A NEW association is on a mission to reclaim the money they say was stolen from them as part of a harsh bailout for Cyprus.

Its members are the depositors of Laiki or Popular Bank, which was the island’s second biggest bank that is being wound down as part of the island’s €10 billion bailout agreement. 

Uninsured deposits – those over €100,000 - are nominally still there, but the depositors will have no access to them for years and then only expect to receive part of their money back, depending on how much of the bank’s assets are recovered in the winding down process.

“Laiki Bank Depositors Association, SYKALA, was founded in order to reclaim the money which was stolen as a result of the profoundly illegal actions of those who decided to steal it,” the association’s website sykala.org says in Greek, English and Russian.

In about a month, the association has accumulated more than 1,500 members from at least seven countries, said SYKALA’s head, Adonis Papaconstantinou. 

Some of the members were among the 53 who have already lodged appeals at the Supreme Court against the March 25 decision by the eurozone’s finance ministers, the Eurogroup, to shut down Laiki and restructure the Bank of Cyprus (BoC), whose uninsured depositors would suffer a loss on their savings that may ultimately reach 60 per cent. 

They will receive equity in return.

The move was forced on Cyprus that is looking to get €10 billion from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, over half of its yearly economic output. 

But for SYKALA and many of its members, it was nothing short of theft. SYKALA met with the finance minister this week as part of an overall plan to exert political pressure, come up with financial proposals, raise awareness and launch legal procedures. 

Papaconstantinou said that they were waiting to see how the Supreme Court applications panned out before proceeding but were prepared to take other legal action via civil suits or on a European level. 

The association believes they could win despite Laiki being insolvent and state being close to bankruptcy.

“Definitely something will happen either via collaboration or by force,” said Papaconstantinou referring to hopes that legal action could validate the wrongness of the Eurogroup decision. 

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail on condition of anonymity, one depositor said he joined the association because he did not know where else to turn. “To be honest, I don’t have high hopes. The state has no money so who is going to pay it back?” he said.  The 50-year-old father of two said that the association was at least trying to take action. 

With his funds locked up or lost he is not sure if he will be able to pay his children’s school fees. His children do not speak good enough Greek to go to a state school and he is now angry with himself for deciding to return to Cyprus. But he is also not sure if suing the state or any other entity to get his money back “is correct”. “Say (we) win, not that I expect it. The state will go bankrupt if forced to pay,” he said.

The numerous lawsuits filed by affected depositors of both lenders have so far delayed the BoC restructuring process, which involves absorbing certain Laiki assets.

The suits have succeeded in freezing some €17 million in Laiki and €460 million in BoC, holding up the process.

The government is keen to see the BoC restructure though, as soon as possible, but it recognises the legal obstacles.

There are also a couple of technical matters that needed to be dealt with, like transferring more assets from Laiki and amending the structure and characteristics of its share capital to make it compatible with international banking accords.

FACED with the prospect of closing down, Cyprus Airways (CY) workers yesterday approved a rescue deal that called for shedding around half its current personnel.

“Not approving this deal means closure of the company,” the assembled workers belonging to the PEO and SEK trade unions were told by their representatives.

The deal provided for 490 staff to be made redundant, wage cuts, and the reduction of the airline’s fleet by four aircraft to six.

“Approving this deal is a one-way street” SEK representative Andreas Pierides said. “There is no other way.”

Workers were given a week to state whether they wanted to leave voluntarily so as to avoid layoffs.

Their departure will take place in two stages since the crews of two aircraft – beyond those of the six planes that will remain in operation – will stay on until the end of the summer.

“(The workers) expect the state to support Cyprus Airways by implementing the restructuring plan and ensure that the company will continue to operate and the remaining workers will have the certainty that their company has prospects,” said Antonis Neofytou, representative of PEO.

CY pilots however, yesterday complained that the company’s management was delaying implementation of the restructuring plan, jeopardising the rescue effort.

Their union, PASYPI, questioned why foreign experts had not yet been tasked with implementing the scheme – as it had been agreed by all involved.

“For the last time, PASYPI is calling on the government to intervene and force the management to hand over the authority of implementing the restructuring plan to the foreign experts who have the knowledge and experience to successfully see it through,” PASYPI said.

Meanwhile Middle East Airlines said they were no longer interested in investing in CY, according to Communications Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos.

The minister added that other investors were exploring the possibility of investing in the national carrier.

THE FINANCE ministry yesterday issued a decree, exempting four credit institutions operating in Cyprus from the capital restrictions imposed on Cypriot banks. 

These institutions are BLOM Bank SAL, Lebanon and Gulf Bank SAL, OJSC Promsvyazbank which operate as branches in Cyprus and the VTB`s subsidiary Russian Commercial Bank (Cyprus) Ltd.

It says however that these credit institutions are prohibited from servicing domestic customers that maintain accounts with their head office, or soliciting and obtaining new business from domestic customers or opening new accounts for domestic customers.

‘All domestic customers are also subject to the restrictive measures imposed by any other decree issued under the Law,” the decree says.

According to the decree, all cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds from a domestic customer to an international customer of a credit institution included in the catalogue of names, or to such a credit institution’s own account are considered as cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds to accounts held abroad and are subject to the provisions of any other decree issued under the Law. 

"All cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds from a credit institution that is included in the above mentioned catalogue, for its own account or by the order of an international customer, are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other decree issued under the Law", the decree states.

The decree permits "all transactions between a credit institution that is included in the catalogue and an international customer." 

"All transactions between a credit institution that is included in the above mentioned catalogue, by the order of an international customer or for their own account, and an entity outside the Republic are permitted and are not subject to any restrictive measure imposed under any other decree issued under the Law," the decree adds.

PRESIDENT NICOS Anastasiades yesterday met with his National Economic Council for the first time yesterday, one month after its appointment, paving the way for the top advisory body to get to work on restoring trust in the Cyprus economy.  

Joined by Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, Anastasiades had a three-hour meeting with the ten-member body, headed by Nobel prize winner Christopher Pissarides. 

Sources told the Cyprus Mail last night that the council agreed with the president to first focus its expertise on three main issues: the banking system, with particular emphasis on how to ensure the Bank of Cyprus’ survival, which remains in a critical condition; all the implications involving the euro currency, and the government’s policy for economic growth.  

One source said the discussion was “wide and varied” and “very constructive”. Everyone was given a chance to speak in an open manner while the government appeared “very receptive” to various ideas. 

Anastasiades had a chance to explain to the economists what exactly happened during the fateful Eurogroup meeting in March when Cypriot depositors woke up to the news that the troika had taken the unprecedented decision to impose a haircut on depositors of the island’s two largest and most systemic banks. 

Another source said, now the dust has started to settle after the Eurogroup bombshell, it appeared the government was ready to take serious steps to rectify the woeful conditions of the Cyprus economy.    

Speaking after the meeting at the Presidential Palace, Pissarides said the meeting focused on clarifying the framework within which the council will operate and liaise with the president and minister. 

“We are satisfied with the decisions taken,” he said. 

The president discussed with the team of experts the problems facing the Cypriot economy that need further study. 

“Our aim is to make more detailed studies, we are all technocrats, our reports will be based on data and evidence to help those in power take decisions on the economy,” he said.  

The Nobel prize winner said the council will cover all areas of the economy, focusing initially on the banking system, energy sector, fiscal policy, and growth programmes.  

“The priority is to have an environment conducive to investments. The only thing that can limit unemployment is economic growth, and the competiveness of the Cypriot economy and the creation of new jobs,” said Pissarides. 

