Tales from the coffeeshop: Myths, narratives and Turkish intransigence
IT WAS extremely difficult to understand why Phil made such a big fuss about publishing the minutes of meetings held in Crans Montana four and half years ago.
From the ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Our amazing transformation into a nation of tree-huggers
I WOULD never have thought that the majority of we Cypriots are suppressed eco warriors deeply concerned about climate crisis and prepared to make big personal sacrifices to save the ...
Tales from the coffeeshop: Gesy lynch mob determined to protect sacred cow
MAYBE I have missed something or there is some ethical point I am not aware of but the Edek leader Dr Sizo’s campaign for changing Gesy is so shameless ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Comrades with short memories are rising up
THIS WAS written before the proletarian masses were taken to the presidential palace, from all over Kyproulla in buses hired by Akel to demand the resignation of Prez Nik, for ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: In hard times, massive potato brings light relief
CONGRATS to Xylophagou mayor Georgios Tasou and his municipal council for their publicity stunt with the big dick potato (BDP), of the Spunta variety, they have placed at the entrance ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: The oldest trick in the presidential book
I WONDER whether Prez Nik ever gets tired of issuing denials about his involvement in his law office’s dealings with mega-rich clients that feature in international news stories that ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Cyprob not the only pressing issue in the world today
ALL DAY on Friday CyBC radio news played the story that “powerful messages about the Cyprus problem are expected to be sent by the President of the Republic, from the ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Offending the Gods of scientific wisdom
I MAKE a point of not following the Twitter accounts of our self-important scientists, who have become A-list celebrities of the Covid era, but a few days ago I was ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Our madhouse is already gearing up for elections
PRESIDENTIAL elections might still be 16-plus months away, but some candidates have expressed an interest in standing, without being too definite about it.
These are human rights lawyer Achilleas Demetriades, ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: The latest entry in the Book of Cyprob Fantasy
SADLY, it does not look like we will be returning to the constitution of 1960 any time soon, Prez Nik’s zealous and earnest initiative failing to convince anyone, not even ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Meaningless decision provokes both communities
THE REVOKING of the passports of 14 ‘officials’ of the pseudo state by the council of ministers was a gloriously meaningless decision that was enthusiastically cheered by our patriotic parties, but ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: From triumphs to the Taliban
WARNING: if you are turned off by the Cyprob I suggest you stop reading now, because today’s shop is exclusively Cyproblematic. I apologise for this, but it has been ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Most of us are Akelites without even realising it
BEFORE our establishment had a chance to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Akel, the comrades came up with another party anniversary. August 15, a party announcement informed, us marked the 95th ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Mixed results from having employees as Covid enforcers
THE POLICE state has been showing its muscle. In the 24 hours up until Saturday morning, the cops had carried out 5,935 checks reporting 30 individuals and five businesses for violating the Covid ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: The unbearable moralising of vaxxers, anti-vaxxers and politicians
AT LEAST the streets are still SafePass-free zones, but for how much longer is anyone’s guess. For now, we will not need a safe pass to venture out on ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Threat of UN words and free speech
DÉJÀ VU. We appeared to have engaged in some time travel in the last week and returned to the eighties when high anxiety gripped the country over the wording ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Policed by bar staff
OUR ESTABLISHMENT has put up the price of all our items in order to pay for the muscle we have hired to check that customers have a SafePass. I know ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Covid Project Fear salesmen are back
The prophets of doom and the Project Fear salesmen, who had mercifully disappeared from view for about a month, made a comeback in the last week, doing their best to ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Rejection is all the rage
YOU ALMOST felt sorry for Prez Nik after the week he has just had. The number of public rejections he suffered would have forced lesser men to go into hiding ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Sick and tasteless days of Covid, elections
CONGRATULATIONS to Annita Demetriou for becoming not only the first woman to become president of the House but also the first Disy deputy. I do not know if she is ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: The scramble for a largely worthless post
BY FAR the most irritatingly tedious part of a parliamentary election is the subsequent horse-trading of the political parties over who to elect House president. It’s a ceremonial position ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Prez Nik’s election confusion
THE ELECTION campaign may have legally ended at midnight on Friday, but some party leaders continued with some light campaigning on Saturday. It was a ‘light’ violation of the law ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Ensuring tomorrow never comes
IT WAS INEVITABLE that a small part of Kyproulla would be affected by the fighting between our strategic ally Israel and our former buddies in the Palestinian territories. Rarely could ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Thank the elections for café society freedoms
A RECORD 658 candidates from 15 parties/groupings will be contesting the 56 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the elections in a fortnight. Of these, I would guess that some 500, maybe more, ...