THE DRASTIC changes since the March bailout have left many of us overwhelmed.

We no longer feel in control of our finances. What we can and cannot do with our bank accounts changes weekly. We don’t always get clear answers from banking staff. In terms of our property, thousands of us remain without title deeds and we’re in the dark over how the terms of the bailout will affect us. And then, there’s the Immovable Property Tax, another source of confusion for many.

These are just some of the issues a new service from the Sunday Mail will help to explain.

We have enlisted the help of Dr George Mountis to offer advice to readers. Co-founder of The Parthenon Partners and co., Mountis specialises in mergers and acquisitions, corporate and real estate finance and strategic planning.

He has worked in London as a real estate investment analyst for CB Richard Ellis (Global Corporate Services) and for HSBC in the M&A UK team. He later joined the Hellenic Bank in Cyprus and worked at the Bank of Cyprus until 2013.

“It can be relatively expensive to get a formal expert opinion, and people often have a hard time getting up to date information on subjects such as deposits and interest rates,” Mountis said.

Especially in the months immediately following the bailout, government services were so busy catching up with changes, they did not always have time to translate information to English leaving many non-Greek speakers in the dark, he added.

The aim of the service is to address those gaps by providing practical advice, enlisting a network of experts to answer specialised questions, or directing readers to where they can find answers for themselves.

Advice is free, but readers should apply common sense when choosing whether it is relevant in their situation.

Mountis cannot replace a paid-for adviser and can accept no responsibility for advice taken out of context. But there are often little or big things that people want to know about.

As a visiting fellow at the University of Birmingham, Neapolis University and University of Cyprus, and with a number of academic and trade publications on specialist issues, Mountis has a useful wealth of knowledge to share, and the contacts to look up answers to areas outside his specialisation.

Mountis is currently a member of The British Bankers Association (BBA), Member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Member of ETEK (Valuations), Member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM), and Member of The Cyprus Economic Society (CES)

Simply email your query to (financequeries@cyprus-mail.com) and include your name and contact details and Mountis will do his best to provide clear, concise answers. Queries and the response will be published each Sunday. Personal details will be withheld on request.

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By Nathan Morley

A LOCAL academic has presented ambitious plans to regenerate the old Nicosia airport into a modern tax-free industrial estate with the aim of attracting foreign investment and boosting employment on the island.

The sweeping blueprint to revive the airport drafted by Dr Michael Paraskos, points to the current dire economic situation and suggests that redevelopment into  a ‘free zone’ would act as a confidence boosting measure, whilst stimulating economic growth, encouraging investment and creating new jobs.

Paraskos, who is the Director of the Cornaro Institute in Larnaca, says that with sufficient incentives foreign high tech firms could be attracted to a zero-tax environment located within the European Union.

He says an ambitious transformation of the airport would also kick-start the local construction industry and feed the local economy through employee wages.

“I think the whole idea is to create jobs, so if one big company like Toyota or Nissan said we want to use the whole site to build one factory making our cars it would be foolish to say no. That’s unlikely of course, and the site is huge, so I would imagine many companies setting up there,” Paraskos told the Sunday Mail.

Michael Paraskos

Last week Paraskos handed President Anastasiades the plan with high hopes that he fully explores the advantages and long-term potential. The sprawling airport complex west of Nicosia is now mainly used as the headquarters of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force.

“The point is to attract foreign firms to Cyprus, so they bring with them the investment we need. And they can raise the money to invest that local firms cannot get any more. All I know is that we have thousands of young people in Cyprus with degrees and doctorates who are lucky if they manage to get work in a beach bar over the summer. It is not fair on them and it is a waste of talent.”

Although there would be no tax revenue from the free zone, a main component of the plan is a condition that any foreign companies using the facility must provide jobs to Cypriots from both sides of the Green Line.

“Having ordinary Cypriots meeting, working together and becoming friends is the only thing that is ever going to bring an end to hostility,” he says.

Paraskos says his idea includes plans to sympathetically conserve the old airport terminal, which when opened in1968, was considered a marvel of modern engineering, architecture and infrastructure.

“It would be a shame to see it go. It is a great piece of architecture, built by Dorsch Gruppe of Germany, who are still the world’s leading airport designers,” he says.  “I think it represents a time when some people in Cyprus at least had optimism about the future, so it would be a shame to lose that. LondonAirport used to be located in Croydon and when it closed the old building was turned into a visitor centre, restaurants and hotels, so maybe something like that could happen.”

When opened, the terminal building was hailed for its stunning sequence of crisp, elegant, uncluttered spaces set under a single sun lit roof. However, it has been left untouched without basic repairs since 1974 and the structure is rapidly decaying.

“I am working with an architecture graduate called Emilios Coutsoftides, from the University of Creative Arts in England, on developing a plan for the airport. He has some bright ideas to create what are called anchor buildings that will attract the first investors, and will house the services, like cafes and kiosks. Then there is the idea of landscaping the whole site, so that it starts to resemble some of the high tech industrial parks you see elsewhere in the world.”

While many questions remain to be answered about how the proposal will be received by both communities, Paraskos says that the initial reaction from President Anastasiades has been encouraging.

“The message from the President was positive. Obviously he has to be circumspect with the upcoming talks with the Turkish Cypriot side, but he said he found it interesting, and would pass it on to his ministers. Certainly I think the idea deserves to be welcomed on both sides as it is difficult to see how anyone comes out of this losing face or political capital. Everyone would be a winner,” he added.

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By Poly Pantelides

WHEN ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos declared last Sunday that Modern Greek was under threat with state schools elevating the Cypriot dialect to the status of a language, the president and other top politicians were quick to echo his concerns.

In a circular read out in churches across the island, the archbishop expressed concerns over new methodologies in Greek lessons at state schools, which placed “a great weight to our local vernacular”.

The “most serious” worry, the circular said, was that no explicit distinction was being made between which is the official language: standard Greek or the vernacular.

“An effort is being observed to raise our local vernacular to an official language!” the circular continued.

“If this effort succeeds, then our common Greek language will be broken up and a ‘Cypriot language’ will be created in parallel which may come from Greek (cf the languages of Latin origin), but will not be Greek!”

President Nicos Anastasiades and other politicians responded, agreeing on the need to defend the Greek language.

“Yes, I agree with the circular,” said President Nicos Anastasiades, speaking off text in Nicosia’s Episokipeio last Sunday where he unveiled the bust of Stavros Stylianides, an EOKA fighter who died in 1957.

Anastasiades spoke of the need to “safeguard religion and the Greek language, the constituent elements of our national identity”.

At the same event, the European Party’s Demetris Syllouris said education reform must not serve as “an excuse to unGreekify what is historically a most Greek country”.

Although the circular did not give any specific details of how this “unGreekifying” was taking place, it said that the ongoing educational reform was aimed at “downgrading our Greek language” via the concept of “critical literacy” which invites students to criticise and question power structures. “Applying this perspective in a society already divided by the actions of parties, will create even deeper disputes and frictions,” he said.

At issue is the education ministry’s attempts to modernise teaching methods by teaching language as a whole including grammar and spelling based on contemporary teaching methods.

Part of this process is an effort to make children more aware of the differences between standard Greek and the Cypriot dialect. The education ministry’s programme guideline lays out as a goal the understanding of differing linguistic forms and structures, e.g. by understanding function and context. The methodology acknowledges that children will be exposed to both versions of Greek, and invites teachers to help them explore this in order to deepen their grasp of language.

It is this aspect the church objects to, and Education Minister Kyriacos Kenevezos was quick to assure the archbishop that teaching methods still aimed at the “acquisition of an excellent knowledge of the standard Modern Greek language”.

