Tolerant laws allow spread of graffiti

IN MID-NOVEMBER 2008 you published a letter from me about the increasing prevalence of public graffiti.

My final sentence on the issue was: “if this is not nipped severely in the bud it is a social phenomenon which will bring expense, increasing ugliness, and a great regret for not acting sooner”.

Getting on for six years later we have seen this concern fully justified.

Recently a party of us visited the superb amphitheatre in Tala for a concert.

The place was despoiled by particularly mindless, irresponsible, and ugly blue graffiti with one contemptuous and brazen message reading: “we come at night”.

The Tala mukhtar believes she knows the perpetrators, but CCTV proof is needed. Painting over the ‘art’ is not an option on the stonework and it will be next to impossible to remove.

Nowadays, evidence of this activity in Cyprus is depressingly commonplace and I have yet to see a single report of anyone being found responsible. Is this an example of uncaring (or perhaps helpless) municipalities?

In Singapore, if people are caught, the punishment is caning, a heavy fine, and naming and shaming.

What a pity in some respects that our tolerant laws do not allow us to follow suit. Graffiti is a true blight and reflects so very badly on a Mediterranean island and community widely respected for its historical and artistic culture.

Clive Turner,
Paphos

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.