OUR WISE, erudite and visionary comrade president, we are thrilled to report, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the European University of Cyprus on Wednesday.
We have lost count of the number of honorary doctorates he has been awarded – he is probably running out of wall space for them – but Wednesday’s was of particular significance as it was the first he was ever awarded by a Cyprus university.
WE WOULD be foolish to believe, even for a moment, that the resignation of the head of the secretariat for the EU presidency Andreas Moleskis, was a signal that nepotism was no longer tolerated by our society. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nepotism or rusfeti (to use the local name) remains in rude good health, despite being made a criminal offence, some 10 years ago.
UNIONS SEK, PEO and PASYDY are planning to accept a government proposal for public servants to contribute €70 million to the island’s economic recovery, according to the head of union OIO-SEK yesterday.
In a radio interview, Nicos Tambas confirmed that unions SEK and PEO, as well as public servants’ umbrella union PASYDY, had agreed to accept the government’s proposal in their meeting last Friday. They plan to relay their views during a conference that will take place on Wednesday, with all unions of the broader public sector present.
“The proposal will be put before SEK’s executive committee (tomorrow), where it will be discussed and final decisions will be made,” said Tambas. “But the unions have initially accepted the government’s proposal.”
Opposition MP questions police findings over UEFA claims
THE police have found no evidence to back claims by European football governing body UEFA that four local football matches in 2010 were fixed and now consider the case closed.
On Friday, the police announced that the force had been unable to gather enough evidence to draw up a criminal case.
“From the moment that the file containing UEFA’s claims on fixed football games was handed to the police, towards the end of March 2010, the case was immediately investigated, all the necessary actions were taken, and interrogations and examinations were made; the police did everything they could do within the powers offered by the law,” the police announced.
A TYPICAL household in Cyprus uses three plastic bags a day, translating to a whopping collective use of 660,000 plastic bags island-wide a day, a recent report by Europrism Research states.
Many of these bags end up getting burned – emitting toxic gases – or else causing pollution and destroying marine life for up to twenty years after they are discarded.
Only 51 per cent use multi-purpose cloth bags and many do not know that supermarkets provide alternatives to plastic bags.
Although 70 per cent said they were happy to be charged for plastic bags, the researchers noted that few Cypriots were willing to personally take action to be more environmentally sensitive.
AS USUALLY happens in this country, nobody gave a minute’s thought to the substance of the Andreas Moleskis case. Nobody examined the causes that give rise to such arrogant and provocative behaviour.
This story is not like any that preceded it. It is not the normal case, in which someone uses the power he wields thanks to his senior public post, to ensure that a relative or friend is given a state job. In the Moleskis case, a complex, conspiratorial scheme was set up and put into practice.
YEARS OF unrestrained spending, cheap lending and failure to implement financial reforms left Greece badly exposed when the global economic downturn struck. This whisked away a curtain of partly fiddled statistics to reveal debt levels and deficits that exceeded limits set by the Eurozone. Greece’s credit rating has been downgraded to the lowest in the Eurozone, meaning it will more than likely be viewed as a financial black hole by foreign investors. Greek national debt, put at more than €300 billion, is bigger than the country’s economy, with valid estimates predicting it will reach 125 per cent of gross domestic product in 2011.
THE RECENT increase in the issuing of title deeds is generating a new form of discontent, particularly amongst the expatriate population who find that the money they put aside for this tax inevitably fails to meet the demand of the Lands Office who dream up an inflated value with no scientific or other evidence upon what this is based.
I am proud of the United States of American and I am proud of my service as a Senior Special Agent (Special Agent) with NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), but I am not proud about how Cyprus has been treated by the United States and NASA over its yet to be received four-billion-year-old piece of history, the Cyprus Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock.
In the 1990s as a Special Agent with NASA I led a nine agency federal task force investigation that resulted in the largest count indictment and conviction in NASA history against Omniplan Corporation and six related companies.
There is much controversy over the proposed four-lane dual carriageway which is to be constructed along the Tomb of the Kings road. There appears to be little to commend it and a lot of reasons not to proceed with it.
Why is there a need for a four-lane dual carriageway?
Normally one would agree to upgrade the road for two reasons, firstly and foremostly to alleviate traffic congestion. Yet I have travelled this road for over four years and do not see this as a justification. The second reason would be to cut down the driving time between two locations. As the locations – Paphos to Coral Bay – are quite close, a four-lane dual carriageway would decrease the driving time by only a few minutes, thereby negating the need for such a project.
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.
