the north are excellent and more than 50 per cent cheaper than on our side.
