Refugees of both sides paying the price of political demagoguery

2010-11-21

I would like to refer to Emilios Lemonaris’ succinct and pragmatic ‘Comment’ entitled, ‘The animal’s mine and I have the paper to prove it.’  The article highlights the Greek Cypriot leadership’s assertion at the intercommunal talks that the wishes of the owners should take precedence over those who are actually residing in them. Whether the Greek Cypriot ‘side’ likes it or not, The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that with the passage of time, the occupiers of property have rights too.

Tens of thousands of property buyers are happy

2010-11-21

What a real pleasure it was to read Neil Kennedy’s letter (Sunday Mail November 14) taking the doom-mongering Alan Waring to task.

Of course there have been appalling instances of exceptionally poor and dishonest behaviour by some developers and confidence tricksters – and the Government has done all too little to bring these people to book and to clean up the property scene once and for all.

Disgusted with unsupervised school kids

2010-11-21

I must say never, ever did I think that I would have been attacked by young children in Cyprus and especially in the lovely village of Omodhos, a place my husband and I visit over and over again.

We made a stopover using the public toilets in the village on November 4 at 11-45am with the  intention of visiting the village.

There was a school out for the morning and they were making a great deal of noise but that didn’t bother me until I went to use the toilet. There were two girls of around nine or ten years olds standing at the basins. As I walked in one thrust a toy in my face and when I then came out to wash my hands both set about me – one from the front and the other from behind.

Sterilisation is the only solution to animal welfare in Cyprus

2010-11-21

I would like to respond to the letter Sunday Mail November 7 headed ‘Feral cats may look cute but they can be serious health hazard’

The writer asks the public not to put food down in the streets for wild cats but to take them to their home and feed them. To get a feral cat into your home would be impossible.  From birth if they have no contact with humans they will remain feral for the rest of their lives. The feral cats who live in the hills of the countryside will live and survive their lives out there without the need for humans, unlike dogs who cannot survive on their own.

Politicians vow to seek pensions system overhaul

2010-11-21

LEADING DIKO and DISY politicians yesterday declared they would seek to stop the second and sometimes third pensions awarded to retired civil servants even if it cost them valuable votes in next May’s parliamentary elections.

DISY deputy chairman Averof Neophytou and DIKO vice president Nicolas Papadopoulos declared that an important part of the much needed overhaul of the pensions system entails taking decisions on the distortion between private and public sector pensions.

“The economy can’t wait just because there are elections,” said Papadopoulos.

“One of the chapters that needs structural measures is the pensions’ scheme and one of the matters that concerns us the most is the double and treble pensions.”

Tales from the Coffeeshop: Back to the playground, boys

2010-11-21

YOU HAD to laugh seeing the film footage of the glum-looking mukhtars of the two communities standing either side of Ban Ki-moon, staring into the void, as he read his statement straight after the meeting at UN headquarters.

They looked like two naughty schoolboys being told off in front of the classroom by the benevolent headmaster whose patience was at breaking point, but was giving them one last chance to mend their ways.

our View: Time to lance the boil of burgeoning neo-fascism

2010-11-21

TWENTY per cent of the population living in the Cyprus Republic is foreign, according to interior ministry estimates. Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said there were currently 66,000 non-EU nationals working legally in Cyprus and some 34,000 illegal immigrants; there were also 97,645 workers from EU countries registered with the state.

Credit rating cut may not be the last

2010-11-21

CYPRUS may expect further sovereign credit rating cuts in the future as the lack of tangible signs of progress in negotiations over possible fiscal consolidation measures causes uncertainty, according to economist Alexandros Apostolides.

“Markets are afraid of uncertainty. As long as things are being discussed and problems are not solved, things get worst,” said Apostolides who teaches economics at the European University of Cyprus. “If we do not take dynamic action now we will face more downgrades.”

Elenion School could house new natural history museum

2010-11-21

THE ELENION Primary School in Nicosia could become the island’s first natural history museum, housing dinosaur and fossil relics being donated by a private collector.

The collector, Angelos Tsirides, who said he would only give over the relics to the state if a building was found to exhibit them, said yesterday: “We’re still evaluating the situation but the Elenion school is an option.”

House President addresses Children’s Parliament

2010-11-21

HOUSE President Marios Garoyian yesterday welcomed the convening of the Children’s Parliament, marking the beginning of this year’s Children’s Week.

“The Children’s Parliament is an opportunity for young people to make a substantive intervention in social and political structures and to raise those issues that concern them, in an attempt to shape a better future for them,” Garoyian told his young audience of students.

He said that young people have both opinions and vision and that the Children’s Parliament has been established as an institution which can highlight the concerns and demands of the younger generation.

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.