Unemployment was “the most serious problem”, he said, adding that the short-term situation was not good. 

“The austerity measures imposed on us do not help deal with unemployment and the various social benefits simply limit the costs of unemployment to families. Without economic growth, we can not constrain it. I do not believe, however, that we will reach the levels of Spain and Greece.” 

The best way to return to economic growth is by returning confidence in the Cyprus economy. To do that, investors need to feel they can get a return on investments. 

“Now, there is uncertainty in the banking system, which needs to be eliminated,” he said.

Vice-chair of the council, Stavros Zenios, told the Cyprus Mail that they had a long general discussion last night, clarifying administrative issues and the main areas of focus of the council. 

“It was very positive and there is lot’s of good chemistry within the council. We are a committee of experts, not politicians. And we see eye-to-eye with the government on what is expected of us: to provide independent, informed expert opinion,” he said.   

According to sources, the council will come up with a study within weeks on how to help the ailing Bank of Cyprus. As a result of the Eurogroup decision, the island’s largest bank was lumped with the debts and assets of the now wound down Laiki Bank, including a €9 billion-plus debt to the European Central Bank, and all of Laiki’s staff.  

On Thursday, Georgiades criticised the Central Bank of Cyprus for not moving fast enough on the restructuring of the Bank of Cyprus, which continues to remain leaderless, having been run the past few weeks by an appointed administrator who will stay in charge until a CEO is appointed.  

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades (left) looks at some documents before the meeting starts

WHAT IS happening at the Banks of Cyprus? Finance minister, Haris Georgiades’ publicly-voiced displeasure, on Thursday, over the slow pace of the restructuring process put additional pressure on the bank and the Central Bank Governor, who does not seem to show a great sense of energy.    

While Governor Panicos Demetriades had given assurances that the process would be completed by early May, according to the minister, he subsequently suggested it would take another three to four months. There are admittedly legal issues slowing down the process, with Bank of Cyprus facing a host of legal suits against the deposits’ bail-in that it would have to deal with. The capital controls, which could remain in place for some time, further complicate matters and affect the restructuring process.

But even acknowledging these problems, the process of restructuring has been very slow. It took weeks for the Central Bank to choose the interim board of directors and instead of appointing six members to make decision-making faster, it appointed 14. Meanwhile, the bank has been without a CEO since Yiannis Kypris was forced to resign by Demetriades. The post will be advertised next week, which means it could take another month or two before the position is filled; and then the new CEO, if an outsider, would need time to familiarise with the job.

One of the biggest problems facing the bank is that it has no leadership. It is currently being run by an administrator who is in charge of the restructuring and an interim board that would step down when the process is completed. Add to this the addition of more than 2,000 Laiki Bank employees to its workforce, an ill-conceived decision that would cause much tension among staff when redundancies are made, and it becomes apparent that the bank’s troubles are far from over.

The uncertainty and instability caused by the lack of leadership may suit the Central Bank Governor, because it allows him to keep the Bank of Cyprus under his control, but it does not exactly pave the way for the bank’s return to normalcy, which is what the government wants. It could be that Georgiades’ public dig at Demetriades is dictated by the minister’s desire to wrest control of the bank from him, but it is questionable whether the government would do a much better job of running it. 

The truth is, neither side inspires much confidence and, if the bank survives, as we all hope it does, it will be in spite of the government and the Central Bank.    

THE ECONOMIC crisis could “open up” opportunities to end the frozen conflict on the island, said US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, adding that hydrocarbon prospects in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) could be a part of that solution.   

Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, in Washington to meet his American counterpart, countered that the three issues- economic crisis, gas and the Cyprus problem- were separate issues that could, however, be developed in parallel. 

Standing next to the Cypriot minister in a brief address to the press before their 50-minute meeting, Kerry acknowledged that Cyprus was struggling with “very, very deep economic challenges” that required “difficult choices”. 

The top American diplomat described Cyprus as “a very good friend of the United States”, adding that the US wanted to be helpful “in ways that we can be”.

Kerry said he looked forward to working with Kasoulides and President Nicos Anastasiades, along with others, “to try to move Cyprus forward on one of the world’s frozen conflicts”.

The Secretary of State said he has already spoken with Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, as well as with the Greek Foreign Minister and Cypriot President about finding ways to solve the decades-old dispute. 

“The United States supports a bizonal, bicommunal federation. We would like to see us unfreeze this conflict and be able to move to a resolution.”

He added: “I would hope that rather than preventing people from moving forward, the economic crisis in fact opens up opportunities. And needless to say, there are important possibilities of exploration off the coast of Cyprus with its economic zone, and that may even be able to be a part of a solution.”

For his part, Kasoulides noted Kerry’s “very keen interest” in the eastern Mediterranean, which he has already visited three times since his appointment.  

The Cypriot minister said he wanted to discuss Cyprus not in isolation but as part of the wider picture in the region. 

“We want to be and play the role of stability in this region and work with all the neighbours and with the United States,” he said. 

Solving the “open wound” of the Cyprus problem remains the government’s “first and foremost desire”. 

However, it wants to deal with peace efforts, as well as the issues of the economy and natural gas as three separate issues. If one reinforces the other, it’s through these parallel three roles, he added. 

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), following the meeting, diplomatic sources said Kerry showed understanding to the Cypriot desire to keep the peace process, economic crisis and exploitation of energy resources as separate issues. 

At the same time, the US reportedly considers the natural gas issue could act as an incentive for a solution. 

The same sources said Kerry heard with interest Kasoulides’ proposals for the return of the fenced off part of Famagusta to its lawful inhabitants as a confidence-building measure (CBM). The US diplomat will have the chance to sound out Erdogan and Davutoglu on the proposal when they visit Washington next week. 

Kerry also offered US support regarding the economic crisis, to which Kasoulides suggested a review of the law on double taxation, which could encourage more US companies to operate in Cyprus. 

“It was a very interesting discussion,” said Kasoulides, noting Kerry’s in-depth knowledge on what is happening in Cyprus, and the region in general. 

“He has some ideas on how the US could help in the efforts. He accepted our suggestions, which he will gladly explore and we will keep in touch to see how we can continue with a view certainly always for a solution of the Cyprus problem, in a way which is fair and just towards Cyprus and the Cypriots,” said the Cypriot minister.  

Asked if Kerry linked the crisis to a solution, Kasoulides replied: “As you heard him say, he has raised three issues. From the moment we have explained these three issues are not dependent on each other but can reinforce these three separate paths, I believe things are in the right perspective.”

Asked if Kerry raised the issue of putting a stop to hydrocarbon explorations in Cyprus’ EEZ, he replied: “Not at all, on the contrary.” 

Before his Washington visit, Kasoulides also met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York. 

According to Kasouildes, Ban agreed to hold back the resumption of peace talks until the autumn, giving time for the new government to get a grip on the economic crisis enveloping Cyprus right now. 

The government has been pushing with one voice for Turkey to take a massive step towards building trust between the opposing sides by opening up Famagusta in exchange for direct trade between the EU and the Turkish Cypriots and the unblocking of some frozen chapters in Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. 

Kasoulides said the return of the fenced off part of Famagusta to its lawful inhabitants would be a “test of Turkey’s real intentions in Cyprus”.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides yesterday pointed out the need to restore confidence and trust between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots before the resumption of talks. 

Speaking to a Paralimni audience on Thursday evening, Anastasiades said a Cyprus solution remained a top priority. He called on Turkey to confirm with actions its stated desire for a solution: “For this reason, we believe that a significant step towards this would be the return of Famagusta to its rightful inhabitants and not through declarations or empty threats.” 

