MORE than 50 of the 250 families in the outlying areas of Paphos who volunteers say need urgent help, have had their electricity cut as they are unable to pay their bills, it emerged yesterday.

The volunteer group headed by local businesswoman Pavlina Patsalou and Paphos councillor, George Sofokleous, who also owns a hairdressing salon, issued an urgent plea earlier in the week to help the families involved but they can only do so much.

Sofokleous, said: “I spend most of my time trying to find food and clothing for about 250 families in Paphos who have big problems. Somebody needs to care about these people- at the moment it’s only us.”

The volunteers started the programme around 18 months ago, helping around 20 families. This number has now mushroomed to more than 250 and is increasing on an almost daily basis.

The councillor said most are without work, some have large families with five children or more, some are without homes and others without electricity. He said that one of the families has been living without electricity for more than two weeks.

“If you don’t have money it’s not possible to pay the bills. There are about 50 families who are trying and failing- every month to pay these bills. The electricity authority often says ‘pay half now and half next month’ but it’s impossible for these people to find any money if they don’t have work. We are trying to do whatever we can to help-but it’s very hard and the electricity board can’t help at the moment.”

A spokesman at the Electricity Authority in Paphos said yesterday he was unable to comment and the EAC spokesman in Nicosia was unavailable. 

A growing number of families and individuals, who have become victims of the economic crisis, live outside the boundaries of Paphos municipality and therefore don’t qualify for help from the social welfare fund, or they are receiving a small amount of benefits, which isn’t enough to cover even the basic needs, yet disqualifies them for help from the municipality.

Due to the growing numbers of people desperate for help, and the amounts of money which the group needs to raise, they are opening a dedicated bank account next week and filing all of the relevant documents with the state to ensure it’s all legal and transparent.

“Some people are donating food or clothes and some are giving money. When we receive anything, Pavlina and I immediately go and purchase goods to give to the people,” said Sofokleous.

According to the councillor, it costs a minimum of around €3,000- €4,000 a week to just feed the 250 families.

“Once we have filed all of the paper work we will organise some fund raising events to help, but for now we need help from the residents of Paphos as well as local businesses. This problem is affecting the entire community and we all need to come together to help each other,’ he added.

While the Cyprus Mail was at Pavlinas’ children’s clothing store yesterday, she received a telephone call she had been anxiously waiting for.

“I’m so pleased that the landlord of the empty shop next to mine has given us the space rent free for an initial period of time and then after that at a greatly reduced rent. We will be able to store all of the food supplies here,” she said.

The businesswoman is currently storing all goods at the back of her shop and Sofokleous stores all donated clothes in an apartment above his hairdressing salon ‘George and Effie’. Patsalou assured that the new shop would be cleaned and organised by last night and ready to receive goods as of this morning.

The volunteers will have a drive at Carrefour in Paphos tomorrow  between 9am-1pm, which they are hoping will be a success. They plan to purchase items such as milk, cheese and other goods which will immediately be passed on to the needy families.

Patsalou added: “We are helping all sorts of people. There are some young families in their early twenties with small babies. They don’t have work and their parents are not in a position to help. There are also some elderly people in their seventies.”

The volunteers give out food boxes when they can; some families are in dire straits and are given food parcels twice a week.

“I passed through some hard times myself, like many others and I feel for these people. Today a lady came with seven children, she asked for help and we must do what we can,” said Patsalou.

Daily donations of food and clothes are being accepted at Pavlina Children’s Clothes shop and George and Effie’s hair salon from 9am-7pm.

Contact Patsalou at 99 220 152 or Sofokleous at 99542343

George Sofokleous and Pavlina Patsalou

“THE tenth day of December 1982 was a milestone of multilateralism,” wrote UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the foreword of a booklet to mark the 30the anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Ban also wrote: “After years of detailed and delicate negotiations, UNCLOS was opened for signature. The same day, an unprecedented 119 countries signed the treaty, a record that still stands. This achievement was made possible by the hard work and meticulous preparation of a diverse and committed group of women and men.”

Below is the article, from the anniversary booklet, by Ambassador Andreas Iacovides who was head of the Cyprus delegation during the conference and played an active role in negotiating the provisions of importance to Cyprus.

A multitude of issues were dealt with and indeed regulated by UNCLOS, this veritable constitution of the seas and oceans, consisting of 320 Articles and nine Annexes. One hundred and sixty-one States and the European Union are (1631 EU) parties to the Convention, thus conferring to it the status of customary law.
The Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea aimed at re-examining and, where appropriate, recasting virtually all aspects of the Law of the Sea. It has combined the element of codification with that of progressive development, with emphasis on the latter, owing to the participation, of many new states which had not been parties to the formulation of the traditional rules.
In significant respects, new and revolutionary concepts such as, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and that of the Common Heritage of Mankind were introduced and elaborated. On the other hand, it has been found that other aspects of the law have stood the test of time and should remain as before, or with minor modifications to adjust them to the overall scheme (e.g. the Regime of Islands and the Freedom of the High Seas.).
On the whole UNCLOS was characterised by a judicious blending of elements of progressive and even revolutionary change with those of stability and continuity, thus preserving a balance between conflicting claims and interests. In my considered opinion, despite imperfections which were the price for achieving consensus, UNCLOS is a significant achievement in multilateral law making and, as such, deserves general support.
For my country, Cyprus, UNCLOS is of great significance and an area where Cyprus made a major contribution as an island state in the Eastern Mediterranean. Through its active participation in the Conference, Cyprus played a key role in the formulation and adoption of such issues as the full entitlement of islands to all zones of maritime jurisdiction (Art 121), enclosed and semi enclosed seas (Arts 122-3), the median line as starting point of delimitation of the EEZ between the coasts of adjacent or opposite states and third party dispute settlement provisions (Ch. XV).
All of these are essential in safeguarding the interests of Cyprus, and have found practical application in the EEZ Delimitation Agreements with Egypt (2003), Lebanon (2007), and Israel (2010) on the basis of the median line and with arbitration as the means of solving disputes. As already stressed, the very concept of the EEZ and its significant legal consequences were the creation of UNCLOS.
My own active involvement in Law of the Sea matters extends to more than four decades. I had the honour to represent Cyprus in the Sea-Bed Committee (1970-3); the Third UN Conference (1973-82) where I signed the Convention; was present at the corning into force of the Convention (1994); took an active role as Permanent Representative to the UN (1992) and later as delegate to the 20th Anniversary event (2002). I lectured and wrote on the subject at the Rhodes Academy and elsewhere and, in my recently published book ("International Law and Diplomacy" 2011), 6 Chapters are devoted to Law of the Sea issues.
The Third UN Conference, in Caracas, New York, Geneva and Montego Bay, was where alliances and friendships were formed among the Law of the Sea "mafia", as reading through the names listed ill the Secretariat paper reminded me with some nostalgia. Many "graduated" to top positions in their respective governments, others became judges of the ICJ and ITLOS, and members of the ILC.
As for anecdotes, there are too many to recount: I remember Galindo Pohl, Chairman of the Sea-Bed Committee dealing with the issue of straits, giving the, floor to "the representative of the Soviet Union to express the position of the United States and others" (despite being the height of the Cold War, the Soviets and the Americans had the same stand on submarines passing submerged through international straits).
Robert Marschik, representing land-locked Austria, mockingly expressed gratitude for my agreeing, in a provision on the distribution of the common heritage of mankind, to "including the land- locked states" ("thank you" he said "for including us among mankind!"). Henry Darwin, of the U.K., asking me in Caracas, soon after the coup of the Greek junta in Cyprus, "how do you operate, who gives you your instructions" to which I replied" during normal times very rarely do I receive instructions from Nicosia and I certainly don’t expect to receive any now!". Tony Small, from New Zealand I labelled, only half in jest, as Antonio Piccolo Machiavelli when New Zealand which had fought with us on islands rights changed: sides when it came to the median line on delimitation.
"Geographically disadvantaged states" is a term used for states with very narrow exposure to the sea, e.g. Iraq. At some point I suggested to a colleague, tongue in cheek, that Cyprus might be considered a geographically disadvantaged state. Told that this was impossible since Cyprus is an island with sea all around it, I retorted that we could be so described considering the neighbourhood we were located in! 
One could go on, but my allotment of space has run out. So let me conclude, by stating with conviction that the Convention which we signed 30 years ago in Montego Bay was a very significant achievement in multilateral law making – for the world, for Cyprus and for me personally.

