SUCCESSIVE plans to renovate Apostolos Andreas Monastery in occupied Karpasia date back years but have all stumbled over who is to administer and fund the project.

In the meantime, one of the most important Greek Orthodox religious sites in Cyprus is quite simply crumbling, becoming more dangerous with every passing year. 

Eight months after a renewed push to reach agreement on the historic building, discussions with the United Nations and the Church of Cyprus are finally drawing to a close, the co-chairman of the bi-communal technical committee on cultural heritage, Takis Hadjidemetriou, said this week. He said the United Nations, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot members of the bicommunal technical committee have all agreed and were “formulating the terms of the endeavour” with the church.

“The road is open,” the former EDEK MP said.

Built in tribute to Apostle Andrew, who was said to have set foot on Cyprus on this section of the rugged Karpasia coast, most of the monastery’s buildings hail from the 19th century but the church itself is about five centuries older. In 1966 a series of concrete-reinforced upper rooms were added to be used as guesthouses. These were too heavy for the older building beneath to support and severely weakened the overall structure. Add to that the decades of neglect since the Turkish invasion and the need to renovate is now absolutely crucial. 

Getting all sides to agree to the same thing at the same time has so far been unsuccessful, however. 

An early plan formulated in 2003 by UNOPS (UN office for Project Services) and to be funded by US funds aimed to demolish the 1960s upper rooms, but Greek Cypriot politicians disagreed with the plan and rejected the offer.

In 2005 and 2009, announcements that work would start following a Patras university study proved untrue when disagreements arose over who would administer the project.

Other efforts to restore the complex have also failed, sometimes because the church felt it would be forced to give up ownership.

In 2010 for example, Archbishop Chrysostomos II rejected UN suggestions to let the Turkish Cypriot religious organisation, EVKAF, to oversee the restoration of the monastery because he viewed it as tantamount to the church giving up ownership of the monastery. 

“I was very categorical that I would rather see Apostolos Andreas collapse and will never accept that this monument belongs to EVKAF,” he said in November 2010.

The primate said that authorities in the north have “constantly obstructed the maintenance” of the monastery in order to destroy Greek and Christian heritage. 

But in February, the technical committee announced that a restoration of the monastery based on the Patras university study would start.

The bicommunal technical committee was created in April 2008 to protect the island’s cultural heritage and has since renovated religious monuments on both sides of the divide, including the Ayios Armolaos church in Kyrenia, the Saint Mamas church in Lapithos. The Tophane Mescit mosque and the Akaki mosques in Nicosia are being fixed and 11 projects are forthcoming, said Hadjidemetriou.

“The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) asked for three things in March - a timeframe, cost estimation, and a plan - which we’ve delivered admittedly with some delay in October,” he said.  

The committee is now ready to proceed with a two-year endeavour costing €1.1 million to fix the church but is waiting to see what the UN guidelines are in relation to the question of the church funding the restoration, Hadjidemetriou said.

“The UNDP Partnership for the Future is ready to proceed on the assumption that the church will provide the funds,” Hadjidemetriou said.

But even if the church decides it does not have the funds, the committee will carry on regardless, Hadjidemetriou said.

“We don’t want the project to be delayed. If the church tells us they have no money then we can include Apostolos Andreas in other projects for which we have funding or get European Union funding,” he said.

“We’ll find a way,” he said.

But are all the previous delays an ominous sign for Apostolos Andreas monastery?

“What I see is the next step,” Hadjidemetriou said. “The committee is moving forward one step at a time.” 

Cats eager to be fed in front of the monastery large sections of which have had to be supported to prevent collapse

Crumbling medieval arches and steps are in desperate need of renovation

Winston Churchill called the fourth volume of his history of the Second World War, which covers all of 1942, The Hinge of Fate explaining in its preface: “…because in it we turn from almost uninterrupted disaster to almost unbroken success”. 

For those survivors of the campaigns of that year, whether caught up in its defeats or the turning of the tide, today’s Remembrance Sunday is particularly poignant. It comes near the end of a clutch of 70th anniversaries haunted by memories of young men who, given half a chance, would have certainly preferred to grow as old as those that were left grew old.

“Closer than brothers we were were,” said Northumbrian Robert Lay at an Alamein service at Westminster Abbey. By the end of the war he was the only one of his first tank crew who was still alive.

Before the twelve days of Alamein (October 23 to November 4) came 1942’s litany of disasters starting with the wave of Japanese successes in South East Asia that, on February 15, culminated in the fall of Singapore. “The worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history,” Churchill called it. About 120,000 prisoners were taken, a third of them British and the rest mainly Australian and Indian.

As Japan consolidated its victories, British forces in the Middle East, which had recently succeeded in relieving the 242-day siege of their garrison in the Libyan port of Tobruk, were depleted to reinforce the Far East. In May Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps struck back and, after a brilliant feint, at last captured Tobruk with 33,000 prisoners. The rest of Britain's 8th Army fled Libya and regrouped about 60 miles west of Alexandria at the Alamein railway halt in Egypt’s western desert. 

Axis forces had never been so close to the Suez Canal. A delighted Hitler made Rommel a Field Marshal and Mussolini flew in from Rome for the expected victory parade in Cairo.

The British managed to hold the Alamein line, the best defensive position along the Mediterranean’s southern shore, only to face another setback. This time it was in Europe. A large scale raid with tank support on the German occupied French port of Dieppe, one of its original planners the newly appointed commander of the 8th Army Bernard Montgomery, turned into a fiasco. Slightly less than half of some 6,000 troops put ashore got back to England. The majority, mostly untested Canadians who were longing to see action, got taken prisoner.

But it was the loss of Singapore to the despised Japanese, who were supposed to be so short sighted they could not fly their aircraft properly, that really hurt. In private the prime minister expressed his doubts about the fighting spirit of its defenders. “They should have done better,” he told his friend Violet Bonham-Carter, the liberal politician and writer.

Undoubtedly there were instances of panic and rank cowardice. At least one deserter was shot out of hand trying to climb aboard an evacuation ship for women and children. Yet during Japan’s eight weeks’ campaign down the Malay peninsula and onto the island itself, all the Commonealth unts defending it displayed at times a dogged resistance, the Australians entering the fray with a devastating ambush. There were also moments of great valour. Between them the army, navy and air force collected four Victoria Crosses - one a posthumous award to the captain of a commandeered Yangste river boat who rammed a Japanese troopship. When the order came to surrender it astonished some East Anglian infantry battalions newly arrived from the UK who thought they were doing rather well.

In September this year, Viscount Slim, son of General Bill Slim who eventually led an Anglo-Indian army to victory in Burma, unveiled a monument in Camden’s Mornington Crescent for some 20,000 Commonwealth servicemen and women who were worked or starved to death while prisoners of the Japanese. Among those present was Toni Garizio, 93, for many years a chef at Le Caprice in Soho. 

