THE MARKING of, what AKEL traditionally describes as the ‘the black anniversaries of the twin crime of 1974 against Cyprus,’ begun last week and are set to be completed on Tuesday, presumably with yet another public gathering for the AKEL hordes.
Akelites are the only ones who show up in numbers for these anniversary events because party discipline remains strong in the commie party, in contrast to the other parties whose less idealistic members would probably demand a permanent job in the civil service in exchange for attending the tediously boring gatherings for the condemnation of the twin crime.
Even EDEK, which, decades ago, gathered hundreds of young, hairy, Che lookalikes to listen devotedly to Dr Faustus’ passionate, hot air, anniversary, sermon has had to scale down its black anniversary event. Friday night’s was held in a small open air auditorium in Ayios Dhometios and was attended by clean-cut, middle-aged, civil servant types in polo shirts.
The Che lookalike revolutionaries went to the barber once they got a safe government job, but a few of them still show up for the annual coup event more out of a sense of gratitude to the party that got them the job, than any burning desire to listen to the dull Faustus clone, Yiannakis.
Only the commies of AKEL have succeeded in consistently getting youths to join the party and attend their black anniversary events. This could be because you are born an Akelite rather than become one.
I saw the Akelite youth march up Nicosia’s Severis Avenue on Thursday evening, holding banners and placards, heading to the palazzo de popolo to hear their comrade president’s speech. There may have been as many as 500 youths which was a damning indictment of our society.
What future does this society have when its youth, instead of being at the beach getting drunk, stoned, laid or all three, march to the palazzo to applaud the banal rhetoric of a dull speaker, uttering the same things for the last 30 years?
THE POLITICALLY correct societies of the West would not have referred to the twin crimes of ’74 as ‘black anniversaries’ because of its racist connotations. You can no longer use the colour ‘black’ as an adjective to describe events that are bad, evil and negative. Black activists have won the argument even though some still use it.
A search on Google came up with a ‘black anniversary’ in the politically correct US of all places. The right-wing magazine The American Spectator, referred to the January 23, 1973 as the ‘black anniversary’ – the day that the US Supreme Court legalised abortion on demand – in an article written 37 years later.
Thankfully, we have not reached high levels of political correctness so there is not really an issue about the black anniversaries. But if it ever arises we could start referring to the ‘grey anniversaries’. It would offend nobody and accurately reflect the merciless dullness and high boredom factor of the speeches and events they inspire.
WHAT IS wrong with just honouring those who gave up their lives for their country, fighting the Turks or the coupists? Why do the anniversaries have to be an excuse for the mass production of heroic words that mean nothing, both to those that utter them and their shrinking audiences? Most people just ignore the events nowadays.
Blame AKEL, as it has been exploiting the coup for 36 years much more ruthlessly than an evil multi-national exploits its Third World workers. The only difference is that it has been squeezing political rather than money profit out of its activity.
Its opposition to the coup and the fact that some of its members fought against it, gave the party the right to advertise its alleged political and moral superiority ad nauseam. It presented itself as, among other things, the courageous defender of legality and democracy.
The fanatical supporters of Stalinism and champions of all Europe’s totalitarian regimes, during the Cold War had the opportunity to package themselves as the defenders of Cyprus’ democracy – they seized it and have been boring us with it every July. In fact I am bored writing about it.
NORTH of the green line, the mood is different, and on Tuesday the white anniversary of the invasion would be celebrated with a military parade, to remind our Turkish Cypriot bros of the debt they owe their motherland and of who is actually in charge.
Our bros have been complaining that the Harpoglu pseudo-government was giving pseudo-citizenship to Turkish mainlanders and that they have become a minority in the north. It is estimated that TCs constitute just 40 per cent of the population in the north, which means our bros are once again a minority.
They still have more political power than the mainlanders they snobbishly look down on, but they realise that by the 40th anniversary of the invasion these impoverished, uncouth Anatolian labourers may be running the show. There’s a cause for celebration.
YOU HAD to feel pity for the teenaged American kids, of Greek parentage, who were taken to the palazzo to meet the comrade president on Tuesday, during their visit to island of sun and debilitating humidity.
The poor kids, some 30 of them, were given a full analysis of the Cyprob and the search for a bi-zonal, bicommunal federation with an all-powerful, federal, central government in which the president would have sweeping powers as was the case in the US. He also appealed for the help of his 13- and 14-year old visitors.
“We are facing big difficulties in the talks and we need your help which is why I ask you to become ambassadors of Cyprus in the US.” Can a bunch of teenagers help us overcome the difficulties in the talks now or are we going to wait for them to grow up first? In the absence of asphyxiating time-frames we could probably wait.
This was not the end of the teenagers’ ordeal. After seeing the comrade they were taken to the legislature where they were given another Cyprob lecture by the 2009 personality of the year and House President Marios Garoyian. Subsequent medical tests showed that although the ordeal caused some lethargy and disorientation none of the teenagers suffered any lasting damage.