The debate between standard Greek and the Cypriot dialect has a long history. Ironically, the dialect has retained words from Ancient Greek which the church cares so much about and which have been lost to its modern descendant. It has kept intact words from Homer whose epics are taught in many schools. But it is also true that the Greek Cypriot dialect is a reminder of the island’s diverse history: not just various ancient Greek dialects but also Arabic from the raids when Cyprus was part of the Byzantine Empire, and words from the Frankish Lusignan rule, the Venetians, the Ottomans and the British.

And it is this which concerns the archbishop. Elevating the dialect might create a “Cypriot national conscience, which will be clearly distinguished from our Greek national conscience,” he said.

For linguists, differences between languages and dialects can be arbitrary. When the Sunday Mail wrote about the Cypriot dialect two years ago during an event on the European Day of Languages, linguist Marilena Karyolemou said that whether a language was a language and not a dialect was a “sociological and political issue”.

She also cited a study that looked at the transcripts of the House of Representatives, which found instances of the Cypriot dialect, even though those were meant to be “corrected” to fit standard Modern Greek.

Indeed, even the primate will occasionally slip into the vernacular.

For former education minister Andreas Demetriou, the archbishop’s circular was merely attempting to create a crisis where there was none.

Neither Kenevezos nor Anastasiades talked about the theory behind “critical literacy”. Instead, they rushed to an unnecessary defence of the Greek language, he said.

“The argumentation used in the archbishop’s circular has nothing to do with the reality and rationale behind the new programme,” Demetriou said in an article published on online news portal www.cyprusnews.eu

“The circular’s argumentation is based on the fancies of the archbishop’s consultants that expose both himself and the church,” he added.

Demetriou, who when appointed an education minister with the previous administration broke protocol by not visiting the archbishop to get his blessing, told the Sunday Mail the circular had set up a straw man.

“The subject should not even be raised,” he said, adding that the educational reform aims at addressing systemic weaknesses stemming from the need to update the system, he said.

“No one is threatening anyone’s ‘Greekness’,” he added.

“When everything around us is collapsing, are we really discussing this?”

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By Peter Stevenson

IF YOUNG Cypriots want to have any chance of being employed in the island’s natural gas industry, they need to leave the country now, the head of the Cyprus National Hydrocarbons Company Charles Ellinas advises.

“My message to you is get out of Cyprus as soon as you can. Go to the UK, to the Middle-East to get experience because without it you will be unemployable,” Ellinas told students at a talk on Oil and Gas Developments in the Region of Cyprus – Job Opportunities and Educational Needs at Frederick University.

Also speaking at the event were Symeon Kassianides, the CEO of Hyperion Systems Engineering Group and Dr Richard Burns, a visiting lecturer.

Since news of the gas find in Cyprus broke local universities have jumped on the bandwagon hoping to churn out gas experts by the time reserves start coming onshore, ostensibly around 2020.

However, the message from the three experts to eager students was clear: when the island’s reserves start to come in, the positions available for locals will initially be mainly for unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

All three agreed that companies coming in would need a lot of motivation to hire local staff. Noble Energy, ENI/KOGAS and Total, the three companies who own drilling rights, are currently contributing €1.5m towards degrees related to the oil and gas industry but the experts say this may not be enough to boost jobs in the short to medium term.

Ellinas believes a large number of workers will be needed before, during and after an LNG plant is built, which could peak at 7,500 people during the construction of the plant at Vassilikos, which is estimated to begin in 2016, with about 700 jobs being created during the operation phase.

“For every job created during construction, three or more other jobs will be also created in the fields of external support, security and supplies,” he said.

However of the expected 7,500 jobs, only about one third will go to Cypriots and that is mainly due to a lack of experience in the construction of LNG plants.

“Most jobs will not go to locals because the necessary experience is not available but with initial preparation many jobs can be provided outside the LNG plant with construction consultancy firms convincing firms like Noble Energy, ENI/KOGAS and Total to maximise Cypriot participation,” he said.

With the operation phase believed to begin in around 2020, Ellinas said that now was the time to begin preparations to educate, train and gain experience.

He said that if preparations such as young people going abroad to seek experience,  was not done correctly, ahead of the beginning of construction in 2016 Cypriots could even lose out on the jobs that could be available to locals.

He added that the government, oil and gas industry and academia needed to provide the necessary training in the lower skilled fields needed for construction of more Cypriots were to be employed.

“A gas masterplan needs to be developed, a strategy of cooperation needs to be created between the universities, the government and everyone else who is involved and it needs to be done immediately, we have no time to spare,” he said.

Ellinas said he strongly believed that universities taking the initiative was not enough, and everyone needed to become involved if Cyprus was to make the most out of its natural resources.

“The industry will be around for at least the next 50 years so we need to ingrain it into young peoples’ minds and that starts at schools,” he concluded.

Barnes’ estimate was that it would take 40 years for a Cypriot to be running the show but he said that there were areas in the local hotel industry that could be adapted to meet employment opportunities once things get going in the medium term.

“A construction camp for the workers on the LNG plant will need to provide very similar services to what the hotel industry provides so there are positions which won’t need any training, only to adapt,” he said.

Barnes believes there will eventually be tremendous opportunities for locals even if there are only 100-150 jobs initially. “Even if it’s only 150 jobs, that’s 150 more than exist right now,” he concluded.

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By Patroclos

EITHER by accident or design Professor Panicos has managed to climb to the top spot in the ‘most hated man in Kyproulla’s chart. What makes his achievement even more remarkable is that he faced very tough competition, and needed to overtake long-established and popular hate figures like the village idiot, our friend Charilaos, Vgenopoulos and Big Bad Al to get to the top.

But he succeeded, through methodical displays of piss-poor judgement, shows of consistent, costly cluelessness, decisions that sucked, regularly avoiding taking responsibility, blind loyalty to AKEL’s commies and Tof-like obstinacy. His Akelite style in clothes, exemplified by cheap-looking shirts and hideous ties, also boosted his unpopularity.

The real clincher, however, was last weekend’s report in Phil about his super-salary, which, including non-taxable allowances, cost of living etc was estimated to be in the region of 14 grand a month. And this does not include the company car, the free meals provided by the Central Bank kitchen and other perks of the job.

It is a hell of a lot of money to pay such a blundering buffoon, but we must not forget that he performed the job for which he was hired by his AKEL comrades impeccably. Without meaning to, he did a professionally masterful job of wrecking the banking system and destroying public confidence in the banks.

PREZ NIK finally lost patience with the professor, with whom he had big row over his ridiculous delay in approving the directors of the Bank of Cyprus. In nasty Nik mode, during an interview on Mega TV on Wednesday, he revealed his intention to explore the possibility of putting in motion a legal procedure to have Panicos removed from office, on the grounds that he was performing his duties inadequately.

It took the prez a while to see the bleeding obvious, but announcing his plans on TV, before a decision had actually been taken, was not one of his cleverest moves. He probably thought it was the right time to turn the screw on Panicos. Not only was the public baying for his blood, but on the day of the interview an internal Central Bank memo branding Cypriot hacks ignorant and irresponsible had been made public.

It was a no-lose situation for the prez, as he would have everyone on his side, but the legal procedure was a bad idea. It might take two years before it is completed and then Panicos could win. Worse still, there might be no banking sector left to save, if the professor stays Governor for another two years.

THE ONLY real option for the government, if it wants to save the BoC is to follow the practice of football clubs when they want to get rid of their manager. It should pay Panicos’ contract in full and he would voluntarily resign.

