CYPRUS Samaritans are urging anyone who feels lonely or depressed at this time of year to call them, and say they have expanded their services to cope with the growing number of people needing someone to talk to.

The Paphos-based volunteer organisation is now offering a free helpline number, which can be accessed from all over the island, has opened a new listening centre in Limassol and has expanded into email and social media in order to reach more people.

“Since the economic crisis took hold, we are receiving more calls from people who are losing their jobs; needing places to stay and are worried about money. People are really suffering from a lack of money and we are being contacted by people of all ages,” said Director of the Cyprus Samaritans, Sally Unsworth.

According to Unsworth, in the past year or so, the Samaritans have seen the biggest increase in the number of people contacting them via email. 

“I can’t give out any statistics as we don’t divulge this kind of information, but we also have a PO Box address for those who prefer to write us a letter,” she said. There is also a face to face service available by appointment.

“If people are feeling unhappy, sad, depressed, despairing or lonely, or they feel they don’t want to live, they should call us. These are all a range of normal human emotions; some people feel them worse than others. If you’re in a vulnerable position, it’s always good to talk. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone. We’re here to listen,” said Unsworth. “Often people feel that they have no one to turn to, they don’t want to burden family and friends with their problems of they feel that others may not understand and accept them; this is where we can be useful.”

The Cyprus Samaritans was established in 1997 and is affiliated to the International Network of Befrienders Worldwide which operates in close to forty countries all over the world. The Cyprus organisation is based on the same principles as that of the UK Samaritans.

Unsworth has been with the Cyprus Samaritans for the past eight years and will hold the position of director for three years, as the position is rotating.

 “We are now expanding the services and have now opened a centre in Limassol which is staffed mainly with new volunteers,” Unsworth said. This is another area where they hope to expand.

The aim is to be able to operate the helpline 24 hours a day; seven days a week, but this will require around 120 volunteers.

“We need to do more advertising; in particular we need to raise awareness within the Cypriot community. It’s still rather disappointing that people aren’t aware of who we are,” said Unsworth. To help in this respect, the organsiation has moved into social media and set up a Facebook page three weeks ago. 

To become a volunteer listener, a four-day study course must be completed, which is then followed up by six months with a mentor.

After that, a volunteer must have at lea18 months as a listener following the initial training course and six months with a mentor, before they can be considered as a leader.

“We are still looking for volunteers. Samaritans volunteers who man the phones are ordinary people, who want to give something back, are caring and are good at listening,” Unsworth said.

 “We respond to any communications we receive between our working hours of 4pm and midnight; this includes emails and we are open every day, all year. Any contact is strictly confidential and we never pass on any information which is given to us without the persons consent.”

Unsworth said many people call more than once and that this time of the year in particular, especially the lonely. “It could be due to a marriage or relationship ending, bereavement or other problems. We can also refer people to other agencies if they wish, for example alcoholics anonymous or organisations which deal with domestic violence issues.”

She said the job of volunteers is not to give advice but to listen, and in this way callers often come to conclusions on their own.

“Sometimes peoples thought can be muddled, it’s like a clothes dryer full of different coloured and shaped items tumbling around. You switch it off and sort them into the same colour and same shape, things can become clearer,” said Unsworth.

The help support themselves, the Samaritans have two charity shops in Paphos, which Unsworth said were very successful.

“The shops help to pay for the rents, the free phone telephone line, electricity bills and so on, and we hope to open another shop in Limassol in the next year or so,” said Unsworth. The Samaritan’s also organise a number of fundraising events throughout the year.

To contact the Samaritans: www.cyprussamaritans.org  Call Freephone 8000 7773 4pm- midnight seven days a week. E-mail: confidential@cyprussamaritans.org, or write to PO Box 64420, 8074 Paphos. 

The Samaritans are expanding their services

POLICE investigations continued yesterday into the murder of 34-year-old Yiannakis Christodoulou on New Year’s Day with no sign of the two culprits who sped away from the scene. 

Christodoulou, aka ‘Foxy’ was stabbed five times, four in the front and once in the back as he scuffled with two men on January 1 in a residential area of Polemidia in Limassol after they had initially cut him off in their car.

The investigations are focusing on genetic material found at the scene and also the victim’s phone records according to Limassol CID chief Yiannis Soteriades.

“We are examining all the evidence as we continue to question people in an attempt to speedily investigate the case,” he said.

Soteriades confirmed that Christodoulou had entered a witness protection programme for a specific case but that he had been released from the programme eight years ago. Police are continuing to monitor footage from closed circuit television that captured the route Christodoulou’s car took on the evening in question. The footage confirmed eye-witness reports that the two perpetrators had fled the scene in a dark coloured car according to Soteriades.

EIGHT hundred unemployed degree-holders were randomly drawn from a list on Wednesday night at the district office of Nicosia, as part of an island-wide effort by the interior ministry to provide temporary employment during election-time for those out of work. 

Those picked will be responsible for manning the election centres in the Nicosia constituency with the other districts following suit in the coming days.

The list of those chosen to man the election centres appears on the ministry’s website (www.moi.gov.cy/da) with each person chosen represented by their identity card number. The list of runners-up also appears on the site in the order they were chosen. 

Those chosen will be informed over the phone and will have to present confirmation of their unemployment status from the labour office and the IBAN number of their bank account so they can receive payment.

Those who do not present the necessary details by Friday, January 11 will be stricken from the list without prior notice and will be replaced by the next eligible runner-up.

CYPRUS beat out Britain and France, coming in 23rd place in a list of 80 countries ranked according to whether they were a good place for a child to be born in 2013.

The ‘where-to-be-born ‘index  was first compiled a quarter of  a century ago by the Economist Intelligence Unit as a light-hearted project but it says it has now earnestly calculated where would be best to be born in 2013. 

The quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys - how happy people say they are -to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. 

Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts - things like crime and trust in public institutions matter too, it says. In all, the index takes 11 indicators into account. Some are fixed, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, social and cultural characteristics).

According to the index the top five countries respectively are Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark with points ranging from 8.01 to 8.22. Cyprus reached joint 23rd with Chile with 7.10 points. Japan, France and Britain followed with 7.08, 7.04 and 7.01.

The US, which topped the first index in 1988 has dropped to 16th with 7.38 points, Greece was in 34th place with 6.65 and Turkey 51 with 5.95 points.

Bottom of the list respectively were Nigeria with 4.74 points, Kenya with 4.91, Ukraine with 4.98 and Bangladesh with 5.07.

The Economist said that during its calculations a forward-looking element also comes into play and that it had used  The Economist Intelligence Unit’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.

“Despite the global economic crisis, times have in certain respects never been so good. Output growth rates have been declining across the world, but income levels are at or near historic highs,” The Economist said. “Life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe. In other ways, however, the crisis has left a deep imprint—in the eurozone, but also elsewhere—particularly on unemployment and personal security. In doing so, it has eroded both family and community life.”

It said that small economies dominated the index’s top ten. Half of these were European, but only one, the Netherlands, was from the eurozone. “The Nordic countries shine, whereas the crisis-ridden south of Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate,” it said.

“America, where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place. Despite their economic dynamism, none of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) scores impressively. Nigeria is the worst place for a baby to enter the world in 2013, said The Economist.

“Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese. America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts.”

It concluded: “In the film “The Third Man”, Orson Welles’s character, the rogue Harry Lime, famously says that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock”.

DESPITE many shops having started their sales before Christmas, the Pancyprian Association of Clothing and Footwear a member of the small shopkeepers union POVEK, announced that the official  winter sales period began yesterday. 

“The sales are just the continued reduction in prices, a phenomenon,  which has been recorded by the commerce ministry over the last three years,” a statement from POVEK said.

“Our aim is for all the consumers to be given the opportunity to buy cheaper goods so small family businesses and the marketplace in general can be revitalised,” it added.

The Supreme Court ruled last October that the law regulating sales restricts the right to sell goods at discount prices outside the set time periods and was in violation of the relevant EU directive.

 It ruled on an appeal filed by the Shacolas Group against a district court decision finding it in violation of the sales law, allowing any business to put sales on at any time of the year. 

Before the ruling the winter sales season would officially start on the first Monday of February until the fourth Saturday of the month, and the summer sales season would start on the first Monday of August until the fourth Saturday of the month.

“The sale of goods at discount prices without time restrictions is not banned by the European directive which, on the contrary, prohibits member states from introducing and keeping in force legal measures that are stricter than the ones in the directive and measures that restrict the free movement of goods,” the Shacolas Group said.

Speaking on the radio yesterday, Lakis Zoides, head of the Pancyprian Association of Clothing and Footwear said that the Supreme Court’s decision was respected but some kind of order needed to exist within the marketplace. “We believe there needs to be specific sales periods with the consumer kept up-to-date as to the goings on with specific framework for shops to work within,” he said. “We will be going to see the Attorney-general next week to see if we can put legislation in place for specific sales periods or to at least have a deal in principal,” he added.

THE winter tourist season in Paphos has been one of the worst in the past ten years but according to industry professionals, there is a glimmer of hope.

The manager of the Paphos regional board of tourism, Nassos Hadjigeorgiou said that in order to ensure that the next winter season was better, pre- planning and action was imperative.

“It has been a very difficult winter for Paphos compared with previous years,” he said. “Domestic tourism was less than expected this year, as people chose to stay at home. Apart from the Russian injection of around 4,000 visitors during the festive season, there aren’t any other signs of positive developments for the winter period.”

In a bid to drum up business for 2013, Paphos will be promoted at tourist fairs across Europe this month, said Hadjigeorgiou.

“We must turn the current situation around, but there won’t be any real changes until March and we are planning well in advance for next winter,” he said.

Hadjigeorgiou said the lack of direct air connections to Europe and further afield was still a sore point.

“The matter of air connections is our priority. We need to be connected to our source markets which will bring winter visitors, such as, Germany, Scandinavia and central Europe,” he said.

Paphos is vigorously promoting its athletic infrastructure abroad, such as football training fields for football teams, hoping to attract Russians, Asian and European football teams but this would not bear fruit until next year as the training period is from January-March, and nothing is in place for 2013.

Other products such as rock climbing holidays and eco tourism, are also being developed, according to Hadjigeorgiou.

“We have started our marketing campaign for 2013 and next week we will travel to the Netherlands to attend a travel fair,” he said.

Although he said there was a decrease of 20 per cent in visitors from the Netherlands to Paphos in 2012 compared with the previous year, he said officials still believe that there is potential there.

Paphos will also be represented at travel fairs this month in Austria and Finland.

Hadjigeorgiou said that although Austrians are eager to visit Paphos, there are currently no direct flights, which creates a barrier in developing a market.

“Finland is also a popular market for Paphos and another tour operator will be offering packages to Paphos which is good news and will increase the capacity,” he said.

“There are moves from airlines interested to commence new flights. I can’t comment on that yet. We also believe that the Russian market will show further growth.” 

Hadjigeorgiou said it was also possible that Ryanair would expand its flights from Paphos in 2013.  “We also need to keep the UK market stable,” he added. “If all of these factors are achieved, it would give a solid indication that next year would be far better.”

VARIOUS sectors of the public service are still trying to work out the kinks in the new working hours that were agreed under the bailout terms with international lenders.

State services are serving the public for longer following extended working hours, which came into effect on Wednesday, the public administration and personnel department has said.

