THINGS seem to have turned out perfectly for Tof the Terrible. His delaying tactics and time-wasting have achieved the desired result for him and ensured he will leave without having signed the cursed, neo-liberal memorandum.
News from Brussels is that the memorandum will be finalised and signed in the second half of March, long after the great leader retires to his dacha in Kellaki. He will leave boasting that he kept his promise not to sign an agreement that included the privatisation of the semi-governmental organisations.
An EU official who briefed hacks in Brussels on Friday attributed the delay in the signing of the memorandum to the comrade’s refusal to agree to the privatisation of SGOs, which would have made the debt sustainable. This may give him bragging rights and allow the commie demagogues to adopt an anti-bailout stance in March, but the SGOs will not escape privatisation.
His achievement would serve AKEL’s propaganda purposes, which is all that matters to the dithering Dikomo div.
THE ONLY matter on which the government has never dithered or employed delaying tactics was on the signing of the contracts for natural gas.
Not only did it initiate the second licensing round, claiming at the time that the signing of the contracts would be left to the next government, commerce minister Neoclis Sylikiotis is now hell-bent on getting them signed before he leaves office. We have not seen the government showing such urgency about anything in five years.
Sylikiotis has even set up a National Fund for Hydrocarbons which would receive the €200 million the government estimates to receive in bonus signature fees when the contracts for hydrocarbon exploration are signed with the oil companies. By rushing everything, Sylikiotis claims the troika would not be able to get its hands on the 200 million (and use it against the loan) that would pay for urgently needed gas infrastructure projects.
What infrastructure projects did he have in mind, considering that the government has not bothered drafting the comprehensive plan for the energy sector that is stipulated by the memorandum and will have to be approved by the troika?
The time-frame for the plan is the second quarter of this year so there would not be much use for the 200 million before July, unless Sylikiotis in the next months plans to secretly invest in infrastructure work that we will not need.
SUPERCILIOUS Sylikiotis’ silly scheme suffered a serious setback last week as the troika wrote to the finance ministry telling it that the establishment of the hydrocarbons fund, which he was trying to rush through parliament, would be in violation of the preliminary agreement.
The minister lost it when this was relayed to him on a morning radio show, lambasting his colleague Vasos Shiarly and finance ministry officials, for having consultations with the troika on the matter. Our only obligation was to inform the troika about our plans, he barked at the presenter before embarking on a rant about national sovereignty.
The political parties refused to approve the bill for the resources fund, prompting Sylikiotis to accuse them of serving the interests of the troika and obeying its commands. Shiarly, his ministry officials and deputies should be congratulated for siding with the troika as it is the only way to protect the country from the AKEL scourge.
A government which for five years has been putting AKEL’s interest above the country’s is not going to change its philosophy one month before it is set to leave office. We will all sleep safer knowing that the troika has taken control of energy policy out of the hands of AKEL’s super-minister. The government has caused enough catastrophes and should take it easy in its last month.
“ONLY 14 minutes separate us from the big confrontation,” declared the over-excited CyBC news boss, with unnatural jet-black hair and no sense of perspective, on Monday night ahead of the televised debate of the three main presidential candidates.
If he was doing a preview of a World Cup Final I could understand him building up viewers’ expectations and counting the minutes to kick-off, but counting the minutes to a political debate guaranteed to numb minds and kill the senses, only a TV presenter could have done, without a hint of irony.
And you could accuse Yiannis Kareklas of many things, such as his self-importance, his over-zealousness and his bad choice of hair-dye, but never of being ironic. In order to help us get through the 14 minutes of suspense, before the big event, he asked questions of studio guests, starting with Olympic bore and former finance minister Kikis Kazamias.
A smart move, because after two minutes of listening to Kikis, viewers were indeed counting the seconds for the big confrontation and when it started thought it was scripted by Quentin Tarantino.
THE BIG confrontation was a big disappointment, according to the thrill-seekers who watched the whole show and the four hacks asking the questions made a big contribution in ensuring this. Why for instance does the CyBC’s Emilia Kenevezou always ask about the privatisation of the SGOs? Is she afraid that CyBC would be privatised and her fat salary reduced, or is she a commie?
Most newspapers expressed shock that Stavros Malas did not know what the price per litre of petrol was, when asked by one of the smart-ass hacks. But why did he have to know? Why did they not ask the Fuhrer the price of field cucumbers (as opposed to those grown in greenhouses) which last weekend were selling for an extortionate €5 a kilo? And Lillikas could have been asked about the price of a kilo of potatoes.
