ARRIVING at the Ledra Palace hotel for the end of year reception given by the UNSG’s Special Representative Colin Stewart, at the same time as the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, I was mightily impressed by his big dick entrance into the grounds.
Leading the convoy was one of those monster, black, armoured SUVs, which you usually see on telly as part of the US president’s escort, and inside were six or seven people. I assumed he was in the super-luxury, environmentally unfriendly, black limo that followed although the tinted windows did not allow you to see inside.
There was a second black SUV, also filled with people, following his limo and behind this was an unusually big, yellow ambulance. Were his advisors expecting hostilities and the possibility of casualties at the reception or had the ‘TRNC’ decided to provide free Covid vaccinations to guests as a confidence-building measure?
I am happy to report there were no hostilities, which was just as well as I had not worn my bullet-proof vest, nor vaccinated. Tatar was simply making the point that he is a big shot political leader with his big dick motorcade.
THE BEARDED one arrived before Tatar so I missed his entry, but I would not have been surprised if he came on one of those Bolt scooters that you can rent, escorted by cops on bicycles to illustrate his humility and his commitment to fighting climate change.
Then again, he was accompanied by his better half, so in all likelihood he also arrived in a car but more modestly than Tatar and probably without an ambulance in tow. All day long, the CyBC radio news had a report about the reception, informing listeners that the Prez would have a “relaxed” conversation with Tatar about the need to resume talks. How did it know?
After a very brief conversation – the extents of the relax factor unknown – the Prez mingled with the crowd distributing his smile left right and centre. On his way out, he was deep in conversation with two young women, one of whom turned to a guest who was also leaving, gave him her phone and asked if he could take a picture of them with the Prez.
The Prez happily posed for the pic, wearing his trademark smile.
LAST weekend as part of his inauguration duties, Prez Nik was in the Paphos district village of Kili, which some of us had never heard of before, to open the so-called ‘Agricultural Training Centre.’
The Centre, from what I hear, was built with EU money and was completed in December 2019. The contractor handed it over to the Paphos district officer in January 2020 and Prez Nik opened it four years later. I am informed that mukhtars of the surrounding villages were pressured to attend the opening ceremony so there could be a good turnout.
The interesting thing is that no agricultural training has taken place at the centre since its completion in 2019, but there are hopes that now that the unused building has been officially opened by no lesser person than the Prez of the Republic, the EU will be reassured that its money has not been wasted.
WE DO NOT know how well the ticket sales are going for Apoel’s virtual match, announced by its chairman Prodromos Petrides a couple of weeks ago, in his efforts to raise €2m by the end of this month. Nor have we heard how many wealthy Apoel supporters, of the required 500, have agreed to give €3,000 each to the bankrupt football club.
What we have heard is that the club desperately needs the money to cover the post-dated cheques it has issued its players for this month. With the monthly players’ payroll in the region of €800,000, even if the money is raised to cover the club’s payment needs for this month what will happen in January? Will a virtual match be staged every month to ward off bankruptcy?
With debts having crept above €40m this year and interest rates soaring, the search for a lobotomised investor to save the club form bankruptcy and its reckless directors from prosecution must continue.
PREZ NIK’S compulsion to show off about his contacts with state leaders put him in a spot of bother this week, after Alithia reported that President Erdogan, during a brief conversation he had with the bearded one in Dubai, invited him to Ankara.
Alithia attributed its information to diplomatic sources in Greece. From what I hear, the source of the story could have been Prez Nik himself, who had told hacks about the invitation, when they saw him at the presidential palace to wish him well on his name-day. He told them that they should say nothing about this, and they complied.
Once Alithia broke the story all hell broke loose, the debate raging over whether he should go or not. Commenting on the matter, the Prez said, “if there was even the slightest possibility for this meeting to take place, all the things being publicised do not help in any way.” And who is to blame for the invitation being publicised? For sure, not the Prez who told the hacks about it.
CONGRATS to the Odysseas-general for his report into the Trimiklini fish farm scam, exposing the corruption of state services which turned a blind eye to every illegality committed by the company that owned the operation, even diverting water from the Kouris river and preventing it going to a dam in Saittas.
Among the state bodies that whistled indifferently about the illegalities were the water development department, the town planning department, the agriculture ministry, the fisheries department, the deputy ministry of tourism and the interior ministry.
How was it possible that not a single department or ministry tried to stop at least one of the host of illegalities. Is there not one honest senior public official in the above state services? Were they all in on the scam? A more plausible explanation was that they had all received orders from above.
And in the golden era of Nik I, there could only have been one man giving the orders to ministers and department heads.
IT IS GOOD to see the drive for gender equality is making huge strides in Kyproulla, which on Wednesday hosted a conference on ‘Climate and energy crisis: the impact on gender equality.”
One of the main speakers was Salma Al Nims, senior officer of social affairs in the section of gender justice, population and inclusive development of economic and social committee for western Asia of the UN. She said the economic and social consequences of climate change and the energy crisis increased the vulnerability of women to sexual exploitation and gender violence.
The gender equality commissioner also had some good news to report to the conference. Kyproulla, with other countries, had signed the commitment to Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership Pledge. This commitment is guaranteed to reduce the increased vulnerability of women caused by climate change.
WE JUST love an anniversary in this country. On Thursday, December 14, Akel issued a statement to remind us that on this day, 68 years ago, the British colonialist rulers outlawed the communist party. The statement did not say anything about the heroic acts of defiance of the commies during the period of proscription which lasted until independence.
With independence Akel was back in action, loyally serving the interests of the Soviet Union until the end of the Cold War, championing Soviet totalitarianism and ensuring all Kyproulla joined the fight against the imperialist West.
It is a bit rich for Akel to complain about its outlawing while worshipping a one-party state.