Civil servants - but not shift workers – can start work at any point between 7.30am and 8.30am and leave between 3pm and 4pm as a transition. From September 1, employees will come in between 8am and 9am, leaving between 3.30pm and 4.30pm.

They will no longer work Wednesday afternoons to serve the public, spreading out that time over the week instead.

The measure is part of changes aimed at reducing overtime by introducing non-stop working time and extending flexitime, said senior official with the public administration and personnel department at the finance ministry, Sophia Vassiliou.

It has proved to be good news for some workers in the broader public service.  

“I prefer having a lie-in and a relaxed morning, not getting stuck in traffic with parents driving kids to school,” said 34-year-old Margarita Georgiou, who works in a semi-state organisation. Georgiou may be among staff enabling the public to be served for longer. 

Vassiliou said most departments reported that they had complied and extended their hours. The public administration department wants to extend services to the public to 2.30pm instead of 1pm under the old system. This would mean members of the public who need to visit a government department could do so on their lunch break instead of rushing to get there by 1pm.

The citizen’s advice bureau will continue working as normal, between 8am and 5pm, Vassiliou said. Smaller semi-state organisations implanting government hours as part of their regulations are also enforcing the new schedule, she added. 

This includes the central agency for the equal distribution of burdens and the Cyprus youth board. 

Bigger semi-governmental bodies, including the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), are unaffected.

EAC spokesman Costas Gavrielides said they were still mulling the changes.

“We employ shift workers and [overhauling the schedule] is not so simple. We have to see how we can tend to the authority’s needs,” Gavrielides said. 

Police and the health ministry that also use the shift system have asked all staff to come in at 7.30am, until they can see what changes they can introduce.

State facilities that don’t have an electronic clocking in and out system cannot monitor the flexitime arrangement, and so are also having all staff come in at 7.30am, the public administration department said.

Adding a voice of dissent, Glafcos Hadjipetrou the head of public service union PASIDY said it was not clear yet whether or not it served the public to abolish Wednesday afternoon opening.  “The issue is about serving Cyprus society,” Hadjipetrou said, even though the new hours would see public services open longer on a daily basis and not just on Wednesdays. 

It is, at any rate, to soon to gauge the broader  impact of the changes. 

Traffic conditions should improve as public servants will no longer leave en masse at 2:30pm to return home along with bank employees at the same time, and workers will not have to share the streets with parents dropping their kids to school in the mornings. But the head of the traffic police, Demetris Demetriou, said they would have to wait for next week when schools open to see what happens.

OPPOSITION parties DISY and DIKO yesterday called for an emergency meeting of the House Finance Committee to discuss ways of keeping the island’s debt sustainable and avoid additional austerity.

The two parties, which support the candidacy of DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades in February’s presidential poll, said joint action was necessary to reverse the situation and create prospects for the Cypriot economy.

“If together we succeed in keeping the public debt at sustainable levels, then we will avoid taking additional painful measures and at the same time create better conditions for a faster recovery of the economy,” said Anastassiades’ spokesman Tasos Mitsopoulos.

Mitsopoulos said it was of the upmost urgency for the government and the Central Bank to finally put forward convincing arguments that would lead to the reduction of the amounts necessary to recapitalise the banks and cooperatives.

“The sustainability of Cyprus’ public debt must be our main concern at the moment if we honestly want to not burden Cypriot taxpayers with even more painful austerity measures and prevent the possibility of privatisations,” Mitsopoulos said.

Reports suggest the preliminary results of due diligence showed that banks will need €10.3 billion. 

That’s on top of some €7.5 billion needed by the state. 

The Central Bank wants to challenge this estimate, with the help of a foreign consultancy firm, in a bid to revise the figure downward - closer to €9 billion or lower. 

If the total bailout amount reaches 100 per cent of the island’s GDP, or around €18 billion, it would mean a debt to GDP ratio of 140 per cent

That could spell trouble for Cyprus as the IMF considers any debt over 120 per cent unsustainable.

There are various options available to make a debt sustainable, including a write-down or haircut, similar to what the EU did in Greece.

A haircut however would do more harm to Cypriot banks.

“Most of Cyprus’ debt is held by banks, which needed the capital in the first place,” said Fiona Mullen, director of Sapienta Economics. “If a haircut is supposed to help Cyprus it does not look that it will under the circumstances.”

An alternative would be to extend the debt repayment period, Mullen said, and lower the interest rate.

A haircut would also affect provident funds that hold government debt, and force a reduction in pensions, according to economist Alexander Apostolides.

One solution would be to write-down the debt held by foreign entities if possible.

“I am not sure if we can make a distinction between internal and external debt,” Apostolides said.

One other option is for the banks to borrow directly from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), thus removing the burden from the state.

However, some EU states, including Germany, oppose this because they do not want the ESM undertaking any so-called legacy debt - debt dating back to before the facility was established in October.

THIS YEAR will be full of challenges, Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades said yesterday, with the need to successfully implement the bailout adjustment programme taking centre stage.

Successful implementation of the adjustment programme would secure the stability of the island’s banking system, which is currently going through severe turbulence due to its exposure to Greece, the governor said.

“Our aim is for a banking system based on solid foundations,” Demetriades told reporters.

Demetriades, who took over at the helm of the Central Bank early last year, struck a note of optimism about the future of the sector.

“I am in a position to say today that the banking sector is turning the page. The Central Bank is looking ahead and is optimistic about the future … but at the same time it seeks to identify past mistakes so that they will not be repeated,” Demetriades said.

Cyprus sought financial assistance in June last year after its two biggest banks asked for state help to cope with the heavy losses they incurred following the write-down of Greek sovereign debt.

Bank of Cyprus and Popular also have considerable exposure to Greece’s flagging economy, which costs the lenders a lot of money in the form of provisions for bad debts.