The ECB would have no grounds to complain to the government, the professor would leave immediately (a 500 grand pay-off is a strong incentive) and the banking sector’s prospects of survival would be drastically improved. It is a win-win situation even though there would be a public outcry over the pay-off.

But it is naive to think he would heed the calls of politicians to step down when he has a contract worth half a million euro over the next three-and-a-half years that cannot be terminated by anyone; a contract that apart for the moollah, allows him to travel, several times a month, first class, stay at the finest hotels of the world, at the taxpayer’s expense, and rub shoulders with the EU’s movers and shakers.

And we should not underestimate the chauffeur-driven limo, the army of bodyguards, the media attention and the mega powers that come with the job. The job of the governor was the professor’s lottery ticket win that allowed him to escape the drudgery and boredom of life as an obscure academic at a provincial UK university and become a somebody.

Why would he voluntarily return to being a nobody in Leicester on a third or quarter of the salary he would receive for another three-and-a-half years and none of the perks? Unless he is compensated he will not resign. The compensation may be seen as an unacceptable reward for monumental failure but it would still be a small price to pay for saving the banking sector from the power-mad professor (the BoC could put up the cash if the state cannot afford it). If only we had done the same in the case of village idiot…

JOURNALISTS in all the media were outraged about the internal Central Bank memo, saying that they were ignorant about economic issues, grossly distorted facts and had an agenda. Even leaking information to hacks (referred in the memo as “one-to-one off the record briefings by the governor to specific journalists”) did not work, it noted.

The memo was written by the director of the Governor’s office, the nerdy, London-Cyp George Georgiou, also known as GG, who rose in the hierarchy when Akel took control of the Central Bank. Hacks’ knee-jerk reaction was however out of order. People who are constantly judging and criticising people should be prepared to accept similar treatment, instead of being so thin-skinned.

Our establishment took offence for another reason. It was not mentioned by name in GG’s memo despite leading the campaign against the professor from the first day he was installed. We deserved some recognition, or a special mention, in GG’s memo for our consistent ignorance.

THE LEAKING of the memo was another example of the incompetence and cluelessness that reigns at Panicos’ Central Bank, which is in disarray and staff morale is at rock-bottom. This could be because the die-hard Akelite secretary that took charge of the running of the bank when the regime changed in May 2012 and is still calling the shots.

Elena Markadji, who could have been described as a shrew, if the term was not considered so politically incorrect, became the Gov’s PA when Panicos was installed and has been responsible for decisions she should never have been taking. But the top brass, including Panicos, still follow her orders. One CB insider informed us that all the bank’s top dogs stood to attention when la Markadji spoke.

She spoke to the professor’s deposed right hand man Spyros Stavrinakis, as if he were her subordinate, reminding him, if he dared to disagree with her that “I put you there,” which she had. As for GG, whose promotion she also takes credit for, he is her obedient servant. The peculiar thing is that even six months after the election of a new government, the secretary and AKEL’s female enforcer is still behaving as if she is charge of the Central Bank and not even the Governor dares stand up to her.

I am sure GG will confirm that this is not a gross distortion of the facts.

THE SAME day we published the picture of the new chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, Professor Kristis Hassapis, in a black t-shirt, Phil had a picture of him in a suit and tie. But despite his effort he still did not have the look of a bank chairman.

First, he had had his hair blow-dried and although he lost the ageing rock star appearance, he now looked like an actor starring in a 19^th century TV series. As for the suit, it was very ‘90s, the chairman probably putting on the only one he could find in his wardrobe. But I think I detected cuff-links which showed that he was making an effort to look banker-like.

I hear the BoC publicity office has already taken pix of him in a suit and tie that would be distributed to all newspapers and websites, with the request the pic of him in the black t-shirt is not published again.

THE MURDER of a man in Greece by the neo-Nazi thugs of Chrysi Avgi, which has ties with our own fledgling fascist outfit ELAM, was seized by our commies as an excuse to indulge in some heavy-duty pontificating about the fascist threat faced by Kyproulla.

The objective, I suspect, was to make us forget that in the last five years infinitely more harm was done to the country by communists rather than fascists. AKEL’s warnings of the fascist threat became big news and to step up the alarmism the commies even spoke about summer camps for youths, run by fascists.

Were there such summer camps in Kyproulla a prominent Akelite was asked on a radio show. The commie had to admit there were not and explained the party was referring to summer camps abroad.

In fact, the only youth summer camps we have on the sunshine isle are of the red fascist variety, run by the AKEL youth wing EDON. At these camps the kids are woken up by communist anthems and brainwashed into becoming AKEL fanatics, before they have even reached voting age.

THE MOST sinister of all the summer camps however, operates high on the Troodos mountains and it is run by the civil servants’ union PASYDY. These camps are attended exclusively by kids of public parasites who are inculcated with the ideals of the parasitic existence and the value of maximum pay for minimum work. Call me prejudiced but I can’t help thinking that the PASYDY summer camps pose the biggest threat of all to our society.

YET ANOTHER attempt to sign a deal for the supply of natural gas to EAC’s power stations and thus reduce the cost of electricity collapsed. After weeks of negotiations, DEFA, which would be buying the natural gas, failed to reach a deal with Russian supplier Itera.

The reason according to DEFA and the EAC was that the saving in cost, at the price Itera would supply LNG would be negligible. The latter however claimed there would be a 25 per cent saving (€800 million) over the seven years of the contract. Prez Nik was furious and ordered the Auditor-General to look into the matter.

The EAC’ costing formula is a big secret so nobody knows whether its claim that the saving would be negligible was correct. The prez, during his TV interview, asked why EAC’s cost calculations were such a carefully-guarded secret. Was the Authority afraid someone would want to copy its formula, which results in the highest electricity rates in the world?

I CANNOT say I felt the slightest bit of sympathy seeing the picture our former interior minister Dinos Michaelides leaving the Greek court in handcuffs. He is innocent until proven guilty but this humiliating treatment was deserved, because he was no saint. Apparently Dinos, who will be spending his time in a Greek prison awaiting trial, was answering questions for six hours. I am surprised he did not tell the Greek court that the cash he was allegedly transferring in his suitcase was advance payment for consultancy services he and his son would provide Akis Tsochadzopoulos for 10 years.

A FORMER Cyprus Airways pilot had been hired by Turkish Airlines reported Phil on its front page on Thursday. More disappointing than the actual story was the way that Phil presented it. There was not even a hint of disapproval about the fact a Greek Cypriot pilot would be working for the airline of the occupier. How could our bash-patriotic newspaper tolerate such treacherous behaviour and not take a moral stand? Is Turkish Airlines, described by the article as “the most fast-developing airline company in the world” a potential advertiser?

In fact Phil even suggested that the pilot would not behave unpatriotically. Turkish Airlines, it said, “flies to 196 airports in 103 countries, which means that it would be difficult to ask the Cypriot pilot to fly to the illegal airport at Tymbou.” But if he does, what would Phil say?

WE WOULD like to finish with a spot of positive news we have heard. The BoC will start giving loans. An advertising campaign offering loans is set to be launched next weekend, according to our sources. This is assuming the professor’s secretary does not decide it is too soon for the banks to offer loans and vetoes the move.

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THE PRESSURE on charities and volunteer organisations that help the needy has been growing. The six months of collecting unemployment benefit eventually ends and more families are pushed below the poverty/despair line, relying on obtaining basic food supplies from the church, municipalities or charities all of which are becoming overstretched and unable to help everyone that appeals to them.

On Monday, the Paphos charity Solidarity closed down, having run out of money, and had to turn away some hundred people who came to its premises for food. The charity, set up two years ago, had started helping 20 needy families, but the number of those seeking help had grown in the last year to more than one thousand. The head of the charity said the cost of helping all those people had spiralled out of control, forcing Solidarity’s closure.