During his US tour, the Cypriot minister also met with National Security Advisor to Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, the American-Israeli Lobby, the Hellenic Caucus, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as with the Israeli Ambassador in Washington. 

Addressing a gathering at the Brookings Institution in Washington, the minister said Cyprus could cooperate both with Israel and with Lebanon and Egypt in the field of energy. 

He noted that Cyprus is the only predictable neighbour of Israel, adding that a bad solution of the Cyprus problem would change that predictability, since it would allow Turkey to meddle in Cyprus’ internal affairs.

Meanwhile, UN spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux yesterday confirmed that UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer will host a dinner for the two leaders and their spouses on May 29 at the Chief of Mission’s residence in the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry (right) with Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides in Washington

A FIRE in a used car dealership in Paphos early yesterday morning caused extensive

damage to three used cars worth €10,000.
The fire was spotted by passersby at 2.30am yesterday in a car dealership on Nikiforos

Brettakou Street in Paphos. The Fire Service rushed to the scene and put out the fire

before it spread but not before it had engulfed three cars.
Following examination of the scene, police have concluded that the fire was a result

of arson.  

SITTING around a stately oval table in his office last week, the health minister said that recent criticism from the medical association on the future of the National Health System has left behind a bitter taste. 

“The bitter taste is not there because they opposed the government’s or my own thoughts and goals,” Petros Petrides said.

Rather, it comes because the medical association has not appreciated an important step on the long road to realising a National Health System (NHS) to which all workers contribute and all can use. That step, he said, is that public sector workers now have to contribute towards their healthcare.

“What is happening is that there is a partial implementation of the NHS,” he said. 

This is a grand statement that needs some unravelling to make sense, because on the face of it, the reality of a state healthcare system that is fairly available to all is as far away as ever.

The medical association, the umbrella organisation that looks after the interests of doctors in both the state and private sectors, had taken issue with this “partial implementation” that secures subsidised health care for public servants and their dependents in return for their contributing 1.5 per cent of their gross salary. Although the new measures mean that for the first time this sector will now contribute to their healthcare - previously it was completely free - the medical association has described it as unfair on those working in the private sector which is largely ineligible. 

“It is showing favouritism against the rest of our co-citizens, working in the private sector and possibly earning less,” the association announced late last month.

The health ministry negotiated healthcare coverage for civil servants and those who receive state pensions as part of the latest draft memorandum of understanding agreed with the troika as part of the island’s bailout. The troika had wanted civil servants to lose their automatic access to state healthcare.

The new measures still allow some coverage for those in the private sector and actually lower some of the income criteria for eligibility which already existed. Five-member families may voluntarily contribute the same 1.5 per cent of their gross salaries to ensure coverage. Some sufferers of chronic diseases will be automatically entitled to healthcare. For those not asked to make contributions, there will be sliding income criteria starting at €15,400 yearly for individuals, to €30,750 yearly for four-member families, plus an extra €1,700 per additional dependent. 

Most private sector pensioners will continue being eligible for state healthcare based on income criteria, and even non-beneficiaries will have access to the system, on charges that are set to rise by 30 per cent but are still attractive compared to the private sector.

For the minister, the inclusion of civil servants means healthcare coverage has been secured for more people than the troika initially wanted while gently nudging civil servants into realising they will have to pay even more in the future. And learning to pay for healthcare paves the way for when (and if) parliament updates the now outdated and never-implemented 2001 law which was to form the basis of an NHS which saw everyone paying a bigger part of their salaries. 

It was obvious, during a recent news conference announcing the new measures, that Petrides was very proud of the “hard negotiations” with Cyprus’ lenders that have secured state healthcare for a larger segment of the population than would have otherwise made the cut, even though this is less than the 660,000 people who were - in theory - previously eligible. 

Parliament has passed the bill and the changes are streamlined to take effect within the next few months. To qualify for state healthcare, beneficiaries need to have been paying in social insurance for three consecutive years. 

This last measure will go some way to limit the demand for state healthcare which has grown rapidly over the years, first with the opening of crossing points when Turkish Cypriots living in the north - but paying no contributions to the republic - started using the system in 2003.

Demand has also been fuelled by the 2004 EU accession which saw a new influx of non-Cypriot EU residents. And in recent years, there has been a growing number of Cypriots who can no longer afford private healthcare. 

While successive governments and stakeholders have proclaimed their love and commitment to a NHS, Cyprus remains the sole EU country without a state health scheme that covers all members of the public and rationalises costs. It took the ongoing recession to force stakeholders to start discussing the NHS seriously, and it took the troika of lenders to force the government to start taking necessary actions. Meanwhile, health costs have risen so much since that first 2001 law that the troika of lenders has said there can be no tenders on the vital IT system, for example, before the government updates an actuarial study to reflect true (and rising) costs. 

But now the political will is in place, Petrides said. Crucially, the traditional resistance from the powerful private health sector is rapidly crumbling as the recession bites deeply into the once massive profits private doctors enjoyed. Private doctors have traditionally opposed the NHS because up until now it would have meant either less money or a less secure source of income. If they opted to be part of the NHS, they would have to accept lower pay as part of a standard tariff across the board for family doctors akin to the UK’s GPs and for specialists getting patients referred to them via a GP. In addition, a properly functioning NHS would be a better competitor to those private sector doctors who opted to continue in private practice. 

The head of the medical association, Andreas Demetriou, conceded that private sector doctors have changed their views. 

“Over the years, many doctors - especially the big doctors - were against (the NHS). But now there is no choice,” Demetriou said. 

From nearly 100 private clinics and hospitals, there are now a little over 70, Demetriou said. The private sector used to work at an average 50-60 per cent capacity but now operates closer to 20-30 per cent, he added. According to Demetriou, prices have dropped and private doctors sometimes choose not to charge or to offer discounts to vulnerable groups. 

Demetriou said that doctors needed to acknowledge their profit margin would drop. There are after all he said, 2,000 doctors in the private sector compared with 800 doctors in the state sector. Meanwhile, health insurance companies have not dropped their premiums, Demetriou added. 

But a hint at the real reason behind their criticism of state servants’ coverage comes from the umbrella body of private laboratories whose board has suggested discounted prices for the beneficiaries that should be covered by state sector - not for the uncovered private sector. “While the private sector is driven to bankruptcy, the state sector is using taxpayers’ money to comply with necessary measures... and compete with the private sector,” the association said. Cue a statement about the need to implement an NHS as soon as possible “so that patients’ safety is guaranteed in both the private and public sector,” a dig at the overworked state sector’s long waiting time for lab test results leaving patients’ doctors with incomplete information in the meantime. 

It’s quite a reversal of roles with the private sector now united in their love for the NHS.

An NHS would indeed guarantee a living for everyone in the medical sector, curb rising expenses, regulate the average cost of treatment and get a standard tariff for both state and private services. A family doctor would act as a gatekeeper to prevent abuse of the system (e.g. seeing a specialist with no need). And the IT system, which will be built on a Built-Transfer-Operate model to alleviate costs, will also reduce bureaucracy. 

Meanwhile, the health ministry is busy implementing measures that the troika said need to be adopted before the country gets any bailout help. This includes restructuring hospitals, addressing waiting lists, and coding healthcare costs according to kinds of medical procedures. 

And the government has decided to pay €6m to the private sector for certain services to help the private sector and alleviate pressure from state hospitals, President Nicos Anastasiades said. 

