Tears and laughter as mother reunited with her girls

2010-03-21

THERE must be better ways of spending your fifth wedding anniversary than jumping through the bureaucratic hoops involved in a twelve-hour journey by air, but Marie and Rene Chesnel would not have it any other way.

Almost a full year since they last saw their daughters Alexandra (“Babette”),17, and Murielle, 16, and four months since they found out that the girls had been brought illegally to Cyprus instead of being accompanied to France as arranged, the family was reunited – for three days, at least – in a quiet Nicosia suburb yesterday morning.

After their arrival at Larnaca airport just before 8.00am, the Sunday Mail drove Marie and Rene to the home of the family that is temporarily hosting the girls by arrangement with the Welfare Service.

DISY leader’s blistering attack on Christofias’ policies

2010-03-21

DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades yesterday launched a blistering attack on the policies of President Demetris Christofias in a speech to party delegates.

He said that the Cyprus problem had now reached a dead end and that the “great opportunity” which was presented for its resolution with Cyprus’s entry to the EU is on the brink of being lost definitively.

“The lack of any prior consultation and understanding has led, unfortunately, to unsuccessful government choices and to the flawed handling of negotiations,” said Anastassiades, adding that these do not permit DISY to “conscientiously interact” with the process “pretending they do not know what is going on”.

Unions say ‘don’t touch CoLA’

2010-03-21

TRADE unions said yesterday that they were not prepared to accept a reform of the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) or any measures which will negatively affect the standard of living of employees, and most especially those in the lowest wage bracket.

Representatives of the three major trade unions, PEO, SEK and DEOK, made the statement in response to the government’s proposed austerity measures.

Sotiris Fellas, the deputy general secretary of PEO, said the union was unwilling to discuss alterations to CoLA and expressed the certainty that the government would not present such a suggestion at the negotiating table.

Workshops to help deal with stress

2010-03-21

Dealing with the stress of a looming deadline, or perhaps calming sibling turmoil at home, may become easier following the introduction of four new seminars and workshops at the G.P. Counselling and Educational Centre.

The workshops commence this weekend and are aimed at “personal and professional development”. Sounds great, but exactly what are these workshops?

According to Gabriella Phillipou, a psychotherapist and counsellor at the centre, one of the workshops entitled “How to handle Anxiety”, for example, can do just that, acting as a type of support group where eight to 20 fellow anxious individuals can share their stories and engage in guided discussion.

‘What else could I have done?’

2010-03-21

FIVE months after Michael’s death the cigarette burns are still on the arm of his mother’s sofa – constant reminders of a tragedy.

As his mother, 49-year-old Janet Paraskeva, mourns a son gone forever, she is also trying to cope with the debts of 60,000 euros she spent trying to keep him alive.

The day I interview her, she sits where her son always sat, nervously picking at the holes he made. “This is where Michael used to sleep during the day, he spent a lot of time just lying here and made the burns mark when he dropped a cigarette,” she says.

When Michael died of an overdose last October aged 20, Janet had spent more than two years fruitlessly seeking cure after cure – both government supported and private – to try and wean him off drugs.

Can Turkey pay the cost of IPC?

2010-03-21

WHILE THE President has urged Cypriots to ignore the immoveable property commission (IPC) in the north, one lawyer argues that the IPC could actually make occupation too costly for Turkey while adding to state coffers through taxation.

Human rights lawyer Achilleas Demetriades told the Sunday Mail that the latest decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to recognise Turkey’s IPC as an effective domestic remedy has opened up a number of possibilities.

One is to make the cost of occupation so high that Turkey will have little incentive to stay on the island, while another is for the government to raise tax revenues by imposing transfer fees and capital gains tax on property sales or transfers at the IPC.

What happened when George went to the IPC

2010-03-21

WHO CAN still recall the standard of living here for the majority in 1974? What percentage of refugees left behind one room mud and stone homes? And if unoccupied and left to rot for 36 years, are they now even worth the Turkish Lira revenue stamp cost of registration? We must stop living the myth of modern Cyprus and relive the reality of what was lost.

All refugees in the south with a claim to expropriated property in the north have been directed by the ECHR to first take their claims to the IPC (Immovable Property Commission) situated in the ‘TRNC’ half of Nicosia.

Our most precious resource will favour inefficient farmers

2010-03-21

THE saga of water mismanagement in Cyprus, EU’s most water-scarce member state, has now reached absurd new heights of inefficiency.

Apparently, the Hypocratian oath of “not doing harm” or making bad things worse, does not apply to water-policy makers. In their wisdom they have decided that the dams were built for the farmers and in the future will be dedicated to their exclusive use and benefit. One hundred per cent of the water needs of the urban and coastal rural areas, meanwhile, will be covered by pricy desalinated water produced at the rate – all year round — of the maximum summer demand. Most months this will lead to surplus production, which will be stored in the dams — for agriculture!

We should take heed of Greece and meet financial obligations

2010-03-21

FOR those who have been following Greek politics and finances, the current impasse with the government locked in a fight to the death for the country’s survival came as no surprise. When we see similar, even at times exactly the same, symptoms occurring here in Cyprus, it is cause for concern.

Those who defend institutions should not defy them

2010-03-21

PRESIDENT Christofias has lamented the lack of respect for our institutions in the last week, also reminding us that he had issued a similar warning a long time ago.

“I had been saying since the time of Clerides’ government that we were living through a crisis in our institutions and values… We are fighting to bolster values, customs and traditions of the country as well as our morals. It is not an easy thing,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.