Andreas Jacovides is a former Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States, the United Nations and Germany Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Board Member, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University

TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant CyTA flexed its muscles yesterday, presenting its teleconference capabilities with the ‘Telepresence’ service.
Attending the demonstration which also celebrated Cyprus’ successful EU presidency last year, was government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou and Deputy Minister for European Affairs Andreas Mavroyiannis.
On the other end of the tele-conference was Cyprus’ permanent representative at the EU, Kornelius Korneliou in Brussells with other contributions to the conference from Cyprus’ ambassador in Athens, Iosif Iosif.
In his speech, head of CyTA, Stathis Kittis expressed his pride and joy at the successful nature of Cyprus’ presidency of the EU. “We feel very satisfied as we, CyTA, contributed to the successful presidency,” he said. “We supported the state in a vital field in this day and age, which is communications,” he added.
The support and products given to the government by CyTA included high-speed internet connections to enable high definition teleconferences to take place in Brussels, the Presidential Palace and at the Filoxenia Conference Centre in Nicosia. Smart-phones were given to members of the team of employees and volunteers of the EU presidency office as well as laptops to aid in the updating of the presidency website. CyTA also increased the number of Wi-Fi spots around the capital to provide better service for those visiting the island.
“The success of Cyprus’ presidency was down to a huge effort made by the whole state mechanism,” Stefanou said in his speech. “We proved that there are no big or small presidencies but only successful and not-so successful ones, proving our success,” he added. “The government was vindicated in its decision to trust CyTA with the big responsibility of technologically covering the presidency as it proved to be more than capable,” he continued. “This is the reason that we cannot privatise the organisation as doing so will reduce its productivity,” he concluded.
He was referring to pressure from Cyprus’ EU partners to privatise semi-government bodies as part of the island’s bailout deal.
On his behalf, Mavroyiannis expressed his delight at the success of CyTA’s contribution to Cyprus’ presidency, praising the ‘Telepresence’ system as the most modern form of teleconferencing. “This system has made the distance between Nicosia and Brussels irrelevant,” he remarked.
Kittis described the manner with which the system worked. “One of the systems biggest advantages is that those using it can see those on the other line in life-size and high definition, and even though they may be in a different country it gives you the feel that they are in the same room,” he said. “The most important advantage is that it can save time and money, especially for businesses but also to the state, eliminating time-consuming and expensive trips abroad,” he added.

THE COMMITTEE on Missing Persons (CMP) has begun digging for possible burial sites within a fenced Turkish military area in the occupied areas, said Aristos Aristotelous, the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, Aristotelous said the Turkish authorities recently gave their consent for excavations to take place, following a request from the CMP. The former AKEL MP welcomed the decision, adding that he hoped the CMP would also be able to carry out excavations in other Turkish military areas which have long been linked to possible burial sites.
Until now, Turkey has resisted requests to open up military areas where many of the missing are believed to have been buried in mass graves, based on witness accounts given to the CMP.
Aristotelous said digging for the remains of missing persons began on Tuesday in a fenced military area southwest of the Kyrenia district, based on information given long ago to the CMP.
As a result of interethnic conflict in the 1960s and the Turkish invasion of 1974, 1,464 Greek Cypriots and 494 Turkish Cypriots were reported missing.
Since then,  according to the CMP, to date, human remains representing over 900 individuals have been exhumed from different burial sites located across the island.
The CMP team of scientists has visited and opened over 600 potential burial sites so far, the majority in the north of the island, of the total number of sites, 373 did not contain any human remains. 
As of August 2012, a total of 330 missing persons (264 Greek Cypriots and 66 Turkish Cypriots) were identified and returned to their families for burial. 
Exhumations are carried out on both sides of the buffer zone by bicommunal teams (six teams in the north and two teams in the south) made of over 55 Cypriot archaeologists and anthropologists.
Bicommunal teams are now autonomous after having been trained by international experts from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) during the first 18 months of the project.
 

