ALL ROADS led to the Hilton Park on Friday night as Antenna TV threw a glitzy party bash to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The queues of cars on Grivas Dighenis Avenue stretched right back to the Kykkos Monastery junction as all the great and the good of the plantation turned up to pay tribute to and congratulate the station=s proprietor Loukis Papahilippou, who was glowing with pride.
And he had every reason to be proud. Antenna is now the oldest private TV station on the plantation and has become an integral part of our lives. Arguably, its biggest success is that it has become the undisputed champion of ordinary folk, who nobody had much time for before the station=s arrival and which all stations are now championing.
Its willingness to send a camera crew to cover stories (in some cases non-stories) about the complaints of ordinary people, against the authorities – petty minded bureaucrats, arrogant officials – has won it a special place in the hearts and minds of people. The fact that an individual who feels he has been badly treated or done an injustice by the authorities threatens, “I’ll call Antenna”, perfectly illustrates how the people have come to see the station as being on their side.
I have a complaint to make here. My home telephone number, with the exception of one digit is the same as Antenna’s, which means that the missus and I have been woken up on countless occasions in the middle of the night, by people asking, “O Antennas?”. I almost felt like calling Antenna myself to do a story about my night-time ordeal, but being camera-shy I opted for CyTA’s answering service instead.
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THE SECOND biggest success of Antenna was that it gave us the quintessential blonde news-presenter, Georgia Achilleos. She was the first and the best, her name having become the generic term for a blonde presenter. Sigma has had a succession of so-called blondes as presenters but they are not fit to look after Georgia’s make-up bag. Mega knows that it cannot compete so it only uses dark-haired presenters.
She was there with her partner on Friday night, lending glamour and style to the bash. She looked much prettier in real life than she does on the telly, where she wears the obligatory one centimetre-thick layer of make-up that makes her look like a Madame Tussaud model. Wearing an ultra-fashionable pink khaftan, Georgia exchanged pleasantries with fans, moaning that she had put on a few extra pounds and needed to lose weight.
DISY deputy Fuhrer Averoff Neophytou, was also at the party trying in vain to look cool and casual in a tight black T-shirt and mustard yellow jeans. Over his shoulder he carried a matching mustard-yellow jean jacket, to complete the cool look. The truth is that cool dude Foulis looked more like 12-year-old wearing his Sunday best for his younger brother=s christening.
The Fuhrer, who has a special relationship with Antenna, was also at the bash and we overheard him telling off one of his deputies for having written an article that was critical of the DISY leadership. Nik had taken the criticism personally, because, as he pointed out, quite loudly, “I am the leadership”. You can=t argue with his logic.
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THERE was no mention at the bash of the Antenna-owned bicommunal radio station, Radio Potamia, which has been broadcasting a mix of Greek and Turkish songs ever since it went on air a couple of months ago. Potamia is the mixed village from which Ant1’s big boss Loukis P hails, hence the name.
Whereas you=d expect a big song and dance to have been made about the station, it remains one of the plantation’s best-kept secrets. It would appear that many companies are afraid to advertise on it for fear of losing nationalist customers. I hear that the Bank of Cyprus agreed to give some money to the station (in the region of four grand) out of its advertising budget on one condition. That the station took the money without carrying any B of C advertising. A peculiar arrangement, indicating that peace and harmony between the two communities is not yet mature enough for commercial exploitation.
This has not stopped the business weekly Financial Mirror from striking a co-operation deal with Afrika and Kibris. The Mirror will prepare a 20-page publication in English, titled ‘Cyprus Business Forum’, that will be carried as a supplement in the Wednesday editions of the above papers. The idea is to get the Forum in all papers in the north.
Potential advertisers have welcomed the move, but from what I hear, have not shown great eagerness to put their money where their mouth is.
Perhaps the publishers could get deals like the one Radio Potamia has with the B of C.
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BRILLIANT story in last Wednesday=s Politis by Sotiris Paroutis, who decided to quash rumours – about the alleged affair between a deputy and a young female journalist who had become pregnant – “circulating in the corridors of the legislature, the offices of the political parties and even the neighbourhood coffeeshops”. As we had heard nothing, I will presume that Paroutis= claim about neighbourhood coffeeshops was just another rumour.
The story was a classic, featuring the gem of a sub-heading, “Unbelievable story, without a hint of truth”. According to the unbelievable report, a provincial deputy who is married with kids was having an affair with a young hackette, for whom he had allegedly bought an apartment where she was staying after becoming pregnant. Paroutis claimed that certain deputies had encouraged him to expose this morally reprehensible behaviour, so he directly asked the people at the centre of the gossip. They denied everything.
He called the young woman=s mother and found out that the hackette was staying with her at the village and was not pregnant. End of non-story. Next week, Paroutis will quash rumours circulating in the neighbourhood coffeeshops about a cross-dressing, heroin addicted politician whose colleagues claimed he had stayed in a hotel in the occupied north with three teenage boys – just another “unbelievable story without a hint of truth”.
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PRESIDENTE Papa Dop must also have been the recipient of scurrilous rumours, which he injudiciously repeated in public. It is the only way to explain his revelation about the nine-year-old child “who is a drug user”. Attempts by journalists to trace the nine-year-old drug user proved futile.
Neither Dr Veresies, the head of Kenthea, an anti-drug organisation, nor the head of the Drug Squad, nor the Health Minister knew of such a case. As a police spokesman said, the president may have received his information from another source. Dr Veresies said that perhaps el presidente had heard this from the parents of the child. Health Minister Dina Akkelidou, more imaginative than the others, said that the police had once arrested a 15-year-old girl, for possession, who had said she had been drug user for several years.