Their acquisition of so much Greek debt as well as their expansion abroad is currently the object of an investigation carried out by professional services firm Alvares and Marsal.

Demetriades said the adjustment programme sets the basis for the recovery of the Cypriot economy, despite some painful measures.

The measures that concern the banking sector “will lead to a more robust, competitive and resistant banking system that will be able to support healthy private initiative and viable growth.”

Cyprus has come to a preliminary agreement with international lenders pending the total amount needed to recapitalise the banks.

The amount will also determine the sustainability of Cyprus’ public debt and whether additional measures like privatising public companies would be necessary.

PETROL station operators called an indefinite strike from midnight in an attempt to prevent the licensing of new stations. The measure was implemented in the Famagusta district from Wednesday, with operators protesting against the opening of another station, and was extended to the whole country from today. 

As seems to be the case with such disputes, it is not quite clear what all the fuss is about. One new station has been given a licence to open in the Famagusta district – building has not yet begun - but the operators have been claiming that the number of stations could increase from 28 to 48. How plausible is this? It would make no business sense for the petrol companies to almost double the number of stations in a small, under-populated region, as they would never recoup their investment.

Now if all this fuss and inconveniencing of the public is over the opening of one new station, it would have been ridiculous. The operators’ association, which called a national strike yesterday, has used this as an excuse to put pressure on the government to pass a new law that would control – restrict might be a better word – the opening of new stations. The association’s main complaint was that although a freeze on new station licences was agreed with the relevant government services until the new law governing the issuing of licences was drafted, 10 new stations had been built in 2012 and tens more applications were pending. If the new law was not passed the pending applications would also be approved.

This is what happens when the government bases its decisions on the wishes of interest groups – creates the belief that petrol station operators should have a say over how many garage licences should be issued. If a petrol company wants to set up new stations, nobody should stop them, least of all the operators of other stations. Do supermarket owners or kiosk owners demand that the state should stop new supermarkets or kiosk from opening, because it would affect their revenue? Why should petrol station operators have the right to make such a demand in a market economy?

There are currently 325 stations in Cyprus, with one operator claiming this was 35 per cent above our requirements. But they are all still in business, presumably because of the resourcefulness of the operators who also make money from car wash services and the sale of kiosk items. Perhaps in the future, operators will reduce their costs and increase profits, by not employing pump attendants and allowing customers to fill their cars on their own.

It should be made clear to operators, once and for all, that they have no say in how many station licences would be issued and should focus on running their own businesses.

MOTORISTS snaked in long queues at petrol stations across the island last night ahead of today’s indefinite strike by petrol station owners demanding a freeze in new licences until new legislation is implemented to regulate the market. 

The operators’ association said it was left with no other choice after numerous discussions with authorities yielded no results. The association argued it was promised by the government that stricter restrictions on acquiring new licences would be introduced so as not to flood the market, but that these have not been implemented. 

“There was no other option but to proceed with the decision to shut down all filling stations from Friday, January 4,” the association said. “Our demand is for a freeze in licences until new regulation and criteria for the operation of fuel stations are approved by parliament.”

The strike started on Wednesday in the Famagusta area where operators are furious over the creation of new stations in their area.

They claim that if things continue as they are, the number of garages could rise significantly and that their businesses face ruin with the increased competition.

However, it wasn’t quite clear yesterday whether the island-wide strike, starting today at 6am, where not even self-service machines will be operational, was called to protest against the oversaturation of the market- with claims that the number of existing petrol stations is already 35 per cent more than necessary- or because a number of stations were allegedly issued licences irregularly. 

Head of the Petrol Station Owners’ Association Stefanos Stefanou yesterday clarified that the owners were not against new licences per se, given that they operate in a free market open to competition, but that they oppose licences being issued to petrol stations that allegedly do not meet all the requirements. 

Operators are calling for more restrictions to control the number of stations being established. 

The association’s honorary chairman Pambinos Charalambous referred to the new licences issued in recent years, saying: “We are not saying we don’t want any new petrol stations to be constructed – it is a free market. 

“These new petrol stations should be constructed based on new regulations, stricter criteria, just like the ministries of commerce and interior have promised us, but the legislation is still not in effect,” he added.

A licence awarded for a new petrol station on the Paralimni-Ayia Napa road prompted the initial strike in the Famagusta District, which caused chaos in the south-east of the island with motorists forced to drive to Larnaca to fill up their tanks. 

Paralimni mayor Theodoros Pyrillis yesterday said his municipality was not responsible for the town planning permit, adding that if the relevant state services revoke the licence then the local authority will follow suit and cancel its building permit. 

“The municipality does not control town planning. There was a licence given for this particular petrol station and since the departments responsible approved its construction, the municipality could not object. The licence was not issued against regulations,” he said.

Pyrillis criticised the operators’ association for choosing to launch an island-wide strike today, two days after Famagusta operators went on strike. 

The people and economy of Famagusta should have been given some respite from the strike before launching a nation-wide strike, he argued. 

According to senior town planning officer Makis Chrysostomou around five to six licences applications are submitted per district each year. 

In Famagusta, there are currently 18 operational petrol stations, a further six under construction and two or three applications for new licences pending evaluation, said Chrysostomou.  

He argued that in the last two years, stricter rules have been implemented on issuing licences, with the association’s views taken into consideration.  

Chrysostomou referred to the 2011 amendments to the local town planning zones that will be implemented, introducing even tougher criteria for obtaining a licence. 

“Based on the previous criteria, a petrol station could be constructed 500 metres away from another one, but now there has to be a distance of 1000 metres. Also, petrol stations cannot be constructed close to schools or within 200 metres of a populated area.” he said.

Interior Minister Eleni Mavrou told the Cyprus Mail last night that she has arranged a meeting with the association for this morning at 9am when she will explain the government’s position. 