THE Nicosia district court has ordered an MP to pay a former minister around €35,000 in compensation for suggesting live on air that he had been bribed by a company to promote Turkish views on the Cyprus problem.
Former minister of agriculture Costas Themistocleous, a staunch supporter of reunification, sued Zaharias Koulias in 2006 over a comment he made on a morning radio talk show, implying Themistocleous had been bribed to support Turkish views regarding the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state.
“... who, let me remind you by the way, recently collected a decent amount of £7,000 (sterling) from a Turkish company and the next day he went to a television station and said there is no pseudostate,” Koulias said of Themistocleous on a morning show on private Radio Proto.
After a lengthy legal battle, the Nicosia district court awarded Themistocleous compensation worth €25,000 plus around €10,000 in interest plus expenses, it was announced yesterday.
The lawsuit was initially rejected by the district court, which ruled that there could not be a correlation between the two facts – the plaintiff’s position on the breakaway state and the collection of money – considering them two separate events.
It ruled that the statement was not defamatory for Themistocleous who appealed the decision successfully at the Supreme Court in January last year.
The Supreme Court ruled Koulias’ comment as defamatory and ordered a retrial of the case by a different judge to decide the amount of compensation – something the first judge should have done lest there was an appeal.
Themistocleous had demanded between €85,000 and €420,000.
At the time, Themistocleous was a shareholder of a company along with two Turkish Cypriots who lived in the north.
A year before Koulias’ comment, a nationalist newspaper, To Kypriako Pontiki, reported that Themistocleous had cashed a cheque for £6,320 sterling issued by one of his two partners.
A few days after the cheque was issued, Themistocleous said in public that Turkish Cypriot politicians had conveyed to him their annoyance about the ‘pseudostate’ references used by Greek Cypriots, which they said did not help create a suitable climate for a settlement.
Themistocleous suggested that the terms “illegal state” or “non-recognised state” could be more fitting than pseudostate, prompting the reaction of Greek Cypriot politicians.
In his appeal, the former minister argued that Koulias’ phrase, based on the current political situation in Cyprus, could only “prompt contempt, hatred and ridicule” against him.
For the average sensible citizen the act attributed to him was reprehensible, Themistocleous said.
The former minister had backed a UN reunification blueprint in 2004, known as the Annan plan, which was overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots and approved by the majority of Turkish Cypriots in separate referenda.
The Supreme Court upheld Themistocleous’ arguments, saying the words used and the connection made by Koulias could not be interpreted in any other way than him implying that the plaintiff acted the way he allegedly did after receiving money from a Turkish company.
“A behaviour, which, considering the environment in Cyprus, the Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern part … can create feelings of hatred, scorn and derision towards the appellant, in the absence of any other reference,” the court said.

THE ELECTION race has hit a low point, though perhaps not its lowest, with presidential campaign teams exchanging accusations of engaging in dodgy campaign tricks. 
DIKO’s general secretary Kyriacos Kenevezos yesterday accused the EDEK-backed Giorgos Lillikas camp of underhand practices, borrowing the symbols and emblems of the DIKO party to lure its members to his election gatherings.  
“We believe that the public will turn its backs on those who choose to bring down the level of political discourse in the hope of gaining votes from DIKO members and others,” said Kenevezos, whose party is backing DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades for president.
“We are obliged to make special reference to the tenacity and strategy of Giorgos Lillikas and his campaign team to use the symbols to appeal to the people of DIKO,” he added.
Kenevezos questioned whether EDEK, which supports Lillikas’ presidential bid, agrees with this practice and if so, would they accept it if others did the same with their party emblems.
AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loucaides also fired salvos at the Lillikas campaign team, accusing it of calling members of the public pretending to be AKEL while encouraging those on the other end of the line to vote Lillikas.
“We understand the panic within the Lillikas camp but we cannot understand or accept anachronistic and immoral practices,” said Loucaides.
Meanwhile, DIKO MP Nicolas Papadopoulos came under fire from former commerce minister Antonis Michaelides, who served in the government of his father, the late Tassos Papadopoulos.
The DIKO deputy recently resigned as party vice-president in protest against DIKO support for Anastasiades’ bid, with Papadopoulos rooting instead for Lillikas.
Papadopoulos recently took pot shots at former cabinet members of his father’s government who also chose to support the DISY leader for president.
Michaelides replied with a volley of shots in a letter published in yesterday’s Politis, accusing Papadopoulos of putting personal ambitions above the interests of the country.
The former commerce minister asked what was more important, the election of a candidate who had the most chances of getting the country out of the economic quagmire it’s in, or the election of Papadopoulos as party leader in upcoming DIKO internal elections.

 

CONSTRUCTION workers decided yesterday to continue their strike indefinitely, while the union patrols became embroiled in a fight in Paphos when a contractor tried to recruit strikebreakers to continue works on a hotel renovation site.
Dozens of unemployed construction workers arrived on the renovation site to protest, while a patrol force by unions SEK, PEO and DEOK were also in place.
But when the jobless construction workers tried to enter the premises, they were prevented by a private security force recruited by the contractor and the hotel management.
There were also strikebreakers in Limassol, SEK’s Yiannakis Ioannou said.
PEO and DEOK said the strikebreakers worked under sub-par conditions compared to the collective agreements, the terms of employment that Cypriot workers agree with their bosses.
Employers “take advantage of thousands of cheap labour hands, trying to set the organised labour movement and the workers back dozens of years,” an announcement by PEO said.
“The real culprits for the sector’s problems and specifically the large unemployment problem are the a large part of contractors who fire our peers every day… replacing them with cheap labour force,” the announcement said.
The number of EU workers – now about 10,000 – has not risen over the past few years but at least 6,000 construction workers are now unemployed with limited employment prospects in a sector that was one of the first to enter into recession and is still struggling.



 

Builders vote to keep striking

THE 49-year-old former community leader of Klonari village was remanded in custody for six days yesterday by the Limassol district court after allegedly faking a car burglary to cover a €23,000 hole from the village council’s budget.
According to Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou, the 49-year-old reported to police on Thursday that the rear window of his car had been smashed and a briefcase containing €23,000 and official documents  were stolen.
“When our officers went to the scene they noticed there was no broken glass,” said Papageorgiou.
He added: “During questioning the man confessed that he made a false report because while serving as community leader he had embezzled that money.”
The 49-year-old was relieved of his duties earlier this month by the Limassol district officer after having to declare Klonari village council bankrupt.
During questioning, the man confessed that he had made a number of withdrawals from the council bank account for personal reasons, starting last year, noting that he had intended to return the money at some point.
He then confessed to having broken his own car window to make it look as if the missing money was stolen along with important documents detailing council activities.
The 49-year-old was remanded in custody for six days yesterday and potentially faces charges of theft by a public official, abuse of power, public harm and other offences.
 

THE government has suspended state officials’ perks such as flying business class as part of a raft of austerity measures to shore up the economy, it emerged yesterday.
According to a circular issued by the finance ministry permanent secretary, a number of state officials will have to learn to live without flying business or club class while certain overseas allowances have been reduced.
The circular suspended the right to use business or club class with the exception of transatlantic flights.
It does not affect the President of the Republic and the House President.
Until recently, those eligible to fly business or club were the attorney-general and his deputy, the president and judges of the Supreme Court, the chairman of the civil service commission, ministers, auditor-general, head of the education commission, district court presidents, permanent secretaries, and a few other officials.
The circular also cuts overseas allowances in half in the instance of beneficiaries being provided with free meals at the expense of the Cypriot government or the hosting authority.

