Tales from the Coffeeshop

WHO COULD have believed that there would come a day when only a pitiful 8 per cent of our population would consider the Cyprob the most important issue facing the country? ...

ONE THING I discovered watching the debate of the presidential candidates on Sigma TV on Monday night was that self-regarding, presenter Yiannis Kareklas has changed his hair colour. This may ...

‘CANCEL culture at Rik?’ proclaimed the headline of a comment piece by University of Cyprus professor Haridimos Tsoukas – published in last Sunday’s Phil – who wrote about an interview he ...

KYPROULLA celebrated its 62nd anniversary of independence on Saturday with the traditional military parade, held in the sweltering Nicosia heat, which proved no deterrent to crowds of people turning up ...

I ALMOST shed a tear reading the report of Nicos Christodoulides self-pitying speech at an election gathering in Polemidia, where he took on the role of the wronged victim of ...

THE DEVOUT churchgoers and Orthodox fanatics, who have been living on myths spread by monks (also known as prophesies of the holy fathers) about the ‘blond race’ (Russians) liberating Constantinople ...

EVERY few years someone decides it is time to make a fuss about the corruption and sleaze plaguing the government’s Service for the Administration of Turkish Cypriot Properties. Although ...

GIVEN the borderline lawful way in which he has been leeching off the taxpayer, you dread to think what the Diko-Edek independent candidate Nikos Christodoulides, would do if he was ...

ATTENTION-CRAVING auditor-general Odysseas will have experienced heights of ecstasy unknown to ordinary mortals in the last week, during which he was the only story playing. He released the report about ...

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 ...

BEING a deeply religious man and an avid churchgoer, you would have thought the independent Diko-Edek candidate, who remains a Disy member, and will bring an end to the corrupt ...

YOU READ it here first that Prez Nik had not given up on the possibility of a third term. This claim, as I admitted at the time, was not based ...

COULD it have been a brave disregard for their personal safety that made the two so-called independent candidates turn down the proposal of the police command to provide them with ...

WITH OUR beloved Cyprob dead and buried, despite our noble efforts to keep it alive, the great and the good of our society have been desperately looking for a new ...

THE PRESIDENTIAL candidate of post-truth politics is flying if the latest opinion poll, conducted for Alpha TV, is anything to go by. A staggering 33.1 per cent of respondents said they ...

EFFORTS to prevent a settlement of our Cyprob have entered a new sphere, which involves an old methodology – letter-writing. The two leaders have now decided the best way not to ...

THE MASS mourning of the previous week was replaced by mass indignation on Friday when Politis broke the story about the attempts of a senior police officer to secure film ...

PERHAPS I have become a grumpy old man, no longer able to fight my innate conservatism and completely out of touch with the times. This was probably the reason I ...

MY FRIEND Costas Christofides made the big leap last Sunday, announcing his candidacy for the presidential elections to a full house at the Pallas theatre in Nicosia and received an ...

PREZ NIK has been taken over by a Turk-bashing mood in the last couple days, reinforcing my unjustified suspicion that he is considering seeking a third term. On Saturday morning ...

THE PUBLIC Service Commission (PSC), which appoints and promotes public employees, according to the diktats of the government and political parties, is one of Kyproulla’s most ludicrous institutions. While ...

HAVING sweet-talked his way into the hearts of as many voters as he could, on Thursday he finally decided the time was right to come out of the closet and ...

MY FRIEND who called to ask whether he was going mad or the world around him had gone mad was given a scientific answer to his question last week by ...

A FRIEND, I had not heard from for months called me on Thursday saying he needed psychological support, because “I do not know if I am going mad or the ...