Caritas 2014

http://caritascyprus.com/

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Brand-y sour

It’s a cynical move when private companies in Cyprus play the charity card to increase sales.

One particular market “leader” in baby food products has a long-standing tradition, now in its 7th year, of donating 1,000 euro to the parents of the first New Year baby born in Cyprus.  With the obligatory photo shoot of a grinning suit handing over a cheque to a grateful post-natal mum in front of a big company sign, just in case we forget who the daddy is. 

Guess which brand of baby food that mum is buying for the next year.  The company will recover their 1,000 euro toot sweet.  One of their products is on one popular shopping website at US$292.94 for 3 tins (about 215 euro).  Ouch, get me an epidural. 

Footsteps chooses not to name this company as we think it’s already had enough publicity as it is, but it’s easily searchable if anyone can be bothered.  One Cyprus newspaper today devoted a lengthy three-quarter page article to the company’s illustrious achievements, awards, educational projects, scientific studies, blah blah .... Not even the front page splash got that much word space.  And the paper did it all for free too?  How generous of them in these cash-strapped times.  Or did the company's media manager pay a substantial "donation" for a flattering feature article – otherwise known as an advertorial – in which case the ed. should have made that clear.  We wouldn’t want to think our press shows market bias, would we? 

sick as a parrot I didn't get free advertising

Why is the first baby of January so special?  It's not, it's just a pawn to embed in the public consciousness the company’s nice guy image for the year ahead.  What about the poor tot who straggles in at 00:00 on the 31st, the unlucky slow coach.  Do you still “win” if the birth is induced after midnight or is that cheating?  What about C-sections?  Their timing can be pre-arranged. What happens if there are two or more “firsts” – babies born in different hospitals at exactly the same time – do the nice company men toss a coin, or shell out two grand or more, one to each family?  Are maternity wards on New Year’s Eve, err, heaving with competitive parents, urging their unborn babies to get on with it and pop?  Must be a scream.

We are not casting aspersions on the qualitative standards or success claims of this company.  After all, any brand needs some kind of winning formula (ahem) in order to get the edge over their competitors.  But trying to buy off consumers (and the press) with a thinly veiled kindness stunt, pur-leeze.  Almost as bad as politicians kissing babies.   

the health minister said:  "it hurts"

The retail prices of pharmaceutical products in Cyprus are the 6th most expensive in Europe, Peter Stevenson tells us.  Despite this, Cypriot pharmacies’ profits remain low.  There are too many of them.  In the south, there are 486 pharmacies for a tiny population of about 839,000 (2011 census), i.e. every pharmacy has an average customer pool of about 1,700 people.  Microscopic compared to other European countries, e.g. Denmark, where there are 17,000 customers per pharmacy.  No wonder this country’s broke. 

When is health minister Dr. Petros Petrides going to pull his finger out and start regulating the pharma industry in Cyprus?  He’s been in office since March last year - plenty of time to go into labour. 

Jelly babies. 

And all their works they do for to be seen of men.  For they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes.  

– Gospel of St. Matthew 23:5 (DR)

A storm in a teacup

Students and parents’ associations are up in arms about having to pay bus fares in Cyprus, the CM reports.

Poor diddums. 

Up until yesterday, local buses, for which the standard full fare is a whopping 1 euro per journey, were totally free for all kids with student ID cards.  The changes were introduced by the previous government (Comrade Dmitry Cristovitch) but not brought into effect until now. 

The new student bus pass costing – shock! – a whole 15 euro per month is valid on designated school routes, while families on state benefits and primary school pupils are exempt.  Students on non-designated routes can get an unlimited monthly pass for 20 euro. 

In protest against this exorbitant “Troika-inspired levy”, secondary school students nationwide are being encouraged to bunk off one classroom period this Thursday, according to the Pupils’ Coordinating Committee (PSEM). 

So that they can spend their bus money in McDonald's and TGI Friday’s instead.  Teachers willl get a nice break too (paid).  The kids still have to get school (by bus) in order to protest...

The Green Vegetable Party argues that the new legislation discourages the use of public buses - wrong, they say, because “many long-term studies” have proven that the systematic use of public transport by students “enhances their social skills and collective outlook”. 

As exemplified by adult Cypriots with 4 cars per household.  Also known for their multi-cultural social awareness, non-xenophobic world views, and strong altruistic concern for the collective.  Especially for bus drivers in Cyprus who work long hours for chickenfeed in a mindless job in horrendous traffic conditions, but still have their wages withheld, as in recent strike actions. 