What would happen to all the people that depended on charity? They were being helped by Solidarity because they were living outside municipality boundaries and were not eligible to state assistance. Who would now take over this responsibility considering the needy included mothers with babies and young children? If these people end up stealing in order to feed their families could anyone blame them?

The charity had written to President Anastasiades appealing for financial assistance but he replied that he was sorry, but there was no money available. This may have been seen as a heartless response, but if the president had offered some money, he would have every charity in Cyprus writing to him appealing for help and he would not be able to turn down anyone. The problem is too big to be solved by individual acts of presidential charity; and it is becoming way too big to be handled by volunteer groups and charities depending on donations from the public, as Solidarity found out.

A national policy for assisting the ever-growing numbers of people in need is now an imperative. In July the government announced plans, to reform and rationalise welfare policy in a way that would guarantee a minimum income to all citizens. There would be no increase in the annual expenditure on welfare, which is €1.8 billion, but the government planned through rational management and the elimination of non-targeted allowances to make funds available to provide all people with a sufficient income to live on.

It is a commendable, much-needed undertaking that would ensure there is a safety net for all the impoverished, less fortunate members of our society. The only snag is that the new social welfare policy would be ready in June 2014. How does the government plan to deal with the growing numbers of poor over the next eight months, when demands on the state, on charities, municipalities and the church are bound to increase? Is there an emergency plan, do any funds exist to see us through to next June without seeing more scenes like those witnessed in Paphos last Monday?

There has been talk about extending the payment of unemployment benefit by two months to eight, but this would make no difference, considering that long-term unemployment is now a feature of the economy which will show no signs of growth before 2015. And we cannot wait until next June, assuming new rules and regulations are ready by then, for the new social policy to be put into force. For the eight months until then, there must be a contingency plan because it is very likely poverty, deprivation and social despair would be on the rise.

The government must set up a fund that could be used to support charities, municipal agencies and other organisations helping the poor. As there is no money available, the government could take 0.5 per cent from the monthly salaries of the broader public sector workers, who are the best paid employees in Cyprus and least affected by the crisis, until its new welfare programme is in place. The unions would find it very difficult to oppose a move aimed at helping the poorest members of our society.

As for the fund, it could be administered by an independent agency that would work more efficiently than the state, liaising with and monitoring charities, supervising spending, maintaining records and so forth. Ideally, the state should be managing the whole exercise, but the charity network already exists and charities are more flexible organisations as they do not have time-consuming bureaucratic procedures. As long as they are supervise they could administer welfare policy for a few months.

It is difficult to think of any other way of dealing with this growing social problem that could easily veer out of control in the next few months, if there is no contingency plan to deal with it very soon.

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By Bejay Browne

Solidarity charity in Paphos is helping to feed hundreds of needy families and individuals in Paphos but was forced to close their doors for the first time this week as they ran out of food.

Many families are reliant on the charity to eat. A number of them decided to speak out and share their stories of hardship.

Joanna and Valentinos Demitriou from Paphos are in their early twenties and have a three-year-old son. Joanna worked as a secretary after leaving college and husband Valentinos, a professional footballer, played for a local Paphos team.

Things started to go wrong for the young couple when Joanna lost her job and had a problematic pregnancy. After his birth, their son was dangerously ill and numerous hospital visits in Paphos, Limassol and Nicosia followed.

“It was a very difficult time for us and the baby had to undergo surgery in Israel to correct problems with his breathing,” said Joanna.

“Because my husband had so much time off, his team said they no longer wanted him. When the baby was six months old, I didn’t even have powdered milk to give him, it was terrible.”

Instead, the young mother was boiling rice and putting it in a food processor to feed him.

She says her family is unable to assist, as her mother is seriously ill at home and her father, who works in a hotel for the summer season, is not being paid regularly.

“He is desperate for us and feels so bad that he can’t help. He is my father and he cries about this, ‘what can I do,’ he says. But he is 60 years old. How can it be like this in Cyprus? “

She says she is actively looking for work and will do anything.

“I was offered a job which was a 10 hour day for 600 euros a month. This is awful, I have a child to look after and that isn’t even the minimum wage. My husband has tried all of the hotels, swimming pools and sports centres, but there is nothing. People are employing foreign workers and paying them very little.”

George Gerolemou, 49, from Paphos lost his job as a driver for a charity transporting patients for treatment at a clinic. After employing him for 13 years, the charity could no longer afford his services. He stopped work in August 2011.

George received a lump sum payment from his provident fund which went towards paying off his large mortgage. He has had nothing since. He still owes the bank money.

His wife is out of work and he has four children and one grandchild all living at home. The youngest is 16 years old. Only one of them has a job.

For the past year and a half he has been coming to Solidarity for help and getting handouts of food and other necessities.

George said: “I was very depressed and couldn’t cope with the fact that I couldn’t look after my family. I didn’t feel very manly, I felt useless.”

He arrived at Solidarity desperate and in tears, after hearing about the charity from a friend. He now receives regular food parcels and other items from the charity. In return, he uses his truck to help the charity transport food, furniture, clothes and other items. The charity pays for the upkeep and running of his vehicle.

He says now that he has a job to do, all be it as a volunteer, he feels he has a purpose again.

“I feel more of a valuable human and much better about myself,” he said.

Stavroula Stavrinou, 58, first came to Pavlina Patsalou who runs Solidarity for help to feed her family two years ago. She was one of the first the charity helped.

Stavroula has six children, most without jobs and the youngest is a teenager still living at home. Her Cypriot husband is a taxi driver. He has his own car – but no steady job.

“My husband’s work has suffered hugely since the introduction of the bus routes. The number of people using taxis has really dropped off. We have never had any help from the government and last year we had to move to a cheaper flat. We don’t own any land or property and we rent our home.”

Stavroula says that she worked for many years as a waitress until 2005, when she had to stop due to health reasons. She is now unable to find a job.

“They tell me I’m too old and they don’t want me. Welfare refused to help us because my husband owns his own taxi and there is no help whatsoever from the government.”

The family’s water has been cut off three times recently and Solidarity has paid for their electricity to be reconnected.

“My husband earns anything from 500 euros to 800 a month and it costs a lot to run his car- but what can we do. He is 58 years old – he couldn’t get another job now. He’s always been a taxi driver. He is working longer hours to try and earn more money, but there aren’t the customers.”

Another Paphos resident who is dependent on the food handed out by the Solidarity charity is 35-year-old Marios Savva, from Moutallos. He lost his job as a truck driver in 2010 and is desperate for work.

“There is no work. I will do anything – if someone would offer me a job I would be so grateful.”

Marios’ wife is no longer able to work as she has to take care of the couple’s five-year-old daughter who is autistic.

“She needs a lot of care and attention. There are no specialist schools for my daughter here in Paphos and the regular schools won’t take her.”

As well as feeding his family, Marios says Solidarity has also paid their electricity bills in the past.

“I come here most days for some items. If there was no Solidarity, my family would have no food,” he said.

Pavlina Patsalou of Solidarity – a registered charity – is appealing to the public in all areas of Cyprus to come together to help feed these and other starving families in Paphos.

“In the absence of any help from the government, it is on our shoulders. Many people are desperate now. They have no food or milk for their babies, and no food for themselves. If something isn’t done, I can’t bear to think what will happen,” said Patsalou in tears.

Pavlina Patsalou 99220152
www.solidaritypaphos.com

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By Bejay Browne

PAPHOS has been the worst hit by the crisis and was the first to feel its effects.