Anyway, Papa-Dop gave an excuse to papers to get hysterical about drugs at time when real rumours are scarce. Simerini’s front-page banner headline on Friday read, “Minors in drug trap”. The whole story was based on the rumour spread by our presidente and there was no other evidence to justify the headline, which is hardly surprising considering the paper had in the past claimed, “Ecstasy decimating our youth”, on its front page.
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DRUGS and sex are two of the favourite topics of the media in the slow summer months. The sex angle has been provided by our illustrious deputies on the House human rights committee, who have been discussing the plight of cabaret artistes over the last few weeks.
Discussion of the exploitation of women from the countries of the former Soviet Union has become an annual fixture in the legislature’s calendar
. It consists of deputies expressing outrage about the way these women are treated by cabaret owners, voicing platitudes about human rights and concern about marriages of convenience with Bananiots. Nothing is ever done to protect the artistes, who enjoy the same rights as 18th century slaves, the issue conveniently forgotten until the following year.
Some 4,000 artistes come to Cyprus every year, and there are 1,200 working in our respected cabarets and nightclubs at any given time. Even the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, noticed the abundance of cabarets we have – there currently 78 – remarking that there were a lot of cabarets for such a small country. And this was before he had visited the north.
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HAVE TO mention an excerpt from a letter published in Politis two weeks ago from the Governor of the Central Bank, generalissimo Ttooulis. He wrote: “(It is true) I come from a village and from a poor family, not from wealthy background. I am known in my village and the surrounding area as Ttooulis, because, as a result of my humble background, I do not have a serious-sounding name. I am particularly proud of this.”
Our only concern is whether, given his humble background, he knows which knife and fork to use when he sits at EU banquets for Central Bank governors, and has three of each to choose from.
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ON THE SAME page in Politis, written by Thoukis, I read a very condescending piece about a friend of our establishment Vassos Ftochopoulos, owner of the Aegeon tavern in old Nicosia. The piece, accused Vassos “of writing serious-sounding nonsense” and urged him “to cook your kebab and do not try to write about things of which you are clueless”.
This was in response to certain unflattering things written by Vassos in his paper Enosis about Politis and some of its hacks. Last Sunday, there was another piece, again patronisingly describing him as a “souvlidjis” (kebab maker). What does Thoukis have against souvlidjides? Are they not allowed to have a political opinion and to write about it? Thoukis must think so, as he refused to publish the letter of response by the souvlidjis.
What is it about Politis hacks that they cannot respond to criticism without adopting a sanctimonious and morally superior tone? I feel obliged to take a stand, even if I do not agree with everything the souvlidjis says, because Thoukis, next week could decide that a “kafedjis” does not have the right to voice a political opinion either. How will I feed my children? Surely a kafedjis and a souvlidjis have as much right to voice an opinion in print as does a state schoolteacher, no matter how stupid their views might be.
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I HEAR that former members of the Clerides government, after overcoming the trauma caused by loss of status and power, are gradually finding new jobs for themselves. Generalissimo Kouros, who has eased the pain by buying himself a shiny, brand new Jaguar S, has opened up an office and is planning some business enterprises.
Meanwhile, the generalissimo=s personal secretary was the only member of the palazzo staff that had not been transferred. She stayed in her office as the personal secretary of the Kouros= successor Christodoulos Pashiardis. This is a very strange development, given Papa-Dop=s decision to get rid of most of Clerides’ staff, incurring the wrath of the Fuhrer.
Tassos’ decision was understandable. He did not want to leave in key palazzo positions people who could pass on information to DISY. So why was Kouros’ secretary not transferred to a new post outside the palazzo?
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THE FUHRER Nice Nik, had made a big song and dance about the new presidente’s alleged persecutions of palazzo staff. This was part of his campaign to show that the new government was engaging in rampant rusfeti, promoting its own people everywhere. There may be an element of truth in these accusations, but it would seem that Nik overplayed his hand.
His daily claims that only DIKO and AKEL members were being promoted in the public service, worried one DISY supporter so much that he called up his deputy to express his concern. The supporter said that Nik should stop going on about government rusfeti, because this would encourage many DISY members to quit their party and join DIKO if they thought this was only way to get promoted in the public service.
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CONGRATULATIONS to our public-spirited deputies and our government for their plan to help investors who lost money on the bubble exchange. If the plan goes through, investors who had borrowed money from the bank to buy shares would only pay back a small portion of their loan, while the banks would have to write off interest and charges as well as portion of their capital. The government would compensate the banks by covering 40 per cent of the investment loans owed, by giving them 10-year bonds.
No other country in the civilised world has ever devised such an insane plan, which could cause the collapse of the economy. There have been countless cases of stock market crashes, but no country was foolish enough to compensate the investors. Was it because these countries did not care about their citizens? But our political parties (all of which support the plan), and Finance Minister Marcos Kyprianou think they have economic expertise to pull it off without harming the economy.
Kyprianou is a lawyer, and DISY deputy Demetris Syllouris, who has played a big part in the formulation of the plan, is a civil engineer. Need I say more. Respected professors of economics have never suggested such a plan in any country in the world, but we are ready to carry out such a risky experiment on our economy at the suggestion of a lawyer and a civil engineer. Even more worrying is that nobody has said a single word against the plan.
Have we all gone stark raving bonkers? Only the bankers can save us, because there is no way they will agree to it. Then again, I could be wrong, the plan might be a mega success and Syllouris and Kyprianou might win the Nobel Prize for economics.