“We were allowed a pound of rice a day, just rice. That was your three meals. No vegetables, no salt. Now and then you might get a sliver of fish,” recalled Garizio who served with the Cambridgeshires, the last regiment on Singapore to cease fire. “If you didn’t believe you would live, you would die. Yet I sometimes look back on it and think I was very fortunate to meet so many great guys.Really great. You never forget.”

A few weeks later came the ceremonies held at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery close to the Alamein battlefield. Sucking thoughtfully on his favourite pipe, Major Peter Watson MC, a bent figure in a Back Watch kilt and tweed jacket, inspected row after row of headstones until he found the epitaph he was looking for: George Morrison, aged 22. Greater Love Hath no Man than this.

He had been besides Morrison when he was killed. “Suddenly he was dead,” said Watson who during the battle’s opening night attack was, compass in hand, one of several young lieutenants acting as navigating offiers slightly ahead of the rest of  their battalion. “He was a great lad. It affects me now. It didn't affect me so much then. You just pressed on.”

Almost all of the navigating officers in the 7th Battalion Black Watch became casualties. One was killed and five were wounded. Watson, who had last seen action at Dunkirk, was hit twice. The first time was in the left hand, but he considered it to be a flesh wound and got somebody to tie a shell dressing around it. 

“You didn't bugger off unless you’d lost a leg or something,” said Watson who would receive a Mention in Dispatches for his behaviour at Alamein.Then, on the second day, another shell burst left him with facial injuries and shrapnel in his legs and buttocks and despite his protests he was evacuated.

The next six weeks was spent in a military hospital in Jerusalem pining to rejoin his battalion in which he would shortly be awarded a Miltiary Cross and finish the war as a major. 

“They were like your family. It was  a terrible thing to be away from them,” he said.

Watson emerged from his convalesence into an entirely different war. Churchill’s hinge of fate had irrevocably turned. By November 4 Montgomery, the untried newcomer to the desert who had given Churchill serious cause for doubt, had lost about 13,500 in killed, wounded and missing. Nonetheless, Rommel’s casualties, including prisoners ,were almost four times that and he had begun to withdraw. 

The German Army would never really stop withdrawing.

Cyprus-based Colin Smith is the author of Singapore Burning and (with John Bierman) Alamein: War Without Hate both available as Penguin paperbacks and on Kindle

Peter Watson, 92, a veteran of the Black Watch who fought at El Alamein, visits the graves of fallen comrades at a service to mark the battle's 70th anniversary

Archbishop Chrysostomos II yesterday called on any members of the flock wishing to offer him gifts on the occasion of his Name Day this Tuesday to make a donation instead to the needy pupils of Cyprus.
In a released statement, he thanked those planning to send him gifts for his Name Day, but expressed the wish for the money that would have been used to buy a bouquet of flowers to be donated instead to school boards who can use it to help school children in need. 

A 78-year-old man was killed on Friday when the tractor he was driving overturned, throwing him into a ditch.
At around 4pm on Friday, Patroclos Kyriacou from Kalo Chorio Orinis left his home on his tractor to go visit a friend in Klirou. The 78-year-old was said to know the area well as he used to take his animals there to graze.
However, four hours later his son, a policeman, found him unconscious in a three-metre ditch near to his friend’s Klirou residence, crushed by the tractor.
After the Fire Service got him out of the ditch, Kyriacou was taken to Nicosia general hospital where the doctor on duty confirmed his death at around 10pm.
Klirou police station is investigating the circumstances of his death. Based on preliminary investigations, police believe the tractor he was driving overturned after the ground beneath it gave way due to the recent rains. 

A LOS Angeles-based television production company is searching for personalities working high-risk jobs outside of the United States for an upcoming American TV series. 
Red Varden Studios is now casting for an American group, family or business that is currently working a high-risk or high-stakes job outside of the US.
According to the studio, ideal characters for the project are dynamic expatriates who are risking their lives for a big payoff.
“Do you put your life on the line whenever you clock in? Are you and your team the only people who have the guts to get the job done? If so, we want to hear from you!” said the US company.
Red Varden is casting for English-speaking individuals, groups, or businesses residing internationally to complete a risky job
“We are aiming to highlight a job similar to that of Deadliest Catch, Ax Men, Gold Rush and Ice Road Truckers and Storm Chasers. Unique, large, and dynamic personalities are a must,” said a studio statement.
To be considered, candidates should submit the following to RVScasting@yahoo.com: photographs of all potential candidates (both group and individual photos), a description and job title of each candidate, the personal story of the candidates and why those stories would make for compelling television. Include contact information for each candidate (name, number, email, city, country).
Red Varden Studios is a television and film production company founded in 2007 which develops and produces scripted and non-scripted content for studios, broadcast networks, cable networks, syndication and digital media outlets, within genres such as documentaries, reality shows, game shows, viral videos, comedies, dramas and independent live action and animated feature films.
Since the launch of the company, Red Varden has produced two seasons of the series The Othersiders for Cartoon Network and sold other projects to TLC, Oxygen, Cartoon Network, ReelzChannel, and FremantleMedia.

NEGOTIATIONS with the troika continued yesterday at the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, with the main focus on the amount needed for the recapitalisation of the banks and the proposed supervision of the cooperative banking system.
Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly, accompanied by the ministers of commerce and labour and the central bank governor, met the troika for five hours yesterday to further discuss the terms of a potential bailout by international lenders.
Lower level meetings were held between state officials, including the head of the social insurance department, throughout the afternoon.
Shiarly said he was satisfied with the course of negotiations. He is leaving today for Brussels to attend a Eurogroup meeting tomorrow and chair a meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday, before returning to Cyprus on Wednesday to continue negotiations with the troika.
Meanwhile, a group of investors in bank securities yesterday held a protest outside the central bank, briefly blocking off the road. They warned that 60,000 of them will sue the banks if their demands are not met, which will lead to the banks’ collapse.
The majority of the investors claim they were duped by the island’s two largest lenders - Bank of Cyprus and Laiki - into investing in securities, worth up to €1.4 billion, without being told the risks by an authorised professional. The banks have stopped paying interest on the securities after making significant losses in the wake of a Greek sovereign debt write-down.
Investors propose converting their securities into five-year bonds with a 4.5 per cent interest rate and the option to retrieve 20 per cent each year.
“If we don’t solve the problem, we’ll take measures,” said investors’ spokesman, Fivos Mavrovouniotis, adding, “Let’s hope we won’t have to, because with these measures, we will destroy the banks, leading to their dissolution.”
The group handed a memorandum of their demands to a troika delegation yesterday afternoon.

