Why’s doesn’t the Archbishop talk about the virtues of moderation, honesty, justice and equality?

I refer to Andreas Chrysafis’ letter Sunday Mail July 28 congratulating the Archbishop for ‘speaking out’ against international lenders.

I am more than surprised every time I see outcries against the EU, the IMF and the ECB aka troika. Is my memory faulty or was the scenario as follows: For a long time now we have lived beyond our means. We live in big houses that ordinary people in the EU could not afford, we have in front of these houses multiple cars, we eat out fairly often, in general we are also wasteful with most resources: food, energy. The banks loaned money to developers that kept building without having the necessary assets to cover the loans. (or worse the assets already belonged to buyers who never saw their title deeds.)

Tax collection was haphazard and could often be bypassed if you had ‘ta mesa’.

So the state coffers were empty, but no problem the state borrowed. And borrowed and borrowed until those we borrowed from started demanding money back. We turned to Russia. Sure these friends would lend us some? Yes a little, not enough. So we turned to China but they are too cautious, so alas no deal.

Then not so long ago money was so tight that our precious civil servants could not be paid anymore, our old folks could not receive their pensions (for which they had contributed all their working lives). So what to do? In desperation we turned to troika, invited them in and now we blame them. They will give us money but they put conditions. The ‘evil troika’ wants to make sure that we pay them back!

I do agree that the ‘poor’ people of Cyprus have been betrayed by their own government, the crooked banks, and a corrupt self serving system. But the Archbishop should have spoken out a lot earlier and a lot firmer about the virtues of moderation, honesty, justice and equality.

Marion Pnevmatikou, Ayios Tychonas.