Sir,
Bravo to Nitsa Roussot (letters to the Editor, September 19).I am in complete agreement with her comments and at times, particularly when unwillingly I find myself in the company of the whingeing expatriates, I feel ashamed to be British.
We purchased property some two decades ago in the Paphos area and chose to do so because of the culture and the warmth and welcome of the people. Prior to this, I was employed by one of the Ministries in Nicosia and enjoyed my professional work with professional Cypriot colleagues like no other place on this earth.
Cypriots over the last decade have, thank God, slowly emerged from their oppression by foreign powers and influences and this has been most marked in commerce, politics, social change and the marketing of the natural resources of the island. Cypriots are now flexing their muscles in almost every aspect imaginable and are grasping the opportunities for development.
Nowhere on this earth is perfect and none can prevent change and the repercussions of change. What expatriates have yet to grasp, understand and acknowledge is that they are living in a foreign country, which has its own history and culture and its own way of doing things.
Britons are inherently colonists and some are exhibiting these traits every day in their dealings with locals. The great British Empire is no longer and British ‘culture’ itself leaves a hell of a lot to be desired.
I would ask expatriates to cast their mind back to the eighties where, during the Thatcher era, Britain was ripped off by poll tax, by financial swindles, the proportion of which has never been seen before, by escalating land and property values and suffered an unprecedented upsurge in crime and drug linked deaths and murders. Much of this remains and I would say to experts why try to impose the British way of life when that way of life is inherently now faulty?
Go with the flow, expatriates and instead of listening to your fellow countrymen as to how to accomplish certain things (which change with every telling) go to those Cypriots who know, and there are enough of them in office — go to the top and whilst doing so remember it was the British who introduced bureaucracy to this country.
Geoff Unsworth, Paphos