There are a number of small religious and local community groups and other associations who are doing all they can to help, but needy families seem most reliant on the Orthodox church, the municipality and Solidarity charity to meet their basic needs.

George Savvides of the Greek Orthodox Bishopric of Paphos said that the church is feeding more than 2,500 people in Paphos once a month; they also provide some families with financial aid.

“Most of the people we are helping come to us regularly for help. The welfare department can’t cope and so they are referring them to us. The number is growing every day.”

They come with all of the relevant paperwork, he says, and they are carefully checked. Savvides says that the food handed out is mostly canned goods, milk, pasta, rice, sugar and salt.

A spokeswoman for the Paphos municipality social welfare department said that the municipality is spending around 10,000 euros a month to help to feed more than 450 needy families in the area. They top this up with donations from businesses as well as from the public

“We are currently helping 457 families and this is getting harder as donations are getting less every month,” she said.

She added that the municipality is now also helping some families living on the outskirts of Paphos, such as Konia village, every Friday.

The spokeswoman says the welfare department has to be strict with the criteria and paperwork needed to get help from them.

“We are helping any nationality, you cannot separate the provision of food, people are people,” she said.

Food parcels containing basic items are handed out to those on the list every Friday. Where possible, they will also add baby food, nappies, shampoo and washing powder, she said.

To be eligible, each couple must earn less than 450 euros per person, per month and 150 euros is also allowed for every child.

“So if a couple with a child needs help, they must be earning less then 1,050 euros to be eligible,” she said. All of the relevant paperwork must be supplied to get assistance.”

She added that by next year, a soup kitchen will be imperative for Paphos, although operational costs will be high.

Solidarity charity in Paphos, which is feeding up to 1,000 needy families, is stockpiling food, with the aim of reopening when stores have reached enough to keep families going for one month.

The charity was forced to close its doors for the first time this week as they ran out of food. Pavlina Patsalou, who heads up the registered charity, along with Paphos councilor George Sofokleous, said they would open only when they have ample supplies.

“We can’t open and then close again. We mustn’t let the people down and have a similar situation to what happed this week.”

Emotions ran high on a street outside the headquarters of the charity when 100 needy families, including mothers with babies were turned away after volunteers ran out of food. Many were so desperate for food that they became hysterical, and were wailing and crying in the street when they found out there was nothing left to give.

The closure of the charity Solidarity has now left 1,000 families with no means finding food as they fall outside municipal boundaries and are not covered by state aid.

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By Maria Gregoriou 

OVER 2,000 people a year die from heart disease in Cyprus every year, making it the leading cause of death on the island.

Health Minister Petros Petrides, marking the beginning of annual Heart Week yesterday said: “These deaths can be prevented by a change in lifestyle. The message for this year’s world heart day is ‘take the road to a healthy heart’”

Heart week aims at raising awareness and to inform the public about cardiovascular diseases. It is organised by the Cyprus Heart Foundation (CHF) and the health ministry.

President of CHF, Christos Mavrelli said: “Every euro spent on preventing heart disease is an investment because every person suffering from such a disease costs the government a considerable amount more, Mavrelli said.

Cardiologist and president of the committee for the prevention of heart disease for CHF Dr Pambis Nicolaides, highlighted the fact that efforts to prevent heart disease should start from an early age as healthy children tend to be healthy adults.

“The majority of heart diseases are due to risk factors that can be monitored,” he said.

By avoiding smoking, exercising regularly and following a healthy diet, 80 per cent of these early deaths can be avoided.”

As shown by the latest epidemiological studies in Cyprus, 27.8 per cent of adults are obese and 36.1 per cent are overweight. Regarding children, 20.1 per cent are overweight and 8.1 per cent are obese.

The study also showed that the amount of exercise performed by children and young adults has fallen compared to previous years.

“The lack of physical activity during childhood usually continues into adulthood, thus contributing to the increased risk of heart disease,” said Nicolaides.

“Every year, the lack of exercise contributes to three million deaths worldwide, which could have been prevented.”

As part of the effort to raise awareness the CHF together with the Dietitians Association is organising ‘heart journey’ events where cardiologists, dietitians and nurses go around the country.

“So far we have visited five areas and measured the cholesterol and blood pressure of 563 people, while also informing them about preventive measures they can take,” said Nicolaides.

These areas were; Lythrodontas, Akaki, Psimolofou, Aradippou, Yermasoyia and the Nicosia suburb of Pallouriotissa,. The average level of cholesterol was 214mg/dl, which is slightly higher than the targeted level of 190mg/dl. Of the village residents, 28.6 per cent were overweight.

Member of CHF Marios Hannides gave advice on how people could beat heart disease by “qutting smoking, eating more fruit and vegetables, using less salt, drinking less alcohol, and maintaining the ideal body weight.”

An awareness campaign will be held on Saturday from 10am to 7pm at the Mall of Cyprus. Information will be available and free testing will be offered by cardiologists, nutritionists, nurses and other health care organisations.

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By Bejay Browne

WATER supply to homes and businesses in Peyia which have outstanding bills will be cut this week, the municipality said yesterday.

According to Peyia councilor, Linda Leblanc, thousands of euros in unpaid water bills is still owed to the cash-strapped municipality.

“The accounts director confirmed last week that from this week water supply to those who have not paid their bills, will be cut off.,” she said.

“Everyone who owed money was sent a letter and given time to pay. This isn’t the first time that such a move has been taken; usually when their supply is stopped, people come into pay their bills.”

Leblanc said even a number of municipality employees were recently found to have outstanding water bills.
“This is totally unacceptable,” she said.

Leblanc admitted that Peyia municipality used to take into consideration all sorts of extenuating circumstances regarding non-payment of bills.

“For example, economic problems facing a family were considered, as the municipality wanted to help,” she said adding that this position has now changed.

“Due to the economic problems facing the municipality, we can no longer afford to be lenient,” she said. “We have to get tough and there are some long standing debts, a couple of which total several thousand euros,” she said.

According to Leblanc, Peyia council recently voted unanimously to increase water rates by 50 per cent. This means that residential properties will see the standing cost increase from 15 to 20 euros every quarter. In addition, the tariff for 1-30 cubic metres will double from 20 euro cents to 40 euro cents.

There will also be smaller increases for the other bands.

“Even with these increases- the water supply in Peyia is still one of the cheapest on the island,” said Leblanc.

But Peyia municipality is also facing an outstanding water bill of its own, of more than €500,000.

“It’s correct that the municipality owes over half a million to the water department. As yet, we don’t have a payment plan but I’m sure one will be on the way soon,” Leblanc said.

“This is the case with most municipalities in Cyprus, they owe for water supply, and as the water board has to pay their staff.

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By Peter Stevenson 

SOME 40 per cent of the 70,000 or so people registered as unemployed have been out of work for six months, 24 per cent have been jobless between six and eleven months and 36 per cent have been jobless for more than a year, the House Labour Committee heard yesterday.

Committee chairman, AKEL’s Andreas Fakontis said the unemployment fund was currently running on a deficit of €50 million. “Unemployment in Cyprus is turning into a real nightmare and unfortunately now we are first when it comes to the rate of unemployment in the EU,” he said.

He said unemployment had quadrupled since 2008 while the number of long-term unemployed is growing longer every day. In Cyprus unemployment benefit is only given for six months.

“On many occasions we have said that the best way to fight unemployment was through development but for that to succeed there needs to be a comprehensive policy which will create a new economic model, create new jobs and protect social cohesion,” he added.

However this was becoming more difficult due to the current financial climate and the reduced state budget, said Fakontis.