COMMERCE Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis yesterday hit back at critics of the government’s handling of the second round of licensing, saying there was a “concerted effort” to undermine Cyprus’ credibility.  
He accused some, without naming names, of making public piecemeal information which fails to give a full picture of the evaluation process, while in the process undermining Cyprus’ credibility in the second round of licensing.
He called on all to put the interests of the country above everything else.
The minister noted that negotiations with the preferred companies and consortiums to award licences for gas exploration in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) will begin tomorrow.
Sylikiotis clarified that the blocks have not been given to any group yet, stressing that “negotiations will begin”.
The government took into consideration a number of criteria, including the size of the companies involved, when making the decision to begin negotiations for awarding licences for four blocks in Cyprus’ EEZ, he said.
“In view of Turkey’s threats to the Cyprus Republic and companies, given that we are under pressure regarding our economic outlook, I believe such actions, publications, and statements undermine Cyprus’ credibility and the country,” he said.  

FOR AS LONG as it was in opposition or junior partner in a government coalition AKEL was able to fool people into thinking it was a dependable and responsible political force that worked for the good of the country. But since electing its own president, a little less than five years ago, this myth has spectacularly collapsed and exposed the party’s moral and political bankruptcy. The propaganda techniques AKEL so successfully used for decades to cover up its political dishonesty are no longer working.
It has become crystal clear during the Christofias presidency that the party’s interests, as defined by the AKEL leadership clique, are above everything. Protecting the party’s standing is of paramount importance, which is why more time is spent on deflecting blame away from the government for the mess the country is in than dealing with the actual mess, which would involve taking unpopular measures. These might be what the country needed, but they were never pursued because AKEL did not want to be burdened with the political cost, preferring the state to sink deeper and deeper into the mire of insolvency. Of course, we were repeatedly told the banks were exclusively to blame for the financial meltdown and not the infallible Christofias government, as if this justified its criminal inaction.
Two reports that appeared in Alithia newspaper on successive days last week revealed AKEL’s devious attempts to avoid signing a memorandum of understanding. The state and the banks may have desperately needed financial assistance, but for the party it was more important for its president not to be debited with the signing of an unpopular bailout agreement. According to one of the reports, the AKEL Central Committee had decided at a meeting in early October that the government do everything in its power not to sign a bailout until the February elections.
A new request was put to the Russian government for a loan of one billion euro - as the request for the five billion euro loan had been rejected - a fact confirmed by the AKEL boss Andros Kyprianou during a trip to Moscow. This amount, combined with non payment of any state dues (also part of the Central Committee decision) would cover public sector wages and see the government through to February without signing a bailout. What would happen to the banks, in the absence of a bailout until March, was of no concern to the AKEL comrades.
Needless to say, AKEL said the report was “a figment of the imagination, completely unsubstantiated and false” but was it? On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with the stalling tactics of the government since it was forced to request financial assistance in June.
The first Alithia report was even more damning. It argued the government had decided to award the most sought after plot (eight bids), in the second round for gas exploration licensing to a Russian-French consortium in which a subsidiary of Gazprombank – GPB Global Resources BV - was participating, as a sweetener for securing the billion euro loan from the bank. While this is speculation, it goes some way in explaining why the consortium’s bid, which was ranked fourth among eight applicants by both the French consultancy firm and the commerce ministry’s committee carrying out separate evaluations, was awarded Block 9.
The bid was not the most financially beneficial for Cyprus, a point raised on Friday by a Cyprus University academic who was a member of the committee of experts, but the Council of Ministers justified its decision by citing other criteria such as national security. Strangely, the other three plots in the licensing round were awarded to the companies which received the highest evaluations; Blocks 2 and 3 were awarded to the ENI (Italy) - Kogas (South Korea) consortium, which also received the highest evaluation for its bid on Block 9. Its evaluation mark was 278 while the Total-GPB-Novatek consortium’s was 220, so why did it lose out?
As it was good enough to be awarded Blocks 2 and 3, it satisfied the ‘other’ criteria which the government cited to justify awarding Block 9 to the fourth best bid. If it did not want ENI-Kogas to end up with three plots it could have given Block 2 or 3 to the second-highest bidder (differences in evaluations were small), but giving Block 9 to the fourth best, is suspect.
In short, the government has undersold our most sought-after offshore plot because this might assist AKEL’s and the president’s scheme to avoid signing a bailout. It is scandalously contemptible behaviour, but what we have come to expect from a government of self-serving and small-minded communists, who have shown time and again during the last five years that they have no qualms about sacrificing the country’s future for the narrow interests of their party.

THE INTERNATIONAL headquarters for the plotting and development of conspiracies against our long-suffering Kyproulla has moved from London to Berlin, events in the last couple of weeks seem to suggest.
Nobody could say whether the move is permanent, because for the duplicitous Brits it is a matter of prestige having the ‘Conspiracies Against Kyproulla HQ’ (CAKHQ) in their capital, a happy reminder of their glorious colonial past. But with the Cyprob dead and buried there is no real scope for the hatching of sinister plots against the Greek Cypriots.
Now that our problem is money, the Germans, who have lots of it, inevitably have taken charge of the foreign scheming against the island of sunshine and martyrdom, informally assisted by the Yanks, who run the inhuman, neo-liberal IMF.
Back in the days of the Cold War, the CAKHQ was in Washington, as any Soviet-worshipping Akelite would tell you, but the Yanks eventually lost interest in us, allowing central plotting to return to London.
Such is US indifference to us now that the need for a just and fair settlement of the Cyprob was not mentioned once during the televised Obama-Romney election debates.

BACK to Berlin, where the first salvos against Kyproulla were fired by the most prominent member of the Merkel government, finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble 10 days ago.
Schaeuble was asked whether the raising of Cyprus’ corporate tax would be a condition for providing financial assistance. He said euro group members had been making this demand ‘very forcefully’ and the Cyprus government was aware of it.
His diplomatic response was only the start. A couple of days later, the authoritative German weekly Der Spiegel published a report which confirmed that the latest conspiracy against Kyproulla was, like our beloved BMW, made in Germany.
The German intelligence service BND, according to Der Spiegel, reported Russian deposits in Cyprus banks amounted to $26 billion and the island still offered “opportunities for money laundering”. We had given citizenship to some 80 Russian oligarchs, thus giving them access to the entire EU, the BND source told the magazine.
Der Spiegel concluded that the financial assistance given by the EU and IMF to shore up Cyprus banks would go towards protecting the Russian oligarchs, “who have parked illegal income in accounts,” in Kyproulla.
This proves the theory that jealousy of Kyproulla has always been one of the strongest motivating factors of international conspirators, be they Yanks, Anglo-Saxons or Huns. Of course, the Huns get jealous when they know that we own more Mercs and Beemers per head of population than they do.

HUN politicians have also jumped on the anti-Kyproulla bandwagon. A Social Democrat MP was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying that before any bailout was approved “the country’s business model must be addressed.”
Carsten Schneider said: “We cannot use the German taxpayer’s money to guarantee deposits of illegal Russian money in Cypriot banks.”
On Tuesday, German daily Die Welt attacked us, describing poor old Kyproulla as “a tax haven and playground for money launderers.” The paper claimed that our Central Bank was on the verge of giving a banking licence to the Federal Bank of the Middle East, which has a bit of a money-laundering reputation in exchange for the bank renewing a €240 million loan it gave to our government, beyond the November 4 cash-in date.
Die Welt concluded its article by saying that “European donors will find it difficult to tell their voters that their tax money would be used to protect the foreign assets of Russian millionaires and billionaires.”

