A whole raft of problems is affecting this country, and there are conflicting views as to what to do for the best. The root of the problem is that an enormous proportion of Cyprus’ GDP (35% and possibly more) is generated by tourism and hospitality, and the tourists are not coming in any numbers, and are unlikely to do so until the virus dies out, or a vaccine or treatment is proven to work.
This summer season has been a disaster, and the unemployment and hardship felt by the people who work in hospitality is obvious and very distressing. There has been some support for workers who have been laid off, and who have lost their jobs. The Employment Minister fears unemployment will grow rapidly in the autumn, when support and benefits finish - and she was honest enough to say that (with the current state of the economy) the government would not be able to afford to help all those who would become destitute.
Thousands of meals have been prepared by restaurants and bars to try at least give people in need one good meal a day. One café bar in Coral Bay has so far produced over twelve thousand meals for people in that area. How long such volunteer efforts can stem the tide is open to question? Other countries borrow money (or “create” money like the UK) but Cyprus is locked out of the money markets after the “haircut” in 2012/3. The only hope is that financial aid will come from the EU and that will need to be repaid in due course.
There is great pressure on the Cyprus government to open the doors to mass tourism, particularly the British and Russian markets, but this would be an enormous risk. If the virus numbers rose and there was a second lockdown, the economy might implode. Any decision is likely to have dreadful consequences for the people ...
Thursday, 16 July 2020
Saturday, 11 July 2020
What on Earth are you doing?
I could not quite believe my eyes when I saw photographs of the 1st Test between England and the West Indies. All the players were kneeling down, and some of the West Indies’ players were wearing a black glove and raising a clenched fist in what to people of my generation was called the “Black Power Salute”. How many of the England players wanted to kneel down or was this just a new iteration of ‘virtue signalling’? The match was delayed by rain and so we had the edifying spectacle of Sky Sports providing a platform for Michael Holding to lecture people about racism. I was spitting feathers and - despite missing televised cricket - I will not watch a minute of this match or any other when the players “choose” to demonstrate in this way. And reading the comments in The Times there are many other supporters who feel the same.
This summer of protest was set alight by the unlawful killing of a black man by a white policeman in the USA. A tragic event but absolutely nothing to do with the UK. I cannot remember any protests in the USA or any other country when PC Keith Blakelock was murdered in 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riots. Where was the “White Lives Matter” protest then?
In both the USA and UK it has been an excuse for rioting and looting (I wonder how many widescreen televisions were liberated). Of course no sensible person wants to see police brutality or racism in their country. But demanding the removal of Cecil Rhodes’ statue from outside of Oriel College in Oxford was ridiculous in the extreme. I wonder how many black undergraduates who benefited from Rhodes’ Scholarships to Oxford were in agreement?
And then I come to the apparent surrender of the police to mob rule. Policemen and women running away from demonstrators - or even worse, kneeling down in front of them in a show of “solidarity” - which just shows we now have a Police Service instead of a Police Force. Utterly farcical behaviour and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner should be ashamed, and if she does not resign ...
So depressing to watch this from afar, but no doubt far worse if you actually live in the UK, where it would appear to be a crime to be white and educated. And the Main Stream Media ... I cannot bring myself to comment on their bias.
This summer of protest was set alight by the unlawful killing of a black man by a white policeman in the USA. A tragic event but absolutely nothing to do with the UK. I cannot remember any protests in the USA or any other country when PC Keith Blakelock was murdered in 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riots. Where was the “White Lives Matter” protest then?
In both the USA and UK it has been an excuse for rioting and looting (I wonder how many widescreen televisions were liberated). Of course no sensible person wants to see police brutality or racism in their country. But demanding the removal of Cecil Rhodes’ statue from outside of Oriel College in Oxford was ridiculous in the extreme. I wonder how many black undergraduates who benefited from Rhodes’ Scholarships to Oxford were in agreement?
And then I come to the apparent surrender of the police to mob rule. Policemen and women running away from demonstrators - or even worse, kneeling down in front of them in a show of “solidarity” - which just shows we now have a Police Service instead of a Police Force. Utterly farcical behaviour and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner should be ashamed, and if she does not resign ...