But that figure is a comparatively tiny. Last year the cost to set up a NHS was edging close to €1.0 billion, a figure reflecting contributions by the government, and employees and pensioners over a year. And this is before the actuarial study is updated. And a lone sentence in the latest draft of the memorandum speaks of what should happen should the financial costs turn out to be prohibitive: “If needed, a comprehensive reform with the aim of establishing the long-run viability of the system, will be carried out”. What this reform may need to be, it is not yet clear. But everyone agrees that something needs to be done.

“I’m not saying we will have the NHS this year or the next, but gradually we will have it,” Petrides said.

Health Minister Petros Petrides

Demand for state healthcare has grown rapidly in recent years

ELSIE SLONIM’S book of almost a century of twists and turns is so incredible and poignant that it could be a work of fiction. But the 95-year-old whose Nicosia home - where she still lives - became engulfed in a restricted military zone in the Turkish-occupied part of the city in 1974 has quite simply lived an extraordinary life. 

A newly wed Elsie first arrived in 1939 in Limassol where her husband, David, managed a citrus farm in Fassouri. Through both choice and need, Elsie waded through the world and a long, difficult marriage, living in the USA, Romania, Austria, Palestine/Israel and France. But Cyprus was to become the returning point time and time again. 

Slonim’s recently released autobiography Lemons from Paradise not only tells the astonishingly frank life story of a beautiful Jewish girl born in 1917, but also recreates a very personal history of 20th century Cyprus, first as a British colony, then as an independent nation and finally as two communities split into two after the Turkish invasion. All of these events impacted directly on the family’s many business ventures. 

Elsie’s life was peripatetic from the start. She was born in Brooklyn, New York to a German-speaking Hungarian family that moved back to Europe soon after she was born, first to a family estate in Sivac, that later became part of Yugoslavia, then Romania, where her father had a factory, and also Austria where Elsie and her sister, Stella, went to school. 

By 20, Elsie had already been married and divorced, a gutsy move in the 30s when divorce was still taboo. Her father was livid. 

“Not only had I married a man who could not bring any money, now I was disgracing the family by getting a divorce,” she said. 

Elsie’s father was happy for her to immigrate to America in 1939 to stay with extended family “not because of the threat of war which was increasing every day, but because of the gossip about me which, he said, had to stop.” So Elsie and her sister, who decided to accompany her, booked tickets for the grand RMS Queen Mary (now a tourist attraction in California) and Elsie was given $70, which was all she had. During that voyage she met her future husband, David Slomin, a Jew from Palestine, born in Siberia in 1905 and living in Cyprus where he was a manager of a fruit plantation. Following a brief romance, David proposed.

Elsie’s family were not impressed. “None of them knew where Cyprus was, and when they discovered it was in the eastern Mediterranean and a British colony, that, in other words, it would be in a war zone if, as expected, war broke out, their opposition to my going there with David increased,” she recalls in her autobiography. 

Despite family opposition and a shocking ‘post-nuptial’ agreement she married David within months. Just hours after their marriage David demanded she sign an agreement in front of a lawyer that gave him the right to divorce her if she was unsatisfactory as a wife. She would lose all claims to his property and be returned to the US with 50 pounds sterling. 

“The foundation of our marriage had been shattered. Even now, I cannot forget or forgive that dreadful day,” she said. Even so, she signed it and went on to have a long, turbulent yet sometimes happy marriage.

Under such inauspicious beginnings, David and Elsie landed in Limassol in July 1939. They were greeted by one of David’s partners at the Fassouri plantation who wore what “English colonists [wore] almost everywhere the climate was conducive to such attire, namely, khaki shorts, matching half-hose, a straw hat, and a white short-sleeve shirt”. 

In Cyprus, David soon proved to be the workaholic he was to remain, and Elsie was mostly alone in a house with no refrigerator or ice box, and no closets or chairs in the bedroom. In the kitchen, a cage attached to an iron chain hung from the ceiling to keep the ants from getting to perishables, such as milk and butter that were often defeated by the heat.

“Was it known in Cyprus that heat rises, and that the air close to the ceiling is always warmer than the air elsewhere in the room? I never found out.” 

Going around on a used bike in small Limassol and getting lost in its winding streets, she later realised that some of the locals thought she was one of the Jewish women who escaped from the Nazis and worked in cabarets. 

Without family or friends, unable to talk to her husband whose life was consumed by the growing plantation at Fassouri, and just months after arriving, Elsie attempted suicide. She made a painful recovery and in the process made friends with English ladies who had heard through the grapevine of her failed suicide attempt.

“One by one each lady wearing a hat and glove arrived in a coach… beautifully attired in clothes that fitted her upper class status. In accordance with custom, each stayed about ten minutes with me chatting about the weather and other innocuous topics, and then departed, leaving with me visiting cards. … I was to call within two weeks.” 

Life improved as Elsie became part of “a friendly circle of elderly ladies” and the proud owner of the first refrigerator in Limassol. 

Her autobiography describes visits to Kyrenia at the beginning of the war, where the couple stayed at The Dome whose guests included retired high-ranking British army officers, governor, commissioners and “well-to-do people who liked the colonial life and all that went with it”. During dinner, “almost every other lady wore an eye-catching, sleeveless long evening gown with a conspicuous dιcolletι.” 

In 1941 with Cyprus expecting a German attack, Elsie and her husband were evacuated along with other Jews to Palestine where Elsie’s parents and her sister now lived.

The years that followed were hard. Within weeks of their arrival in Palestine, a restless David returned to his farm in Cyprus, risking his life to make the dangerous journey, while Elsie, now pregnant, raised their son, Reuven, until she could return to Cyprus in 1945. 

Inspired by a need to help the new state of Israel with his agricultural know-how, David relocated the family back to Israel in 1948, when their daughter, Rachel Daphne, was born. 

When their life there failed to go as planned, the family returned yet again to Cyprus in 1953. With his position at the Fassouri plantation no longer available, they moved to Nicosia determined to make a fresh start. But Cyprus had changed. Waiting in the wings was EOKA and the push for Enosis.

“We were little prepared for the civil strife that eventually would change life forever,” Elsie recalled. Animosity between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots grew, and the family noticed the growing hostility towards the British. David’s business venture - another plantation - failed, partially because the troubles made the transport of his produce so difficult. When he was offered a job in Paris, it seemed sensible to accept, but by 1967 he was eager once again to return to Cyprus where he aimed to invest in tourism, real estate and another plantation. 

At first, all went well. Business boomed. They built a house in Nicosia to which David with astonishing prescience added an air raid shelter. In 1974, the family hid in it while fighting raged and when it stopped, they were allowed to stay in what was now a restricted military zone.  

“It is a lonely house. … The mansions of those who were our friends and neighbours stand empty and are gradually falling apart,” she says of the place where she still lives.

The family lost virtually everything in the invasion. Leaving David behind to spend his days desperately and fruitlessly trying to find ways of regaining access to his property in the north, Elsie finally returned to the United States in 1975 where she worked for many years as a companion to wealthy elderly people. David would visit up to three times a year but after he suffered a stroke on one visit, she returned to Cyprus with him. David died in his sleep in 2007, aged 101. 

Even then, financial security eluded her. Elsie lost all her savings in an American bank that defaulted in 2008, and she started selling her silver to survive until a Swiss family friend caught wind of her situation, cleared her debt and persuaded her to accept money so she could get back on her feet. Elsie then discovered an old pension application, and now gets by on a pension from the Austrian government.