WE HAVE written in the past about the tax-free income paid to our senior state officials and deputies – a privilege no other citizen enjoys. Last Sunday Simerini printed a list of all the beneficiaries of this blatantly discriminatory state practice as well as the amounts they receive as a ‘representational allowance’.
The average amount, paid to Supreme Court judges, Commissioners and the Attorney-General is 18 grand per year. Deputies receive €22,356 a year plus €8,000 ‘travel allowance’ because they spend a lot of time in their cars touring the country for votes. This total is still less than the president’s aides – government spokesman, under-secretary to the president and presidential commissioner – who receive €33,000 as a non-taxable allowance. If you add the non-taxable income everyone is entitled to, they do not pay tax on €52,000 of their 98 grand annual salary.
This ‘representation allowance’, which is nothing more than legalised tax evasion for the privileged few, is supposed to cover the costs that derive from holding a public post. Deputies claim these costs are real as they have to go to hundreds of weddings and christenings every year and take gifts. Why should the taxpayer pay for gifts designed to get help the re-election of a deputy nobody has explained.
But whose weddings and christenings are the Supreme Court Judges and Attorney General invited to? What representation costs do appointed officials incur that the taxpayer has to fund? I doubt the AG or judges get many invitations for the weddings of people they put behind bars. Do the government spokesman and George Iacovou go to 30 per cent more weddings and christenings than deputies, in order to justify their bigger allowance?
I CAN understand House president Marios Garoyian, getting a higher representation allowance (€28,000) than deputies because he is invited to more weddings, but why is he paid €8,000 travel allowance? The state provides him with a limo and chauffeur that takes him wherever he wants to go.
Collecting a travel allowance, when he does not have any travel expenses could be described as a scam. The arrangement probably pre-dates Marios’ presidency, but it gives him the highest non-taxable income in the country. This could not have happened to nicer windbag.
Another thing revealed by Simerini’s list was that the pay of the assistant AG, Akis Papasavvas is as high as the AG’s and higher than the annual income of the president (€110,000 including representation allowance). On what grounds does an assistant AG get as much money as his boss?
On the grounds he is a friend of the comrade president, who rewards all his chums generously and rusfetologically.
IN A WEEK in which all the comrade’s flunkeys viciously attacked the great leader’s critics for ‘debunking the president, undermining the institution of the presidency and dealing a blow to unity’, it may be worth remembering what Tof used to do when he was in opposition.
When Glafcos Clerides was president, AKEL constantly attacked his handling of the Cyprob talks, which did not promote much unity. It also got a senior counsel at the AG’s office to write vitriolic articles in the party mouthpiece Haravghi, on a weekly basis, heaping abuse at the president, his associates and the AG. His torrents of abuse were 100 times nastier than anything being said about Tof today.
His name – Akis Papasavvas – and he was rewarded for debunking the president and undermining the institution of the presidency, by being appointed deputy AG, on the highest salary paid by the People’s Republic, as soon as the comrade became president.
THE DAY after it was announced that ECOFIN had put the People’s Republic under supervision and had brought forward the date for reducing the budget deficit, to 3 per cent of GDP, by a year – to 2012, the leader of the public parasites union Glafcos Hadjipetrou declared war on everyone.
He attacked deputies for enjoying more privileges than his parasites (they received golden handshake of 200 grand and pension in excess of four grand after 10 years of service whereas a senior parasite was entitled to this pay after 40 years), big landowners, banks and the tax evading businessmen. Only the Turks escaped his righteous rage and the lawfully tax-evading, top-ranked public servants.
Hadjipetrou gathered the bosses of all unions representing public parasites – teachers, soldiers, cops and bank employees – to a Wednesday meeting in order to defend their members’ privileges. They sensed there may be some minor pay cuts now that we had been placed under supervision and decided to resist.
His theme was tax evasion and he claimed that 50,000 public parasites ‘from ministry perm sec to assistant clerical officer’ paid twice as much income tax than 70,000 self-employed and company executives. The possibility that this was because the parasites were earning more money did not occur to him.
When an assistant clerical officer pays income tax (income tax threshold is 19 grand) it means that he is being grossly overpaid for his work.
THE COPS, who also attended Hadjipetrou’s union fiesta on Wednesday, will be staging a protest march to the palazzo on Saturday because the Chief of Police decided to change their daily working hours. All the other unions expressed support to the cops’ association’s demand to have full union rights.
In the dictatorship of the privileged proletariat it is only a question of time before cops are given full union rights. Soon we will not able to report a crime to police committed after 2.45pm because they will have secured the same working hours as the rest of the parasites.
A NEW CONSCRIPT in the National Guard informed his recruiting officer that he did not want to be given a gun because he was a conscientious objector. The officer’s reply said it all. “Only Jehovah’s Witnesses can be conscientious objectors,” he was told. Equality before the law reigns supreme in the People’s Republic.
