Beggars have no rights to sovereignty or dignity

ALL THE TIME the troika was avoiding announcing an arrival date, our political demagogues were wondering why it was taking so long, worrying about the delay and stressing whether a bailout agreement would be ready for the November 12 Euro Group meeting.
They were praying and lighting candles in church in the hope that Divine help would speed up the arrival of the troika. A desperate President Christofias contacted EU leaders and the top brass of the European Commission imploring them to push the troika to come to Cyprus as soon as possible. “What have things come to, we are in discussions regarding inviting the troika to come,” said Christofias after a meeting with the party leaders.
The troika eventually arrived, but the November 12 deadline had been missed. But as soon as its representatives set foot on the island, the demagoguery and defiant posturing commenced. Even at this hour, with everything collapsing, our political jesters - the very people who brought us here - refuse to act responsibly.
We have reached the limits of humiliation and ridicule. What else could you say when we pseudo-proud Cypriots, who until recently were loaded with money are today begging Romanians, Bulgarians, Lithuanian and Slovenians that live on monthly wages between 300 and 500 euro, to lend us money so we do not starve. What have things come to indeed?
But even faced with the chaos they created, our politicians carrying on singing the same tune. They have now become the champions of resistance against the troika. “Some must declare whether they are with the troika or society,” says AKEL presidential candidate Stavros Malas wherever he goes, showing that he is just another demagogue like all the others.
Personally, I would like to declare that I am on the troika’s side, Mr Malas. And I believe that one troika is not enough. You lot need 10 troikas to come to your senses.
Then we have Christofias, Kyprianou, Omirou and Lillikas getting stressed out because, as they say, our national sovereignty would be threatened if we allow our budget to be decided by the troika. And they draw red lines, trumpeting that they would never agree to the “mutilation of our national sovereignty”.
And they make out that they have nothing to do with the chaotic mess we are in today. When they were voting in the House for the ‘restructuring of the public service’, the super-privileges of the public employees and the squandering of the taxpayer’s money on scandalous allowances and welfare benefits of hundreds of millions did they not think they were leading us to bankruptcy?
All of a sudden they remembered our national sovereignty? But now we have become beggars and we have our politicians to thank for this. And beggars have neither national sovereignty nor national dignity. They sit on the pavement and open their hand asking for spare change from passers-by. This is what we have become.
AKEL deputy Bambos Papageorgiou stole the show of political lunacy of the past week. “When your man is in the ring fighting, you cannot be pulling his shorts,” he said, commenting on opposition criticism of the president. As you have gathered, our man in the ring is Christofias who is fighting against our enemy (the troika) and we are not helping his fight strategy by pulling at his pants.
But in what ring has Papageorgiou seen Christofias? The only rings Christofias climbs into are the armoured Mercedes, the private jet we lease for him and the comfy chair in the presidential palace office. And has he got on any shorts for us to pull?
Has Papageorgiou not realised that after all those fights Christofias has taken part in, in the ring of the presidential palace, he has no shorts, nor a bottom to put inside them.