THIS YEAR’S April Fool’s Day stories in the press on Sunday focused on hypothetical money lost and gained, underwater cities and silly solutions to serious problems.
Daily Politis said the state wasted €200,000 after a presidential decision to block a series of stamps celebrating the discovery of natural gas.
One of the stamps shows energy chief Solon Kassinis and the recently sacked Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou.
But government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said they needed to ensure “that everyone who contributed in this effort is honoured”.
The first Cypriot stepping on the drilling platform “was President Christofias, the second was me and the third was [current commerce minister] Neoclis Sylikiotis,” Stefanou said adding it was “at the very least unfortunate” postal services only chose to show Antoniadou and Kassinis.
Newspapers Simerini and Alithia said there would be huge investments in Cyprus and since it was only an April fool’s story, they went for billions: €7.3 billion in Alithia and €7.6 billion in Simerini.
Simerini said that Apple was interested in investing, a decision made by their head, Steve Jobs, before his death. “Cyprus’ company tax played a key role in the decision,” the daily said, a nod to the state’s efforts to maintain independence over company tax so that it can attract investors.
The stories come after months of speculation over potential private investors from Israel, China and Russia, among others.
Haravghi steered clear of the economy, talking instead of an amazing discovery of an ancient city at the bottom of the sea just two nautical miles off Larnaca’s shore.
The Cyprus Mail, meanwhile, invented two products: halloumi-proper and ‘I can’t believe it’s not halloumi’ as a compromise over a disagreement among sheep and goat farmers, and cattle farmers on the recipe for halloumi, and how much sheep and goat milk it should have.
The Cyprus Mail came up with two kinds of the cheese, one to carry the traditional name and another to be marketed as ‘I can’t believe it’s not halloumi,’ ‘Cheese You can Fry’ for the US markets or perhaps ‘Cheese You can stir-fry’ for the Chinese market.
A pontificating agriculture ministry source said marketing as halloumi the one with more goat and sheep’s milk would be tricky as ‘Ye Olde Sheep’s Cheese’ sounded unappetising. So cow’s milk halloumi could be marketed as ‘I can’t believe it’s not halloumi,’ the source said.
