Sir,
I was very amused by Patroclos’ article ‘Perdikis for the Nobel Prize’. I am sorry I didn’t write to tell you earlier but I have been very busy campaigning for the Green Party. Yes, I am one of their candidates! I was genuinely tickled by the bit about the Coffeeshop Lunatic Monitoring Service receiving 10 calls over the last three years expressing the public’s concern that the Tree Huggers’ MP was a bit of a loony. In very few words he conjures up the nuances of the some of the public’s attitude to the Green Party, and likewise evokes with acute understanding and brevity the café society’s deepest concerns of showing off their Gucci sunglasses.
At the same time the vitriol of Patroclos’ humour highlights the real fear the public has of the mysterious and uncontrollable origins of cancer. Real humour, humour that works, should always work on a weak spot in our psyches. Your succinct and pithy satire has brought the Map of Death to book. I would like to account for it.
The Map of Death was issued for a purpose and that was to bring the pressure of public opinion to bear on the government, on the Minister of Health. The publication of the studies regarding the cancer clusters in Lakatamia, Akrotiri and the two Troodos mountain villages near the asbestos mine, have been delayed for over a year. The University of Bristol study on the radiation from the British Bases’ antennas affecting Akrotiri and Asomatos is in fact published on its website, but the Ministry of Health has not yet informed those directly affected nor the public here in Cyprus. The kind of public pressure that was hailed as disappointing and populist and much more in the press is necessary in cases as important and distressing as these are. And the pressure is already working.
George Perdikis met with the Minister of Health on Monday the 18th, two weeks after the publication of the Map of Death on UN world day of health action, April 7. Up until this point, the Minister of Health had not declared a date for releasing the studies. Subsequent to the pressure applied by the Green Party we now have dates. The Lakatamia study will be released in the beginning of May and the Troodos study will be released in the beginning of June. The Akrotiri study has been deemed political and must be passed through the Cabinet for approval of a date to release the study. In the meantime, those concerned could Google University of Bristol. Of course the Minister says that these release dates were in the Ministry programme and are not due to the Green Party pressure. But ask yourself why the timing for announcing the studies and why on April 13, a week after the Map of Death publication, the Minister met with the Lakatamia Council. There he gave only a brief account of the study’s results, not a full account; however it is quite obvious that the pressure the Greens have applied has done the job intended.
Also, when the Greens pressed the matter of the 52 other cancer clusters areas that are awaiting epidemiological studies, and demanded that the government proceed ASAP, the Minister replied that in future he would respond more quickly to the public’s concern.
The Greens also asked for more staff for the Environmental Health Survey department to expedite the epidemiological studies but were told that due to economic harmonization procedures prior to going into the eurozone the government was not allowed to take on additional employees and expenses at this time.
I visited one of the communities out here in Paphos with a serious cluster of cancer. The people felt the cancer was caused by an exposed high voltage transformer placed in the neighbourhood only metres away from the houses. Not one family in the area had escaped cancer. There were over 20 cases mentioned in one small neighbourhood. The electricity authorities deny that there is a link. The causal factors are no doubt complex and none of us could say for certain that the high voltage installation caused the many cases of cancer. However, the electricity authorities have agreed to move the transformer after Professor Tree Hugger and a few of us Greens brought the press around to cover a little demonstration. So it seems that charlatan Greens highlighting public suspicion is not so lunatic after all.
Nancy Hocking Nigogossian
Green Party candidate for the House of Representatives for Paphos
