By Poly Panteldies and Bejay Browne

AS THE traditional August holiday period approaches, the tourism industry is receiving mixed signals where domestic demand is concerned.

According to industry insiders on the eastern part of the island, accommodation is filling up fast and residents need to get their act together on bookings. Yet on the western coast, traditional Cypriot holiday strongholds say business is dire with one hotel dealing exclusively with locals already seeing a 50 per cent drop.

It seems inevitable that more residents will choose to holiday in Cyprus this year given the financial crisis, but there are also those who may have holidayed at home in previous years who can no longer afford to do even that.

On top of that, according to Ellie Petrou, the owner of the Tylos Beach Hotel, a family-run two-star facility in Kato Pyrgos, government subsidised holidays for certain groups such as pensioners and large families have been cut by 80 per cent. Kato Pyrgos had been taken out of the loop altogether she said. “The government is only paying for mountain holidays this year and not beach holidays. Things are very bad,” she said.

Tylos Beach has been in existence for 41 years but Petrou said things have never looked so dire for them.

“Our bookings are down by 50 per cent compared with last year and even though we have special offers at the moment we still have rooms available for August, a time when we are usually packed.”

Kato Pyrgos is situated in a valley on the northern foothills of the Troodos Mountains it has the added bonus of an unspoiled beach with crystal clear waters. But despite the superb location and low prices – €35 per person per night including breakfast – fewer people are booking while some have cancelled after losing their jobs or having wages slashed.

“People are still unsure about what is going on with the banks and psychologically they are not okay. Most of our guests are locals and we can no longer take advance payments as people just don’t have available cash to do it,” said Petrou.

Chairman of the Cyprus Hotels Association (PASYXE), Haris Loizides yesterday confirmed that most areas have not yet fully recovered from the financial meltdown in March when bookings from abroad stagnated due to the uncertainty in the banking sector.

Limassol, Larnaca, and to a lesser extent ‘Paphos proper’ are lagging behind, Loizides said. Within each district, there were areas faring worse than others such as Kato Pyrgos, Loizides said, whereas the touristy Paphos-proper was doing all right, Loizides said.

On the eastern side of the island however, tourism officials are rubbing their hands with glee.

In the Famagusta area, the tourist board expects to run on full capacity by the end of July and for the whole of August, said the board’s head Lakis Avraamides.

“Assuming as a starting point that more Cypriots will choose not to go abroad, it’s natural to expect more domestic tourism this year,” Avraamides said, adding that it was well know that Cypriots were last-minute bookers.

He said to avoid disappointment, residents should book in advance because already, hotels in the Famagusta area are at 85 per cent of capacity.

He said there had been few cancellations from abroad after a general numbness in arrivals in March. Agents from abroad kept their bookings for May and June arrivals on standby as they waited to see how the situation would unfold, Avraamides said.

“Over the past ten days we’ve seen a return to our good old form with more bookings for July and August, because that’s when everyone wants to come,” he added.

Troubles in neighbouring Egypt and Turkey have also encouraged tourists to seek alternative destinations, mostly in Greece but also in Cyprus, he added.

Because demand has been good, the Famagusta region in general has not tried to attract people via special offers. “We have good high quality tourism,” Avraamides said.

Britons and an ever-growing number of Russians continue to visit Famagusta, which boasts beautiful sandy stretches in Ayia Napa and Protaras. Plenty of Nicosia residents also have holiday homes in the area, escaping the summer heat whenever they get a chance.

Loizides said hoteliers were hope that by the time August rolls around capacity would be closer to 95-100 per cent, rather than the current 85 per cent on average.

He said the discounted prices in April had gone a long way towards helping the recovery, especially when it came to Russia when it looked like some chartered flights might be cancelled for fear they would not be filled.

But how important is the domestic market in all of this? Not very as long as the beds are being filled from abroad. “It [domestic tourism] accounts for seven to eight per cent of the total market,” Loizides said. As tourism in Cyprus goes, it is the foreign visitors who are the bread and butter of the industry for most hoteliers. However some like to target both markets.

The Five Star Grecian Park Hotel in Paralimni is a luxury hotel resort close to Protaras, Ayia Napa, Cavo Greco and the popular beach of Konnos Bay. This area is always popular with holiday makers both from home and abroad, and this year is no exception. The hotel allocates a certain number of rooms to tour operator’s abroad but many of their guests are Cyprus residents.

Sales and reservations manager for the hotel Sonia Christofi said: “We have very limited availability left for July and August and we haven’t seen booking dropping off at all this year at all, which is good news.”

Christofi added: “Our hotel has always been popular with the Cyprus crowd and they are one of our target markets, we have always tried to give the best we can and we have a special local rate.”

She noted: “What we have realised is that more people from Cyprus are booking with us in July, which is something new. This area is always popular and it attracts a lot of people.”

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An elderly friend of ours, age 84 and not in very good health, deposited the funds from the sale of his property in Cyprus with the Cooperative Bank in May 2011. He has two separate bonds with the bank, one maturing May 2013 and the next in October 2013. He informed the bank that he would not be able to get to Cyprus until June and would like to draw the bond proceeds out at that time. He was told that the money would be held in the bond so that he wouldn’t lose any interest but wasn’t informed of any time span. When he arrived here in June for a two week holiday, he found out the funds had been invested for a further 3 months and he therefore couldn’t touch the money until August.

He went into the bank today with written instructions to transfer the bond proceeds into his current account at the new maturity date and was told that he had to attend in person on the maturity date and that he couldn’t transact the business on any other date. On that date, he would only be allowed to transfer 20% of the bond proceeds to the current account and then a further 20% in 3 months time, again having to attend personally at that time.