BRITISH ex pats living in Paphos have responded to an urgent appeal and are rallying to donate goods to go towards feeding 250 families who are in desperate need.
After the dire situation was highlighted in the Cyprus Mail this week, local businesswoman Pavlina Patsalou who heads up the group along with Paphos councilor George Sofokleous, says the response to the call for help so far has come from the British ex pat community.
“We want to thank everyone who has come and donated food,” Patsalou said yesterday. "Today we have already had around ten people donating all sorts of items. They have all been British.”
She added: “One man who came with his wife couldn’t believe that there were people living in Paphos who didn’t have food to eat. He was stunned when 20 or so families came to collect their food parcels while he was there.”
More than 50 of the 250 families who live in the outlying areas of Paphos and cannot be helped by the municipality programme, have also had their electricity cut as they are unable to pay their bills.
The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), spokesman Costas Gavrielides responded yesterday. “We are aware that some of our customers are having problems paying their bills. There is a special domestic tariff (08) which is about 20 per cent cheaper than the usual tariff (05) and people who are eligible can sign up for this, it helps to reduce costs,” he said.
According to Gavrielides, families who have three dependent children and a family income of less than €51,000, or those who are receiving welfare assistance are eligible. “Every month we get a list of eligible customers from the welfare department,” he said.
For those who do not meet the criteria, Gavrielides noted that payment plans are also available, where costs can be spread out over a twelve month period to “ease the burden”.
When asked about how certain families and individuals who are no longer in work and have no money are supposed to pay their bills he said: “There have been occasions in the past where we have alerted the welfare department to people who are struggling and really need help and they have responded. The EAC has helped on many occasions.”
The spokesman added that until the cost of fuel was reduced, the EAC would not be able to reduce electricity prices, pointing out that about 0.78 of every euro is swallowed up with the cost of fuel and other taxes.
In the meantime, the numbers of Paphos families who are unable to pay their bills as they have no income whatsoever is increasing and the volunteers say the problem will only get worse.
Paphos resident Paul Clarke aka Cycling Cyprus is organising a static bike ride to raise awareness of needy families and to get people to donate cash and food.
‘Pedalling against poverty’ will see Clarke cycle outside Phillipos supermarket in Peyia on Saturday February 9 from 9am-4pm.
He said: “We want shoppers to donate food to help feed a family. We have to do all we can to help and I hope that other people will get involved and organise similar events in Paphos.”
Due to the growing numbers of people desperate for help, and the amounts of money which the group needs to raise, they are opening a dedicated bank account next week and filing all of the relevant documents with the state to ensure it’s all legal and transparent.
The volunteers are holding a drive at Carrefour in Paphos today between 9am-1pm.
Daily donations of food and clothes are being accepted at Pavlina Children’s Clothes shop and George and Effie’s hair salon from 9am-7pm.
Contact Patsalou at 99-22-01-52 or Sofokleous at 99-54-23-43

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Nicos Anastasiades yesterday disclosed his personal assets, and those of his wife, adding up to over €2.3m.
The total sum of his personal wealth, as audited by KPMG, comes to €2,342,250, broken down into property worth €835,000, bank deposits totalling €706,527, shares in private companies worth €10,497, shares in public companies worth €6,795, revenue from private companies reaching €667,431 and cars valued at €116,000.
For motor lovers, Anastasiades has at his disposal an Audi A8 bought last year for €85,000, a Mercedes S430 bought in 2001 and now worth €15,000, and a KIA Sportage bought in 2011 and worth €16,000.
In 2011, the DISY leader brought home €457,331 in total, ten times the sum he earns from his ‘bread and butter’ job as an MP.
During 2011, he made €43,131 from his deputy’s salary, €16,600 in pension money, €15,996 from flat rentals, €113,854 in fees and share of profit from the firm Nicos Anastasiades & Partners, €153,000 in dividends from the private company Imperium Services Limited which he has a 60 per cent share in, and €114,750 in dividends from the company Imperium Consulting Limited, of which he has a 54 per cent share.
In 2010, his total revenue was €316,366.
His wife, Andry Anastasiades’ total income in 2011 came to €34,912 (€6,000 from rent and €34,912 from her pension). In 2010, her income came to €6,000 from rental money.
In Anastasiades’ statement on personal assets, he notes that all taxes on all income has been paid until 2011, and that the dividends from the two Imperium companies are used to put €312,000 a year towards paying off a loan taken to pay for the building housing the two companies’ offices worth €2,940,598. 
Regarding immoveable property, the presidential candidate discloses a share in 13 fields and vineyards in the Limassol district, 12 of them presents from his mother and the 13th a gift from his grandfather.
He also owns a 90 square metre apartment on Makarios Avenue (bought in 1985 for €28,000), and a 120 square metres flat (bought in 1983 for €38,000).  
Andry Anastasiades owns a plot of land, 982 square metres in size, in Yermasoyia (bought in 2002 for €100,000), a residence of 350 square metres, built on the land at a cost of €500,000, two shops on Zinonos Street that were gifts from her parents, and seven plots of land (worth €114,000) bought as one plot of land in 1989 in Palodia at a cost of €55,000. The land was divided into plots in 2010. 
The financial statement highlights that the apartments were bought with loans that have been fully paid off, while the Yermasoya residence has been gifted to a daughter while the parents maintained right of use of the building. Six of the seven plots above were gifted to two daughters, while the seventh remains the ownership of Andry Anastasiades.
And lastly, the statement notes that the rental money from the two shops is passed on to the wife’s parents.
Responding to Anastasiades’ disclosure yesterday, AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loucaides suggested that after months of waiting, the DISY boss had yet to reveal his true personal wealth, and was instead misleading the public.
The ‘disclosure’ raised a number of questions, said Loucaides, like why Anastasiades chose to disclose his income from 2011 but not 2012, “and also how come his total assets are only worth two million euros when in 2011 alone his revenue came to half a million euros”.
Anastasiades is the last of the three main presidential contenders to declare his assets. The first to do so was AKEL-backed Stavros Malas, followed by EDEK-backed Giorgos Lillikas, though each candidate has chosen their own form of disclosure, rather than follow one standard format of divulging the particulars of their personal assets.
Malas stated that he holds €15,471 in bank accounts, and has taken out loans amounting to €449,561. He owns immovable property in Anthoupolis/Archangelos, Kambos, Pigenia and Kato Panayia, of a total value of €46,130 (in 1980 prices).
Lillikas’ disclosure was more detailed, but still raised some eyebrows. The 52-year-old has no bank deposits in his name, owns real estate and stock in a limited company, and his income in 2011 came to €115,923. The majority of his family’s wealth is in his wife’s name. His statement was signed by accounting firm G. Josephakis Audit Ltd.
Anastasiades has promised that, if elected to office, his government would push through legislation making it mandatory for state officials to reveal their personal assets, which would be verified by an independent body of auditors.
Similar assurances have been made by the other contenders.