“I will inform them of changes that have been made. If they want, they might be satisfied,” she said. 

“We had a meeting two months ago, and they raised the issue of not issuing new licences. We explained we cannot do that. At the same time, we explained we would pass new procedures for the local town planning zones that would provide more stringent requirements for getting a licence,” said the minister. 

“These changes have been made. Cabinet approved last week all the local town planning zones for all districts which will be published in the official gazette today,” added Mavrou.  

Regarding the claims that some licences were given despite the application not meeting all criteria set, the minister pledged to carry out a thorough investigation into all such allegations given to her by the association, and either re-examine the licence in question or if need be revoke it. 

Asked why the meeting with the association had to wait until after the strike started, Mavrou said many services and departments were involved in issuing licences, requiring some time to coordinate and consult before approaching the operators.   

Regarding the mad rush by motorists queuing to fill their tanks before the strike, the minister said: “I don’t agree that people should be troubled in this way, with a little good will we could solve the issue.”  

On the operators’ demands, she said: “You cannot intervene in the free market through town planning. There is no way to interfere in the operation of businesses, not just petrol stations, but also bakeries, kiosks, the lot. What you can do is regulate them and we’re doing that with the local town planning zones.”  

Speaking on the main news show on CyBC last night, Stefanou hinted that he could call the strike off after the meeting with Mavrou if their demands are met.

Motorists queue up to fill their tanks in Larnaca (Christos Theodorides)

WHENEVER we hear the statements made by President Christofias and AKEL’s top brass we become confused. We form the impression that either we are living in another country or that they are addressing people in another country. 

The only sure thing is that they could not be in Cyprus, addressing Cypriots and talking such incoherent nonsense. Christofias, reaching new heights of the irrationality that has marked his words and deeds for a long time now, came up with another classic a few days ago - he was leaving office, proud of his achievements.

During the traditional cutting of the ‘vasilopitta’ at AKEL HQ, he said: “We leave, proud of our services to the Cypriot people. The government has managed to safeguard the rights and conquests of working people as well as issues relating to the sovereignty of the state during discussions with the troika.”

It takes a lot of nerve for someone leaving the presidency of a country that has gone bankrupt to feel proud of this achievement; this is probably the most insane statement ever made by a head of state. All our politicians talk nonsense, but this is in another league, as it crosses the boundaries of absurdity.

It would be very interesting if the president informed us which achievements he felt proud of on leaving office. The first thing that springs to mind of most people that heard him would have been the Mari disaster in which 13 people lost their lives and a power station was blown to bits causing losses of €1 billion to the economy. And all this because of the sick obstinacy of Christofias who insisted on the ‘safe’ keeping of vast quantities of explosives for the sake of a bloodthirsty tyrant, in order to get one over the Americans and satisfy his ‘anti-imperialist’ prejudices.

And he cannot be proud of the stench left by the scandals that decorated his presidency. He was personally responsible for some, as the heroes of these were his personal choices - friends and close associates at the presidential palace or the attorney-general’s office. 

We all remember the case of the tooth implants of his personal appointee, deputy Attorney-general Akis Papasavvas that were paid for by the taxpayer and whom the president publicly defended. Then there were the rampant rousfeti orders which were being sent out from the PCs of his associates and the AKEL leader. 

Was it these cases that made him proud and allowed him to leave office with his “head held high”? A president with so many embarrassments on his record should not leave with his “head held high” but with it hanging down in shame.

The best thing is that the president has an appetite for black humour now that he is leaving. In five years he almost doubled the foreign debt, squandering the borrowed money on provocative payments and benefits in the belief that this would buy votes for his re-election. Yet even though he will be leaving with his tail between his legs, he said he felt proud because he safeguarded the “rights and conquests of the working people”. 

Was it the “conquests” of the 55,000 people who lost their jobs that he safeguarded? And what of the tens of thousands who saw their wages and pensions drastically cut under his presidency? Did he safeguard their “rights” as well? All this has nothing to do with the banks and the bankers, whom he wants to burden with his own unforgivable sins, as if their own blunders were not enough.

Finally, we should not say anything about the Cyprus problem, about which the “solution president” thought he was fooling everyone for five years. Departing from office he leaves partition so firmly cemented, that not even the most powerful pneumatic drill could crack it.     

CYPRUS is expected to attract an increased number of tourist arrivals in 2013, tourism minister Efthymios Flourenzou said yesterday.
The newly established direct flights between Cyprus and Ukraine as well as bookings made so far from Russia and Britain justify our optimism regarding tourism, he said.
He was speaking during a visit yesterday to Larnaca airport, where he was briefed about the flights and arrivals to both Larnaca and Paphos.
“We hope that an increased number of tourist arrivals will be recorded this year,” Flourentzou said, pointing out that this will benefit not only airports but also the hotel industry and the island’s economy at large.
Asked on which data he bases his optimism, the Minister said, “on the bookings already made in Russia”, adding that another positive development is the direct flights between Cyprus and Ukraine which will begin soon but also the indications from the British market.

A TOTAL of 1,100 polling stations will operate across Cyprus for the upcoming Presidential elections, scheduled for February 17, Chief Returning Officer Andreas Assiotis said yesterday.
Assiotis also said that efforts are underway to reduce expenses, in light of the financial crisis. “Everything is proceeding smoothly,” concerning preparations for the election day, the Chief Returning Officer said. According to Assiotis, savings will incur from the full employment of embassy personnel in the polling procedure, to reduce spending from the dispatch of personnel to polling stations abroad.
February’s elections are being contested by a total of nine candidates although the three main ones are: President of the main opposition right wing party Democratic Rally (DISY) Nikos Anastasiades, who is backed by his party and centre right Democratic Party DIKO; Stavros Malas, who will run having secured the backing of the ruling left wing party AKEL; and the independent candidate, former foreign minister Giorgos Lillikas, who is backed by the socialist party EDEK and others.