This seems absolutely ludicrous, is the bank hoping he will die before he gets chance to take his money out. He fully understands the reasoning behind capital controls, but surely there is more flexibility regarding the dates and having to appear in person. I am unaware, having worked in the UK banking industry for many years, of any organisation that will not accept written instructions, brought in personally by the investor. It will entail air fares to and from Cyprus plus hotel costs as he cannot at his age be expected to do all that in one day.

Name and address withheld

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Where there is no Justice there is no wrong…and Cyprus is the champion of them all.
If one is looking for justice to prevail in this beautiful island, one has to really search with a fine tooth-comb; for justice is very illusive indeed! Some will say it simply does not exist!
Judgement day has come for the six accused of the Mari tragedy where 13 innocent people perished in the explosion of the worse political plunder, incompetence and cover up ever attempted by a ruling government.
The Court has decided but its decision does not satisfy peoples’ sense of justice. In a true sense, justice has not been done because many others who share part of the responsibility, including a parliamentary committee, the ex-president and other prominent political names were excluded and were not brought to justice to answer as to their own implication and role of the Mari explosion. One wonders as to the Attorney General’s impartiality and sense of justice.
As always the people will never learn the truth for it will be covered up as always – just like the Poliviou report (now collecting dust), which conveniently the previous government has chosen to ignore. Instead a 73-year-old ex-defense minister will be given a life sentence and used as a scapegoat so justice “can be seen to be done” in order others may escape the long arm of the law. This is Cyprus today, a very sad day for us all.

Andreas C Chrysafi, Paphos

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Dear Dr. Petrides,

Cyprus Strategic Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease: How long before action will be taken?

Having sent you an email about the above plan to your designated MOH email address and not hearing from you, I felt obliged to ask you publicly for a response.

The recent publication on Amazon of my e-book, A Mental State, has prompted me to approach you about two main issues:

Firstly, The Strategic Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease, launched with much fanfare in 2010 by your predecessor, Dr. Patsalides, seems to have sunk without trace. At best, only point 4 of the Plan (voluntary sector) seems to be operating i.e. the state is expecting this sector to do all its work for it (Points 1 to 3 of the Plan) and without the state’s resources. Only the state can provide clinical resources for dementia, even if contracted out; only the state can establish clinical and managerial protocols and standards in hospitals; only the state can monitor, audit, review and correct clinical and managerial practices in hospitals.

Secondly, the culture of abandonment and a corrupted spirit within the Cypriot health sector was so evident in the way that my mother, Thraki Rossidou Jones, was treated when she developed dementia. My wife and I were treated as ‘enemies of the state’ for daring to protect her. The final calumny was her death by asphyxiation at the local hospital, a scene we witnessed first-hand. So far nobody has been held to account and the public hospital claims to have ‘lost’ the medical notes. To add insult to injury, the civil action we launched in November 2009 has been dogged by multiple postponements and general judicial foot-dragging.

I do not apologize for what I deem to be my justifiable anger and frustration and my book’s contributing author, Dr. Alan Waring, and I believe that it’s vital for health care systems to be in place to ensure that experiences such as ours do not occur again. There’s no room for complacency even in the most developed of countries. We have been heartened by the positive response of the e-book from members of the public, clinicians and dementia organizations worldwide. It is now time to push for implementation of the first 3 points of the Strategic Plan. I’m encouraged by the public statements of the new President that all public officials shall adopt a governance code based on honesty, integrity and transparency. Taking this to its logical conclusion, the present negative culture should therefore start to change for the better. However, talk is cheap. Therefore, Mr. Minister, how long will it take you to even begin to initiate change and implement the Strategic Plan for Alzheimer’s?

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Jones, Paphos

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Following the court verdict on the Mari case on Tuesday, July 9, which found, former defence minister Costas   Papacostas guilty of manslaughter and facing life in prison, what then of the former president who personally accepted this dangerous cargo knowing full well that Cyprus did not have the facilities for their safe storage and who ignored calls from the UN to accept help from other countries. Is this not a crime more serious than that committed by Papacostas?

It is no surprise that the AG decided not to lift Christofias’ immunity from prosecution; after all it was Christofias who appointed him in the first place. We all see every day how the Akelites stick together and defend each other to the hilt. Perhaps the AG should resign to make room for someone else who is able to recognise that Christofias’ immunity needs to be lifted so that he is able to answer such charges in court.

It is not only the statements in court that implicate Christofias it is also the in-depth Poliviou investigation (appointed by Christofias himself) that blamed the President primarily for being responsible for the Mari explosion. Everybody has read the papers, we all know what happened. Each one of us faced with this knowledge of a criminal act having being committed has to make a decision to report it to the police otherwise we are obstructing justice and we are equally guilty of those acts.

The government is responsible for ensuring that such criminal acts are dealt with by the courts. Otherwise the government is obstructing justice and isequally guilty for these acts. This is a test to see if this country is aresponsible European state or a banana republic-which is it?

Andreas Georgiou, Paphos

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By John Mehaffey

Former double world sprint champion Tyson Gay delivered a further body blow to his troubled sport on Sunday when he pulled out of next month’s Moscow world championships after failing an out-of-competition dope test.

Tyson has run the fastest three 100 metres of the year and his clash with Jamaica’s Olympic 100 and 200 champion Usain Bolt would have been the highlight of the championships.

Instead he has withdrawn from Friday’s Diamond League meeting in Monaco and the world championships on the worst day of a bad week for the central sport of the Olympic Games.

Also on Sunday, former world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic 4×100 metres relay silver medallist Sherone Simpson said they had both tested positive for the stimulant oxilophrine at last month’s Jamaican championships.

Oxilophrine has similar properties to ephedrine, although it has a different chemical structure, and both are on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list.

Powell, 30, who has been in good form recently said he had not wilfully taken supplements or substances that broke any rules.