 

Nicos Anastasiades with his family on the day he signed up as a presidential candidate

AS THE Ottoman era drew to an end in Nicosia death was a common event, people used mules to travel, camels as work animals, and visitors to Larnaca were put up in a church because there was no inn, the newly released memoirs of a Bulgarian revolutionary exiled here in 1877 reveal.
In a rare glimpse into life in Nicosia at the time, Atanas (Tancho) Shabanov details how he was among 43 people exiled here as prisoners for their role in the revolution against Ottoman rule in Bulgaria in 1876.
“At 8am in the morning (September 8, 1877) we approached Cyprus and they told us we would disembark,” Shabanov’s opening line says. 
The authorities told the exiles they would be transported to another city and told them to rent a mule, if they could afford one.
“We all had money but each one of us had a mind not to pay up, hoping the government would provide mules,” Shambanov said.
Nonetheless, four men including Shabanov did rent mules and with their feet tied underneath the mules’ bellies they made their way to Nicosia. Camels followed with their bundled clothes and the convoy got underway guarded by ten constables. He finally arrived in Nicosia on September 15.

The Bulgarian embassy and Cyprus’ foreign ministry put together a bilingual edition in Greek and Bulgarian of Shabanov’s book Description of my Life in Cyprus to highlight “the longstanding relations between the two countries,” the foreign ministry said. The book – disseminated across diplomatic missions – is not available to buy in bookshops but the Sunday Mail obtained a copy.
Shabanov described the still unnamed city of Nicosia as “surrounded by walls” and having three entrances.
At 3am, while “the moon shone beautifully” the prisoners were taken to their new home – in a prison, later taken down by the British – that was in the Sarai square area, now in the occupied part of Nicosia.
The prisoners had chains fitted around their feet but they were free to move about the city and earn a living, using the prison’s workrooms to build things. Some people “started making English penknives, others knitted bags, someone knitted socks, I put together bags from cannabis and painted boxes,” he said.
 “We had a nice time in this prison because they would lock us up at night and during the day we would sit in the courtyard,” Shabanov said. “The courtyard was large. In this prison there were about 400 people. It had three nice coffee shops and two or three kitchens.” “The Greeks brought us five or six quilts, gave us some shirts and underwear, and a little money. On Christmas they gave us money again, and the same during Easter.”
Life went on, comfortably, although the occasional mention of death is a reminder that life was different then. “Someone from Sliven (in Bulgaria) got sick… and died after a week,” Shabanov said, without elaborating.
“Life was different then and conditions were harsh. It was more commonplace for people and infants to die,” the university of Cyprus’ Ioannis Theocharides said, who wrote an introduction for Shabanov’s book.
By 1878 the Bulgarian prisoners had received word from Beirut and Damascus that they were to be let go. But the now 40 prisoners (“a priest and two elderly men had died”) were forgotten. Other political prisoners were released but despite orders to release everyone, the authorities kept answering back to a number of telegrams that there were no more prisoners left to release. It transpired that the only note the authorities were given on the Bulgarian exiles said the following: “We are sending you 43 people who you should keep under strict restriction”.
Eventually the prisoners appealed to the Rhodes pasha, asking him to come and free them himself.
The Pasha did arrive and told them that the Sultan forgave them and left. The prisoners got their chains removed and the locals opened up a church, bells ringing, and a service was held.
The Bulgarians had a week left in Cyprus and roamed for a few days, “meeting many local merchants”. When time came to go, they were escorted to the city gates “by many young people”. The locals had already arranged transportation and given each man a little money they had collected for them. It is at this point that Shabanov names the city. “[It] is called Nicosia. We left it on May 27 1878,” he said.
Arriving in Larnaca, the newly freed men looked for an inn but were informed by the locals that the city did not have one. “When strangers come, they are taken to the Saint Lazarus church, and they told someone to lead us there.” Although they opened up rooms for them to stay in, the group opted to stay in the church yard.
Shabanov arrived back to Koprivshitca in June. His mother and wife did not recognise him. His mother even pointed him out to her daughter-in-law. “Shall we ask this man if our Atanas is coming too?” 
“Mother, could it be him and we have failed to recognise him?” she said. Shabanov’s closing line is concise. He cried for his mother and wife. “Then my wife and mother turned, crying in their great joy, and we went home.”

Life inside the Ottoman prison

Thirty protected wild birds were found by the Larnaca game fund and police in two restaurants, where a fine dodger was also arrested.
During a police campaign against poaching police arrested a person who had an arrest warrant to his name for due payments worth €31,000, police spokesman Andreas Angelides said.
Restaurants often offer songbirds or ambelopoulia as delicacies, despite their protected status.

PRESIDENTIAL candidates say they are in favour of democratic reform and transparency but none have demonstrated this in practice, a think tank has said.
“It is worth asking why reformation [on democracy and meritocracy] has not taken place, and why during their political career the candidates have not worked towards adopting them,” Thoukidides Think Tank said, asking why there was a difference between what politicians say and what politicians do.
Presidential candidates’ views seem to be aligned with the public’s opinions about introducing horizontal voting, using referendums on important issues, introducing the same terms of employment for the private and public sectors, and introducing transparency on party finances, the think tank said.
The candidates were asked if they agreed with 80.3 per cent of those polled that state officials should be liable to losing their posts if the public stops supporting them during their term. EDEK-backed Giorgos Lillikas, DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades and independent Makaria Andri Stylianou were in agreement. United Democrats’ leader Praxoula Antoniadou Kyriacou stayed neutral on the subject. Stavros Malas, who is backed by ruling party AKEL that supports incumbent president Demetris Christofias who has hung on to his post despite public demand that he step down over the naval base blast in July 2011, also chose to stay neutral.
Everyone agreed with the 82.3 per cent who wanted to see the introduction of referendums on important issues.
They also sided with the 82.4 per cent of those polled who wanted to see the same employment terms in the private and public sector. There is a discrepancy between wages and benefits between the two sectors. However, the candidates have different takes on the austerity measures that have led to a cut in the allowances and wages of civil servants.
All agreed with the whopping 96.8 per cent of people who wanted transparency in party finances. But Thoukidides pointed out that parliament ignored a council of Europe recommendation on fighting corruption, and did not amend the law to oblige parties to be transparent over their assets.
Lillikas, Anastasiades and Stylianou agreed with the 77.3 per cent majority that horizontal voting should be introduced for municipal and parliamentary elections. Currently, voters can support a particular party or single independent candidate but they cannot pick and choose individuals irrespective of their political affiliation as would be possible under a horizontal voting system.
“Time will show whether the tradition of empty electoral promises will carry on, with people watching indifferently as our democratic institution is humiliated,” the think tank said.
Thoukidides questioned 809 people on the phone on a random sample basis in November.