OUR GREATEST and most fearless foreign and local conspiracy-buster Spy Kyp may have passed away but his legacy lives on. Our politicians united to resist the Kraut conspiracy against our country, sending the message that ‘we might be broke but we have not lost our will to fight for a low corporate tax.’
Leading the resistance was AKEL chief Andros, who showed heroic defiance to the horrible Huns. “We will not give in to any threats, no matter where they come from,” said the courageous Android on Tuesday, before warning the Germans that if they mess with us we would take the whole euro group down with us.
“Germany needs to keep the euro group united as much as we need the support of the troika. If they think they can cause problems to the Cyprus Republic, other countries would follow which would affect their (Germany’s) standing.” The cocky Krauts, said the Android, wanted “to impose their views on the entire EU and take all the wealth of Europe.” So far it is Europe that has been taking all the wealth of Germany, but factual reality is never allowed to slip into Akelite propaganda.

THE ANDROID’S heroic warning was made after a meeting he had with the visiting chairman of the Party of the United European Left in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who has the rather unfortunate name of Tiny Kox.
Tiny Kox, a Dutch politician, expressed his admiration for comrade Tof and called for respect of national sovereignty by the EU which “should not tell its members what they should do, how they should do it and with what speed.”
The support of Tiny Kox is welcome but it will not be much help if we have to deal with the big cocks of Berlin.

THE REAL question is why does someone choose to be called Tiny Kox? It might not mean anything in his language, but at the C of E, where he is working, it must raise a few laughs. His full name is Martinus Josephus Maria Kox. Calling himself Maria would be better than Tiny, given the surname.

MORE THAN 30 troublesome Troikans invaded the island this week armed with industrial quantities of Tipp-Ex with which to delete all the red lines that our government has drawn. Of course our government will fight till the bitter end to protect CoLA and comrade Tof’s 13th salary.
Semi-official Tof mouthpiece, weekly rag Gnomi set the tone with a front-page banner headline urging “Resistance, people”. The article called on people to “resist the terrorism of the Germans and their local lackeys” and not allow a “recessionary bailout to be imposed.” As victims of hundreds of conspiracies we deserve a growth bailout.
It is not only the comrade’s journalistic henchmen who believe this. Yesterday DIKO deputy Angelos Votsis was arguing that as the austerity measures have failed wherever they were imposed (this is an AKEL propaganda message adopted by all our politicians), the troika should use Kyproulla for a new experiment – the bailout should focus on creating conditions of development and growth, because our country had its unique peculiarities.
Union bosses have also cited Kyproulla’s unique peculiarities to argue against the troika proposals that would diminish their powers. The only unique peculiarity we can really boast about is the embarrassingly high number of people with very low IQ in positions of authority speaking on our behalf.

WHATEVER happened to the IMF’s pin-up girl Delia Velculescu, whom cameramen and photographers love? We did not see a single picture of her since the arrival of the troikans even though it was reported that she had come as well.
There have been other troika females in film clips and photographs but none of them had the star quality or the elegance of dear Delia. Sigma TV’s economics correspondent, who knows as much about economics as comrade Tof, Petra Argyrou, reported on Friday night that Delia was ushered into the finance ministry through the back door, presumably to avoid the photographers and cameramen waiting for her.
Argyrou, who was formerly known as Petroulla but changed her name to Petra, in order to have more authority when she re-invented herself as an economics expert, claimed that Delia violated the ministry protocol by going in through a back door. Everyone had to go through the reception and give their credentials, reported Petroulla proud that she had uncovered a major scandal.
Who knows, we may be able to get a court to declare the bailout agreement null and void because a member of the troika did not enter the finance ministry through the right entrance.

AT LEAST the Troikans practice what they preach. Two of them were seen carrying six-packs of Ayios Nicolaos bottled water in the Hilton lift to their bedrooms. They did not want to pay the extortionate price the hotel charges for the 500ml bottle of water provided in the mini-bar.
I suspect that any drinks they take from their room’s mini-bar they pay out of their own pocket. They should include such a provision for Cypriot officials staying abroad, who probably charge hookers to their hotel bills, in the bailout agreement.
Staying on the issue of travel expenses, the Troikans could also scrap the €200 per diem allowance our comrade president collects from the taxpayer for every day he is abroad, even though all his expenses – hotel, food, travel – are paid for by the taxpayer. It could be a red line for the government, like his 13th salary.

EDEK’S Marinos Sizopoulos came up with a great description of the troika on a morning radio show yesterday. He called it a group of ‘loan sharks’ and was so proud of his sound-bite he repeated it three times.
I do not want to be accused of being a defender of loan sharks, but at least they do not tell you how to spend the money they give you, because they have ways of ensuring your loan repayments are made promptly. Add to this the fact that the interest rate on the money the troika will lend us will be less than half what the Cypriot banks, which are supposedly not loan sharks, charge us.

SPEAKING of banks the Governor of the Central Bank Professor Panicos and his lieutenant and AKEL apparatchik Spyros Stavrinakis are really turning the screw on the top executives and directors of the Bank of Cyprus.
Stavrinakis is constantly demanding reports and explanations for every decision the bank has taken, calling in directors for questioning and applying pressure on them to resign. B of C directors fear that Professor Panicos is working on instructions from AKEL to get rid of the old directors and replace them with government appointees as the first step in an effort to bring the bank under state control.
The directors cannot think of another explanation for being treated like criminal suspects by the professor. Ironically, Dr Panicos is not half as tough with Laiki, which is not just much deeper in the merde than the B of C, it is technically bankrupt.
Not only has he not been giving a hard time to its top executives, but one of our metrios-drinking customers, who works as a waiter in a Nicosia restaurant, saw Dr Panicos having lunch there with the Laiki CEO Christos Stylianides. Stylianides was Andreas Vgenopoulos’ right hand in the period when the Greek con-man led Laiki to insolvency.
AKEL and the government have been offering total protection to Vgenopoulos, blaming the banks for our economic mess, but never the man in charge of the bank. He must have made big contributions to the party and the Tof election campaign to enjoy such a level of protection.

WHEN Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis announced the second round of licensing for offshore oil exploration, he said that contracts with the successful bidders would have been signed at the end of 2013 by the new government.
Now the government has announced that the contracts would be signed before comrade Tof leaves office in February. Why? If it were any other government, we would have said that it wanted to sign the contracts so it would take millions in commissions. But this is an AKEL government and we all know that communists are not only honest, they are incorruptible.
I suspect they want to sign before the comrade leaves office, to ensure licensing is done honestly and above board. They should get moving because there only 105 days left of Tof’s incorruptible presidency.  