“I am not now, nor have I ever been, a cheat,” he said in a statement.

Simpson, 28, who finished equal second in the 100 metres at the 2008 Beijing Games and won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens 4×100 metres relay, also denied knowingly taking a banned substance.

“This is a very difficult time for me,” she said in a statement.

“As an athlete, I know I am responsible for whatever that goes into my body. I would not intentionally take an illegal substance of any form into my system.”

Earlier sources close to Jamaican athletics said five athletes, including two Olympic medallists, had tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs at the championships.

The managers for Bolt and world 100 metres champion Yohan Blake said their athletes were not involved. Blake did not compete at the championships because of injury while Bolt won the 100 metres.

Jamaica, the sunlit Caribbean island which currently dominates world sprinting, was hit by another doping scandal last month when twice Olympic 200 metres gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown was suspended by her national federation after a positive test for a banned diuretic.

TURKS TARGETED

Gay’s admission came in a week when media reports said that up to 30 Turkish athletes faced doping bans after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed the country had been targeted over concerns about abnormal biological passport values.

Biological passports track changes in athletes’ blood profiles which could be caused by doping.

Gay, 30, told two reporters in a telephone conference call that he had been notified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday that his A sample from an out-of-competition test on May 16 had returned a positive.

“I don’t have a sabotage story. I don’t have lies … I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down,” said Gay, who added he had never knowingly taken a performance-enhancing drug.

Gay, the 2007 world 100 and 200 champion, said he could not reveal the substance or how the positive occurred.

USA Track & Field, the sport’s U.S. governing body, said in a statement: “It is not the news anyone wanted to hear, at any time, about any athlete.

“As we approach the world championships, we will remain focused on the competition at hand and winning the right way.”

Gay’s announcement comes a quarter of a century after Ben Johnson tested positive for a steroid following his victory in the Seoul Olympics 100 metres, still the biggest scandal to hit the Olympic Games.

The 100 metres has been particularly afflicted by dope busts with eight of the fastest 14 men ever having served, or about to serve drug, suspensions.

The IAAF said Sunday’s announcements showed its anti-doping procedures were working.

“The IAAF’s commitment to anti-doping in athletics is unwavering because we have an ethical obligation to the majority of athletes who believe in clean sport,” it said in a statement.

“It is for them that we have built a programme that is well resourced, far reaching and sophisticated. The fact that we are able to detect and remove from the sport athletes who have breached our anti-doping rules should be seen in this context.

“The credibility of our anti-doping programme, and the sport of athletics, is enhanced, not diminished, each time we are able to uncover a new case and we have the committed support of every athlete, coach or official who believes in clean sport.”

However, Paul Swangard, the marketing director at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Centre at the University of Oregon, told Reuters that the positive tests were a blow to the sport’s image.

“For our sport, this is the only time we get into the headlines and that negative publicity can’t help the sport in the long term,” he said.

“From a marketing standpoint, it is another case where the only time mainstream sports audiences are going to hear about this sport is in a negative context. That just sets the sport back.”

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The Limassol Paphos highway will be closed on Monday for the whole day from 8am for emergency works, police said.

Traffic will be redirected to the old Limassol – Paphos road from the Pissouri and Avdimou exits.

On Tuesday and Wednesday half of the highway will remain closed as work continues. Traffic will flow in a single lane in either direction on the southern half of the highway.

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By Natalie Huet and Emmanuel Jarry

Over 20 Greenpeace activists climbed fences to break into an EDF nuclear power plant in southern France on Monday and demanded its closure, the environmental campaign group said.

The activists, dressed in red, broke into the Tricastin plant at dusk and unfurled a yellow and black banner on the wall saying above a picture of President Francois Hollande: “Tricastin, nuclear accident – President of the catastrophe?”

“With this action, Greenpeace is asking Francois Hollande to close the Tricastin plant, which is among the five most dangerous in France,” Yannick Rousselet, in charge of nuclear issues for Greenpeace France, said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for EDF denied the activists had reached two of the plant’s reactors and said that by 0630 GMT, 17 of them had been arrested for unauthorized access. Others clung onto metal structures and ladders, she said.

Hollande pledged to cut the share of nuclear energy in the country’s electricity mix to 50 percent from 75 percent by 2025. He also said he wanted to close the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim, near the German border, by 2017.

Greenpeace said to honor his promise, Hollande would have to close at least 10 reactors by 2017 and 20 by 2020. The campaign group said this ought to include Tricastin, which was built over 30 years ago.

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By Preston Wilder

They desperately need to make these things shorter. That’s the overall lesson to be gleaned from The Lone Ranger, the latest teaming of Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski after Pirates of the Caribbean and, more significantly, Rango. The film has an antic spirit and lots of pleasurable detail – but it’s finally too baggy, too exhausting, and (like Man of Steel, another recent behemoth) about an hour too long.

Verbinski is by no means a hack. His blockbusters come with startling cartoonish images, stylistic signatures like an unexpected dark streak (Lone Ranger has a ‘12’ rating, mostly for a villain with barbaric habits) and a delight in engineering slapstick set-pieces that’s been there since his debut, the 1997 Mouse Hunt. There’s a long sequence early in The Lone Ranger with our heroes Tonto (Johnny Depp) and John Reid, a.k.a. the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer), battling a gang of outlaws while also chained together on a runaway train that’s steaming towards the end of the line – and the scene is almost as exuberant in its choreography as the escape from the cannibals in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It’s not just action; Verbinski likes contraptions, like Jean-Pierre Jeunet of Delicatessen fame. There are hooks and beams and pulleys. Heavy things fall, setting off other things. It’s a comedy of domino effects and split-second timings.