GRAVE concern for the future of religious treasures seized by the Turks and held at a police station in Munich, Germany, since 1997 has been expressed by the founder of Walk of Truth, Tasoula Hadjitofi.
Her comments come after the German newspaper Abendzeitung Munich reported in December that Turkish antiquities official Aydin Dikmen has not only claimed the antiquities as part of his wife’s dowry but has asked for financial compensation from the Church in the event they are returned.
Hadjitofi said if this is true, the work by all those seeking the return of the items over the years must be taken into account and an investigation should be started to show how the case reached this point.
She also raised alarm bells over the condition the items are now in, having lain in the Bavarian police station for 15 years.
The treasures were found in Dikmen’s Munich apartment after coordinated actions of the Bavarian police and Hadjitofi, who at that time was serving as a representative of the Church for Cultural Heritage and Consul of Cyprus in The Hague.
At the same time, in a letter to Walk of Truth the mayor of Kyrenia Glafcos Kariolou calls for full details and information on the fate of religious images from Kyrenia that are now in the hands of the Bavarian police. The mayor says a clear assessment of the situation both in Munich and other cases of stolen treasures following the 1974 invasion needs to be made so the municpality can draw up a programme to secure their return.
Particularly serious concern on the subject was expressed by Kyrenia Bishop Chrysostomos during a recent visit to Holland where he begged to be updated regularly by the Walk of Truth about developments in court cases concerning treasures stolen from Kyrenia.
Hadjitofi has asked the Law Office of Michalakis Kyprianou to prepare a legal report that shows the state of affairs with specific recommendations for future steps that need to be made for the safe repatriation the treasures of Kyrenia found in Dikmen’s apartment.
Walk of Truth is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in The Hague, The Netherlands. It was established to raise awareness of the value of cultural heritage in all its forms. It is particularly involved in tracing Cyprus artifacts that disappeared after the 1974 invasion.

One of the treasures now languishing in a German police office

A SUPPOSEDLY multi-million investment deal with a Chinese company to develop the old Larnaca airport is dead, the government said yesterday.
“I would say it is finished for good,” Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos told reporters during a visit to Larnaca airport.
The minister said Hermes and the government will meet tomorrow with a view of coming out with a joint invitation to potential investors interested in developing the old airport building.
“The situation will develop according to what is proposed by those wanting to develop the site. It would be up to them to propose and we will evaluate the proposals and find one that is beneficial,” Flourentzos said.
Airports operator Hermes and the privately owned Chinese firm Far Eastern Phoenix had concluded a deal said to yield a €600 million benefit for Cyprus.
The intended investment concerned developing the old Larnaca airport into a large commercial showroom, bonded warehouses for Chinese goods as well as a small conference centre.
Under the deal signed with Hermes, Far Eastern Phoenix would assume the management of the airport for the remaining duration of the concession agreement between Cyprus and Hermes - 19 years.
The Chinese company had asked for a longer term lease – 50 years – than the 19 years Hermes is able to give.
However, legal questions have been raised over whether the state could offer the Chinese firm a further 31 years without a tender process.
Extending the deal to 50 years would violate the principle of equal treatment, given that had other investors known about this possibility they might have expressed an interest.

THE PARENTS of a Muslim girl are taking the UK’s only Greek Orthodox primary school to court for refusing to let her wear a headscarf.
The story has been reported across several media outlets – in the UK and elsewhere –after the parents of the nine-year-old applied to the High Court to lift the school’s ban.
The head of St Cyprian’s primary school in south London’s Croydon, Kate Magliocco, said the parents believe it would be sinful for the nine-year-old to be seen without a headscarf in the presence of male teachers.
The Huffington Post (UK) quoted Magliocco as saying that the decision not to allow her to wear a headscarf was taken by the school’s governing body.
“The school has a very particular uniform policy, which is shared with parents and, as head, I must follow the plan,” Magliocco said adding that the family were informed of their policy before the student joined them.
The parents have withdrawn their daughter from the school but want to reinstate her because her brother still goes there.
The school’s mission statement says that it aims to support “supportive learning environment through the national curriculum, enriched by the progressive teaching of the Greek language and Christian Orthodox religion.”
The school also states on its website that it is committed to “promoting good relations between members of different racial, cultural and religious groups”.
The London Evening Standard said last week that the school’s uniform policy on its website required girls to wear a dark blue coat, optional blazer, a skirt, white blouse and a navy blue pullover, but was silent on headscarves.
The school’s website lists a few dozen school policies, but now makes no mention of a school uniform policy.
The UK government’s guidance on uniforms says that there is “no legislation that deals specifically with school uniform or other aspects of appearance such as hair colour and style, and the wearing of jewellery and make-up.”
On the issue of ethnic and religious dress, the government advises schools “to be sensitive to the needs of different cultures, races and religions” and “to act reasonably in accommodating these needs within a general uniform policy”.
Though geared towards children of Greek Orthodox faith, the school makes available 15 per cent of its intake to non-Orthodox Christian children and a further 5.0 per cent to children of other faiths.
A 2010 report by Ofsted, the UK’s schools’ inspection body, says that 60 per cent of the pupils come from families of Greek origin or other European backgrounds, and 10 per cent have white British backgrounds.
The same report says that “while pupils respect the diversity of the beliefs of their classmates, they have less secure understanding of those having different backgrounds or who live in contrasting localities in the United Kingdom.”
But it also said that the school’s communities have a harmonious relationship.
The High Court is due to hold a hearing on the case next month, the London Evening Standard said.