LAST Thursday’s power cut was due to a technical problem and was not ordered by the troika as a way to save money, as some people claimed. Being loan sharks, they may resort to power cuts when we fail to make our loan repayments on time, but we can worry about that next year, if we agree a bailout with the Troikans and the German terrorists.

The elusive Delia Velculescu spotted in Nicosia yesterday

IS THE government's decision to award four offshore gas exploration licences in the best interests of the island? It seems not. A lot of eyebrows have been raised after the Cabinet's decision to change the order of ranking of the companies that bid in the second licensing round. The awarding of the Block 9 licence to a French-Russian consortium that was actually ranked fourth has causes people to question whether that decision had been a foregone conclusion, and quite how much the decision will cost the island.
Technocrats are both outraged and disappointed with the government - which seems to have employed non-transparent procedures - for overriding their assessment in a rush to sign contracts on terms that are financially detrimental to the public interest. When the second licensing round was launched back in February, Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis had said in no uncertain terms that negotiations with the bidding companies would take several months, and that "the whole process, up to and including the signing of the contracts, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2013."
But last Sunday, he said "the contracts must be completed in the first months of 2013," that is, a few weeks from now.
What the technocrats are reacting to are the changes in the assessment for offshore Block 9 - the most sought-after prospect contested by nine companies or consortia. It turns out that Block 9 may have been given or promised in advance to the consortium consisting of Total, Novatec and GPB, regardless of the results of the competition.
It's clear from the assessment of the bids submitted for offshore gas exploration that the scores simply do not match the licences eventually awarded by the government.
We should back up a little here. The government has decided to award, at this stage, prospecting licences for four blocks: 2, 3, 9 and 11. The assessment of the bids was done on the basis of the terms of competition, as published in the government gazette. Under the established procedure, two separate assessments were made. One was carried out by the French consultancy Beicip, the other by the Energy Service of the Commerce Ministry.
The bids were rated based on two key criteria: technical capability, and the economic benefit to the state from exploiting hydrocarbons.
The scores awarded show that out of the four available prospects for three of these (blocks 2, 3 and 9) the top score went to the ENI/KOGAS consortium. The top score, by a large margin, in the Block 11 bids went to the French company TOTAL.
Based on these scores, the four available prospects should have been awarded thus: blocks 2, 3 and 9 to ENI/KOGAS, and Block 11 to TOTAL.
But things were complicated due to the government's political decision to ignore the bids and to award the popular Block 9 prospect to the TOTAL/NOVATEC/GPB consortium.
The companies who bid on Block 9, and their respective scores (the mean score derived from the points awarded separately by the Energy Service and Beicip) were as follows:
1. ENI (Italy)/ KOGAS (South Korea): 278
2. Premier Oil (Britain ) Vitol (Britain): 234.5
3. Capricorn (Britain)/ Marathon (USA)/ Orange Nassau (Netherlands) CC (Lebanon): 233.4.
4. Total (France) Novatec (Russia) GPB (Russia): 220
5. Edison (Italy) Delek (Israel) Enel (Italy) Woodside Energy (Australia): 217.35
As the above scores show, the best bid by far belonged to ENI/KOGAS; its bid scored 58 points more than that submitted by TOTAL/NOVATEC/GPB.
It should be noted that, in all the cases involved, the separate assessments by Beicip and the Energy Service had a difference of between 0.5 and 2.0 points. However, in the case of the Block 9 bids, the Energy Service's score for the French-Russian consortium was on average 10 points greater than the score awarded by the consultancy.
It is this significant deviation in the score patterns which suggests a certain bias. Moreover, according to the French consultancy's score alone, the TOTAL/NOVATEC/GPB consortium was ranked fifth.
Meanwhile the average scores awarded on the financial offer alone of the bids showed that ENI/KOGAS got 271 points, and fourth-placed TOTAL/NOVATEC/GPB received 160 points. That's a difference of around 25 per cent.
Though it's not easy to estimate the cash value of this difference, we are talking about billions of euros, depending also on the - still to be proven - gas reserves.
So why did the government "give away" these billions to the French-Russian consortium? According to a report in daily Alithia, the government was trying to curry favour not with the French company - which anyway was awarded Block 11 licence - but rather with the Russians, and more specifically Russian banking organisations that were part of the TOTAL/NOVATEC/GPB consortium.
Reliable sources say the government has asked private Russian organisations for a €1 billion loan, in the hope of securing at least half of that amount, which would keep the state afloat until the February presidential elections without a bailout from the EU/IMF.
The same sources said this decision was sanctioned by AKEL's Central Committee on October 6, when the ruling party rubberstamped a government document concerning broader economic policy. AKEL has categorically denied this.
The government's decision to alter the rankings of the technocrats had an impact on Block 2. ENI/KOGAS was awarded Block 3 without serious competition, and TOTAL got Block 11. But Block 9, which ENI/KOGAS deserved, seems to have been gifted to the French-Russian consortium.
This left Block 2, which was contested by six companies in total. But according to the average scores of the bid assessments, only three consortia were in the running for it:
1. ENI /KOGAS: 268.5
2. Premier Oil, Vitol, Petronas: 265.5
3. Capricorn / Marathon: 258
In the end, Block 2 was awarded to ENI/KOGAS consortium, which was ranked first. But had Block 9 been given to ENI/KOGAS, as it should have been, and had the government not wished to award a third block to the same consortium, it could have awarded Block 2 to any of the two other contenders, and without any financial loss, since the difference in the scores were insignificant.
In short, based on the scores awarded, the offshore blocks should have been awarded as follows: 2, 9 and 3 to ENI/KOGAS; and 11 to Total.
And if the decision was to give just two blocks to ENI/KOGAS in order to leave more options open for the rest, then Block 3 should have been awarded to the Premier Oil/Vitol/Petronas consortium, or alternatively to Capricorn/ Marathon.
In all these permutations, the government would have gained more financial benefit. Such a distribution would have ensured the maximum possible financial outcome, no questions asked.
Once it emerged in the press that the bid assessment process had been bypassed, the commerce minister countered that three other criteria were taken into account: national security, a company's financial scope; and the consistency exhibited in prior licensing procedures.
It is true that the Hydrocarbons Law lists these criteria as well. But the criteria relating to financial scope and consistency should not have been an issue for any of the companies that placed a bid. And citing national security can only be used in order not to award a licence to a company (for example a Turkish company); this criterion cannot be used to give one eligible company the edge over another. Besides, does it stand to reason that EMI/KOGAS met the criteria for blocks 2 and 3, but it did not meet the same criteria for Block 9?
The government is currently negotiating a bailout with the troika; and a loan agreement would still have to be approved by the parliaments of individual EU nations. Already European media are criticising the economic ties between Cyprus and Russia. One wonders: how will Cyprus' national interests be served should the Dutch parliament oppose an international loan for Cyprus in protest at the discrimination demonstrated against Vitol, a Dutch company?