The committee chairman revealed that up until June of this year a total of 32,678 people had applied for unemployment benefit compared to 28,812 in the same period last year.

“The unemployment fund has a substantial deficit which is approaching €50 million,” said Fakontis but he said the money would be found.

“Unemployment benefit is not given out of pity. It is a right that is given under certain circumstances and under certain criteria which are provided for by the law,” Fakontis said.

The committee also discussed the issue of how to clamp down on fraudulent claims.

“If certain people are defrauding the state and receiving unemployment benefit even though they are working, or if they live in other EU countries and come to Cyprus just to get their unemployment benefit, is a matter for the labour ministry to look into,” said Fakontis.

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By Elias Hazou

BANK of Cyprus employees who took voluntary redundancy do not have access to the bank accounts where their provident fund cash is being held, the House finance committee heard yesterday.

As part of a €10bn rescue package from international lenders back in March, Cyprus agreed to wind down its second-largest lender Laiki, while savings in Bank of Cyprus (BoC) were seized in what’s known as a ‘bail-in’ to recapitalise the bank.

The bail-in of uninsured depositors – who lost 47.5 per cent of their cash over and above €100,000 – covered both personal savings as well as provident funds.

Following the haircut, early exit packages were offered to employees as an incentive to trim down the bank’s workforce and its operating costs.

In the redundancy package for BoC staff, the bank offered a bonus of 5+2 monthly wages, settling of all staff loans and dues before cashing in their provident fund, and other benefits not exceeding €150,000, while the bank employees trade union chipped in from its coffers with €15m, that works out at an additional €10,000 per redundant staff.

A large chunk of BoC employees’ provident fund has been turned into shares, turning them into stakeholders.
What remained of the provident fund cash after the ‘haircut’ was placed into accounts in BoC. But lawmakers heard yesterday that the beneficiaries could not access the money.

A Central Bank official informed MPs that the relevant bail-in decrees stipulate that the provident fund money may be used only to repay loans, but nothing else.

Under the decrees, the official said, the cash must remain in the bank and cannot be moved into current accounts as the ex-employees want.

MPs were told that making an exception for this group of shareholders might open the floodgates with other groups.

Additionally, legislators heard, there are legal questions as to whether the balance in the accounts belongs to current or ex-employees of the bank.

That’s because, in the wake of haircut, the old provident fund was dissolved and a new one set up.

Savvas Philippou, of the group representing former BoC employees, said that prior to their exit they had got assurances that they would receive the money.

Lawmakers pledged to work with the finance ministry and the Central Bank so that the provident cash can be released.

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PROTRACTED discussions on the immovable property tax (IPT) bill is stopping people from paying and could derail revenue targets, the government said yesterday, as it urged MPs to resolve the matter immediately.

Inland revenue department director Giorgos Poufos told MPs that only €15 million had been collected, from the projected €140 million, ahead of the November 15 deadline

Parliament had approved the bill but the government later decided to exempt immovable property worth up to €5,000 at 1980s values from the new taxation.

That decision prompted political parties to table their own amendments, prompting people to postpone payment until the dust settled.

Parties have proposed exempting property worth up to €40,000, or the first €40,000. Poufos said the first exemption would cost the state around €20 million and more than double that amount if the first €40,000 was not taxed.

Exempting farming land would cost €24 million, Poufos said.

He also warned against extending the deadline by a month since many people would have a problem paying just before Christmas.

Poufos warned that the continuing discussion of the matter would eventually cause Cyprus to miss its targets, as they had been outlined in its bailout agreement.

He stressed that international lenders would also have to approve anything decided at the House Finance Committee.

Committee chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos said the matter must be resolved by Thursday, when the bill goes to the vote.

Opposition AKEL rejected suggestions that changes could not be made.

The party said it would insist in exempting properties worth up to €30,000 and raise the tax rate on the higher scales to compensate for the loss.

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By Gwynne Dyer

IT WAS already looking likely that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime would survive – it has had the upper hand militarily in the Syrian civil war for at least six months now – but the events of the past two weeks have made it virtually certain.

Syria has already complied with the two initial demands of the Russian-American deal concluded over Assad’s head last week. It has signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, and it has given a list of all Syria’s poison gas facilities and storage depots to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. That means that the United States cannot attack it for at least a year.

President Barack Obama’s ability to order such an attack was already in doubt because of opposition in Congress. Now he could not bomb without endangering UN inspectors, who will be all over the regime-controlled parts of Syria by November to take control of the estimated thousand tonnes of chemical weapons.

Syria has a year to destroy them all, and until and unless it fails to meet that deadline, bombing is out of the question.

Even if there are delays, the United States will be uniquely ill-placed to use them as the pretext for an attack, as it is far behind schedule itself. In 1997 the US agreed to destroy the 31,000 tonnes of sarin, VX, mustard gas and other lethal gases that it owned within ten years.

That’s thirty times as much as Syria has, but ten years should have been enough.

It wasn’t. In 2007 Washington asked for five more years to get rid of all its poison gas, the maximum extension allowed under the Chemical Weapons Convention. It didn’t meet that deadline either, so last year it announced a new deadline: 2021. Given its own record, the US will find it hard to use Syrian delays as an excuse for resurrecting its bombing threats.

The civil war will probably continue during the coming year, and possibly for a good deal longer. Assad’s troops have been winning back territory in the centre of the country, but they have yet to make much progress in the north, the south or the east. They lack the numbers to finish the job now, but the tide is running in their direction.

Close to a thousand separate rebel units are now operating in Syria, but there is no unified rebel army. The armed groups can be roughly divided into jihadists (many of them foreign) who want to create an Islamic caliphate in Syria, and more moderate groups who originally took up arms hoping to create a democratic Syria freed from the Baath Party’s tyranny.

Most of the less radical groups want an Islamic republic too, but they are repelled by the extremism of the jihadists. They hoped that the West would destroy Assad’s forces and put them in power instead (while keeping the jihadists out), and they are now very angry at the United States for letting them down. But they are also deeply disappointed, for the realists among them can see no other way to win this fight.

Many of these fighters would now be open to a regime offer of a ceasefire, an amnesty, and a gradual transition to a less corrupt and repressive political system, and the Baathist regime is likely to make such an offer soon (whether it means it or not). It would not neutralise the jihadists and restore peace to the country, but it might seduce enough of the other rebels to shift the military balance sharply in Assad’s favour.

Much cruel fighting would remain to defeat the jihadists, but at least the country would emerge intact. Or the war may just go on and on, ending eventually in partition. But at least we have been spared the spectacle of the United States and its sidekicks attacking yet another Muslim country, only to realise in the end (as in the case of the imaginary “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq) that its excuse for doing so was false.

The pretext this time was going to be Assad’s use of poison gas against his own people. But the timing was weird. (UN inspectors had just arrived in Damascus when nerve gas was fired at the rebel-held eastern suburbs). The target was pointless. (Why civilians, not rebel fighters?) And why would Assad use a weapon that might trigger Western bombing when he was already winning the war without it?

Now the Russians are saying (off the record, so far) that the serial numbers of the rockets that delivered the nerve gas reveal that they did not belong to the Syrian army. They were made in Russia in 1967 and sold to Yemen, Egypt and Libya’ s Colonel Gaddafy – who filled some of them with nerve gas. He had about a thousand tonnes of the stuff.

A lot of Gaddafi’s arsenal went missing after he was overthrown two years ago, sold off by the victorious rebel militias. Some of the nerve gas-filled rockets could easily have ended up in Syria, in rebel hands, and the temptation to use them in order to trigger Western military intervention would have been hard to resist. If that is really the case, then President Obama should be even more grateful to Moscow for saving his bacon.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries

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ONLY 10 per cent of the anticipated state revenue from the Immovable Property Tax (IPT) has been collected so far. This is no surprise considering the uncertainty surrounding the relevant law which is expected to be amended by the legislature on Thursday. 