So depressing to watch this from afar, but no doubt far worse if you actually live in the UK, where it would appear to be a crime to be white and educated. And the Main Stream Media ... I cannot bring myself to comment on their bias.
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
Four years ago today ...
On this day, four years ago, I posted the following on Facebook and still believe what I wrote was prescient.
What a day ... and what a surprise ... and what a disaster. It appears that the "have nots" (who unsurprisingly do not like the status quo) have decided to stick it to the establishment.
In the end everyone will suffer, as the economy and the pound takes a battering for who knows how long. The shockwaves will be felt long after this earthquake, and only then will the disadvantaged find that they have slit their own throats.
It is without doubt that the poor will get poorer, as benefits are slashed and wages do not rise. There will still be as many immigrants in the country next year and in the future, and so few seem to realise that most western European countries need immigrants to come and work, and pay taxes, and spend money because there are not enough young people to pay for the ever-increasing cost of benefits, pensions and the whole of the Welfare State.
It is already too late to say "I told you so" and I would love to be proved wrong but ... the British people will be reaping what they have sown for generations to come. As far as self-inflicted wounds go, this is historical.
Of course, that was written without knowing that Coronavirus would strike the world, and send economies into a recession and slowly but surely a severe depression that no one could imagine. I fear for Britain as the way in which the economic disaster has been handled has been little short of disastrous. The “furlough” scheme was (and at the most enormous expense) a way in which the inevitable landslide of redundancies and massive unemployment was delayed for a few months.
Already the financial press is reporting companies both large and small are gearing up to make staff redundant as the partial cost of “furloughing” is to be paid by them. By October the scheme ends and I dread to think how much it will have cost the country (in borrowed billions) and how many millions will be thrown to the cold embrace of universal credit. The austerity of the past decade will pale into insignificance as the Welfare State is cut, and with the inevitable increase in taxation, there will be unbelievable poverty across the land.
Surely it would have been better to have bitten the bullet, accepted there was going to be a massive downturn and subsequent unemployment, and used the money that has been borrowed and “created” (good old Quantitative Easing) to retrain the workforce and perhaps indulge in a little Keynesian economics. It seems a long time since my ‘A’ level Economics (1969) but borrowing to delay inevitable unemployment is surely as economically illiterate as borrowing to pay back a loan. Utter lunacy.
In fact a combination of coronavirus and Brexit will sink the country. And it is not too late to extend the transition period and even rejoin the EU. But, of course, the present cabinet - surely the least intelligent and most incompetent in British history - will not admit they were wrong and change course. And so H.M.S. Great Britain will steam ahead even though the rocks ahead are visible.
What a day ... and what a surprise ... and what a disaster. It appears that the "have nots" (who unsurprisingly do not like the status quo) have decided to stick it to the establishment.
In the end everyone will suffer, as the economy and the pound takes a battering for who knows how long. The shockwaves will be felt long after this earthquake, and only then will the disadvantaged find that they have slit their own throats.
It is without doubt that the poor will get poorer, as benefits are slashed and wages do not rise. There will still be as many immigrants in the country next year and in the future, and so few seem to realise that most western European countries need immigrants to come and work, and pay taxes, and spend money because there are not enough young people to pay for the ever-increasing cost of benefits, pensions and the whole of the Welfare State.
It is already too late to say "I told you so" and I would love to be proved wrong but ... the British people will be reaping what they have sown for generations to come. As far as self-inflicted wounds go, this is historical.
Of course, that was written without knowing that Coronavirus would strike the world, and send economies into a recession and slowly but surely a severe depression that no one could imagine. I fear for Britain as the way in which the economic disaster has been handled has been little short of disastrous. The “furlough” scheme was (and at the most enormous expense) a way in which the inevitable landslide of redundancies and massive unemployment was delayed for a few months.
Already the financial press is reporting companies both large and small are gearing up to make staff redundant as the partial cost of “furloughing” is to be paid by them. By October the scheme ends and I dread to think how much it will have cost the country (in borrowed billions) and how many millions will be thrown to the cold embrace of universal credit. The austerity of the past decade will pale into insignificance as the Welfare State is cut, and with the inevitable increase in taxation, there will be unbelievable poverty across the land.