Commerce and industry miniter Neoclis Sylikiotis

CYPRUS’ residents used their cards more for paying the bills and less for shopping between September and October, the island’s main clearing agency JCC transactions said yesterday.

Users swiped €173.5 million over October, JCC said but there was a decrease in card use at department or household stores, and for clothes, shoes and accessories. Card use at restaurants, bars and catering sectors was also reduced, JCC said.

The majority of card use - 30.46 per cent - was in supermarkets, followed by petrol stations where 11.8 per cent of card transactions took place during October.

Despite the decrease, card swiping at clothing, shoes, and accessories stores was the third most common card transaction, accounting for 9.5 per cent of all transactions, followed by card swipes at restaurants, bars and the catering sectors which accounted for 6.57 per cent of the October transactions.

Meanwhile, there was an 11 per cent increase in card transactions abroad for sales and cash withdrawals with the total worth of card swipes coming to €125.2 million, JCC said. 

Cypriots’ average value per transaction while abroad was at €139 this year, an increase of one euro from the year before. 

At home, the average transaction value was €72, a decrease of one euro compared with 2011.

Visitors to Cyprus swiped about €61 million in a month, an increase of 19 per cent. Average transaction value was worth €111, two euro less than last year.

JCC said that the sectors affected by local card use were the utilities, petrol, and school and colleges sectors where there was an increase.

JCC did not break down figures to credit card and debit card transactions.

SEVEN CHARGES including conspiracy to commit murder were filed yesterday at the Nicosia District Court against three men suspected of plotting to assassinate Attorney-general Petros Clerides.

The three men are convict Andreas Onoufriou, former contract soldier Michalis Michael and lottery ticket seller Yiannakis Georgiou.

The three were arrested on October 28 on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Clerides using a disposable light anti-tank weapon or LAW.

The state yesterday filed seven charges against them, including: conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, and possession of weapons and explosive material without a licence. 

The district court ordered the three to remain in custody until the trial date, set for January 9, 2013.  

Last Tuesday, police said they located a 2011 proclamation attacking state officials, including the attorney-general, thought to have been penned by Onoufriou, who police accuse of being the mastermind behind the alleged assassination plot. The convict has denied the charges. 

Authorities have said that prison governor Giorgos Tryfonides was also a target.

The bulk of the police’s intelligence regarding the alleged plot came from another convict, Antonis Kitas, who is doing life for the murder and rape of two women.

THE LIMASSOL Assizes court yesterday sentenced a 74-year-old man to ten years’ imprisonment for shooting dead his neighbour following an argument, killing the victim in front of his wife and teenage son. 

The court found the man guilty of manslaughter.

The neighbours - both living in a Limassol apartment block - argued on July 6 after the victim’s son told his father the neighbour had reprimanded him for stomping over his air conditioning compressor. 

The victim, a 45-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, then argued with his neighbour, a Greek Cypriot, over the pensioner telling off his son.

The 74-year-old was out on his balcony when the two started arguing.

At some point, the Iranian started going to the 74-year-old’s apartment and was met by the pensioner who shot him in the head with a shotgun he was carrying.

The victim’s wife and son witnessed the shooting, Cyprus News Agency said.

The pensioner closed himself in his apartment after the shooting, but later surrendered when the police arrived.

THE bronze winner for windsurfing in this year’s London Olympics, Zofia Klepacka, set personal interests aside and sold her first Olympic medal to help a four-year-old girl suffering from cystic fibrosis.

The Polish Olympian, who visits Cyprus at least three times a year for training, has been invited to Cyprus along with the four-year-old girl, Zuzia Bobinska, and the girl’s mother, by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) who honoured her hard work in promoting the island abroad. 

In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) yesterday, Klepacka recalled numerous occasions during her training when she lacked motivation and had considered quitting, but the thought of being able to save Zuzia’s life with this medal gave her the strength to continue.

Her medal was auctioned for around €25,000 and is enough to provide medicine and special dietary requirements for Zuzia for a number of years.

 “I am content to remain with the memories of my win,” Klepacka said.

“Cyprus is an ideal place to train in, particularly for windsurfing, I’m surprised more people don’t take advantage of this,” Klepacka told CNA. 

Limassol and Ayia Napa are especially suited for sports training, she said, and the weather on the island allows for year-round training. 

The CTO’s tourism officer Monika Liatiri said the CTO had made considerable efforts to encourage athletes and sportsmen and women to come to Cyprus and train. In addition to marketing strategies, three incentive schemes have been created to promote sports tourism. The first is a programme which subdisises accommodation costs for foreign athletic teams coming to train in Cyprus, another subsidises athletic events and a third programme funds the building and improvement of athletic establishments. 

According to Liatiri there has been an increase in athletic tourism in the past three years, according to surveys which focused on track, football, cycling and swimming. 

“As windsurfing is not a mass sport, like in football and swimming where athletes arrive in teams, the number of athletes coming to train for windsurfing is bound to be less,” Liatiri said. 

“Having said this, Cyprus does attract windsurfers for training, and the number will undoubtedly increase with the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship that will be held in Limassol in 2013.”

BRITISH TAX authorities are combing through a list of over 8,000 names, allegedly including 134 Greek Cypriots, of offshore account holders at HSBC bank in Jersey searching for potential tax evasion or money laundering. 

British paper the Daily Telegraph reported last week that a whistleblower leaked HSBC’s Jersey client list to the British tax authorities, containing the names and addresses of 8,474 people. More than half are based in Britain, more specifically, 4,388 people holding £699 million (€872m) in offshore current accounts.

Some of those on the list of British-based clients are wanted by British police or have serious criminal convictions, including a drug dealer now living in Venezuela, three bankers facing major fraud allegations and a man convicted of possessing more than 300 weapons at his house in Devon, reported the paper.

The Daily Telegraph said the whistleblower also has further lists of offshore HSBC clients with addresses outside Britain, including 602 in Israel, 527 in France, 333 in Spain and 117 in the US. 

However, reports from Cyprus and Greece yesterday claimed the list also includes 97 Greek nationals and 134 Greek Cypriots with offshore accounts. These figures were not backed up by the Telegraph or any official source.   

While making use of tax havens is not illegal in itself, it is subject to a very strict set of rules and regulations. 

The latest disclosures once again shine a spotlight on how HSBC does business, with the bank already due to pay fines of around $1.5 billion in America for breaking money laundering rules.

According to the Telegraph, last July, a US Senate investigation found that the bank had failed to implement air-tight money-laundering controls in its operations in Mexico, while the bank also faced serious criticism for allegedly hiding Iranian transactions.

In 2008, an HSBC insider sold details of the bank’s clients in Geneva to tax authorities, leading to the creation of the ‘Lagarde list’, after the then French finance minister and current IMF head Christine Lagarde. 

More recently, a Greek journalist was acquitted of charges of violating personal data laws after publishing the details of Greek account holders on the Lagarde list, which was initially handed over to Greek authorities by the then French minister in 2010. 