A 38-year-old man followed a man in a car and threatened him in Protaras on Friday night, ran away, and later attacked police with a broomstick and a kitchen knife, authorities said.
The Bulgarian man was deported from Cyprus in 2010 “for a number of crimes” but is thought to have made his way back via the occupied areas, Famagusta police spokesman George Economou said.
At about 11pm on Friday night a Greek Cypriot employee at a hotel in Protaras told police that as he was driving into work he realised he had been followed by another car. When he parked at the hotel, his pursuer got out and threatened to kill him with a knife unless he gave him money, he said.
The hotel employee hit him on his hand and the man dropped his knife, running away.
Police said the car the Bulgarian man left behind was stolen on Friday morning.
Police found the man roaming about close to the same hotel holding a broomstick. When he saw police officers, he threw the broomstick at them and threatened them with a large kitchen knife, Economou said. But he was soon arrested and was taken to Paralimni police station.

GOVERNMENT offices and officials are independent of any political party, AKEL said yesterday as the furore surrounding the leak of confidential information from the Central Bank rumbled on.
On Friday it was revealed the leaked information was reportedly in relation to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to cut emergency liquidity help to Cyprus if there was no memorandum agreement by January 20. The attorney-general has asked the police to investigate a complaint filed by the Central Bank in relation to the leaking of confidential information.
Opposition daily Alithia has suggested the investigation has been instigated by ruling party AKEL, as part of efforts to put presidential forerunner DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades on the spot. Anastasiades was aware of the ECB’s intentions and wrote a letter to President Demetris Christofias on the repercussions from failing to agree to a memorandum.
But AKEL parliamentary representative Nicos Katsourides yesterday tried to dissociate the issue from any party politics.
“This is not a matter concerning any party or electoral team,” Katsourides said.
“The institution of the governor and the central bank is independent,” he said.
“The office of the attorney general is an equally independent institution and I wonder what the position is of electoral teams or parties when they intervene in matters dealing with two purely independent bodies that are regulated by the constitution,” Katsourides said.
“Woe betide us if party interventions stop investigations that bear – according to the attorney general – on matters of national security,” he said.
Police spokesman Andreas Angelides was forced to repeat his chief’s positions yesterday.
“Any person who knows anything that might help the investigations or needs to offer an explanation, will be [asked to do so],” he said when asked whether any politicians would be questioned.
But DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou would not let go of the matter and accused the police of trying to intervene.
“I was surprised to hear the police chief state that rights should be abolished that any suspect has and are recognised by fully respected human rights conventions… that Cyprus has ratified for decades,” Nicolaou said.
Chief Michalis Papageorgiou actually said that no one was obliged to answer the police’s questions, and expressed dissatisfaction over the difficulties this created in their investigations.
Nicolaou stated the chief “cannot take away a suspect’s right to remain silent as [he] demands nor can he look to take testimonies from politicians”.
The police may actually summon anyone to take a testimony, although people are under no obligation to respond to questions posed.

THIRTEEN Limassol-based families each paid hundreds of thousands of euro for residential estates in Fasoula but have been left hanging after the contractor and property developer folded without ever building anything, a DISY deputy has said.
“The families bought real estate land in 2007 with [some] companies undertaking to build new residential units within nine months according to the terms of the contract,” said Limassol-based DISY MP Efthimios Diplaros.
But all works were stopped in July 2010, with the companies folding and “leaving these families vulnerable, indebted and without a home, while the bank pushed these people to pay off the companies’ debts to avoid foreclosing on their properties,” he added.
The contractor was not registered and the property developer allegedly pocketed VAT receipts worth over €350,000, Diplaros said.
Diplaros has reported the matter to the attorney-general and said the legal services found grounds for disciplinary action against a land registry official.
The deputy said among the companies’ CEOs and shareholders were a Limassol architect as well as the son and wife of an official with the Limassol land registry.
“The police have also started taking testimonies from witnesses to investigate a criminal case,” Diplaros said.
The families have said they have taken legal action against the contractors and consider the matter to be one of theft.
But he also suggested the (unnamed) bank was also responsible.
“How could the bank not have realised there was a scam and why were the CEOs and shareholders of the contractor not checked or else why did the bank not appoint an independent surveyor to check on the work’s progress?”
Ten of these families, who have young children, have spent their savings to pay off the bank and the property they bought and have been trying for some two and a half years to reach an agreement with lawyers, Diplaros said.

THE Forestry Department is looking at increasing the sale of moufflon, deer, wood for burning and seeds for various plants in an effort to boost state coffers.
The department has released a new catalogue with prices lists for such things as Christmas trees, charges for renting camping-site spaces or even staying in local hotels, and of course, the Cyprus moufflon.
“The moufflon has been on sale for years now,” said Senior Forest Conservator for the Forestry Department, Andreas Christou. “To clarify though, the moufflon is not for sale to any members of the public, it must be an organisation looking to buy,” he added.
According to Christou the decision to put the moufflon up for sale came after they increased in number over recent years, resulting in their own endangerment.
Moufflon cost €1,200 each, not including VAT but will only be available for export as the department wants to avoid the goat-like animals being taken to zoos or farms and reproducing and multiplying without checks.
Any offers made to purchase the animal will be looked at seriously by the department with a full investigation into the parties that make the offer, the method of export and their destination.
Also up for sale are 30 Dama dama, fallow deer, which were brought over in the 1970s from Germany. There are many Dama dama in Europe and they are mainly bred for hunting and meat production. Their population in Cyprus has grown dramatically but their vast numbers threaten their own survival as well as endangering the environment as there is not enough food to go around. The deer can be purchased for €400 each, which includes the five per cent VAT charge and do not necessarily need to be exported.
Prices for rooms at guesthouses have been reasonably set by the Forestry Department with a house in the village of Stavros tis Psokas charging €14 for adults per night. Charges for children between 6 and 12 are set at €7 a night while younger kids can stay free of charge. The guesthouse in the Forestry College will be slightly higher with adults being charged €18 a night. During the winter period heating will be necessary and that comes at an extra charge of €7 a night.
Charges for the use of Kampi tou Kalogyrou, Stavros tis Psokas and Platania campsites are €5 a day to park a mobile home but between €200 and €250 during the summer months. Setting up a tent costs €3 a day normally but between June and September it will cost €120 for the whole summer period, while a sleeping-bag will cost €2 a day and €75 for the whole summer.
The catalogue has been updated and improved upon to ease accessibility. A copy of the catalogue can be found on the ministry of agriculture’s website.