Surely it would have been better to have bitten the bullet, accepted there was going to be a massive downturn and subsequent unemployment, and used the money that has been borrowed and “created” (good old Quantitative Easing) to retrain the workforce and perhaps indulge in a little Keynesian economics. It seems a long time since my ‘A’ level Economics (1969) but borrowing to delay inevitable unemployment is surely as economically illiterate as borrowing to pay back a loan. Utter lunacy.
In fact a combination of coronavirus and Brexit will sink the country. And it is not too late to extend the transition period and even rejoin the EU. But, of course, the present cabinet - surely the least intelligent and most incompetent in British history - will not admit they were wrong and change course. And so H.M.S. Great Britain will steam ahead even though the rocks ahead are visible.
Monday, 15 June 2020
An “open relationship” is proposed by Ann ...
Strange times at Castle Douglas, when my darling wife proposed that we begin an “open relationship” ... PAUSE FOR BREATH ... when we play Online Monopoly on our iPads. We play Monopoly with each other but then I discovered you could play online with strangers. How exciting is that? But is it disloyal? No longer it would seem.
Playing online games does help to take our minds off the disaster that is unfolding in the UK with the Black Lives Matter. Weak and ineffectual policing, lack of dynamic political leadership, and people who have been locked away for weeks and weeks ... a recipe for rioting (and no doubt looting in due course) and public disorder. The focus on statues and their links to slavery is absurd. Unless you live in the dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984, history cannot be changed.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Those rioting probably do not realise that, due to the campaigning of William Wilberforce, slavery was banned across the British Empire. Enforcement took twenty-five years and was achieved with a loss of the lives of 17,000 British sailors.
Cyprus again is gradually easing their lockdown and it appears to all intents and purposes that complacency has set in. Social distancing seems to be completely ignored, masks and gloves are no longer evident, and it is as if the virus has never existed. Tourist flights are slowly beginning again and the hospitality industry is hoping and praying to rescue something from this holiday season. Whether, as I suspect, this will lead to an explosion of the virus - only time will tell. But if it does, then the last three months will have been for nothing.
All we can do is cross our fingers.
Playing online games does help to take our minds off the disaster that is unfolding in the UK with the Black Lives Matter. Weak and ineffectual policing, lack of dynamic political leadership, and people who have been locked away for weeks and weeks ... a recipe for rioting (and no doubt looting in due course) and public disorder. The focus on statues and their links to slavery is absurd. Unless you live in the dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984, history cannot be changed.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Those rioting probably do not realise that, due to the campaigning of William Wilberforce, slavery was banned across the British Empire. Enforcement took twenty-five years and was achieved with a loss of the lives of 17,000 British sailors.
Cyprus again is gradually easing their lockdown and it appears to all intents and purposes that complacency has set in. Social distancing seems to be completely ignored, masks and gloves are no longer evident, and it is as if the virus has never existed. Tourist flights are slowly beginning again and the hospitality industry is hoping and praying to rescue something from this holiday season. Whether, as I suspect, this will lead to an explosion of the virus - only time will tell. But if it does, then the last three months will have been for nothing.
All we can do is cross our fingers.
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Yes, Prime Minister?
Ye Gods! I thought I had seen it all until Boris Johnson’s appearance in front of the Parliamentary Liaison Committee yesterday. It was a combination of a master class in obfuscation, combined with an incredible ignorance - rather like the schoolboy who has not done his learning homework. Ann and I watched with some anger and incredulity at his “performance”, his lack of preparation and his inarticulacy.
It was apparent that - looking at his dead eyes - his illness had knocked all the stuffing out of him. He could neither concentrate nor “think on his feet”. It would be a kindness for him to step down for six months or as long as it takes for him to recover fully. No doubt Michael Gove is in the wings with his stiletto poised.
We decided to have a hand rail installed by the side of our Roman steps that lead into the pool. Bearing in mind Winston Churchill and his “ACTION THIS DAY” approach I went to the local pool shop to talk to Andreas. He showed me the hand rail he sells, and I took photographs for Ann to look at. This morning we went back to the shop for Ann to see the hand rail in real life. Three hours later Andreas arrived to fit them. Not cheap but really worthwhile.