PRESIDENT DEMETRIS Christofias and his cabinet will receive one-off bonuses at the end of their five-year term totalling close to €1.2 million, a popular daily reported yesterday. 

As troika representatives go over state finances with a fine-tooth comb, Phileleftheros did a spot of its own investigating, reporting the size of the bonuses and pensions allocated to top state and elected officials, as set out in the relevant legislation.   

According to the paper, when the president’s five-year term ends in March 2013, Christofias will receive a bonus of around €360,000, and a pension of €83,000, among other payments owed by the state. 

The old guard of cabinet ministers Neoclis Sylikiotis, Sotiroulla Charalambous and Loucas Louca, as well as government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou and Undersecretary to the President Titos Christofides will receive a bonus of €95,000 each at the end of their time in government plus annual pensions of €22,000 for those who’ve reached the age of 60. 

For ministers who served over 35 months, Demetris Eliades and Erato Kozakou Marcoullis, their golden handshake will come to around €70,000 each plus an annual pension of €15,000. 

Mid-term ministers Sophoclis Aletraris, Efthymios Flourentzos and Giorgos Demosthenous will reportedly receive a bonus of around €36,000 and an annual pension of €8,000 each. 

Relative newcomers Eleni Mavrou and Vassos Shiarly, who will have served 12 months by next March, will be entitled to around €12,000 in a one-off bonus but no pension. 

Newly-appointed health minister Androulla Agrotou who recently replaced AKEL-backed presidential candidate Stavros Malas will not be entitled to any benefits, said the paper. 

THE WOES OF CYPRUS were briefly discussed last night during the Eurogroup meeting, but not in a substantive way as the Greek crisis dominated talks.

An EU spokesman would only reveal that: “An update was provided on a possible adjustment programme for Cyprus, that’s it.” 

However, some interesting issues did emerge at closed-press gatherings prior to the meeting, including that the EU-IMF-ECB troika had become increasingly frustrated with Nicosia over their perceived ‘sluggish approach’ to the bailout talks.

Asked about the state of the talks, Simon O’Connor, the spokesman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Olli Rehn told the Cyprus Mail that discussions were ongoing, but would not elaborate on how much progress had been made.

“It’s not a question of when we want them to be concluded, it’s a question of how quickly they can proceed. We will work intensively with the Cypriot authorities, but I can’t give you a precise timeline at this stage,” O’Connor said.

But a reliable source close to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, said talks had taken longer than expected with Nicosia, adding: “We’ve played our part. Now it’s up to the Cypriots. It is in their interest to get an agreement.”

The same source confirmed, that despite rumours in Brussels, the troika had not suggested that Cyprus slash defence spending and slim-line the National Guard.

“Defence is a no-go area with the Cypriots, I’m not aware that any analysis of military spending has been mentioned,” the source said.

In terms of defence spending, a 2011 Centre for Strategic Studies report said that Cyprus was the fourth-highest spending country in the European Union in terms of the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent on defence at 2 per cent.

“I think Cyprus is seen as creating more trouble than its size would actually indicate,” Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Centre told the Cyprus Mail.

“Cyprus is asking for help - it needed help, so what its European partners are expecting is for Cyprus to be a bit more accommodating and play the game. European help comes with certain conditions.”

Meanwhile, the German finance minister continued to ruffle Cypriot feathers after he said that Russia and other "questions" regarding the financial sector in Cyprus are likely to delay a bailout decision until 2013. 

He told Welt Am Sonntag newspaper: "So far discussions between the troika and Cyprus have advanced very slowly. That is why we will probably be able to look deeper at the bailout request only in 2013," Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

Schaeuble singled out the "relationship to foreign lenders, including Russia" as one of the issues that need to be "clarified”.

The charismatic German minister, refused to comment on a report that German intelligence services had unearthed evidence that Cyprus was a centre of Russian money-laundering.

“All questions need to be clarified,” he said.

A source close to the President of the Council of Europe told the Cyprus Mail that he had “heard rumours” that closed-door negotiations aren’t going well.

“There is frustration with Cyprus, yes. They made a request in June; they have not been willing to address major issues, so there are people in many quarters of the union that remain dissatisfied with what is happening.” 

The source stopped short of suggesting that there were obstructionists working against the troika, but did offer a warning that sticking points should be cleared up immediately.

“And you might do well to remember this may backfire on Cyprus,” the source added. “There are some looking at the systemic implications of financial assistance, especially in Berlin. A self-imposed deadline on bailout talks should have been set months ago. Stop the political manoeuvring would be my message.”

Cyprus is seeking a bailout of up to €15 billion after its banks were hit hard by the Greek crisis.

Meanwhile, President Demetris Christofias arrived here last night, to discuss the seven-year budgetary framework, which sets out the EU's overall spending limits, with the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) due to begin at the start of 2014. 

Christofias will hold talks at breakfast with European Council President Herman van Rompuy this morning, then hold meetings with European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The presidents will take stock of developments concerning deliberations on the MFF for 2014-2020, in view of the forthcoming extraordinary European Council, on November 22 and 23. 

CYPRUS’ potential lenders turned their eye yesterday to what could be a future cash cow for the island - the natural gas reserves still lying untapped off the coast.

A troika team held successive meetings, first with Energy Service director Solon Kassinis, and then with officials from the Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA), the Electricity Authority (EAC) and the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA).

Kassinis told reporters later the foreign experts posed a series of probing questions on the island’s broader energy plans.

In particular, he said, they homed in on government plans to export natural gas to European and/or Asian markets, on the prospects for collaboration with neighbouring nations, the capacity of the LNG storage terminal to be built on the island, and on the short-term benefit to the economy from the signature bonuses for the four offshore licences awarded recently.

“They asked me for specific numbers,” said Kassinis. “I told them that from the signature bonuses we expect to receive around €200 million.”

The matter of whether this cash would go toward growth or to service the public debt was not discussed, he said in response to a question.

The troika wanted to know also how soon Cyprus would be able to make use of natural gas for domestic electricity generation, the EAC’s general manager Stelios Stylianou told reporters.

The experts asked about the current status of the Vasilikos power plant that was severely damaged by a blast last year.

At no point did the troika raise the issue of privatising the EAC, Stylianou said.

“They told us that they are staying here until all matters are resolved,” he added, alluding to the troika’s mission to Cyprus in general.

And DEFA chairman Costas Ioannou said the troika experts were interested in the ways in which natural gas would be distributed once it came ashore, as well as what pricing policies for electricity authorities have in mind.

“They are interested in everything, not just the hard numbers, but also the details, the procedures, the [commercial] models, pricing...” said Ioannou.

Late last month the government announced it had awarded four licences for gas exploration in offshore blocks as part of the second licensing round launched back in February.

The blocks for which the licences have been awarded are: 2, 3, 9 and 11. They are all contiguous blocks, lying north and north-east of Block 12, where US firm Noble Energy has a concession to drill and has reported significant gas finds.