Plot, of course, is irrelevant, except to note that LR and Tonto go after the men who killed our hero’s brother (I say ‘hero’ but Tonto is actually the heart of the movie, and Depp’s is the only name above the title) and uncover a conspiracy. The whole film is supposedly a tale told by an elderly Tonto to a little boy in a fairground, a framing device that recalls The Princess Bride, then – as the body count mounts and the kid gets increasingly distraught – also recalls Tarsem Singh’s underrated The Fall from a few years ago; and of course the device of an elderly Indian reminiscing from behind old-age makeup also recalls Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man.

Film buffs will emit little squeals of recognition throughout The Lone Ranger. The score channels Ennio Morricone, and the plot has the cynicism of spaghetti Westerns (see e.g. The Great Silence). One supporting actor (Leon Rippy) is a dead ringer for old Western stalwart Jack Elam. The notion of a smart-aleck Indian (I think we can ignore ‘Native American’ in this context) subverting the “stupid white man” is a direct nod to the 1995 Dead Man, in which Depp played whitey. Depp himself, meanwhile, echoes the kind of character he played in Benny and Joon back in the day – a recessive loner with a fondness for pantomime, a nice change from the action heroes he’s been playing lately.

Tonto is a deadpan comic in ironic whiteface, scattering bird-seed for the benefit of a dead crow he wears on his head. He slaps the Lone Ranger, then inscrutably explains: “Bird angry”. He sniffs the air, then asks: “Do you have cat?”. He watches Silver the horse getting drunk, then muses: “Nature is indeed out of balance”. Depp and Hammer have good chemistry – the latter clean-cut and accident-prone – and there’s something Don Quixotic in the image of the pair riding through a vast sun-baked desert beneath a tiny umbrella.

There are lots of eye-catching images here; they’re Verbinski’s bread and butter. At one point, LR regains consciousness to find himself on a tiny platform at the top of an absurdly high ladder in the middle of the desert – a total non sequitur (he’s back on terra firma in the next shot), but clearly they couldn’t resist that surreal visual gag. The film is also full of weird peripheral detail: a cross-dressing outlaw, a villain who’s apparently a “gelding”, Helena Bonham Carter as a madam with an ivory leg. But of course the whole idea of a Lone Ranger movie is silly, because the ‘masked man’ means little to the multiplex audience (the TV show came out in the 1950s). As for Tonto, not only is the notion of a faithful Indian sidekick outdated but the notion of a subversive, post-modern Indian sidekick is also outdated; Dead Man, as already mentioned, came out nearly 20 years ago.

Bottom line? If you’re telling a tale with no obvious point, for god’s sake make it quick. It’s summer, and the audience is pliable; we don’t mind an air-conditioned break with some gaudy baubles and the cinematic equivalent of strawberry ice-cream. Besides, by the standards of summer blockbusters, Lone Ranger has both edge and personality. But how much can a person take? Reversal piles upon reversal, then there’s a firing squad and a Mexican stand-off, then the Big Climax featuring not one but two locomotives to the strains of ‘The William Tell Overture’ – which of course was also the Lone Ranger’s theme tune in the old TV Western, but the film’s affection is decidedly back-handed. At the very end, LR rears up his horse and yells “Hi ho Silver!”, but Tonto promptly nips it in the bud: “Don’t ever do that again”. At the end of a 90-minute movie, that might’ve added a cool final touch to a hip, sardonic joke. After 150 minutes, it’s more like insult to injury.

DIRECTED BY Gore Verbinski
STARRING Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson
US 2013 149 mins

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By Dr George Mountis

The physical transfer of the banks’ assets (mainly owned and repossessed collaterised assets) to an Asset Management Company (AMC) has been the case of extensive debate and discussion in Cyprus (and the EU). Taking into account the solutions provided in Germany, Ireland, Spain and Portugal, it seems that there are two key forms of structures that our banks could potentially adopt in Cyprus:

The German structure

The first one relates to the asset division which takes place at the banking entity. In this structure, the shareholders of the ‘good’ bank (with the ‘good’/performing loans) are also the owners of the ‘bad’ bank (non-performing/repossessed assets) and potentially assume unlimited future losses from these problematic loans (this solution was partly implemented in Germany).

The Irish/Spanish structure

The second structure of a real estate-management (REM) bank or an AMC is similar to the Spanish-Irish solution. The banks’ assets under are ‘sold’/transferred to a joint government company that then conducts the wind-down (disposal) comprehensively. In Ireland, after transferring the assets to this wind-down company (called ‘NAMA’), the ‘good’ part of the banks (and their shareholders) were entirely relieved from any future losses from problematic loans and the repossessed.

One could argue that the set-up of a REM bank or AMC in Cyprus will mainly depend on the scale and nature of the expected losses resulting from disposal and effective management of the repossessed assets or the assets under management. Troika will require the strict application of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) measures. In the original settings of the Memorandum, the option of an Asset Management Company was indeed discussed where assets will be transferred at their long-term economic value.

To this end, it is noteworthy that the difference of ‘real estate-management bank’ and ‘asset management company’ has to do mainly with the handling of the emergency liquidity (ELA). The real estate-management bank could take over part of the emergency liquidity that has accumulated in the books of Bank of Cyprus (BOC), potentially improving its balance sheet. On the other hand, the asset management company will not be a bank and will not be able to absorb the emergency liquidity that has real estate as collateral. Depending on the solution to be decided, all collateral for the problematic loans that have been granted in recent years will be transferred to the new entity, and the new entity – bank or company – will undertake the asset sale or rent in order to repay the loan.

The key aim of the of an AMC or a REM bank is to pro-actively manage and wind-down these problematic assets with a view to maximise recovery value (note that there are also social/economic implications that the policyholders need to address with mass liquidations and disposal of properties). The asset transfer at long-term economic value would require a meticulous quality review. Pricing these assets most likely to lead to a significant discount compared to current book values (in Ireland assets have been discounted as much as 70% from their book value when transferred to NAMA).

