Cricket without the crowds ...

 Now that cricketers have stopped all the Black Lives Matter nonsense (at least the England and Australia teams have) I decided to watch the one-day international match on Thursday. It was good to get televised sport again - given our month-long exile from the internet - but what a strange experience. You could hear the gentle hum of conversation from the crowd, but there was no crowd.

I am watching another match this afternoon from a deserted Old Trafford and, in the background (ever so faintly) I could hear the gentle rhythm of a steel band. Someone at Sky was playing the wrong background noise. It made me appreciate how much live sport (when watched on television) relies on the atmosphere generated by the crowd.

Back on Fantasy Island (as I now think of the UK) and the dear old government have indeed lost the plot with both Brexit and the Covid-19 crisis. They are ruling by ministerial diktat without the Commons being allowed to participate. Ten million tests a day (compulsory, perhaps) and digital passports which will allow people to return to work, and be monitored all the time. I can just imagine a Covid Marshall (think John Wayne in a hi-vis jacket) confronting people and “Let me see your papers”.

A totalitarian nightmare awaits without a return to the Rule of Law and government by consent.

“Bye, Bye, Cyta, Goodbye”

 Well after eight years with Cyprus’ national telecoms company, it was time to say goodbye. Weeks and weeks have gone by and we have been fobbed off, lied to and ignored - and all the time they were collecting our direct debits. I pointed out to them that we had a contract with them. It was simple ... they connected us to the internet and we paid them. Well no more.

I contacted a local firm, highly recommended, and within a day they arrived, sorted out WiFi internet (a very steady 35 Mb download speed) and were done and dusted within an hour.  Cyta ironically emailed us to say that they “may” be able to get a team out to us next week, and once service was restored, they would investigate my complaint.

That was the final straw. The only problem we have is that our tv provider needs to fiddle about in Switzerland so that we can stream our programmes.

News from the UK amused us today with the announcement that “Covid Marshall” would patrol the streets to disperse groups of more than six people. They will have no powers of arrest, no powers to fine people and you can just imagine the indignation of people as yet another version of “Plastic Policemen” stride amongst them ...

Jesus wept ...

Bloody Cyta

 After twenty days we still have no internet, thanks to Cyta. Looking at alternatives tomorrow and shall be back online soon.

Dreams and nightmares ...

 What a strange and uncertain world we live in - even in the glorious isolation of a Cyprus summer. We still self-isolate, although we occasionally leave the bubble for a change of scenery. I belong to an expat online forum, where information and opinion is shared, and where the vast majority of members are sensible and thoughtful - with exceptions. Many of the members are retired and came to the island “to live the dream”, and quite a number are thoroughly frightened by the virus. It is the invisible nature of the beast which makes it so frightening.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 87 years ago, put his finger on the problem.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Never were words so apt in their wisdom.

We dream of a future where the virus is under control (through vaccines or treatment) but the nightmare continues with every article in the MSM. Conspiracy theorists arise and the volume of fake news, or even worse - where opinion is published as fact - confounds even the most thoughtful. It gets to the point when you literally do not know what is factual.

We are grateful to live here as I would hate living in the country I was born in, under a government I detest. So we hope that dreams become the reality and the nightmares are cast into the outer darkness.

Losing the internet ...

We have been offline since 23rd July and were finally reconnected yesterday. Cyta, our service provider - with whom we have been happy for years - did not cover themselves with glory on this occasion. An engineer arrived the next day and proclaimed that the “internet was not working”, and that the “Underground Team” would need to resolve the problem. They worked on Saturdays (this was Friday) but might not be able to attend until Monday. Monday came and went, but no internet.

This was when I had one of my many calls to 132, their technical helpline. Each day I was told something different but the outcome was always the same - no internet. Eventually I went down to the Cyta shop in Polis and spoke to the lovely Leonides, who tried to contact the “Underground Team”. They did not answer. He phoned someone else in Paphos and - lo and behold - the “Underground Team” telephoned him. They would come and sort out the problem on Friday (this was Thursday). On Friday some called and told me, apologetically, the “Underground Team” could not repair the problem but would return on Monday to replace the cable.

Eventually two guys arrived and opened up the box on the side of our house, pulled out a bit of cable and spliced in a new piece. It took them two minutes. Not for one second did they go underground ... he then showed me the damaged cable and told me it had been chewed by a mouse. We checked and all was working. Off they went with my thanks.

To add insult to injury we checked our bank account online to find out that Cyta had called the direct debit for the full amount, despite the fact that we had had no internet for twelve days. No doubt another conversation is called for.

We love living here but every now and again we despair about things like this. It also showed us how essential the internet is - no radio, no television, no music, no email, no online newspapers, and no “I’ll just check that recipe”.

Poor Cyprus

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 ...

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.