I RECENTLY attended a meeting organised by OPEK (Association for Social Reform) featuring a variety of younger Euro MEP candidates. What disturbed me the most was the fact that some candidates proudly declared that they were photocopies of their predecessors, so much so that they even looked and sounded the part.
At the same time, despite the absence of candidates from the Greens and EVROKO, the inspirational thing about the panel was the fact that it happened. Twenty years ago, it would have been unheard of for candidates to share a platform on such amicable terms.
Another change seen with the euro elections is that at long last ballots are being placed in key places across EU countries where people can vote. This marks an end to the scandalous waste of money paid by several political parties to fly people to Cyprus on voting day.
It is such an anachronism to herd people through the skies to vote for one party or the other. Hopefully this new practice will be applied to all elections in the future. As for the younger-ish candidates I would advise some of them to be less sycophantic. By copying their heroes from the past, they may simply be reproducing the same conservative agendas on many issues. More info on OPEK at www.opek.org.cy
AS THE result flowed in from the elections in the north, many feared a turn for the worse with the victory of Dervish Eroglou. It remains to be seen how he will mange being in power, considering the shambles made last time.
It also remains to be seen how he will manoeuvre himself as a two state rejectionist who would rather sabotage the talks rather than see them succeed. This result may have come as a shock to many but as I have said on many occasions, some people win elections and others lose them.
Talat’s CTP seems to have suffered from their own brand of Blairism, losing a large part of their political identity and base as a consequence of consolidating power. There are so many things that could have been done differently.
On another topic, assessment of the elections by Greek Cypriot leaders ranged from the realistic to the utterly laughable. Some things, it appears, never change.
WHAT’S all the fuss about Susan Boyle? It’s a sad reflection of the way the music industry is being steered by the likes of Simon Cowell.
Are people really serious? OK, so I was bigging up Stavros Flatly and son last week, but that was entertaining. Susan Boyle suddenly being taken seriously as an singer makes a complete mockery of the art and craft itself. May be we should have entered Belayia in the mix.
IT SEEMS my advice last week was not taken and April 24 has become the ‘oxi’ anniversary march. What puzzles me is why 2009 and not all the previous years? And why was the good Doc Lyssarides, whose party presumably is part of the government, the main speaker?
The Doc has lent his presence to some dodgy causes in the past including the ill-fated, anti-immigration Movement for The Salvation of Cyprus. Instead of moving on, the presumption is simply to stay put on that historic day, April 24, 2004.
While difference of opinion is as valuable as the air we breathe, there does come a point where one has to ask if the present coalition government of President Christofias is deliberately being eaten way from within by various people from EDEK and DIKO.
Give them a platform and they will tell every one and any one that the current route to a solution is doomed. We have perhaps the only government in the world where some people in power are also more contradictory than the opposition.
Overall it all seems so petty and pointless; playing directly into the hands of those who want the current talks to fail so Cyprus can be partitioned. It goes beyond policy on the Cyprus Problem to something much more deep rooted.
Some of the junior partners in government did not win the presidential elections and these outpourings of public frustration are an indication that in reality, they have not yet quite got over the post-election hangover.