TWO suspects have been detained in connection with the murder of a 34-year-old man in Limassol on New Year’s Day, police said yesterday.
The two men, aged 32 and 23, were arrested on Friday night and have been remanded in custody for eight days.
Police spokesman Andreas Angelides said the pair allegedly had personal differences with the victim, Yiannakis Christodoulou.
Angelides said the suspects’ claims regarding their whereabouts on the day the crime was committed could not be confirmed so far.
During the remand hearing, police told the court that the 23-year-old’s right thumb bears injuries apparently caused by a knife.
A 20-year-old man is also in police custody after police found a 12-centimetre folding knife in a car he was using.
The car had been reported stolen and was carrying fake registration plates, police said.
During questioning, the 20-year-old admitted that he knew the car was stolen and was also being used by the other two suspects.
Christodoulou, aka Foxy, was stabbed five times, four in the front and once in the back as he scuffled with two men on January 1 in a residential area of Polemidia in Limassol after they had initially cut him off in their car.

MAIN opposition leader Nicos Anastasiades yesterday described President Demetris Christofias as a monomaniac and urged him to come clean on whether he had agreed to privatising public companies if the island’s debt was deemed unsustainable.
“He ought to boldly say if he has agreed or not to negotiate the issue of privatising semi-state organisations if our debt proves to be unsustainable,” Anastasiades said. “It is in the memorandum. Consequently, to say something else before a party audience is sad and not fitting for a president.”
A preliminary agreement struck between international lenders and the government says that “if necessary to restore debt sustainability, the Cyprus authorities will consider a privatisation programme for state-owned and semi-public companies.”
On Wednesday, Christofias made it clear that he had no intention of signing a bailout agreement that included privatisations.
“I hope… they (lenders) do not ask us to also privatise semi-state organisations because if they do - I am making it clear - I am in no mood to proceed with such a step as president of the Republic,” he said.
In fact, the government repeatedly said it had averted the privatisations, which the lenders had pursued.
“Propaganda is good and fooling the people is (also) good. But the memorandum itself leaves room to revisit the issue of privatisations if the debt is not sustainable,” Anastasiades said.
The DISY leader said if the monomaniac Christofias had taken into consideration proposals submitted by other parties “we would not have the results we have today.”
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou yesterday said the administration negotiated hard to prevent privatisations.
“The final reference in the memorandum creates the prospect of avoiding privatisations; if however it is left to Mr. Anastasiades, this potential would be eliminated,” Stefanou said.
He accused DISY of protecting the wealthy by saddling wage earners with the burden of austerity measures, adding that Anastasiades could not hide his real self no matter how much he tried.
“Mr. Anastasiades is used to complaining about presidents abroad and hurling abuse against them,” Stefanou said. “Today he called the president a monomaniac, something which reminds what he used to say about the previous president, Tassos Papadopoulos.”
The spokesman said Anastasiades had called Papadopoulos a liar.
“This is the new ethos and tone Mr. Anastasiades is advocating and saying he will bring into politics,” Stefanou said.

President Christofias opening a multi-use hall in Pyrgos yesterday

WE WOULD like to wish a happy and healthy New Year to all our customers. We have omitted the adjective ‘prosperous’ from our wishes, in case anyone thought we were taking the piss or engaging in black humour. If there is one thing that is certain about 2013 it is that, for most people, it will be anything but prosperous.
On the plus side, after February the clique of incompetent, commie half-wits who have turned a once-thriving plantation into a wasteland will not be able to cause any more destruction as they will leave office. On the minus side, by March there could be nothing left to save for the successor of Tof the Terrible.
The outrage is that Tof will leave his job with a retirement bonus of 350 grand, an annual pension in excess of 60 grand and a government limo, while he will also be provided with bodyguards, a chauffeur and a secretary by the taxpayer. Kyproulla has always rewarded poor performance and failure very generously.
Still, I resent the fact that as a taxpayer I will be contributing to a five grand per month pension to a commie clown whose reckless stupidity has bankrupted the country, left tens of thousands of people jobless with zero prospects and reduced us to begging for money from the EU.

THE COMRADE, of course, had a different view of his pathetic presidency. Last Sunday, speaking to a commie gathering in Larnaca, he said: “These five years, under very difficult circumstances, we were responsible, both in the Cyprus issue and domestic policy, for achievements of exceptional significance. If only everyone in this country could say the same thing… we worked in such a way so our children and grandchildren would be proud.”
Three days later, during the vasilopitta-cutting ceremony at AKEL’s offices, it was evident that his condition had not improved. “We leave with our head held high and proud of our services to the Cypriot people for 90 years and for our services of the last five years.”
He did not give any examples of the achievements of exceptional significance and it is doubtful even he in this delusional state would count the blowing up of a brand new power station which caused the death of 13 people as one of them.
What he deserves to be proud of, even though I am sure he is not, is that he cut the wages and pensions of the public parasites by about 15 per cent. In short, he made the rich poorer, which must have satisfied his communist conscience, but in the process he also made the poor much poorer.
Without meaning to the comrade turned Kyproulla into the Cuba of the Mediterranean, but with a few more freedoms.

ARCHBISHOP Chrys, who is not an economist or a great mind, pointed out the poverty politics when he was called by Mega TV on Wednesday night to respond to the latest attack by Tof the Terrible. Chrys the not-so-meek said the comrade wanted to make the rich poorer but should have realised that when this happened “the poor will also become poorer.”
The spat was sparked by the failure of the government to send a representative to the New Year’s Day church service held by Chrys. The holy man described this behaviour as shameful and said the government “was for pitying.” The next day the vindictive comrade accused Chrys of belonging to the group of businessmen and bankers responsible for the mess the economy was in. “The Primate of the Church cannot be excluded from this group of entrepreneurs and bankers.”
Chrys has said and done a lot of stupid things in his career but destroying the economy was not one of them. Only one man has the right to take credit for this achievement of exceptional significance, even though his innate modesty does not allow him to do so.