These narrow-minded, freeloading parents and meddling student bodies have yet to wake up and smell the coffee:  that the good ole days of Cyprus are over with Rover.  This government needs revenue.  No pay?  No public transport.  Take your pick. 

School kids in Cyprus are in term 8 months per year.  120-160 euro annually per kid is hardly an onerous expense.  Would they rather shell out for petrol?  Excuse the pun. 

While these navel-gazing parents are stamping their feet and boohooing in La La Land, there will be a lot more to cry about when the telecom authority CYTA, the electricity board AIK and the Ports Authorities are privatised, as Mr. Resurrection and his cronies plan.  Let’s see how it goes down when utility bills and airline tickets shoot through the roof, and private company vultures swoop in for the spoils.  

Lord God, giver of bread, we bless You for Your heavenly kindness.  There can be no famine while the bread of Heaven endures, and help us to remember that when we are forgetful of Your infinite kindness.  How blessed it is to know that we shall not want forever, as You will not allow Your children to go without bread.  However long the day and hard the work, we have the rest and bounty and the bread.  Happy and grateful are we!  We have You who plans our daily feast for us.  As we eat of the bread of Heaven we shall continue to prosper on earth.  Kind Lord, feed me until I shall want no more.  Through Christ Our Lord.  Amen. 

The elephant in the room

No New Year honours for UCLan, Cyprus – the University of Central Lancashire.  The latest body to fall foul of a marriage of convenience with Cypriot entrepreneurs. 

Somebody in Lancashire had the bright idea of building a campus in Pyla, Cyprus, bestowing their academic largesse over less than ideal Elysian Fields. 

Pyla is unique in that it's the only village on the island occupied by both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities:  a politically sensitive but largely peaceful bi-communal, semi-rural village with a population of about 1,300, perched on the contentious “Attila Line” under the watchful guard of a UN peacekeeping force (UNFICYP). 

At the very heart of the detente is a commitment from both sides not to develop the area. 

So what happened when UCLan turned up?  Greek Cypriot property developers, namely the Hassapis Group which owns a 49% stake in the university, went rampant.  Coincidentally, Hassapis is one of the companies involved in the CYTA land deal scandals.  The campus cost 53 million euro to build.  Who gave them permission to renege on the Pyla agreement? 

UCLan Cyprus lies partly within the UN Buffer Zone, i.e. No Man’s Land, and therefore needed planning permission from the UN Security Council.  This was not granted, but the university and the developer went ahead all the same, prompting a formal rebuke from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in January 2013.  The building “remains unauthorised”, a UNFICYP spokesman said.   

UCLan is the brainchild of insatiable Cypriot greed.

Surely the eminent scholars/businessmen of Lancashire also know that the land around Pyla is throbbing with unexploded mines left over from the 1974 war, as well as British army firing ranges.  Not exactly conducive to study.  “Friendly fire” is the biggest oxymoron of the 21^st century, now with the potential to enter the corridors of academia. 

The Greek sign at Pyla says: "Danger.  Mines."
Associated Press photo

The university chancellor, or rector as they call it, optimistically anticipated 5,000 students in the first 5 years.  That was before the Cyprus financial crisis exploded.  Since the Pyla campus first opened its doors in October 2012, its student body has allegedly not passed the 250 mark.  

 

Full-time undergraduate fees at the Cyprus campus are currently 9,950 euro per year (approximately £8,270 GBP), according to its website.  For that sort of money, students and their parents expect a bit more than a flash lobby and smart digs.  In the 2014 UK league tables, UCLan UK ranks 92nd out of 124 British universities, i.e. in the bottom third.  A significant drop of 23 places from the previous year. 

Last year, UCLan UK was controversially involved in industrial action as the first university in the UK to try and become a private company, according to Times Higher Education.  A move fiercely opposed by British trade unions who forced the uni to shelve the business plans.  Company status is still the "preferred option" for UCLan and may come further down the line.  If it succeeds, the Cyprus campus could be sold or written off into extinction, rendering the value of qualifications gained by current students effectively worthless. 

Looks like Cyprus has a Lancunian white elephant in its midst. 

We saw His star as it rose

The Anglican "church" is removing “politically incorrect” language such as sin and The Devil from its baptismal ceremonies, the UK’s Daily Mail reports. 

Meanwhile, today is the feast of the Baptism of the Lord for the Greek Orthodox, while in Roman Catholicism we celebrate the Epiphany today and the Baptism of the Lord this coming Sunday. 

Our Serbian brothers and sisters are only just beginning their Christmas celebrations - their Christmas Eve is tonight, according to the Julian calendar.

