APART from the self-declared title of by far the most honest man in Kyproulla, it appears that Odysseas is now staking a claim to the crown of most patriotic man, leading the most patriotic movement, as well.

In the same way that he views everyone apart from himself and his acolytes – as corrupt – he has now decided to issue certificates of patriotic purity and expose those whose purity is questionable, like the leadership of Disy.

Disy publicly censured Odysseas disciple, Constantinos Christofides, former rector of the University of Cyprus, for referring to Greece’s Kapodistriako University of Athens, which wants to set up shop in Kyproulla as ‘foreign’ and of being given preferential treatment by our government.

It was a gross over-reaction by Disy to a legitimate observation by Christofides, but Alma outdid Disy with an even bigger over-reaction. Its 375-word broadside against the party started thus:

“The leadership of Disy, as a club of graduates of the English School and British universities, the people who voted the law by the University of Athens is called a ‘foreign university’, is today selling Greekness and national ideals.” 

From what I know none of the members of the Disy leadership went to the English School. Deputy leader Diplaros would not have passed the entry exam if he sat it.

AS A MEMBER of the English School and a British university alumni club, I must admit that I was rather distraught to hear that Odysseas has such a low opinion of us, not knowing how to wash the shame I felt, even though I am not, or ever have been, a member of the Disy leadership.

I suppose I will just have to accept that I cannot be a salesman for Greekness and national ideals, even if I do not refer to Greek universities as foreign. As for the “nation exploiting” Disy leadership, its attack on Christofides, according to the holier than thou Odysseas, was “like the Pharisees of the Bible, who display, at every opportunity, their piety (but not their devotion).”

This was not all. Disy leadership’s attack “illustrated its hypocritical patriotism, not its love for the nation. They instrumentalise values and sensitivities to serve their ideologies.” This guy never tires of passing moral judgment on us all, constantly reminding us of how imperfect we are compared to him.

When will he finally accept that he is a hard act to follow and we cannot all be like him, no matter how much we try.

NOBODY would have been surprised by the decision of attorney-general George Savvides not to prosecute Odysseas for alleged contempt of court. In a long announcement issued by Savvides’ office, it was claimed there was “sufficient evidence” to prosecute him, but the AG had instead chosen to give him a “second chance.”

Despite ordering a criminal investigation, police calling in the saintly one for questioning, as well as several journalists to whom Ody had made his claims that the judges of the supreme constitutional court were dishonest and had agreed with the Prez to sack him before the hearing had been completed, Savvides decided against another trial.

This was a political decision, as he probably feared that another trial would have boosted Ody’s bid for martyrdom, the victim of the corrupt establishment. And the idea that a morally perfect specimen of the human race like Ody could have broken the law is just beyond belief anyway.

Incidentally, according to the AG, Ody failed to provide a single shred of evidence to back his allegations against the judges.

PREZNIKTWO let loose his delusions of grandeur during his speech at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, even though there were not many people in the auditorium to hear his passionate marketing of Kyproulla’s world relevance, in not very good English.

Kyproulla, he said, “stands ready to step up further” and “assume even more its role as enabler of security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Greater Middle East… As a driver of cooperation, underpinned by a vision of strength through partnership with like-minded countries… Determined to transform our geography in a complex region into a blessing…. Always part of the solution. Never part of the problem… We stand at (sic) the brink of a precipice… Rest assured that Cyprus will continue to do its part.”

This was a kid’s speech trying to impress the grown-ups with all his real and imaginary achievements. Unfortunately, there were not many grown-ups in the auditorium, to hear our Nik’s wisdom about what makes a great leader.

“Politicians are judged not by their words BUT by their ACTIONS. It is what distinguishes politicians from leaders.” Thank God, we have an action-man leader in charge of our country.

THE CYPROB, on which our Prez has proved he is a leader rather than just a politician, was left at the end of the speech. This was when he attacked Turkey’s president Erdogan, which seemed rather strange considering that Erdo had not been particularly hostile to Kyproulla in his UN speech the previous day.

Erdogan had just repeated his calls for the recognition of the pseudo state and the two- state solution because the Greek Cypriots did not want a federation. The Prez reminded everyone what happened in 1974, before attacking Erdogan’s hypocrisy for “preaching about peace and accountability, and pointing his finger at others, for crimes Turkey itself  commits ever single day.” It was “selective sensitivity and hypocrisy of the highest form,” he said.

Our Prez took offence at Erdogan’s speech, most of which was devoted to an attack on Israel and its actions in Gaza. Was our leader defending Israel’s actions by telling Erdogan he was in no position to “point his finger at others”? The “others” the Prez was referring to could only have been Israel. Was he trying to ingratiate himself to his mate Bibi?

A PLAUSIBLE explanation, considering the missive from a minister of the Netanyahu government, asking that all anti-Semitic graffiti in Cyprus was removed, had been distributed by our interior minister to all the mayors and mukhtars.

The missive had been sent to the president’s diplomatic office, which forwarded it to the interior ministry which then forwarded it to all mayors and mukhtars with instructions from the interior minister to have “any such slogans removed.”

The Israeli minister of the diaspora included four photographs of posters, seen on walls and considered “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel” to give an idea to local authorities of the slogans they had to remove.

OUR PREZ offered the thinking behind this subservience to Israel in a speech he gave to Cypriot organisations of America on Friday night in New York.      

His policy he said, was “to align the interests of small Cyprus with the interest of powerful states” and he has aligned our interests with the interests of the powerful state of Israel, which he allows to send instructions to our government.

For many decades we were aligned with Mother Russia, but since its invasion of Ukraine we have been looking for another powerful state to protect us and we seem to have chosen Israel. This was why Disy defended the government when it was being attacked by Akel for distributing the missive of the Israeli government. Israel is our new saviour since Mother Russia walked out on us.

PREZNIKONE, I hear, is pursuing his narcissist instincts, as a distraction from the mounting corruption allegations he faces. Nik the First has asked a leading news photographer to find every single photograph from his archive, which dates back to the late seventies, that Nik is in and print them for him.

The reason is that the narcissistic Nik plans to publish a book, tracing his long political career with photographs. He might need several volumes if he is to include all of them.