Elsie lost her daughter to cancer in 2009 and her son in 2011 from a massive stroke.

The clue that Slonim’s book has been the sum of her experiences is in what she leaves out, such as how four generations of her relatives came to die in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. Was it too painful to write about? “Yes,” she nods. But she is willing to tell the story. 

“Do you want to hear it?” 

It is a harrowing tale, but she is not sure if she should relay it during a book reading next week. 

“Do people want to know? They have their own troubles,” she said.

“Lemons from Paradise” is available at the Moufflon bookshop for €19.97. A book reading under the auspices of Limassol mayor Andreas Christou is due to take place in Limassol this Tuesday at 6pm at the Historical Archives and Research Centre at 6pm. Elsie Slonim is also due to talk about her adventures at the Goethe-Institut in Nicosia on June 12, at 7pm. 

Limassol harbour in 1939 when Elsie first arrived

Harvesting the grapes on the Fassouri plantation in the 1940s

Elsie and David in Tel Aviv in 1941

Elsie and David Slonim in 2003

TRAFFIC POLICE chief Demetris Demetriou yesterday launched a police campaign aiming to

record zero road deaths of motorcyclists this summer, aptly named Target Zero.
Speaking to reporters, Demetriou noted that the number one cause of death for

motorcyclists is driving under the influence followed by speeding. He highlighted one

case were a motorcyclist was caught by police going 276km per hour on the

Nicosia-Larnaca highway.
According to the traffic chief, in the last ten years, from the 235 motorcyclists

killed on the road, 112 were under 25 years of age, while 142, counting for 60 per

cent, were not wearing a helmet.
Police estimate that at least 100 of those who died would be alive today had they worn

a helmet, he argued,
In the last ten years, 2,500 motorcyclists have sustained injuries as a result of road

accidents. The summer campaign for zero road deaths is being jointly organised by the

non-profit organisation Reaction, the Ledra motorcycle club and the police force.

ENERGY CAN be used as a tool to bring about regional cooperation and integration in

the eastern Mediterranean, said Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, following his

meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Friday.
In an interview with Athens News Agency, Kasoulides said it became clear after his

meeting with Kerry, requested by the State Department, that the economic crisis is not

being linked with a solution to the Cyprus problem or explorations for hydrocarbon

reserves in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). 
He noted that Kerry seeks to get personally involved in efforts to solve the Cyprus

problem.
On the issue of hydrocarbons, he said both men agreed that “it could act as a positive

vehicle for all protagonists once the Cyprus problem has been solved, and that energy

should not become a source of conflict, but a tool, a motive for cooperation and

regional integration”.
“To use (energy) in the form of threats would be the worst development,” he added.
During his visit to the US capital, Kasoulides also brought the issue of the return of

the fenced off part of Famagusta back on the table, proposing that Turkey put words

into action and undertake a meaningful confidence-building measure. In exchange,

Cyprus would agree to direct trade between the EU and the north and unblock a number

of frozen chapters in Turkey’s EU accession talks.
Kerry reportedly agreed to raise the issue with the Turkish prime minister and foreign

minister during their visit to Washington next week.
Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan will reportedly raise the issue of energy in the eastern

Mediterranean during his meeting with US President Barack Obama.
Regarding his meetings with Congress, Kasoulides said a lot of interest was shown in

the role Cyprus could play in the region through its EEZ, and shared maritime borders

with Israel, Egypt and Lebanon.

RUSSIA has not yet agreed to extend the terms of its 2.5 billion euro loan to Cyprus,

Russia's deputy finance minister said yesterday.
"There was a request ... to change the duration of the loan, we promised to think

about it," Sergei Storchak told reporters, on the sidelines of the European Bank for

Reconstruction and Development annual meeting, speaking through an interpreter.
"This was a kind of promise - if somebody wants to see it as a done deal, there is

nothing I can do about it."
He added that any changes to the terms of the loan would need parliamentary

ratification.
"For that to be a done deal, we need to have it on paper."
Cyprus' foreign minister said this week that Russia had agreed to extend the terms of

the loan as part of its participation in the bailout.
A document prepared by international lenders also reported that Russia agreed to

extend the maturity of the loan to Cyprus by two years and cut the interest rate.
Russia lent Cyprus 2.5 billion euros in 2011 for five years, with an annual interest

rate of 4.5 per cent. Extending the loan and reducing the interest would ease debt

servicing costs for Nicosia and help it regain financial stability.

A TOP EU official has claimed that the humiliating raid on Cypriot bank accounts was a

punitive measure for excessive time wasting and increasingly strained relations with

the government of Demetris Christofias.
The disclosure was the latest twist in what appears to be an intensified war of words

between Nicosia and Brussels, as the fallout from the bailout crisis continues.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail at the European Commission, the senior official

speaking on strict condition of anonymity, said the financial rescue plan would have

been ‘like any other’ if Christofias’ administration had listened to countless

warnings of economic meltdown, avoided employing a haphazard obstructionist policy and

toned down anti-EU rhetoric.
“We warned more than once that political decisions on the Cyprus rescue plan needed

taking urgently, but every single suggestion we made, everything we advised was

ignored,” the official said, whilst admitting that the bailout was tantamount to

gang-stomping Cyprus for its behaviour.
He added a bailout for Cyprus was all but inevitable from 2011, but Christofias

appeared less interested in relations with Brussels as he was holding out hope for a

bilateral loan from either Moscow or Beijing.
“If I’m straight with you, I can say the Cypriots pissed off everyone,” he added.
The official, who worked within the Eurogroup at the highest level, gave a withering

assessment of the previous president accusing him of opting for a policy of negligence

and arm-wrestling by “stuffing the economic problems of Cyprus into a cupboard and

slamming the door”.
The escalating spat between Brussels and Nicosia comes just days after EU commissioner

for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn confirmed that Cyprus was censured for its

foot-dragging from as early as November 2011. That was when the first warnings of the

stricken economy were issued, with Cyprus applying for a bailout last June.
“It is unfortunate that it took Cyprus more than half a year to accept the gravity of

the situation and the unsustainability of its business model. And it is similarly

unfortunate that it took Cyprus another nine months to reach an agreement with the

Eurogroup,” Rehn told MEPs from the European Parliament’s monetary affairs committee

on Wednesday.
Aside from losing patience, another point of contention amongst EU politicians and

technocrats was Christofias’ increasing erratic behaviour and public outbursts against

Brussels, which were described as being ‘irritating at best’.
The rumbles of discontent from the troika were amplified in January, when Christofias

said: “It’s my firm conviction that unilateral policies of austerity are a guaranteed

recipe for failure, only succeeding in making the rich richer and the poor poorer.”
A change in tone was reflected by the enthusiastic welcome extended to Nicos

Anastasiades when he arrived in Brussels as the newly sworn in president.
It was thought that differences would be put aside, setting the seal on a new

relationship, with Anastasiades promising to work for a quick deal hours after being

sworn into office.
However, the same official harshly rejected President Anastasiades’ insistence that he

was unaware that a bail-in plan on bank deposits would be pushed through at the first

Eurogroup meeting on March 15, claiming many people were left perplexed by such

claims.
“The president of Cyprus gives a very good impression of someone who did not know what

was going to happen,” the official told the Cyprus Mail.
He added that relations between Nicosia and Brussels nosedived after MPs from

Anastasiades party refused to vote for the first bailout the following week, then

snubbed a pre-arranged conference call with troika technocrats.
Among other criticisms were false public hints by the Cypriot government that Britain

was willing to discuss helping with the rescue and the dispatch of Finance Minister

Michalis Sarris to Moscow.
President Anastasiades denies accusations of having prior knowledge of the bailout

terms, or of having passed along sensitive information from the eurozone negotiations

prior to the freeze on bank withdrawals and transfers.
Nicosia also rejects claims that the original agreement - which included a tax of 6.75

per cent on smaller deposits - was concocted by Anastasiades and his aides.
“We were flabbergasted when they said this was not their idea, it is distorting

facts”, said another diplomat who was also at the Eurogroup meeting.