The AMC authority (or shareholders) need to have tight control and ownership (working closely with external advisors), while Cypriot banks should only have negligible control (even if they are the ones who have the initial customer relationship). The AMC will require the setup of asset managers with local knowledge of the property and banking sector, exclusively pro-actively managing these assets. The setup and execution of such a model requires thorough preparation, both from the Cypriot authorities but also from the participating banks to ensure that all economic, legal and accounting issues are addressed properly.

The new Bank of Cyprus needs to start fresh and isolate itself from the ‘bad’ or ELA assets. Cleaning their portfolios, it’s the only way the Cypriot banking system will revive and breathe again. But until then, we have a long way to go…

Dr George Mountis is Partner | Banking, Strategy & Financial Services advisory

george.mountis@leafresearch.com

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By Poly Pantelides

THE HEAD of an association representing the interests of people claiming they were duped into investing in high-yield bonds without being informed of the risks, testified on Monday at an ongoing committee of inquiry looking into the country’s near-financial meltdown.

The head of a group representing the bond holders, Phivos Mavrovouniotis, had asked the committee to investigate the circumstances under which the securities were issued, but the committee rejected the request because there were ongoing civil cases as well as a criminal investigation on the matter. However, the three-person panel decided in its majority last month to curtail its remit by not investigating anything relating to court matters, including lawsuits.

The committee’s head, Giorgos Pikis, said they had invited Mavrovouniotis to testify before they became aware of a string of filed lawsuits, and prior to being briefed by the attorney-general on the criminal investigations. So they would not investigate questions relating to how banks issued the high-yield bonds, Pikis said.

The Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and the former Laiki Bank stopped paying interest on the securities, after incurring losses from a Greek sovereign debt write-down in 2011. Many investors said they were told this was not a possibility, and some have said they lost their life savings when the banks stopped paying interest.

The securities offered a very attractive return of some 7 per cent in some cases, a better return than keeping the money in a savings account. Some bond holders have sued the banks claiming they were not properly informed of the risks.

Meanwhile, the attorney-general has instructed police to launch criminal investigations in relation to a number of matters, most surrounding the actions of what used to be the island’s second biggest lender the former Laiki Bank (now under resolution) and the island’s biggest bank, the BoC that is currently under administration. In addition, the banks are facing lawsuits by securities’ holders who claim they were duped into the investments.

Mavrovouniotis said he was not sure how many lawsuits have been filed, as his association does not represent all securities’ holders, but said to his knowledge lawsuits argue banks misled and defrauded investors, failing to comply with regulations stating that advice on high-risk products needs to be given to potential investors by qualified consultants.

He referred to a leaked central bank probe alleging banks downplayed or omitted mentioning risks and overstressed the benefits of a high yield. He also said parliament’s institutions committee also referred to irregularities in the way banks recruited investors.

Mavrovouniotis said the House Institutions Committee head, Demetris Syllouris, told him they had not yet received the Central Bank probe. “Are they trying to cover certain information, so do not submit a report which will confirm the banks’ unlawfulness…?” Mavrovouniotis said.

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A 36-YEAR-OLD man drowned in the Paphos district on Monday after he had attempted to go swimming at a dangerous beach.

Genadios Taskides was taken to Paphos general hospital around noon where doctors confirmed his death. According to police spokesman Nicos Tsiappis the man was found by other swimmers at the infamous Venus Beach, which is tagged as dangerous for swimming. Several people have lost their lives there over the years.

Head of the local municipality’s beach committee Andreas Chrysanthou told the Cyprus News Agency that Venus Beach was not suitable for swimmers and is seen as being extremely dangerous. He said the beach carries a red flag which warns of dangerous water conditions and is clearly labelled in three languages. Chrysanthou added that the beach should not be used by swimmers.

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A POISONOUS blunt-nose viper entered the emergency department of Limassol General Hospital at around 2am on Sunday causing widespread panic and biting a patient, police said.

Head of the department, Petros Koureas told the state broadcaster on Monday he believed that someone had purposefully brought the snake to the hospital.

Patients in the waiting room were terrified. The blunt-nose viper is the only poisonous snake in Cyprus.

Koureas said that it was possible the snake had been taken to the hospital by a disgruntled member of public.

He said he believed the snake could not have made its way to the hospital on its own as the field opposite the emergency department had recently been cleared and was being used as a parking lot.

The viper bit a patient on the hand after the man attempted to kill it by stamping on its head. He was treated at the hospital and released. The snake was eventually caught and killed by other patients who were in the hospital at the time.

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The sound of sirens, reverberating at 08:20 this morning reminded those on the island of the military coup of July 1974 against president Archbishop Makarios.
He was ousted by the Greek Cypriot EOKA-B paramilitary organisation, backed by the Greek military and was replaced by pro-Enosis (union with Greece) nationalist Nicos Sampson.
The coup was followed five days later by the Turkish invasion, which resulted in the occupation of 37 per cent of the Republic’s territory and its de facto division.
A church service for those killed during the coup was held in the morning at Saint Constantinos and Eleni Church in Nicosia (picture), in the presence of s President Nicos Anastasiades. Wreaths were laid at the tombs of those killed defending the Republic.
Later on the 56-seat House of Representatives held a special session to denounce the coup and the Turkish invasion and honour those who sacrificed their life for democracy and for their country.

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IT MAY be hot and humid but at least Cyprus is heat-wave free and should remain so for the rest of the summer, the meteorological said on Monday.

The met office uses the first 15 days of a month to predict a trend for the next three months, an official with the met office said.

