If in doubt just met it up

Snow levels on Troodos are being estimated by a cop because the Met Office's weather reading machine is broken, the CM tells us.

And they haven't got round to fixing it yet. 

"I don't know how [the police officer] estimates [snow] levels but I'm sure he must have something..." said met officer Panayiotis Mouskos vaguely on CYBC radio yesterday. 

"But it doesn't matter very much whether it's 80cm or 78cm or 82cm," he added.  

Tell that to the mountain villagers who've been stranded without supplies for the last 4 days.  

Minister of the interior, Socrates Hasikos, said the state doesn't have the kind of equipment available in other countries that regularly experience such weather.  

What, a digger?

Standing on the shoulders of giants. 

The deceitful man shall not find gain, but the substance of a just man shall be precious gold.  
- Proverbs 12:27 (DR)

Chumps of the week

This week's prize for CHUMPS OF THE WEEK goes to the 1,000 CYTA employees, associates and "friends" who ran through Nicosia today dressed as Santa Claus in the name of charity, the CM reports.  

CYTA, the semi-state telecom authority of Cyprus, is desperately trying to claw back some credibility in the wake of the dodgy land deals scandals in which a CYTA employee, his brother - a land registry civil servant, and their trade union rep were arrested, among others (including the CYTA chairman) for selling land in Cyprus at hugely inflated prices and pocketing the profits.  

We are not convinced by the charity stunt.  

Apart from the fact that Santa Claus is just plain wrong and anti-Christ - see Footsteps earlier this week - nobody in their right mind believes for a second that anyone in the Cyprus government has done anything for Cyprus in the last 5 years.  

Cyprus is an oligarchy.  The very small elite group of the rich and powerful on this island look after their own and the rest, well ...  Wouldn't it be better if CYTA concentrated on giving us a functioning internet service in bad weather rather than dressing up as pagan paedophiles, all in the name of "charity"?  

Chumps.

God of power and might, wisdom and justice, through You, authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgement is decreed.  Assist with Your Spirit of counsel and fortitude the president of Cyprus and other government leaders.  May they always seek the ways of righteousness, justice and mercy.  Grant that they may be enabled by Your powerful protection to lead our country with honesty and integrity.  We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.  

Person of the Year 2013

How cool is this?

Pope Francis is the third pontiff in history to be named Person of the Year by the secular TIME magazine.  

The other two were Pope John XXIII in 1962 - famous for calling the Second Vatican Council with its historic consequences, and expected to be canonised by Pope Francis in April next year - and Pope John Paul II in 1994, also expected to be canonised at the same time.  

Papa Frankie is reportedly "really happy" about the honour, even though "he's not someone who seeks fame and success because he has put his life at the service of announcing the Gospel of the love of God for mankind", said Fr. Lombardi, the Holy See's chief press officer.  [Vatican News] 

Cynics might say TIME magazine is simply cashing in on a trend and the common knowledge of the Pope's global and ever increasing popularity.  After all, if you want to sell papers or magazines, appealing to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide is not a bad marketing move.  

On the other hand, the magazine has never been shy about electing far less popular and more controversial figures in the past, e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Vladmir Putin, George W. Bush (twice?) and his dad, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Adolf Hitler?!  It's not like TIME is worried about pleasing (or displeasing) the masses.  It's the world's most largely circulated news magazine with a readership of 25 million people, 20 million of whom are in the US.  

It's not the best ever photo-portrait they could have found of His Holiness (slightly cross-eyed above) and it is unfortunate that the M is obscured so that it reads: TIE, which a pontiff does not wear, although Freemasons do.  There seem to be quite a lot of Masons in past POYs of TIME.  Hmm ...

Nor was there much competition from the other 9 contenders this year:  Bashar Assad, the Syrian president?  Miley Cyrus?  Who voted for them?  Hardly in the same league as the ground-breaking, historic influence and work of Pope Francis.  No tie.  

Thumbs up for TIME this time.  Read why they chose "the people's Pope" here.  

And the nominations for the Person of the Year of Cyprus are ... ?

Let us pray, O God, the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look down in Your mercy upon Your Servant, Francis, whom you have appointed to preside over Your Church, and grant, we beseech you that both by word and example, he may edify all those under his charge, so that with the flock entrusted to him, he may arrive at length into life everlasting.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Chilly willies

It's a sad day when there are no better news to report than the weather, but we like dispelling popular myths about Cyprus as a sun and sea pleasure island. 

click to enlarge

When it snows on the Troodos massif, it gets pretty parky on the plains.  In such conditions our internet connections often don't work properly.  Local architects have not always thought things through with winter housing, e.g. cold tiled floors, no workable heating systems, low water pressure that doesn't reach the whole building to heat bath water ... As if everyone here lives here in sunny glory 365 days a year.  Not.  