I've never really understood why the Greek Orthodox in Cyprus follow the Julian calendar for Easter but not for Christmas.  This year, 2014, the Julian and Gregorian Easter calendars coincide.  

In Mexico, the feast of “Los Tres Reyes Magos” today is celebrated with even more intensity than Christmas. 

Confused?  Not surprised. 

Of course it would make more sense for the world if everyone believed in the same and followed the same calendar – that’s probably what God wants for world peace and unity – but that’s not going to happen when human free will is in the equation. 

Why did God give us free will?  Because He wants voluntary friends, not robots. 

I like the moral theologian Fr. John Bartunek’s take on it. 

Christus mansionem bendicat. 

Christ, bless this house. 

Suicide is not an option

The two Iranians on hunger strike in Nicosia seem to be holding the Cyprus government to ransom over what they see as their “right” to EU citizenship, the CM reports. 

the Iranian hunger strikers outside the Cyprus ministry of the interior

Both men and their families have been in Cyprus since 2003 as refugees, and during this period have repeatedly applied for citizenship or long-term residency permits, to no avail. 

Theirs is a sad story.  One of the men, Asadollah Panaheimehr, his wife Hematmand, and Asadollah’s older brother Aidin fled persecution in Iran in 2003.  On arrival in Cyprus, Asadollah was immediately arrested and detained for five months without charge, according to his son who is now a student at an institute of higher education in Nicosia.  Asadollah was released after he went on hunger strike for 74 days.  He found work in the construction industry but was made redundant and has been unemployed for the past three years. 

His brother Aidin committed suicide in 2011. 

Asadollah’s wife used to work for a supermarket chain, but she was also made redundant before the supermarket went bankrupt.  [I take it it was the one beginning with ‘O’, whose CEO's wife was allegedly stopped at Larnaca airport trying to smuggle out 4 million euro in cash.]

Curiously, the Iranian men and their wives insist they are no longer interested in finding work in Cyprus or in receiving state handouts, but rather, they only want EU passports so that they can leave this country and try their luck elsewhere in Europe.  

While I sympathise with their plight, I am not convinced that effectively trying to blackmail a government into getting a passport, or encouraging their spouses to join them in slow suicide is the right way to go about it.  Two wrongs don't make a right.  If the Cyprus government backs down on this, it sets a precedent for other refugees and asylum seekers in the EU, which could be problematic in future.  These Iranians say European citizenship is their “right”.  Is it?

Even if it’s true that they have been treated harshly or indifferently by the Cypriot authorities, and they probably have been, they have still been permitted to live and work in this country for more than 10 years.   Their unemployment difficulties are no different to those of thousands of Cypriots on the island, although refugees are eligible for state aid from the EU Refugee Fund.  It is not clear how Asadollah’s son is able to afford his tuition fees at the Higher Hotel Institute, where non-EU students have to pay in excess of 4,000 euro a year, unless he’s on a scholarship. 

On the other hand, if all the parents want to do is leave Cyprus, why doesn’t the government just let them become another country’s problem?  

A tricky moral dilemma for the minister of the interior, Socrates Hasikos, who says he intends to resolve it by next week.  What’s he going to do, have them force fed? 

Added 14/1/14 - Socrates, the wise man, changed his mind and now says he will process their claim for citizenship "when it's their turn".

Iran
photo credit:  Huffington Post

The UN-funded NGO, European Organisation of Iranian refugees (EOIR) takes on human rights cases on behalf of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers in Europe.  Cyprus has featured prominently in their work before, in instances of Iranians being treated brutally by Cypriot police, detained illegally and unfairly, and/or deported back to Iran where they face possible torture or execution.  The EOIR can be contacted by email at info@eoir.eu or by phone: 0031657006565 (a Netherlands number for their Cyprus desk). 

Lord God, no one is a stranger to you and no one is ever far from your loving care.  In your kindness, watch over refugees and victims of war, those separated from their loved ones, young people who are lost, and those who have left home or run away.  Bring them safely to the place where they long to be, and help us always to show your kindness to strangers and to all in need.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Loving Mother

In honour of the Kindly Mother of the Redeemer today, we sing:

Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, surgere qui curat populo:  tu quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem: Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore, Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.   

Loving Mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.  To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before.  You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting have pity on us poor sinners.  

Raphael 1483-1520
Madonna and Child (The Conestabile Madonna), 1502-03
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

[V]  After childbirth, O Virgin, thou didst remain inviolate.  

[R]  O Mother of God, plead for us. 

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary, hast given unto mankind the rewards of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience her intercession for us, by whom we deserved to receive the Author of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.