All indications point to summer temperatures ranging from some 37 degrees Centigrade in Nicosia to low 30s in coastal areas and a positively breezy 27C farther up on the Troodos Mountains.  The temperature was unlikely to go over 40C this summer, the met office said. Last year temperatures rose to over 44C during part of July.

It will even get a degree or two cooler within the next few days, a difference which the met office called “significant” given that it could mean the difference between a balmy 37C and a comfortable 35C, at least for those who can’t benefit from a cool sea breeze.

The downside to being close to the sea however is the humidity that both increases the sensation of heat and can contribute to breathing problems among vulnerable groups.

Although in Nicosia, the met office registered some 22 per cent humidity in the afternoon on Monday, in Paphos, near the airport, humidity came to 71 per cent. In Paralimni, humidity came to 39 per cent, in Larnaca 53 per cent, and in Limassol 56 per cent.

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A family of three were robbed by three men inside their Nicosia home at knifepoint, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the father and his son were injured during the incident that took place on Monday night.

They were treated in hospital for knife wounds but their condition was not considered serious.

The robbers, who had their faces covered, entered the Archangelos home at 11.10pm, taking over €800 from the family who are the owners of a bakery in the area.

The family resisted, resulting in the father and his son suffering knife injuries to various parts of their body.

The assailants were described as being of medium height and build.

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Where do you live?

I live in Nicosia, in the heart of old Strovolos, with my wife Soulla and my children Athina and Petros. Occasionally I spend some time staying in Limassol as well, where we come from.

Best childhood memory?
Christmas at a very young age. I woke up in the morning, a week before Christmas, and saw my room decorated with balloons and other decoration by my parents. God bless them. This created such a tremendous feeling of joy, I was overwhelmed with happiness and love, which was repeated the following year and which I treasure

Most frequented restaurant and absolute favourite dish?
Frequent restaurants: ordinary simple restaurants with Cypriot dishes – souvlakia and fish included. Spaghetti with seafood is for me a favourite dish. Also Bougatsa – a Greek sweet with cream and pastry – is not something I am easily resistible to.

What did you have for breakfast?
I had coffee with a slice of brown bread and a piece of light cheese. Occasionally I have cereal instead, or just coffee.

Would you class yourself as a day or night person? What’s your idea of the perfect night/day out?
I would mainly class myself as morning person. I like to get up early in the morning but sometimes I can stay up working until very late in the evening to the next day 3 – 4am depending on the load and type of the work I have to do.
My idea of a perfect night or day out is to go to some place with the family at the seaside, preferably in Limassol, or elsewhere and enjoy our meal, conversation and jokes in a relax atmosphere – sometimes even share our company with good friends or relatives.

Best book ever read?
I have read many books, classical or contemporary, by Greek, British, Russian and other writers. Many of them have left an impression on me and I still like them. For instance Menelaos Loundemis’ Ena Paidi Metraei T’Astra, a very inspiring novel about a poor child under difficult circumstances, with his thirst to study and his struggle to achieve his target in life.

Favourite film of all time?
Cromwell. Apart of the excellent acting of Alec Guiness, as King Charles I and Richard Harris, as Cromwell, I generally like the quality of the film. It’s a classic and educational too. The story as such underlines the power struggle between the king and the House of Commons. Leading to a civil war in England between the Royalist and the Parliamentarians, and a coup d’état. It is a very interesting film for student and practitioners of constitutional, law, of political and public affairs.

Favourite holiday destination (or best holiday ever taken)? What’s your dream trip?
Crete and its beautiful landscape, beaches and people. Iracelion, Chania, Rethimno and the mountain Psiloritis form a unique holiday destination for me – an island which I also like because of its history, ancient and contemporary, as well as for its similarities with Cyprus. It’s a place I can relax and where Cretan music is heard everywhere – a constant reminder that you are in the land of Venizelos, Kazantzakis and Xylouris. My dream trip is to visit Kitchener and Waterloo in Ontario, Canada – a place I stayed for a few months when I first left Cyprus and have some good and bad memories.

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
A recent CD by a friend of mine, Lollos Georgalletos, entitled Tis kyprou Enthymimata – an enjoyable and pleasant orchestrated Greek and Cypriot music, involving the best names of instrumentalists from Greece and Cyprus.

What is always in your fridge?
Ordinary things like milk, cheese of different types, eggs, fruits, drinks, greens, meat, fish and some white wine and certainly ice cubes.

Dream house: rural retreat or urban dwelling? Where would it be, what would it be like and why?
A traditional small house in Platres or a remote village of Troodos, with a garden surrounded by trees, facilities to receive friends, a fireplace in winter and of course access to internet.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
One person I really miss very much to go out with is my cousin’s son, Memnos. We spent some wonderful times together when we happened to go out for the evening in London, but he passed away. He was such a good company – a positive thinker, very conversant and pleasant personality eclectic about his taste of music, entertainment, food and restaurant.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
If this is unavoidable, I will encourage everybody to be calm and forgive each other. Hold my family and other beloved persons tightly together, have a nice coffee or a drink and listen to music. Then salute the world and depart…

What is your greatest fear?
I have no fears as such, but concerns. My greatest concern is about the future of our people on this beautiful island and the turbulent years ahead. History repeats itself, although in a different context. If we – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – have not learned our lessons from the past and we fail to act wisely and together, we shall continue to be the object of exploitation of foreign powers, which serve only their own interest to the detriment of our county and our people.