We broke cover for the first time in months on Monday. Ann had her long-awaited appointment (and my goodness what a fabulous cut) with her hairdresser, and afterwards we were driving home along the coast road and I suggested stopping for a cheeky pint. Very cool in the pub garden, with a gentle breeze, and my first taste of Old Speckled Hen in three months. A very pleasant afternoon, with a chat to the landlord who talked about his hopes and fears for the near future. Fingers crossed ...
It was apparent that - looking at his dead eyes - his illness had knocked all the stuffing out of him. He could neither concentrate nor “think on his feet”. It would be a kindness for him to step down for six months or as long as it takes for him to recover fully. No doubt Michael Gove is in the wings with his stiletto poised.
We decided to have a hand rail installed by the side of our Roman steps that lead into the pool. Bearing in mind Winston Churchill and his “ACTION THIS DAY” approach I went to the local pool shop to talk to Andreas. He showed me the hand rail he sells, and I took photographs for Ann to look at. This morning we went back to the shop for Ann to see the hand rail in real life. Three hours later Andreas arrived to fit them. Not cheap but really worthwhile.
We broke cover for the first time in months on Monday. Ann had her long-awaited appointment (and my goodness what a fabulous cut) with her hairdresser, and afterwards we were driving home along the coast road and I suggested stopping for a cheeky pint. Very cool in the pub garden, with a gentle breeze, and my first taste of Old Speckled Hen in three months. A very pleasant afternoon, with a chat to the landlord who talked about his hopes and fears for the near future. Fingers crossed ...
Wednesday, 20 May 2020
A nasty scare ...
Last Thursday morning I woke up with a very sore throat. It became steadily worse and I reached for my grandmother’s remedy of gargling warm salty water. This didn’t improve the situation and so we went down to the local pharmacy to buy some industrial-strength gargling solution and some painkillers. I was finding it very difficult to swallow and I couldn’t eat even the softest of food.
Friday and I felt as if my tongue had swollen, and I had swallowed broken glass. It’s not in our DNA to rush off to the doctors and so I soldiered on. Sleep was impossible as my mouth filled with saliva, which I could not swallow.
By Saturday I needed some help so we rang the medical centre where my GP is based and were told to come over at ten o’clock. It was empty and the young Dr Maria (as opposed to the older Dr Maria) was there. She questioned and examined me and thought it must be a throat infection of some sort and proposed antibiotics ... but being a junior doctor she telephoned my GP who insisted I saw an ENT consultant.
Being a Saturday this was a problem and each of the GESY ENT specialists was not working. So with a referral we headed off to Paphos General Hospital (having made arrangements for our lovely dog-sitter to come and look after Daisy). When we arrived the Emergency Department it was like an armed camp and I thought at one stage that Ann was going to end up having a firm and frank exchange of views with the triage nurse.
But I was registered and spent the next couple of hours waiting to be seen. A very pleasant young doctor took me off to be examined and said he thought I had a kidney infection, and so I was put on oxygen, a drip and had a very large injection in the backside. An hour later, and there was a change of shift, and a female doctor came to enquire whether the pain in my kidneys had subsided. When I explained that I had not been in pain there, she told me there was no ENT consultant on call.
Shortly afterwards she announced there was a consultant in Limassol on call and he might come out at some time. She also suggested that I might have to be admitted as she did not know when he would arrive. Ann and I decided she would drive home and we would see what we would see. Off she went and ten minutes later a young ENT consultant arrived who had driven from Limassol and really enjoyed the ride on his big motor bike.
He examined me and shoved a camera down my throat to make sure there was no abscess. There wasn’t and he announced he could see the infection. So a prescription for antibiotics, steroids and a magic spray for the pain in my throat was handed over. I rang Ann who was not really up for driving back to Paphos and so she arranged a horrendously expensive taxi to pick me up.
Too late to get the prescription filled we waited until Sunday and off she went to get the stuff I needed. The magic spray worked wonders and I was able to take the antibiotics and the steroid straight away. With more of the magic spray I started to rehydrate and take some food.
By Monday morning I had managed some upright sleep and by the afternoon I was feeling much better. Food and drink are a marvellous restorative, and I slept well on Monday night. By Tuesday I was as right as rain, although tired, and we both managed to talk about the fears we both had that I had caught the dreaded virus - which I hadn’t. A frightening time but “all’s well that ends well”. Keep safe everybody.