DURING the cutting of the vasilopitta Tof the Terrible also expressed the wish that the troika would not insist on the privatisation of semi-governmental organisations when the memorandum was finalised because if it he would refuse to sign.
“I have a commitment to the party and to the programme of the government. I want to make this clear he said.” He is already plotting his escape route, happy to leave the signing of the memorandum he brought upon us to his successor.
But was it not the comrade and his cheerleaders who kept telling us that the government team’s supreme negotiating skills had saved the SGOs from privatisation? Were they lying? Of course they were. The memorandum, to which the comrade agreed, said that if the assistance fund was too high the SGOs would be privatised. So will he now go back on his agreement with the troika because of his commitment to the party?
As any self-respecting coward that proudly refuses to take responsibility for anything he will leave the signing of the memorandum to someone else.

IT WAS not only Chrys who pissed off our inadequate rulers last week. The former Governor of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides, the man AKEL decided should take the fall for the blameless comrade’s criminal incompetence, gave an interview to Sigma TV that had the comrades seething.
Orph responded to every lie uttered by the Akelite propaganda machine, rationally explaining all the mega blunders by the comrade which led to the state needing a bailout and debunking the commie myths about him, which most people had bought.
The situation could have been salvaged as late as last May if the government took the measures the finance minister had told the ECB would be taken. But Tof the Terrible vetoed the relatively mild measures Vasos Shiarly had prepared and less than a month later we asked for a bailout.
Having no answer, the government spokesman simply said that Orph had resorted to “the well-known lies and wretchedness” to the cover his responsibility for the banking crisis. He should keep quiet, Stef-Stef advised. Had anything of what he said been a lie, Stef-Stef would have taken great pleasure in pointing it out, but, strangely, he failed to do so.
AKEL does not need to provide proof when it declares someone a liar because it has been serving the Cypriot people for 90 years.

AKEL deputy and bon viveur Stavros Evagorou said that the party was considering filing a law-suit for defamation against Orph. This was not because Orph claimed Tof had personally interfered in his work demanding a favour for a specific businessman. Obviously that was not a lie. The party would sue because Orph claimed AKEL was immersed in corruption and everyone knew this to be untrue.

NOBEL PRIZE winner, professor Christoforos Pissarides, who has a weakness for publicity, also gave a TV interview last week but the show he chose to appear on was surprisingly low-brow.
He was a guest on Mega’s afternoon chat show, in a Barbie doll-house studio setting, hosted by one of the regulation blonde bimbos that dominate daytime TV. What was a Nobel winner doing on show that makes no secret of its mindless fluffiness? Apart from the presenter it also features three characters sitting behind desks making lame jokes.
They were removed when Pissarides was being interviewed and answering questions by callers, one of whom introduced himself as “a former classmate of your brother-in-law Makis Constantinides”. Pissarides, rather unwisely, even tried to answer a question about a possible hair cut of bank deposits, betraying a naivety that some really smart people have.
He ended up telling the caller, if she had 300 grand to open three accounts of 100 grand in three different banks as this amount was guaranteed by the government. But if someone had a deposit of a million euro he or she “should worry”, he said. Did it not occur to him that he could have started a bank run with his comments?
When a Nobel laureate goes on telly and says that there could be a hair cut of deposits, people are inclined to take the warning seriously.

PISSARIDES also made some very interesting revelations. Despite honouring him, the government never once asked him for advice about anything. Labour minister Sotiroulla, whose measures to fight unemployment increased the numbers of jobless, never thought it necessary to ask the professor, specialising in employment economics, for a meeting.
The government did not consider using his knowledge of the European Commission and the IMF, with which he had worked in the past, in the bailout talks. Instead we had Sotiroulla, Sylikiotis and Stef-Stef negotiating with the troika. The problem was that like Shiarly he was not an Akelite and therefore could not be trusted.
On the show, Pissarides said things that would have embarrassed the government – the delay in agreeing a bailout was a very big mistake; the banking crisis was not the only cause of the economy’s problems; blaming Orphanides for the crisis was unjustified; the failure to take measures to reduce the deficit promptly made things worse.
It was a good thing that no journalists saw the show because if they asked the spokesman about his criticism of the government, Stef Stef and AKEL might have to declare our Nobel laureate a liar, that should keep quiet.

THE WOBBLY thrown by the Egyptian Ambassador Menha Mahrous Bakhoum at Larnaca Airport last weekend when dutiful cops insisted that she went through a security check before going into the departure lounge provided some light relief in these miserable times.
Ms Bakhoun had a ‘do you know who I am’ tantrum when cops asked her to take off her boots at the security screening point and she refused. The cops refused to let her go through and after an exchange of words with a female cop who stood in front of her blocking her way, the ambassador gave the uppity cop a solid slap in the face. Other cops stepped in and one of them put Ms Bakhoun’s hands behind her back and led her away.
Sigma TV obtained the CCTV footage of the showdown and broadcast it on Thursday night. It also showed how the cops pushed around the relatives whom the ambassador was accompanying. The feisty ambassador, when she was taken to a private room at the airport, reportedly pulled the wig off a male officer but there was no video footage of this incident.
Our government, fearing the incident might affect Cyprus-Egypt relations, offered a groveling apology to the ambassador. Ms Bakhoun, however, did not apologise to the cop she slapped in the face for trying to do her job. And the thing is, the cop-attacker should have taken her boots off as she had been asked instead of throwing a diplomatic tantrum.

FORTY-TWO days left until the elections and just 53 (February 28) before Tof the Terrible leaves the palazzo del popolo with his head held high, proud of his achievements of excessive significance.

Cheers to all those achievements of excessive significance