Tell me a joke…
It’s a personal story: When in London for studies, I had to work to support myself and got work in a restaurant at Sreathmam Common, as a waiter. Being unfamiliar with the “British cuisine” I had to learn in detail and by heart the entire menu and the prices of course. It was my first day at the job and a lady customer enters the restaurant, and there was me with my white jacket on and a bow tie, ready to execute my duties, take the order etc. And there she goes. She asks politely – with me taking notes – “pork chops, two slices of bread and butter, a cup of tea and… the loo please?” The order was okay up to the point I wrote down the tea, but this loo – I thought – what is it? I never heard of it. I started recalling all the items on the menu I read the previous night but it couldn’t click. So I take the brave decision and in a very polite and gentle tone in my voice, I asked: Excuse me is that loo on the menu? The lady couldn’t stop laughing. She didn’t think I was ignorant of the word but rather that I had a very good sense of humour! Thank God Charalambos, our Chef from Cyprus was there, who gave an immediate answer to my query, without me seeking rescue to the Cambridge Dictionary which I always had with me at the beginning.

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Police have arrested three Syrian men for staying in Cyprus illegally, as well as another man, also Syrian, suspected of smuggling them into Cyprus through Turkey for cash.

The three men were arrested at a residence in Yeroskipou, Paphos, where they were staying illegally.

One of the suspects had his wife and two underage children with him but they were not detained on compassionate grounds, police said.

The three suspects told police they had been brought to Cyprus by two other Syrian nationals who live on the island legally.

They claimed they had paid the men €30,000 for visas to Sweden.

The three said they arrived in Cyprus on a boat from Turkey.

They landed in the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state in the north and from there they crossed into the government controlled areas.

Initially the six had been taken to Limassol but were later moved to a house in Yeroskipou.

Police arrested one of the two men named by the three and were looking for the second one who is said to be living in Limassol.

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A leading architect advises people to use their work to get through times of crisis. THEO PANAYIDES meets the man behind Nicosia’s GSP stadium

Theoharis David sits in his office at Theo. David Architects + KAL Engineering in Nicosia. “I don’t run,” he tells me firmly.

He has snow-white hair and a snow-white beard, and the most extraordinary smile: when he smiles his face scrunches up in quiet mirth and his eyes close almost entirely, giving him the air – along with the hair and beard – of a twinkly Father Christmas. It’s so blatant it’s almost self-parody. His soft American English is punctuated with a “’kay?” every couple of sentences, which may well be a teacher’s tic (as if to say ‘Are you following me?’) – and he is in fact a teacher, Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute in New York and Visiting Professor at the University of Cyprus, as well as being among the most successful architects on the island.

“I don’t run,” says Theoharis. “I refuse. I refused in ’74, and I refuse now. I’ll give it my best shot. For my own self-esteem – but also I think I owe it to this practice, and to the practice of architecture”. It’s no secret that times are tough, not just for him but for everyone, especially in the construction sector. “Everyone’s saying close the office, you have no work – you’re right, we have no work. I mean, we struggle. Like others, we had to lay off 50 per cent of our staff. But here I am.”

The twinkly, avuncular air is something of a sham. Theo (people call him Theo) comes across as a tough customer, the kind who won’t back down easily or, I suspect, suffer fools gladly. “I have no patience for small talk,” he admits without embarrassment. He’s emphatic when making a point, and won’t be derailed or interrupted. He shows signs of impatience and bristles, for instance, when I talk about the atmosphere of pessimism that’s smothering development in Cyprus almost as much as the economic crisis. “I’m not interested in pessimism,” he snaps. “And I told people here [at the office], ‘When you’ve told me once how bad things are, that’s enough!’ I’m not interested.”

“I need to be optimistic,” he adds with feeling. “And I feel fortunate that I have a profession, ’kay? – the profession of architecture, ’kay? – that allows me to lead a meaningful life. A life of consequence.”

It’s true, both literally and metaphorically – “a life of consequence” in the sense of creative drive, but also in the sense of tangible ‘consequences’ he can see all around him, fragments of his legacy around every corner (most have been collected in a recent book, Built Ideas). He can’t even drive into Nicosia without seeing one such consequence, the new GSP Stadium which he designed some years ago – and if we ever get Famagusta back he’ll behold one of his proudest achievements, the church of Ayia Trias that was “only the third truly contemporary Greek Orthodox church in the world” when he forged its contours back in the day. Even the buildings he didn’t build count as consequences, reminders of this or that long-ago anecdote. Somewhere in Makedonitissa there’s a Swiss chalet built in the late 1960s for a female client who knew exactly what she wanted, and came to the firm of J&A Philippou toting magazines with photos of Swiss villages. Theoharis was chief designer, then in his 20s but already acerbic. “Does it really snow that much in Makedonitissa?” he asked dryly. The woman went somewhere else.

The GSP stadium

His office is strewn with models and photos, filling the small space with reminders of past projects. Classical music issues from the computer. ‘What are you listening to?’ I ask, and he beams unexpectedly: “WQXR!” he announces, as if introducing an old friend. This is apparently the only classical-music station in New York City – and significant in two ways, first because Theoharis David is himself a musician (albeit jazz rather than classical; he plays string bass and tuba), and second because Theoharis, for all his projects in Cyprus, is himself a New Yorker. He nods along to the music: “When I’m here in Cyprus it’s kind of an interesting link for me, psychologically, with the United States”.

That’s where he was born, 74 years ago, to a rather unusual father who came from extreme poverty in Morphou and became “a maniac about education”, taking the family to the Natural History Museum and ploughing through encyclopaedias in the wee hours after a long day at the restaurant he owned in Farmingdale, Long Island. His father died young, at 56 (Theoharis has lost both parents and his younger brother to cancer), but “he lived to see his son – me – graduate at the head of his class from Yale University. So that was an enormous leap for an immigrant who came to America with one pair of shoes”. Theo himself, the elder son, was a rather dreamy boy who liked to build things, designing sets in the basement so his friends could stage little plays, or else coming back from a movie and constructing a fort or a ship like he’d seen on the screen. He lived partly in a fantasy world – though “not in a reclusive way,” he adds quickly.