At present, nobody knows what form these amendments would take because each political party has its own plans and ideas. The only certainty seems to be that the revenue target of €140 million would not be met once the law is amended by the parties.

The responsibility for what is happening is the government’s because it gave in to the populist pressure of the parties and decided to amend the law, a few weeks after it had been approved, in order to make it fairer. So it decided to exempt from taxation property that at 1980’s prices was valued under €5,000 and prepared an amendment.

This was a blunder of epic proportions, as it gave licence to the political parties to propose their own changes. AKEL wants all first homes to be exempted and higher tax rates to be imposed on the properties with higher values, while the Greens want farmland to be exempted as well. If all the parties have their way, the government might be lucky to collect half the amount it had agreed with the troika.

But that should be no problem according to an AKEL deputy who argued that the government should inform the troika about the change of plans. He did not consider the possibility that the troika would, quite rightly, tell us to cut out the nonsense and stop misleading. In fact the government should have thought about this, when it took the populist decision to amend the law, a few weeks after it had been approved.

The Inland Revenue Department started sending tax bills to people while the government announced plans to amend the law. Collection of the tax inevitably slowed down, people quite rightly taking the ‘wait and see’ approach. What is most worrying was that there was nobody in the government who could see the negative consequences this slapdash and irresponsible policy would have. It was an admission that the law was no good and, implicitly an invitation to the parties to improve it.

Yesterday the head of the Inland Revenue Department pleaded with deputies at the House Finance Committee to clarify the situation regarding the IPT because it had adversely affected the tax collection. However, the damage had already been done by the government and things could get worse on Thursday if the parties decide to play their usual populist games, when discussing the amendments.

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Kenya said its security forces had taken control of the Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist fighters killed at least 62 people, and that police were doing a final sweep of shops early Tuesday after the last of the hostages had been rescued.

An overnight eerie silence outside the mall was broken at daybreak following a loud burst of gunfire heard coming from inside the Westgate mall, suggesting that the complex had not yet been secured. A lone military chopper circled above.

A trickle of survivors escaped the building throughout the day on Monday, but the fate of people listed as missing was unclear.

Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which began at lunchtime on Saturday. Kenyan officials say there were 10 to 15 attackers.

President Barack Obama offered U.S. support, saying he believed Kenya – the scene of one of al Qaeda’s first major attacks, in 1998, and a neighbour of chaotic Somalia – would continue to be a regional pillar of stability.

Kenyan security forces believed the end was in sight for the siege at the upmarket shopping mall in the capital, saying its forces were “in control” as the ordeal entered its fourth day.

A government official said there was no resistance from the attackers late on Monday night after a barrage of gunfire and blasts throughout the day, but that the security forces were cautious in case some attackers were hiding in the building.

“Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind. We believe all hostages have been released,” the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter.

The siege has followed a pattern of bursts of gunfire and activity followed by long lulls.

Patronised by well-to-do Kenyans and expatriates, Westgate mall epitomised the African consumer bonanza that is drawing foreign investment – from West and East – to one of the world’s fastest growing regions.

Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people when it bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. When fighters from its Somali ideological counterpart stormed the mall on Saturday, they hit a high-profile symbol of Kenya’s economic power.

Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, said the United States stood with Kenyans against “this terrible outrage.”

“We will provide them with whatever law enforcement support that is necessary. And we are confident that Kenya will continue to be a pillar of stability in eastern Africa,” he said in New York.

Kenya has sent troops to Somalia as part of an African Union force trying to stabilise the country, which was long without a functioning government, and push back al Shabaab.

It has also suffered internal instability. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who lost a nephew in the weekend bloodbath, faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in coordinating violence after disputed elections in 2007. He denies the charges.

Kenyatta has dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of Somalia, saying he would not relent in a “war on terror.”

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he believed six Britons had died in the attack. Other known foreign victims are from China, Ghana, France, the Netherlands and Canada. Kenyan officials said the total death toll was at least 62.

FOREIGN FIGHTERS

Kenya believes there are also foreigners among the attackers, with military chief Julius Karangi saying they came from all over the world. “We are fighting global terrorism here,” he said, without giving their nationalities.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said in a U.S. television interview that “two or three Americans” and a British woman were among the attackers.

She told the “PBS Newshour” show that the Americans were “young men, about between maybe 18 and 19″ years old. “Of Somali origin or Arab origin, but that lived in the U.S., in Minnesota and one other place,” Mohamed said.

U.S. authorities are urgently looking into information given by the Kenyan government that residents of Western countries, including the United States, may have been among the attackers, U.S. security sources said.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said he had no direct information that Americans had participated in the attack, but expressed U.S. worries.

“We do monitor very carefully and have for some time been concerned about efforts by al Shabaab to recruit Americans or U.S. persons to come to Somalia,” Rhodes told reporters travelling with Obama to the United Nations in New York.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the militants had set fire to mattresses in a supermarket on the mall’s lower floors and his ministry later said the blaze was under control. Two attackers were killed on Monday, taking the total of dead militants so far to three, he told a news conference.

Speculation rose about the identity of the attackers. Ole Lenku said they were all men but that some had dressed as women.

Despite his comments, one intelligence officer and two soldiers told Reuters that one of the dead militants was a white woman. This is likely to fuel speculation that she is the wanted widow of one of the suicide bombers who together killed more than 50 people on London’s transport system in 2005.

Called the “white widow” by the British press, Samantha Lewthwaite is wanted in connection with an alleged plot to attack hotels and restaurants in Kenya. Asked if the dead woman was Lewthwaite, the intelligence officer said: “We don’t know.”

A spokesman for al Shabaab warned they would kill hostages if Kenyan troops tried to storm their positions. “The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in an online audio statement.

From Mali to Algeria, Nigeria to Kenya, violent Islamist groups – tapping into local poverty, conflict, inequality or exclusion but espousing a similar anti-Western, anti-Christian creed – are striking at state authority and international interests, both economic and political.

John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said he believed insurgents such as those who rebelled in Mali last year, the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Nairobi mall raiders were also partly motivated by anger with what he called “pervasive malgovernance” in Africa.

“This is undoubtedly anti-Western and anti-Christian but it also taps into a lot of deep popular anger against the political economy in which they find themselves, in which a very small group of people are basically raking off the wealth,” he said.

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By Elias Hazou

POLITICIANS yesterday called for legal measures to force banks into lowering their lending rates, easing the burden on squeezed debtors and allowing more money to seep into the cash-starved economy.

The drive was spearheaded by DISY leader Averof Neophytou, who over the weekend suggested that the government, the legislature – or both – should take the initiative.

“Waiting for the banks and cooperatives to lower their lending rates would be wishful thinking,” the MP said.

Whereas deposit rates have “correctly” been lowered over the past few months, he added, interest rates on loans have gone up.

Neophytou said that amidst the financial crunch people are unable to keep up with their loan repayments. He called the current situation with high loan rates “a crime” perpetrated against households and medium-sized businesses.

High interest on loans also hurts the banks, since if people are unable to meet payments it will lead to an increase in the lenders’ non-performing loans, he added.

At the same time, the prohibitive cost of credit discourages badly needed investment.

The DISY chief went on to say that the government andor parliament should draft legislation, adding that the notion of lowering lending rates has the full backing of the President.

DIKO MP Angelos Votsis proposed that, given the state now essentially owns the cooperative banks, it should use its influence to push through a rates reduction.