Christofias accused of ‘stuffing the economic problems of Cyprus into a cupboard and slamming the door’

IN a conscious effort to raise the country's dampened spirits, President Nicos Anastasiades yesterday pledged Cyprus would get out of the quagmire and once again be a proud nation with dignity.

In a rousing speech before the 15th congress of the ruling Democratic Rally (DISY),
where he was made honorary party president, Anastasiades acknowledged the country was
going through challenging times.  

“We are without doubt living through the most difficult period since the 1974
invasion. Never before have we had to deal with so many cumulative challenges and
impasses at the national, political and economic level.

“Never before were the feelings of disappointment, uncertainty and insecurity
experienced by our fellow citizens so strong,” he said.  

“I want to tell you something I feel very strongly. We’ll make it, we’ll make it, I
promise you we will make it because I have the same tenacity, the same will and
determination like all our people have,” he added.

The president said a second package of measures to kick-start the moribund economy
would be announced in the coming weeks.
Along with efforts for economic recovery, the government plans on implementing a
series of “bold measures” to modernise the state, eliminate bureaucracy and

corruption, embed meritocracy and the prestige of the institutions and restore trust
in politicians.
“And I want to assure you that we will all feel proud one day, because we will not
give up on principles, we will not abandon values, and we will not betray our
formulated positions. We want a state worthy of the expectations of our citizens, all
of them, without exception, and we will make this a reality because we have the will,
the strength and the faith,” said Anastasiades.

During the party congress, the president handed over the reigns as party leader to his
former number two, Averof Neophytou.
After 37 years in the party and 16 years as its leader, Anastasiades said it was
impossible not to feel moved.
“But it was a conscious decision because I want to serve as president of all
Cypriots,” he added.  

DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou was appointed deputy head of the party, while
Soteris Sampson, Stella Kyriakidou and Giorgos Georgiou were all made vice-presidents.
Josefina Antoniou was named head of the women’s section of the party.  
At the time of printing, voting continued yesterday afternoon to elect the 20 members
of the ruling party’s political bureau.  

Addressing the congress as new party leader, Neophytou yesterday said that
implementing the loan agreement with the troika was a one-way road involving painful
sacrifices to get Cyprus out of the storm and on to dry land.  
“In this country, all of us, some less, others more, postponed critical and necessary
reforms of the state, the banking sector, the pension system, the size of the public service and the health system," he said.

Like Anastasiades, he avoided pointing the finger as to who was responsible for
Cyprus’ current predicament, noting the Cypriot public was well aware of the road
which had led to economic chaos.
“Now is the time for joint efforts of all political forces to create the greatest
possible unity, the search for common objectives and avoid unnecessary conflict,” he
said, adding that it was the job of the committee of inquiry appointed to look into
the causes of the economic catastrophe and to apportion blame.

President Anastasiades handing over the leadership of DISY to Averof Neophytou

APART from the energy-sapping heatwave, things did not get any worse in the fortnight our establishment had been closed, which must be something to rejoice about.
It is true that nothing got better, but the banks are still open, the euro is still our currency, Cyprus Airways is still flying, the Cyprob is still unsolved, Panicos is still running the B of C, there was no resignation at the investigative committee and the trains are still running on time.
The end of the tunnel might still look pitch-black, but we should be happy that Kyproulla still wakes up every morning and opens for business as usual. As any member of alcoholics anonymous would tell you, we should take each day as it comes and not worry that we will not enjoy another drink for the rest of our life.
There was even one big positive in the last fortnight. People completely ignored the calls of the anti-bailout demagogues - Yiorkos Lillikas and AKEL - to attend a mass protest rally outside the legislature while deputies were voting on the memorandum of understanding.
Only 300 people, including Mrs Comrade Tof and her kids who went along because she promised to take them to Macdonald’s afterwards, turned up to the lame rally - a resounding defeat for the anti-bailout demagogues and their cheap lies.

THE REAL stupidity was on show inside the legislature with AKEL and EDEK, the parties that refuse to grow up, voting against the memorandum. So did the bash-patriotic turtle lover Giorgos Perdikis who was devastated by the approval of the deal.
“Today’s ‘yes’ of the Cyprus House of Representatives constitutes the biggest defeat of the Cypriot people in their 8,000-year history,” said a distraught Perdikis, after the vote. 
But if our deputies voted ‘no’ and the banks collapsed, the state defaulted on its payments, we left the euro and had no money to import anything it would have been another big victory of the Cypriot people, as glorious as the legislature’s other recent triumph, its heroic ‘no’ to the first bailout deal.
Diminutive DIKO defector Zacharias Koulias, who is being tipped to become the representative of the Lillikas party in the House, was on fire during the debate and issued the following warning: “If the memorandum and loan agreement are approved, which would mean ceding state sovereignty, the House would have no role and all deputies must resign.”
Koulias has not resigned and will carry on collecting his fat pay check every month despite serving in a House that has no role and therefore no work for him to do. Perdikis will also stay on, because the biggest defeat in our 8000-year history is no reason to sacrifice his big salary.

TWO DAYS before the memorandum vote the self-appointed spokesman of the citizens, the unlikeable Lillikas held the conference for the founding of his movement, the Citizens’ Alliance, which he plans to turn into a political party he categorically denied, before the elections, he would set up. Koulias will be its deputy, if he does not resign by the time the party is formed.
The Alliance had one ambition, said the mega-ambitious Paphite – to become the resistance front of the people, because we need to free ourselves of ‘economic occupation and German hegemony’. The poor turn-out at the protest-rally outside the legislature showed how seriously the citizens took their brave leader’s calls to attend. Did he show up, because I did not spot him in any of the TV pictures?
It would not have been Lillikas conference if the representative of the citizens did not tell at least one big lie. In his speech he said “we have learnt today that the President of the Republic has in his hands a proposal from China to pre-sell natural gas worth €10 billion and he is refusing to do so.”
The smart Paphite’s assumption was that the citizens listening to him were dumb enough to believe the Chinese themselves could be so dumb to pay €10 billion now for gas that would be supplied at an unspecified future date.

SPEAKING of China, why is our government using Chinese women to sell state lottery tickets in the old part of Nicosia, when there are so many unemployed Cypriots? Was the employment of Chinese lottery ticket-sellers a condition for the €10 billion deal?
And what does our blonde labour minister, with the deep, gravelly, smoker’s voice, Zeta Emilianidou, think about the Chinese depriving Cypriots of jobs? She may as well have not bothered to advise businesses, when announcing the ministry’s three schemes for wage subsidies worth €30 million on Tuesday to hire Cypriots.
In fairness, she was a bit more diplomatic than that because the schemes were co-funded by the EU and, as she pointed out, were for European citizens, such as Cypriots. She could not publicly tell employers not to hire Bulgarians or Romanians, but Zeta expressed the hope that “with everyone’s co-operation as many of our Cypriot compatriots as possible would be employed” under the schemes.