What was he like as a teenager?
“A fish out of water,” he replies. “I was not very good at sports…”
This made a difference?

“In the Long Island suburbs? You’re goddam right!” He smiles, and the eyes contract to a squint. “I had immigrant parents, growing up in a lily-white suburban community. I was not interested in the normal things that 16-year-olds are interested in. I was unusual, whatever that means. I was a bit of a loner – not unsocial, just a loner”.

Music was his passion, and he played in the famous Farmingdale High School Dance Band (they were even on TV!) which made him a bit more popular; “Thank god for music. That really kind of saved me socially, if you will”. He started going into New York City as soon as he was able, away from “the mediocrity of the suburbs” – and the city still serves as an inspiration. Often, he relates, if he’s stressed or having a bad day, he’ll go listen to music at Lincoln Centre or Carnegie Hall, or pop into a gallery at lunchtime, or just walk around and gaze at the Chrysler Building or the Empire State, and it instantly relaxes him. He gives a rueful shrug: “It’s more difficult here”.

He shuttles between NYC and Nicosia, spending about a third of his time in Cyprus. “Go where you can build!” urged his professor at Yale, so Theoharis came back to the land of his fathers. He was instantly accepted (being top of his class at Yale must’ve helped), and allowed much more freedom than he’d have found in the States (even now, he says, he couldn’t have built a sports stadium like the GSP in New York: “It’s too modern”). Did he always have a stylistic signature? “I don’t like to use the word ‘style’,” he replies, a little cryptically – but his work has always emanated from the same approach, favouring “very simple, very powerful forms” often inspired by older prototypes. Ayia Trias, for instance, is “an abstraction of the Byzantine”, and he also raves about the ancient churches of Cyprus (Peristerona, say) with their “powerful ancient geometries”.

Then again, almost anything can spark inspiration in the mind of an architect. Nature, and natural forms, can inspire. Human beings – “clients or students or whoever” – and the things they say can inspire. History, the buildings of the past, can inspire. Landscape, the general morphology of a site, can inspire. So a major part of being a good architect is just being alert to the world around you? Theoharis laughs: “A major part of being a good anything – architect, musician, writer, philosopher, anything; an interesting human being that you want to have drinks with, or have a conversation with or whatever – is being curious about the world around you”.

Maybe that explains his own sociability – a surprising trait when you consider his past as a teenage misfit, yet his friendships are many and eclectic. “I have friends that are my age, even a bit older than me – ’kay? But guess what, I also have friends that are 24, 25 years old, and everything in between. I’m blessed that my former students say ‘Theo, let’s go out’ – sometimes I even feel a little bit awkward – and we go to places that usually people with white hair don’t go! [But] they don’t even think about it. It’s normal, it’s just Theo. So my social life is very mixed, if you will – and I love it.”

What does he talk about with a 25-year-old? He tries to be interested in what they’re doing, he explains – “but we also go off on tangents about Life, about music, about art…” It’s actually harder to socialise with some of the older ones, those “that have given up on living. They’re retired – which I don’t believe in retirement, can’t imagine it, you simply go to other phases in your life – and they talk about the weather and their grandchildren, and football, which I couldn’t give a damn about. I mean, I love a good soccer match, but…” he shakes his head, as if to say ‘within reason’. “And they’re talking about their grandchildren – you know, come on, enough already! I have two wonderful grandchildren. I love them, obviously. [But] talk to me about the substance of Life. Talk to me about things I can learn from you.”

I recall his earlier comment about having “no patience for small talk” – yet he’s also surprisingly collegial, sitting on boards and committees where small talk surely comes in handy (maybe that’s why he’s developed that twinkly smile). He’s on the Board of the Cyprus-US Chamber of Commerce, and also chairs the Advisory Committee of the University of Cyprus; it’s as though he feels duty-bound to give something back to the motherland. “Cyprus has been very good to me,” admits Theoharis. “I can’t complain.”

Maybe it’s a tribute to his father, the rare Cypriot-American who came back to visit – instead of just sending money – and made sure his sons were fluent in Greek; Theo’s own children (Melissa and Alexi) were born here “by design”, to ensure they were raised bi-culturally. Maybe that’s why he’s kept an office here for the past 25 years, despite being successful in New York (his firm have been shortlisted for the new Greek Orthodox church to be built on the site of the World Trade Center) and busy with his teaching career. Maybe that’s why he keeps shuttling back and forth, even now. And maybe that’s why he doesn’t run.

He was here in the invasion, he tells me. “I was obviously very young at the time. Had a one-year-old kid. In debt. Just starting to work here – and the invasion came. I lost 100 per cent of my property – like a lot of other people,” he adds, lest it sound like he’s whining. “Like a lot of other people. But I didn’t run. I didn’t leave. And I could’ve – ’kay? Because I had my position, even then, at the university in New York. And they said ‘Theo, come back, blah blahblah, you have your job’ – I said ‘I’ll come back when I’m ready’.” He designed refugee housing, using small contractors and local materials. He met with the Americans, who were pouring (inadequate) funds into the war-torn country.

Above all, he took refuge in work – the noble profession of architecture. “Use your work,” he tells students now, when they come to him with personal problems. “Don’t take pills, don’t get drunk, don’t kick the cat, don’t abuse each other. Get immersed in your work”. His advice to students is also his advice to fellow architects, as we muddle through another big crisis. Helping to revitalise the economy, hopefully not to the detriment of the environment (the big mistake of 1974), is a cure for pessimism, and the sacred duty of every architect.

“Do not give up on your profession,” urges Theoharis David, speaking not to me but to his colleagues, “and the possibility of your profession”. He looks serious, almost messianic, totally committed to his great lifelong quest for ‘a life of consequence’. Then he smiles, and he’s twinkly Father Christmas again.

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