One of our customers, who watched it, concluded that Malas seemed the most decent of the three candidates. In what way, he was asked by a metrios drinker. Well, if my daughter was to marry one of them I would be much happier if she chose Malas, he said.
BUTTERING up the right people and networking have always been a surefire method for pursuing social and professional advancement. Millionaire candidate Giorgos Lillikas has a natural talent for this, as his career history shows.
He has worked his way into the hearts of George Vass, comrade Tof, the Ethnarch and finally Dr Faustus, each time using his chosen mentor’s backing to climb higher. Vass introduced him to the political scene, Tof helped him become a deputy, the Ethnarch appointed him foreign minister and Faustus made him a presidential candidate.
Nobody uses influential people for his own ends so clinically. And while Giorgos profits politically, his wife’s advertising company Marketway profits financially from his merciless networking, according to a report in last Sunday’s Politis.
When he was AKEL deputy, Marketway won the advertising account for the presidential election campaign of AKEL candidate Giorgos Iacovou; the company also did the ‘No’ campaign in the 2004 referendum collecting a cool 800,000 euros; and in 2008 Marketway handled the Ethnarch’s unsuccessful re-election campaign which, according to Politis cost about €3 million.
You have to admire Giorgos’ self-improvement skills, even if this indicates he would make a lousy president.
ANOTHER renowned networker, although not in Lillikas’ league, is Vassilis Rologis, the Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus (London). Rologis’ talent for networking and using people landed him the chairmanship of Cyprus Airways, Chamber of Commerce, General Insurance and briefly the B of C.
He was ousted as chairman of the B of C by the then Governor of the Central Bank, Ttooulis TToouli some seven years ago, but refused to surrender his seat on the bank’s board which he still has. Rologis, man who has done little in his life other than play the big-shot, has had a seat on the B of C board since the ‘80s and is currently fighting to hold on to it despite Central Bank Governor Panicos asking for his and another three directors’ resignation.
Two of the four have given up their seats and Rologis has written back to say he would also step down but at a time of his own choosing - presumably in five or 10 years. This was a stalling tactic as he has already been contacting people who could help him keep his B of C seat. He asked for the help of the DISY fuhrer, who we hear has already contacted Professor Panicos to put in a good word for Rologis.
He then begged the former chairman of the B of C Aristo Developer, who has close ties with the Archbishop, to arrange a meeting with Chrys so he could ask for his help. The man is desperate to stay on, especially now that he is chairman of the B of C (London) and can play the big-shot banker to the UK Cypriots who might even buy the myth.
ROLOGIS, who usually gets his way by mercilessly pestering people in a position to help him, has also launched a charm offensive on Professor Panicos, who will have the final say over whether he will stay on the board. We hear that he has twice wined and dined Panicos in London. The first time the professor was the guest at a dinner attended by most members of the bank’s board. The second time, dinner in London was a more private affair. Both times the bill was paid for by the bank, a point Panicos should note as it a bit unfair that B of C shareholders are paying for Rologis’ efforts to remain a director for another 20 years.
SPEAKING of the Central Bank, we find it very strange that the bank employees’ union ETYK has not protested against the governor’s decision to re-hire two employees who had taken early retirement. When this was done in the past, the ETYK boss Loizos Hadjicostis raised hell, but this time he has said not a word.
Someone obviously has got him by the balls. Could his silence have anything to do with the fact that he worked closely with Andreas Vgenopoulos, the man who singlehandedly destroyed Laiki, and the Central Bank could, at any time, use this against him?
EMPLOYEES of the Cyprus Weekly were not smiling when they left Friday’s meeting with Nicos Pattichis, the head honcho of the Phil group which owns paper. How could anyone smile after being told that the paper would become a daily and they would have to produce six editions a week, working nights and Saturdays?
The big boss hoped to cut the losses of the newspaper by going daily and staff were told that if they did not agree the paper might have to fold. Not much of a choice, but staff were given until tomorrow to think about Patt’s proposal and give their response. The question is what would the new daily be called?
Would it be the Daily Cyprus Weekly or the Cyprus Weakly Daily? And will the Weekly maintain, its legendary slogan, ‘The paper that lasts the week,’ when it will want people to buy its sister paper every day?
TWENTY-EIGHT days left until the presidential elections, 35 for the second round and 39 before our great leader goes home, content that CyTA remains a state organisation.