FINANCE minister Haris Georgiades took another swipe at the Akelite Central Bank Governor, Professor Panicos Demetriades on Thursday, expressing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of the Bank of Cyprus’ restructuring.
While Haris had a point, he also had an ulterior motive. It is obvious he wants to take control of the dear B of C from Panicos, who is on a mega power-trip and insists on calling all the shots at our biggest lenders. There are suspicions that he is calculatingly delaying the restructuring, completion of which would allow the new shareholders to vote a new board to run the bank, in order to keep control.
Under normal circumstances, nobody would want the politicians to run the bank, but when the alternative is Panicos, who has been on a mission to destroy our banking sector, you have to side with Haris. The B of C would be safer being run by clueless DISY placemen than a scheming, self-aggrandising AKEL apparatchik, acting as the local enforcer of the ECB.
The members of the interim board he appointed support the theory that his main concern is control of the bank as they are all his people. On Friday, Panicos attended the bank board meeting presumably to remind the directors who was in charge.
Even the chairman of the interim board, the self-regarding Sophoclis Michaelides, had spent his undistinguished career as a Central Bank technocrat – not a track record to inspire confidence that he is capable of providing the strong leadership, desperately needed by the struggling bank.
One thing in his favour, which made him the ideal man for job in the Professor’s eyes, was that when he was at the Central Bank he was on bad terms with the previous governor. Spyros Stavrinakis was made deputy governor by Panicos for the same reason.

THE PROFESSOR should also inform us why he appointed Costas Hadjipapas to the interim Bank of Cyprus board? Hadjipapas was the only member of the old, discredited board that kept his seat. Worse still, he is one of the senior managers of the B of C (Paphos district manager), who should have been kept off the board.
But Hadjipapas has one thing going for him - he is a member of the bank employees’ union ETYK which wanted him to remain its representative on the board. However the almighty Panicos was afraid to stand up to ETYK boss Loizos Hadjicostis (Vgenopoulos’ cheerleader) and reject the union appointee.
Being a loyal Akelite, the governor does exactly what the union orders him to do. It was also the union’s demand for the B of C to hire all of Laiki’s employees and Panicos satisfied it immediately, ignoring horrific rows that this would cause when the bank has to get rid of more than a thousand employees.
Hadjicostis, who originally claimed that no bank job would be lost, now insists that B of C staff would have to be made redundant to make way for employees of bankrupt Laiki that the former was forced to hire. His daughter is a Laiki employee, but more important for him is that he will have the power to decide which employees will work for the B of C. Panicos will certainly not stand in his way.

IN SHORT, Hadjicostis who was applauding his great friend Vgenopoulos even after he had bankrupted Laiki, still has a big say in the running of the banks, via his comrade Panicos. His close links with Vgenopoulos have never counted against him.
As for his representative on the interim board, Hadjipapas, he has been promising staff that ETYK would get B of C to cover the losses suffered by their provident funds from the bail-in. 
Only in Kyproulla could such things happen. And only in Kyproulla could the governor of the Central Bank appoint as director of a bank a man who openly says he wants to take company’s money for his personal benefit and that of his union’s members.
Conflict of interest, which Panicos wanted to ensure against when appointing the interim board, did not apply to his ETYK partners.

THE COMMIES appear to have re-discovered their old love for Stalinism. AKEL issued a statement to mark the WWII, Day of Victory on May 9, and of course reserved its greatest praise for the Soviet Union.
While acknowledging that all countries in the “anti-Hitler coalition” contributed to the victory it added: “The big and incontrovertible truth is that the main burden of the war, the biggest share of sacrifices and the most decisive contribution to the crushing of Hitlero-fascism is owed to the Soviet Union and the Soviet people. This truth cannot be ignored or deleted....”
It omitted to mention that after the crushing of Hitlero-fascism, half of Europe and the Soviet people had to live for 45 years under the equally inhuman Stalino-fascism which AKEL remains a great fan of to this day.

THE LEFT-WING rhetoric was stepped up in the last week, AKEL using Europe Day to issue another statement slamming the “inhuman neo-liberal model that is being enforced in the countries under a memorandum yoke” and repeating its call for an exit from the euro.
I would just like to remind AKEL of its stance with regard to the events of 1974. After that national catastrophe Akelites insisted that anyone who had played a part in bringing it about (supporters of Grivas, members of Eoka B and Greek officers), did not have the right to speak and if anyone dared open his mouth the commies would fall upon him like a pack of hungry wolves.
By the commie logic, the people who played a big part in causing the latest national catastrophe (the AKEL leadership, Christofias, the bankers) should not have the right to speak in public, especially about the economy.   

WE HAVE run out of space and cannot write about the latest findings of Bambos Vasilas, the Phil investigative reporter who monitors the prices being charged for sex in the Kokkinochoria and Larnaca. We promise to have a full report with Vasilas’ latest revelations about sex-rates next Sunday.

THE SHAMELESS audacity of AKEL knows no bounds. The party which annihilated a once-thriving economy and drastically reduced the living standards of the entire population has come up with a proposal for ridding the country of the troika and the memorandum. The full consequences of the destruction caused by the Christofias and his comrades have not been felt yet, but AKEL has already started posing as the saviour of the country, coming up with a proposal that would supposedly rid the country of the troika and allow it to renounce the memorandum of understanding.
It is very easy according to this joke proposal. All we have to do is to negotiate our withdrawal from the eurozone with our partners and start printing Cyprus pounds as this would give us back our national sovereignty and presumably enable the government to give pay rises to the public servants once again. The superficiality of the proposal defies belief but it is nothing less than we have come to expect from a party that based all its decisions for the economy on populist considerations, always putting the interests of AKEL above the country’s.
We doubt its proposal is meant to be taken seriously as it seems more like another piece of populist opportunism. The communists know that the troika and its austerity measures are deeply unpopular and it is positioning itself against the bailout in order to expand party support. If, eventually, there is public support for an exit from the euro, AKEL will claim it had been vindicated, but if there is not it will still make political capital out of its opposition to the hated memorandum, sustaining the myth that it had nothing to do with it.
The government and DISY have questioned the proposal and explained the dire consequences of an exit from the euro, but much more should be done to counter AKEL’s cynical populism. For decades, AKEL has been allowed to set the political agenda and dictate the political consensus, with the rest of the parties afraid to challenge it for fear of losing votes. For instance, keeping semi-governmental organisations under state control is AKEL dogma which all parties have embraced; giving in to the diktats of public sector union bosses and protecting the privileges of public sector workers is also communist dogma that all parties subscribe to.
We had hoped that President Anastasiades would have had the courage to break with this odious tradition, but so far he has been a disappointment. He has been pandering to public employees and their union bosses, pledging no more pay-cuts, agreeing to extra-generous redundancy pay-offs for Cyprus Airways workers and putting back the privatisation of SGOs, while promising their underworked staff no redundancies. It does not matter that one of the reasons we asked for a bailout was because Christofias obdurately refused to cut pay and privileges of overpaid public sector workers.
In fact, Anastasiades was acting like an AKEL president in promising no more pay cuts to public employees, who suffered the lowest pay cuts in the country despite their wages being, on average, 40 per cent higher than those of the private sector in which wage reductions have been twice as high. Wage differences between public and private sectors are even higher now, but the president is intent on protecting the privileged because he is too scared to challenge the AKEL propaganda about social cohesion and consensus.
But what social cohesion and harmony can there be in a country with two disparate classes of workers, when the politicians only care about protecting the parasitic, privileged class at the expense of the disadvantaged class? The president should allow the communists of AKEL to defend privileged labour and he should start championing the interests of the have-nots that nobody seems to care about. He should consider that the self-proclaimed defender of the proletariat, AKEL, made the poorest workers poorer, while it was governing.
It is time the people who care for this country started to challenge AKEL’s dogmas, which it has been imposing on politics for years. It is time the motives behind the party’s declarations were questioned instead of embraced. We should remember that AKEL allowed a manageable situation to veer completely out of control, leading the economy to ruin because the party’s populist agenda always came first. Anastasiades and the government need to keep reminding people of this at every opportunity, instead of sitting back and allowing the opportunistic communists to carry on calling the political shots.   