AKEL’s Stavros Evagorou said his party supports the idea in principle, but warned about possible legal implications. In the past his party had requested a legal opinion as to whether the state could intervene and was advised that it should be left to the market to sort out interest rates.

Weighing in on the debate, recently-appointed deputy attorney-general Ricos Erotocritou said yesterday that lawmakers should be able to amend current legislation governing the liberalisation of banking operations and lending rates.

Cyprus enacted the relevant law on its accession to the European Union. The law, said Erotocritou, gave the banks “free rein” to adjust their rates. Though this might work in times of prosperity, he said, it was counter-productive during a depression.

The deputy AG opined also that any attempt by banks to mount a challenge in EU courts to state-regulated loan rates would fail.

Before pressing ahead, however, the government should coordinate with the European Central Bank.

It’s understood that Erotocritou was advocating a ceiling on lending rates.

Data provided by the ECB for August showed that, despite the fact that interest rates on deposits in Cyprus have decreased dramatically, loan rates for households and businesses are on the increase.

The data indicated that a significant reduction in deposit interest to 2.0 per cent has not brought about any reduction in lending costs.

The ECB reported that interest rates for business loans had increased to 6.5 per cent in July compared to 6.35 per cent in June – the highest in the eurozone.

Interest rates for business loans here are almost 3.5 per cent higher than the eurozone average of 3.3 per cent.

And rates on housing loans went up from 5.37 per cent in June 2013 to 5.6 per cent by July.

By comparison, the average interest rate for housing loans in the eurozone was 3.28 per cent.

Non-performing loans on the banks’ books are on the rise and loan restructurings, which are still being made, have the effect of increasing interest rates.

In turn, due to the higher risk of the loans, bankers revise their lending rates upwards.

Legal issues aside, lowering loan rates would be a step in the right direction, provided however that certain conditions are met, a leading economist told the Mail.

The key problem right now is the lack of liquidity, which naturally forces lending rates up, said Mike Spanos.

“Demand for loans is low. Foisting lower lending rates on banks would eat into their profits and lower their capital adequacy. Good for the borrowers, bad for the banks.”

And while decreasing loan rates might alleviate existing loans, it would not necessarily boost demand and encourage people to take out new loans for investment – precisely because of the overall lack of credit in the market.

Moreover, said Spanos, the cheaper the money the greater the risk of careless investments.

“If they go ahead with this, the government must first examine the financial ramifications. They need to look at the whole picture,” he cautioned.

To economic analyst Stelios Platis, lowering lending rates by law will likely create more problems than solve them, and could ultimately backfire.

“If they force banks to lend more cheaply, the banks could react by simply lending even less. What will the politicians do next, pass another law forcing banks to actually lend? Where does it end?”

“It doesn’t make economic sense. In fact, it smacks of populism…it’s an isolated, clumsy move.”

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Greece and Turkey have agreed to hold separate meetings with the negotiators of the island’s divided communities, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported.

Citing an unnamed Greek foreign ministry source, CNA said the two sides have already agreed to hold separate meetings with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot negotiators.

The same source said that the Greek Foreign Minister has informed his Cypriot counterpart, Ioannis Kasoulides, of the agreement.

CNA said the disclosure was made by a Greek foreign ministry source, which was not named, following a lengthy meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos in New York.

In statements after the meeting, Venizelos said that they discussed the recent developments in the Cyprus problem, adding that his government was ready to meet with the Turkish Cypriot negotiator in the Cyprus talks, which will resume this autumn, provided that the Turkish government met the Greek Cypriot negotiator.

“We can create a new momentum in the Cyprus problem, based on the proposals made by President (Nicos) Anastasiades,” Venizelos told reporters.

Of the decision to meet the communities’ negotiators, Venizelos said: “This is very important; it is a new procedural element, which contributes to creating this momentum.”

The Foreign Ministers of Greece and Turkey also discussed about issues of mutual concern, including sea zones, the situation in Syria, in Egypt and the wider South Eastern Mediterranean.

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 Where do you live?

In Nicosia, Cyprus

Best childhood memory?

My best childhood memories are the holidays I used to spend in Italy, in the Dolomites, during Christmas and at the beach, in Abruzzo, during summer holidays. As I used to live abroad with my parents and sisters, twice a year it felt like coming back home.

Most frequented restaurant and absolute favourite dish?

You can already guess my answer… I cannot live without eating pasta at least once in a week! My favourite dish is one of the simplest Italian dishes namely “spaghetti al pomodoro”. When I am abroad I always try the local Italian restaurants but it never tastes like our homemade pasta.

In Cyprus I also started to appreciate some of the local dishes and I can enjoy meze because it is based on the same Mediterranean ingredients that we have in Italy, such as tomatoes and olives.

What food would you really turn your nose up to?

I would not turn my nose up to any food, although I am not too keen on very spicy food because I am used to the Italian delicate flavours. However, I love to try new things from all over the world and I think it is worthy to try different types of food at least once.

What did you have for breakfast?

Corn flakes, some fruit and a coffee

Would you class yourself as a day or night person? What’s your idea of the perfect night/day out?

Definitely a day person. I have always been much more active in the morning but it does not mean I do not like to go out at night! I like unexpected programmes, so my perfect day out would be sailing or diving, while at night I would enjoy salsa dancing or going to a music concert with friends.

Best book ever read?

My father’s books! My father writes a lot about historical figures. I particularly enjoyed his book about Evita Peron. The story of her life is so romantic and passionate that it inspired one of the most famous and successful Broadway musicals.

I also appreciated the book about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Budapest who saved 100,000 Jewish people during the Second World War.

Favourite film of all time?

This list would be long but I really liked Divorzio all’italiana, a classic movie directed by Pietro Germi describing the old Italian society at a time when divorce was not allowed.

Another movie that I particularly enjoyed and that I can watch over and over again is The Lost City produced by Andy Garcia. The movie takes palace in Havana, where I have lived for three years. It is such a romantic movie!

Favorite holiday destination? What’s your dream trip?

My favourite holiday destination is of course Italy. There is such a variety of places to visit! However, I am also very curious to discover new places and other countries. My dream trip would be sailing around the world. I like adventure!

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?

Depends on my mood. Italian or international music.

What is always in your fridge?

Fruit, Parmesan cheese, Italian ham and tomatoes.

Dream house: rural retreat or urban dwelling? Where would it be, what would it be like?

I have always lived in big cities and so my dream house would definitely be an urban dwelling. It could be in any capital in the world but most likely Rome. It could be a house or an apartment. It would be like a combination of modern and traditional Italian style.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?

I would like to have a chat with Jean Monnet about the future of Europe, as he is one of the founding fathers of the European Union. As I am a believer in European cooperation and integration, I would be very curious to know his view on the present state of the European Union and ask him if he has any bright ideas for a better Europe.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?

I am a very optimistic person so I generally do not think about doomsday scenarios. But I guess, if the world was ending in 24 hours, I would take the first plane and fly back to Italy to stay with my family.

What is your greatest fear?

I do not want to reveal my greatest fear because I am a very superstitious person (like most Italians). I am too afraid this could really happen so I prefer not even to mention it!

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A 56-year-old British man and his dog were rescued yesterday after falling down a 30-metre ravine in Tremithousa in the Paphos district. 

The incident took place yesterday morning while the man was walking his dog along Ayios Neophytos Avenue in Tremithousa. At some point, he and the dog fell down a 30-metre ravine, resulting in a rescue operation to pull them up using special Fire Service equipment.

The man was taken to Paphos general hospital for treatment after suffering several abrasions on his face and body. He was considered out of danger and, with his consent, released from hospital.

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