The forestry department is selling moufflon to boost the state's coffers

CYPRUS has lost its edge as a financial services centre, said former President George Vassiliou who conducted a survey of a sizeable number of law, auditing and tax advisory firms. Presenting the findings of his survey on Wednesday, Vassiliou said it was of paramount importance to speed up procedures at government departments and computerise state services.
We have been hearing such calls from the financial services sector for decades without anything ever being done. In fact, it is difficult to understand why Vassiliou spoke about Cyprus losing its edge, considering the inefficiency and slowness of our bureaucracy have been constants and we never had an edge in this respect. It still takes the office of the Registrar of Companies a month to carry out a routine name check for a company, if the customer does not pay for the ‘accelerated service’, and a month to register a company; the queues at the counters are also phenomenally long.
The former president repeated the suggestion we have been hearing for the last 20 years about the need to set up a one-stop shop that would cover all the requirements of foreign businesses by co-ordinating various government departments such as Inland Revenue and the Registrar. The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency could run the one-stop shop which would be assisted by specialised staff from the VAT service, immigration department and social insurance office, Vassiliou said.
Auditing and law firms have been calling for the establishment of a service taking care of all requirements of international businesses for 20 years but nothing was ever done, for a very simple reason – our state services are not geared to serve individuals or businesses. They seem to exist to make life as difficult as possible for the people they are supposed to serve and assist. Employees at state services are unmotivated and do not know the meaning of customer service, while management is disinterested and ineffective.
There is also a lack of leadership in the state sector. How else can we explain the fact that the office of the Registrar of Companies is not fully computerised yet? What claim could we have to being an international business centre when the offices at the Registrar still feature piles of paper files and no services are provided online? Vassiliou said the time required to register a company had to be significantly reduced while noting that the UK and Malta offered approval of a company name within 24 hours.
The truth is that without a radical change of mentality and work practices in the state sector nothing will improve. For too long the public sector has existed for the benefit of its employees, PASYDY ensuring that the working life was as easy as possible for them. Customer service training was never permitted and public employees were of the mind-set that if they made things difficult for the people they served it meant they were doing their job properly. It is astonishing how in the last 10 years, despite computerisation and the appointment of more civil servants, service in most departments has remained as slow and inefficient as it had always been.
PASYDY did not even permit the employer – the government – to move staff from over-manned departments to departments facing acute staff shortages or to change the working hours (these have now been changed thanks to the troika).It also prevented the introduction of proper evaluation systems because that would motivate staff. We would not be surprised if PASYDY has also been blocking the full computerisation of government services in order to protect jobs, even though this could be a consequence of weak management.
We need to abandon the mentality that our economy exists in order to provide state employees with a good living. All emphasis must be put on improving service and simplifying procedures which must include the full utilisation of computer technology and the web. Civil servants must undergo training, transfers from one department to another should be a routine matter and a reliable performance evaluation system must be put in place for everyone. And most importantly, the government must abandon the practice of seeking the approval of PASYDY for every organisational change it plans. Giving the union a say in how the civil service is organised is one of the main reasons for the lousy service.
Things must change radically in the way the civil service operates if we are to have the edge, as a financial services centre, that Vassiliou spoke about. And this would also help local businesses which, for too long, have had to contend with unhelpful – at times openly hostile – state services.

THE COMMIE apparatchiks running the Central Bank decided to call in the cops to investigate the leaking of the ‘sensitive’ information about the European Central Bank’s plan to stop offering emergency liquidity assistance to our banks.
Why did they take so long to report a leak to the AG that took place in November? Were they waiting for instructions from the AKEL Central Committee, or is this another farce like the sending of the private bailiff to the Lefkara house of the former Governor to collect the hard-drives of his laptop?
The commies are running the Central Bank as well as they have been running the country, their priority being scoring publicity points. And their man in charge, Professor Panicos, just goes along with their loony schemes, showing admirable obedience to AKEL despite the fact that in a month it would be out of the picture and not able to boss him around, at least not directly.
According to press reports, there had been an attempt to deal with the matter in an internal investigation at the Central Bank but it was unable to identify the super-grass. This may have been because Professor Panicos did not want to use the mean muscle-men that provide his personal security to carry out the questioning.
But if the internal investigator could not find a paper-trail or evidence on the Central Bank server what are the chances our clueless cops, who do not know how to turn on a computer, would crack the case? Leaving aside the politics of the decision, calling in the cops is like a second marriage, a triumph of hope over experience.

THE AKEL central committee is not really bothered whether the cops will find anything as all it is interested in is to create another conspiracy theory against the poor comrade and scoring electoral points.
They know the cops will find nothing because there was no leak of documents about the ECB’s plans to withdraw emergency liquidity assistance from our banks on January 21 if the memorandum had not been agreed by then. The information was reportedly contained in minutes of an ECB meeting which only the Governor’s office would have.
On Friday night, meanwhile, it was reported that the information was relayed from European sources to DISY deputy Averof Neophytou, who immediately asked for a meeting with Professor Panicos to establish whether it was correct. The Governor confirmed it and did the same at a subsequent meeting he had with the DISY Fuhrer.
So from where could the leak have happened? Are our cops going to go to Frankfurt as well to question members and officials of the ECB in order to solve the big mystery or are they going ask for Interpol’s assistance?

IN HIS written request to the AG for an investigation the comrade professor did not mention any names of officials he suspected. However, Politis reported yesterday that in his contact with the AG, Panicos pointed a finger at Central Bank senior director George Syrichas, whom the commies hate because he was the previous Governor’s closest associate.
As soon as Panicos took over the Central Committee of AKEL took all powers away from Syrichas and put him in charge of the Economic Research Department. And now the professor, as if to prove he is well-schooled in Stalinist methods, wants to pin the leaking of the non-existent document on the poor guy.