For blocks 2 and 3, licences were awarded to a consortium consisting of ENI from Italy and KOGAS from South Korea; the licence for Block 9 went to a consortium consisting of Total E&P Activities Petrolieres (operator), NOVATEC Overseas Exploration & Production GMbH and GPB Global Resources BV (a Gazprombank subsidiary); and the Block 11 licence went to Total E&P Activities Petrolieres.

While the troika was busy probing the government’s energy plans, the commerce ministry yesterday began negotiations with the companies and consortia that were selected for the four offshore licences.

According to reports, the negotiations - which as far as the government is concerned, are aimed at improving the companies’ financial offers - began with the ENI-KOGAS consortium for offshore blocks 2 and 3.

Today talks will be held with the Total-NOVATEC consortium over the Block 9 licence, and with Total for the Block 11 licence.

The awarding of the Block 9 licence has come under a great deal of scrutiny after reports that the administration picked the French-Russian consortium despite the fact that its bid was rated lower than others.

Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said recently he hoped exploration contracts could be signed with the companies by “early 2013”. However, back in February, when the second licensing round was launched, the minister had indicated the second half of 2013.

It’s speculated that the expediting of the process could be linked to the government’s wish to demonstrate to the troika that Cyprus has additional assets in the form of natural gas.

ABOUT a hundred secondary school children took a day off yesterday in order to go to the education ministry to protest against the shortening of the work placement week from five to three days. The mobilisation of the students was done through Facebook and other social media, but the turn-out, thankfully, was very poor. 

Perhaps the warning by the head of secondary schools at the ministry, Zena Poulli, who said students who did not attend school would be punished, persuaded children to ignore the calls of the handful of so-called activists. The demonstration was not supported by the union of school kids, PSEM (Pancyprian Coordinating Committee of Students) which is all too often given a say in issues it should have no say in.

PSEM has been invited to attend a meeting to discuss the shortening of the work placement week at the education ministry tomorrow. Apart from education officials, parents associations, teaching union and head teachers will be represented at the meeting. The ministry decided to shorten the duration of work placement because it found that too many students were using this to take a holiday from school.

But why consult with PSEM about it? This is a group of underage school-kids, who should not even be extended the courtesy of being briefed by the ministry about its plans. These kids are not old enough to vote, sign a contract or drive a car but our society is giving them a say on how the education system should be run. Treating children like adults is not democracy or social consensus, it is sheer lunacy.

All that is achieved is to cultivate a union mentality, which has proved catastrophic for the country, from a young age. We are giving kids the message that mob rule is the way to get things done – just get a few hundred individual together and make your demand, threatening to take disruptive action if it is not satisfied. 

This mentality was also on show last week when students held a wildcat demo to demand they be allowed to wear tracksuits during the winter months, because they would be cold in jeans. Students claimed that it was their right to wear what they liked, arguing “the school can’t tell us what to do”. By the same logic, in the summer they should be allowed to wear string vests and flip-flops. 

Incredibly, the education ministry sent a circular to all secondary school heads that it was up to them to decide whether to satisfy their students’ demand to change their uniform. It beggars belief that nobody can see the damage that is being done by this pseudo-liberal approach to education. Will we ever realise that schools need discipline and structure, and immature kids should be treated as such instead of giving them a say on how schools should be run.   

AS NEGOTIATIONS with international lenders look set to drag on, the near-bankrupt government could now miss a new deadline for having a bailout package approved by eurozone finance ministers by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, and just as the bailout talks were heating up, President Christofias voiced his dissatisfaction with the troika, accusing it of setting ‘difficult terms’ on Cyprus.

With the Cypriot request for a bailout not making yesterday’s meeting of the Eurogroup, attention has now shifted to the next scheduled gathering of euro area finance ministers on December 3.

But reports yesterday indicated that clinching a deal even by then with the troika - IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank - was a long shot too.

Citing government sources close to the bailout talks, media outlets said the troika insists any rescue package must be signed only after an assessment of Cypriot banks is complete.

But the assessment by investment company Pimco is not expected anytime before early December, and state coffers could empty out by that time.

Pimco has been asked by Cypriot authorities - at the request of the troika - to conduct an asset quality review of Cypriot banks and co-operative financial institutions after losses that forced the island to seek an EU bailout.

The troika’s follow-up mission to Cyprus got underway last Friday.

Yesterday a group of troika experts met at the Finance Ministry with officials for an in-depth briefing on the government’s plans for natural gas.

Later in the day, another troika team discussed the banking sector at a meeting held at the Central Bank (CB), while another group met with officials of the Inland Revenue Service and with officials of the Planning Bureau to discuss planned public projects and estimated revenues.

Reports said the CB is now pushing for a deal that would delay Cypriot banks’ compliance with core Tier 1 requirements - a measurement of banks’ capital adequacy - to 2014, in the hope that by then the proposed Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for eurozone banks would be in place.

The Cypriot proposal, reports said, was geared at securing separate financing for the state, leaving the recapitalisation of the banks to a later date.

And following its meeting with the troika, later yesterday the CB announced it will be appointing an independent commission to “assess the challenges facing the banking sector”.

Dubbed the Independent Commission on the Future of the Cyprus Banking Sector, the panel’s objective would be to “review the size and structure of the Cypriot banking sector as well as the risks that it poses to financial stability, the real economy and public finances”.

According to the CB’s press release, the commission would focus on: reducing systemic risk and moral hazard in the banking sector; reducing both the likelihood and impact of bank failures, including in terms of the cost to taxpayers; and ensuring competition and consumer choice so that the needs of banks’ customers (both individuals and businesses) are efficiently served.

The commission would issue an interim review by mid-2013, and its final report by November 2013, the CB said.

It was not immediately apparent what, if any, connection this might have with the timeline of bailout talks.

Meanwhile adding to the impression that an overall rescue package might not be feasible by next month, other media reports said the troika is keen to ‘close’ all issues now and to discuss the banks’ recapitalisation in January.

The troika is said to consider that Cyprus’ public debt is not viable, and is proposing reforms to the social security system that would include greater contributions by civil servants as well as cuts to pensions.

On the payment of inflation-linked wage indexation, the troika is reportedly proposing that the current freeze be eventually lifted but that it be slashed by 50 per cent once payment of it resumes.

But the administration has stressed that Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) is a ‘red line’ for it. According to reports, during a meeting on Saturday morning at the presidential palace, President Christofias told aides he would not consent to some of the troika’s demands, referring to the CoLA issue specifically.

That meeting was held before Christofias flew out to Greece. Speaking from Thessaloniki later in the day, the president seemed to have an axe to grind with the troika, which he suggested was putting the squeeze on the government.

“The troika is setting terms that are difficult to accept,” he said.

“We are doing all we can to make others understand that unbridled neo-liberalism, which imposes harsh austerity and subjecting the economy to the rules of the so-called ‘free market economy’...cannot be the vision of 21st century Europe.”

The Central Bank yesterday announced it will be appointing an independent commission to assess the challenges facing the banking sector