Our View: Govt must show no mercy on underperforming teachers
World Teachers Day was marked on Monday just days ahead of planned industrial action by teachers in Cyprus and one day before the unions are to meet Education Minister Athena ...
Cyprus has repaired its finances – now it must invest in its future
Economic success creates a new question for Cyprus. Having repaired the state’s balance sheet, is the island using its financial strength sufficiently to repair structural weaknesses in its economy?
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An ‘anti-election’ manifesto on Cyprus’ Independence Day
States in the international system operate in an environment of unyielding anarchy. No supreme arbiter protects a sovereign state when an existential crisis arrives. When a small state sits directly ...
Averof should know when to quit
Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed an array of politicians seemingly fixated on their own importance and on the unshakable belief that only they can make a difference ...
Iran’s ‘virtual nukes’ have provided a long list of excuses
“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was…very hard to do,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly last month, “but for me it was one ...
Cyprus needs targeted social policy to combat inequality
Modern societies are characterised by a concentration of wealth among a small proportion of citizens and by growing social inequalities.
In Cyprus, political parties, organised groups and many citizens argue ...
The focus on fiscal surpluses could curb economic growth
The top priority of Finance Minister Makis Keravnos seems to be to use government budgets to produce and record large fiscal surpluses, rather than utilising budgets as a key instrument ...
Turkish Cypriots of Nicosia have constitutional right to municipality
The controversy about the description of Mehmet Harmanci as Turkish Cypriot mayor of Nicosia by the Cyprus Forum, who was driven to withdraw from its conference last week, was reminiscent ...
Our View: Should the state spend our money on new army toys?
Matters of defence and military equipment “should not become the subject of pre-election exploitation”, defence minister Vasilis Palmas warned last week.
Criticism is welcome, he added in comments to the ...
Building a pathway to peace in Ukraine
By Sonya J Thissen, Harriet E Berg and Vladyslav Lomako
Every morning at 9:00am, Ukraine stops.
Across cities in Ukraine, loudspeakers normally used to warn of incoming Russian air strikes ...
Our View: The soul of Cyprus is lost in the algorithm
This week, AI entered the tourism conversation in a more prominent way than the more generic “use of technology” – never mind that some in the tech industry are warning that ...
Not only the Parthenon has lost its marbles
How would the British public feel if someone stole old Nelson from his plinth, or a lion from Trafalgar Square, placed them in their museum and refused to give them ...
Our View: Less for palaces, more for real needs
Now and again there are news stories that cross a person’s desk that have no connection to each other but reveal an underlying mentality that speaks volumes.
On Sunday, ...
Will Brazilians follow wider Latin American trend?
“Flávio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate and what Trump wants is to colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust,” claims the latest ...
Our View: Scooters are not the only menace on the roads
The news that a 16-year-old scooter rider died from his injuries at the weekend after being hit by a drunk driver in early August, and police announcing they’d booked 34 ...
Our View: Confusion not clarity on Cyprus problem emerges from New York
Developments on the Cyprus problem over the past week have been less of a “flurry of diplomatic activity” than a “flurry of negativity”.
At home we’ve had the fiasco ...
Downgrading the Turkish Cypriot mayor: a dangerous precedent
By Hakan Karahasan
Just as elsewhere in the world, not a day goes by in Cyprus without far-right populism making its presence felt. The most recent ‘development’ took place during ...
Turkey’s nuclear question: has the Iran war changed the calculus?
The most dangerous lesson of the war with Iran may not be about Iran.
It may be about the bomb.
Would the US and Israel have attacked Iran if Tehran ...
An EU-compatible hybrid electricity market for Cyprus
The lack of visible benefits from Cyprus’ Competitive Electricity Market has reopened debate over the single buyer model.
Under a conventional single-buyer arrangement, one body purchases electricity through tenders or ...
Giving the world economy a dose of bleach
Recently I have been writing about financial matters and the risks associated with rising interest rates in the US. For sure, the phenomenon is not limited to the United States. ...
Cyprus’ ‘garrison state’ has become a governance crisis
Decades of emergency governance, patronage and institutional barriers have weakened civic participation and left Cyprus facing a deepening crisis of political legitimacy.
The collapse of civic participation and institutional authority ...
The freedom of Cyprus runs through the mountains of Kurdistan?
Dr Thomas James Phillips
Writing in the 19th century literary feuilleton Vremya (Time), the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky chastised the intelligentsia of his day for its revolutionary impatience.
Having been ...
Earl Spencer’s claims about Charles do not add up
His book raises questions about chronology, memory and motive
Earl Spencer’s Swan Song: Diana, My Sister was published last Tuesday after it was trailed in an interview he gave ...
Tales from the Coffeeshop: Such ingratitude to Diko and the Papadopoulos clan
I COULD not believe the air of superiority and disdain with which Finance Minister Makis Keravnos responded to the suggestion by poor Ethnarch Junior, his party boss, that he resign ...