AN ISRAELI-led joint venture’s proposal to produce and export lucrative electricity

from possible gas reserves within offshore Block 3 is being “considered” by the

government, the Sunday Mail has been told.
The venture had bid for Block 3 but was not picked, the exploration licence ultimately

awarded to the Italian-Korean consortium of ENI-KOGAS.
But Dr Eli Barnea, CEO of Sigma Explorations Holdings Limited - which has a 75 per

cent stake and was the designated operator in the Israeli joint venture - said this

week that their offer still stands.
The Israeli-led group’s proposal on Block 3 incorporated the construction of a power

plant on the island for exporting electricity to Israel and for generating electricity

for Cyprus’ local consumption, by linking the two countries’ grids via a subsea cable.
Due to their geography, both nations are currently isolated in energy terms and

vulnerable to failures at their main power plants, argues Barnea, citing the Mari

disaster of 2011.
In that respect, a 1500MW capacity plant in Cyprus would be a win-win for everyone.
Barnea says the Cyprus government and the ENI-KOGAS consortium could be persuaded to

‘farm-in’ the Israeli-led joint venture.
One option might be for the Israelis to purchase part of the Block 3 gas from the

Italian-Korean consortium. They would then finance a natural gas-powered plant on the

island and sell the bulk of the generated electricity to Israel.
In addition to the jobs created in building a facility, Cyprus would benefit from

charging a fee for the export of electricity to the neighbouring country.
Barnea sees Block 3 as being ideal for the project, because of the prospect’s close

proximity to Cyprus shores - some 65km from Cape Greco.
Moreover, drilling there would cost far less - about US$40 million compared to US$100

million in other prospects - because of the lower sea depths.
Lower development costs in turn would yield lower electricity prices, making them

attractive to the Israeli market.
“With electricity, you need only be competitive on a regional basis. With natural gas,

on the other hand, you’re competing on a global level,” Barnea argues.
And electricity exports from Cyprus to Israel could begin from late 2015 or early

2016; by contrast, the option of exporting gas via a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant

cannot be achieved sooner than 2020 or 2021.
Barnea holds that exporting natural gas is not the best option for Cyprus because the

added value is not that high. According to his own estimates, Cyprus would stand to

make $10 per million BTU from exporting electricity, compared to just $3 per million

BTU from exporting gas via an LNG terminal.
The proposal is not a new one. It was brought to the attention of the Cyprus National

Hydrocarbons Company (CNHC) back in January through a detailed presentation.
And a month ago, Barnea expounded on the plan’s merits during a meeting with President

Anastasiades in Nicosia; the response from the president was “generally positive”,

says Barnea.
It’s also likely the idea was discussed between Anastasiades and Israeli premier

Benjamin Netanyahu during the former’s visit to Israel this week.
What’s changed since January is the financial crisis here, which has taken a sharp

turn for the worse.
“Before 2020 - and that’s being optimistic - LNG won’t be making a penny for Cyprus.

But if Cyprus can cash in on hundreds of millions of euros from electricity exports as

of 2016, for a period of 20 years, that’s a hell of an incentive,” Barnea says.
In the meantime, the CEO continues to lobby Tel Aviv.
Barnea aims to persuade the Israeli state to issue a conditional statement of intent

to purchase around €1bn of electricity a year from Cyprus.
And in an unmistakeable display of can-do attitude, the entrepreneur thinks he can get

that “in a month”.
To finance the approximately €5bn project, Barnea will be seeking an offtake agreement

backed by the state of Israel. An offtake agreement is a deal between a producer of a

resource and a buyer of a resource to purchase/sell portions of the producer's future

production. It is normally negotiated prior to the construction of a facility (such as

a mine) in order to secure a market for the future output of the facility. If lenders

can see the company will have a purchaser of its production, it makes it easier to

obtain financing to construct a facility.
Offtake agreements are frequently used in natural resource development, where the

capital costs to extract the resource are significant and the company wants a

guarantee that some of its product will be sold.
Barnea also suggests the Electricity Authority of Cyprus and the Israel Electric

Corporation could be invited to co-finance and be stakeholders in the project.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an energy official here called Barnea’s pitch

“both serious and worthy of consideration.”
What makes the proposal interesting, the source said, is that it does not rule out the

LNG project - the stated cornerstone of Cyprus’ energy plans.
“Rather, the two can be complementary,” the source said.

A gas powered electricity plant could complement an LNG terminal, but the profits would be felt far sooner

THE RUSSIAN Commercial Bank (Cyprus) Ltd, subsidiary of the Russian state bank VTB, intends to maintain its operations in Cyprus. 
According to Cyprus News Agency sources, the bank has decided to remain in Cyprus after initially considering relocating to Malta, due to the recent Eurogroup decision on Cyprus and the restrictions on the movement of capital.
The same sources have told CNA that the bank’s decision is a token of its confidence in the Cyprus banking system.

CYPRUS has the highest percentage of workers in Europe who are suffering from work-related stress, at 51 per cent.
This is three times higher than the European average of 16 per cent.
These finding were published in the third edition of a European survey carried out by Ipsos MORI, a research company in the United Kingdom, on behalf of the European agency of safety and health at work.
According to the survey job insecurity and work reorganisation are considered as the most common cause of work-related stress in Europe. Half of the European working population believes work-related stress is a normal phenomenon.
From December 5 until 17 2012, 587 telephone interviews with full-time, part-time and self-employed workers, ages 18 and over, were conducted in Cyprus.
In Cyprus six out of ten workers, a total of 61 per cent, consider their working hours or workload as being the common cause of work-related stress and nearly nine out of ten, 88 per cent, believe stress in the workplace is a frequent phenomenon while ten per cent feel that it is rare.
Work-related stress is most common in workers from the ages of 35 to 54.
“The message we want to send to all European businesses, regardless of size and industry is that psychosocial risks can be addressed in the same logical and systematic way as any other matter affecting health and safety,” Christa Sedlatschek, the director of European agency of safety and health at work said.
The survey included 31 European countries, the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, with a total of 16,622 interviews.

THE STORMS that have caused flash floods mainly inland and in the mountains will continue today and may last until tomorrow.
From May 1 until 9am yesterday the total amount of rainfall was calculated at 15.1mm, which is 77 per cent normal for this period of the year, according to the meteorological services.
“Because we had experienced high temperatures during the last couple of weeks, energy was built-up in the atmosphere and low pressure was created. This low pressure system is what caused these tropical storms during the last week in Cyprus,” meteorological officer Marios Theofilou said. “These storms begin suddenly around lunch time and end suddenly some hours later.”
Theofilou commented that this type of weather is a common phenomenon in early summer but it has lasted for more days than usual.
Today’s temperatures will be 23C inland, 22 to 23C along the coast and 13C over higher ground. Temperatures will begin to rise on Thursday.
Deputy fire chief, Marcos Trangolas, said yesterday that the fire service had responded to 180 calls over the weekend in the capital due to the havoc caused by the heavy rain.