CHIEF of Police Michalis Papageorgiou did not rule out the possibility of calling in politicians for questioning. Apart from the chief suspect Averof, the Fuhrer, Nice Nik, could also be questioned as he was also privy to the information from the ECB which he used in his letter to comrade Tof.
In the letter, written before Tof the Terrible had voiced his agreement to the memorandum, Nik warned the comrade that he would be held personally responsible if he refused to agree terms with the troika and a collapse of the banking sector followed. He had called a news conference to reveal the letter’s contents but refrained from doing so because the comrade had signaled his agreement to the memorandum, earlier in the day.
The commies nevertheless have tried to present Nik’s commendable behaviour as an act of treachery, accusing him of siding with the troika against our great leader, in an effort to wear down Tof’s heroic resistance to the nasty neo-liberals of the troika and force him to accept the unfair terms of the memorandum.
This pathetic investigation is part of the same plan, the AKEL Stasi intent on portraying Nik, especially if he is questioned by the cops, as an enemy of the country and an agent of the troika ahead of the elections. Under the circumstances and aware that the country was being run by a clueless commie clown, leading it from one catastrophe to another, Nik did the only responsible thing in applying pressure and threatening to go public.
Had Nik ignored the ECB threat the comrade would not have agreed to the memorandum, sent the troika home and the when the banking sector collapsed he would have pleaded his customary ignorance. Nik ensured that Tof could not claim ‘nobody informed me of the danger of a banking collapse.’
For this alone Nik should be declared a national hero. And if the cops ever find the source of the alleged leak we should award him or her with the highest state honour for saving us from the commie plot to turn us into Albania.

MANY are wondering why Professor Panicos, an educated man and, theoretically, an independent state official, keeps playing the AKEL stooge, actively participating in the ridiculous commie schemes. AKEL would be history in a month, but he appears afraid to cut the umbilical cord from the Party which appointed him Governor.
His AKEL dependence has made enemies in Frankfurt, where he is seen as a loyal servant of a totally untrustworthy and disreputable government with a hidden agenda. Ethnarch Junior on Friday quoted a report of the ECB which said “the relevant authorities of the Cyprus Republic do not co-operate with us”, an obvious reference to the Governor.
He has been, however, co-operating very well with Pimco, which he hired, at three times the cost of rival firms to calculate the future capital needs of the banks. He agreed with Pimco’s arbitrary decision that the value of the collateral (real estate) the commercial banks had as security for loans would lose 60 per cent of its value by 2017, which helped raise the financial needs of the banks to very high levels, as per AKEL’s instructions.
Before the professor reports our establishment to the AG, we must inform him that the document containing the information was leaked to us by an Akelite.

OUR ESTABLISHMENT appears have been misinformed about the activities of Vassilis Rologis, a director of the Bank of Cyprus for more than 20 years. In last week’s Shop, we reported that Rologis was seeking the help of different people in order to remain director despite being asked to step down by the Governor of the Central Bank. We had also joked that Rologis would probably step down in five or 10 years.
We are informed by his lawyer that Rologis has every intention of stepping down as a B of C director before the next AGM of the bank in June and that he “never asked” for anybody’s help to keep his seat on the board. As regards the dinner he gave in honour of Professor Panicos in London, it was exclusively regarding banking business but Rologis still paid the bill out of his own pocket; he did not charge the bank as we had written.
That the bill was not charged to the bank was also confirmed by the secretary of the B of C board, Phivos Zomenis, who also took the trouble to send us a letter, setting the record straight. We apologise for the factual inaccuracies and for suggesting that Rologis was trying to keep his seat on the board for as long as possible when his intention was to hold on to it only until June.

THE RECTOR of the Cyprus University Constantinos Christofides ruffled a few Akelite feathers last Sunday when he spoke in an interview with Phil about the government’s continuous interference in the affairs of the university.
This prompted the AKEL-appointed chairman of the Council of the University Charis Charalambous to issue a statement implying that Christofides was talking nonsense (more crudely put, the rector was talking through his rectum). The university had excellent relations with the government, said the apparatchik, and were never in dispute as the minutes of the Council’s meetings indicated.
As if the minutes of the meetings would record the government’s diktats, like insisting that all the university’s money was deposited in the AKEL-controlled Limassol Co-op Bank, instead of a variety of banks as had been the practice.
The government had also cut funds for the construction of the university library, in what is seen as a vindictive act, as it wanted the contract awarded to the Miltiades Neophytou construction firm that is owned by Akelites. In spite of the desperate efforts of the apparatchiks on the University Council to award the contract to Neophytou, it was awarded to the firm which had made a lower bid, by €5.5 million.

THE FUHRER, on Friday, finally released a statement with his personal assets, which was eagerly-awaited by Akelites and now we know why. A few hours after the release of the figures which put his personal wealth at €2.3 million - this made him poorer than his rival candidate Yiorkos Lillikas whose assets are €4m – the miserable-looking AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loucaides said Nik was lying as he had not revealed all his wealth.
Of the three main candidates two are millionaires, a point that AKEL and its impoverished indebted candidate Malas will try to capitalise on in the elections. No doubt they will tell us that a man of poor means would make a better president, and cite Tof the Terrible as conclusive proof of this theory.

LILLIKAS, who tries to be all things to all people, has found a way of appealing to left wing voters. He might be a millionaire now but he never tires of informing us that he was brought up in abject poverty in his Paphos village and acquired everything through hard work.
As he said in an interview with Phil last Sunday, “I cannot feel ashamed because I succeeded professionally.” It was obvious that he did not feel ashamed from the photograph of him on the front page of the newspaper.
On seeing the picture I thought he had been photographed in the Palace of Versailles, but forgot to wear one of those wigs worn by the Bourbon kings. Reading the caption, it became apparent this was his palatial home. He stood next to a gold, ornately carved, Louis XIV table, above which was a gold, ornately carved mirror, in front of which was a small statue; above his head was a gold, ornately-carved, twin candle-holder with lamps.
If you’ve got it flaunt it, as they say. Self-made millionaires cannot resist the temptation to advertise their riches. I have nothing against new money and as the great Groucho said, better nouveau than never.

OUTSPOKEN tree-hugger Giorgos Perdikis came up with a novel idea for dealing with the allegations of money-laundering against Kyproulla by the Germans. The Germans were welcome to come here to investigate whether money-laundering was taking place, but on one condition: “A special committee would leave Cyprus, on a direct flight to Berlin, and go to Deutsche Bank” to investigate if it was involved in money laundering.

THIS was not the only idiocy we heard in the last week. DIKO attacked the Lillikas camp for being involved in an unrelenting campaign to steal its voters. Surely this is the point of any election – stealing as many voters from the rival candidates/parties that you can. The question is why has DIKO not reported the voter-thieves to the police?

Who is professor Panicos pointing the finger at?