Friday and I felt as if my tongue had swollen, and I had swallowed broken glass. It’s not in our DNA to rush off to the doctors and so I soldiered on. Sleep was impossible as my mouth filled with saliva, which I could not swallow.
By Saturday I needed some help so we rang the medical centre where my GP is based and were told to come over at ten o’clock. It was empty and the young Dr Maria (as opposed to the older Dr Maria) was there. She questioned and examined me and thought it must be a throat infection of some sort and proposed antibiotics ... but being a junior doctor she telephoned my GP who insisted I saw an ENT consultant.
Being a Saturday this was a problem and each of the GESY ENT specialists was not working. So with a referral we headed off to Paphos General Hospital (having made arrangements for our lovely dog-sitter to come and look after Daisy). When we arrived the Emergency Department it was like an armed camp and I thought at one stage that Ann was going to end up having a firm and frank exchange of views with the triage nurse.
But I was registered and spent the next couple of hours waiting to be seen. A very pleasant young doctor took me off to be examined and said he thought I had a kidney infection, and so I was put on oxygen, a drip and had a very large injection in the backside. An hour later, and there was a change of shift, and a female doctor came to enquire whether the pain in my kidneys had subsided. When I explained that I had not been in pain there, she told me there was no ENT consultant on call.
Shortly afterwards she announced there was a consultant in Limassol on call and he might come out at some time. She also suggested that I might have to be admitted as she did not know when he would arrive. Ann and I decided she would drive home and we would see what we would see. Off she went and ten minutes later a young ENT consultant arrived who had driven from Limassol and really enjoyed the ride on his big motor bike.
He examined me and shoved a camera down my throat to make sure there was no abscess. There wasn’t and he announced he could see the infection. So a prescription for antibiotics, steroids and a magic spray for the pain in my throat was handed over. I rang Ann who was not really up for driving back to Paphos and so she arranged a horrendously expensive taxi to pick me up.
Too late to get the prescription filled we waited until Sunday and off she went to get the stuff I needed. The magic spray worked wonders and I was able to take the antibiotics and the steroid straight away. With more of the magic spray I started to rehydrate and take some food.
By Monday morning I had managed some upright sleep and by the afternoon I was feeling much better. Food and drink are a marvellous restorative, and I slept well on Monday night. By Tuesday I was as right as rain, although tired, and we both managed to talk about the fears we both had that I had caught the dreaded virus - which I hadn’t. A frightening time but “all’s well that ends well”. Keep safe everybody.
Friday, 8 May 2020
Waste not, want not ...
Some weeks ago, at about the beginning of our period of self-isolation, we looked at the amount of food that we were wasting. A Shepherd’s Pie would be eaten one evening, and then put into the fridge, with a view to eating the remainder at some time in the near future. Inevitably other meals were cooked and the remainder of the Shepherd’s Pie would be thrown away.
And so we decided we would not waste food (whilst so many people in Cyprus were relying on food banks) and a new deal surfaced. The remains of evening meals were combined with other bits and pieces, and the end result was some lovely and unexpected combinations. Half a tin of baked beans (left over from breakfast) would be combined with a pasta sauce (I always make too much) and reheated with Basmati rice, and a couple of boiled onions. Delicious.
We won’t solve the world’s food shortage but it does mean that what we buy is what we use. Money saved has been used to furnish basic food supplies for a local group who provide hot meals for people in the area who have fallen on very hard times due to the pandemic. Our lovely local kiosk (a sort of mini-market) put the food supplies together and delivered them to the collection point at the bowling alley (I know) and all we needed to do was pay them by card. Interestingly they refuse money and only accept food and other necessary items. So total transparency and no “what happened to the money I donated?” questions.
It is eight weeks since we decided to self-isolate and the slight easing of restrictions by the government will be welcome. Slowly, slowly ...
A cloudy day today and then what looks like sunshine and blue skies going on and on, according to the weather forecast. Ann and I are celebrating a joint birthday on May 12th (I unilaterally moved my birthday to May this year as it was too cold and wet at the end of February) I suppose in future years I could have a birthday and then an official birthday (rather like the Queen). Now there’s a thought.
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