Troodos skiers

There is currently no gas central heating in Cyprus as there are no pipelines (yet).  Cyprus has discovered deep sea gas and oil reserves off the coast of the island, somewhere within Cyprus's exclusive economic zone, west of Israel and The Lebanon and north of Egypt.  You would think this a gift from Heaven, one for the whole island nation to enjoy.  

But no, our president(s) couldn't even get that right.  They're still arguing about the regional geopolitics.  Cyprus has already sold off most of its 'Aphrodite Field' (the offshore gas & oil) to international companies, since it does not have the money or qualified scientists to extract the hydrocarbon reserves itself.  So if we get any pipelined gas at all in about 10 years' time, it might be coming via Turkey, funded by Israel/the US.   Meanwhile, it's chilly penguins.  And we will get a lot of gas in other forms from the politicians.  

Chilly Willy had 2 nephews called Ping and Pong.
So cold that he had to wear a Santa hat.

So try and stay warm, folks, with portable gas heaters / electric units (expensive) / diesel fuel central heating / log fires ... if you're lucky to have a chimney.   

Graciously hear us, O Lord, when we call upon you, and grant unto our supplications a calm atmosphere, that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins, may by Your protecting mercy experience pardon.  Through Christ Our Lord.  Amen.  

A bum rap

A man who stole a mobile phone was shot in the tooshie by an enraged shotgun-wielding Cypriot guy in Larnaca in broad daylight, the CM reports. 

I only wanted to call my mum

The 51-year-old Cypriot left his car unlocked with his mobile inside it.  Genius.   On returning to the car and realising his phone was missing, he asked around and was given a description of two men seen acting suspiciously around the car.  He drove around hunting for them – literally – found and confronted them with a loaded hunting gun, near St. Lazarus’s Primary School on Phaneromeni Avenue.  The two men, who are Israeli nationals, ran off, so the Cypriot promptly shot one of them.  In the buttocks.   

The CM has changed its online version of the story to the less embarrassing "lower back area" while the print edition headlines buttocks (page 7).  Personally, Footsteps prefers the buttocks story.  In fact, we just like the word so we'll say it again: buttocks.  

Forrest Chump in Cyprus

The Cypriot guy was arrested and charged with attempted murder and illegally carrying and discharging a firearm.  The Israeli with the very sore bum has been charged with theft.

Strong contenders for Footsteps’ CHUMPS OF THE WEEK awards but there’s always room for more.  They just keep coming.  

Our hearts were made for you, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in You.

- St. Augustine of Hippo

Santa sucks

10 reasons why Santa and all Santa-related symbolisms are just plain wrong:

1. He doesn’t exist
2. An obese old man who never married but likes fondling other people’s children ...
3. His chauffeur is the Horned One
4. His helpers are elves/pixies/sprites/goblins/orcs  = little demons
5. The discovery by children that their parents and teachers lied to them all along is a recipe for years of therapy on a shrink’s couch in future
6. He’s a white supremacist
7. In Holland, he was/is portrayed as a mockery of a Catholic bishop
8. In the US, he was popularised to sell Coca Cola (which worked)
9. It encourages kids (and immature adults) to think Christmas is just about getting stuff
10. It’s a subversion of the focus on the Holy Family and the Nativity of Our Lord

Atheists, secularists and anti-Catholics love banging on about how the early Church “sequestrated” ancient pagan rituals of Yuletide, winter solstice, blah di blah, ad snoream.  Meanwhile, Santa Claus is a sequestration or corruption of the life of the early Christian saint, Nicholas of Myra (now Demre, in present day Turkey) – a 4^th century Greek Christian bishop, famous among other things for his generous gifts to the poor.  There is nothing saintly or holy about Santa.  Even his name is a fraud!  

One school in Brighton, UK, famously insisted on a green-suited Santa in 2007, in protest against the conventional Coca Cola image.  It was a Steiner school - they like being different.  (Very Brighton.)  Why not just get rid of Santa all together?  Bah, humbug. 

If you’re a parent, grandparent, Godparent, aunt, uncle or teacher, put the Christ back into Christmas: ban Santa. Tell the kids the truth instead:  the most wonderful, miraculous account of the Holy Night - the greatest gift you can give a child.  

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And the angel being came in, and said unto her:  Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.  

– Luke 1:26-28 (DR)

Thank you, Readers!

as at 7th December 2013
circa 5.30 pm local time

Footsteps has had one thousand page views.  

Thank you, all readers, for your continued support and interest.  

Clustermaps provides different stats, perhaps based on one-off country visitors, not on page views.  

Certain countries are off the radar on Clustermaps but are picked up by Blogger, and vice versa, for techie reasons unknown to us.  

Our greatest number of readers are in Cyprus (inevitably), then the US (surprisingly), then the UK (not surprisingly), plus Serbia, Japan, Israel, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Russia ... 

Keep reading, folks!  Thank you.  

Country stats for FOOTSTEPS from Blogger
from September 27th, 2013 (first blog) to December 7th, 2013
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Thank you also to St. Francis de Sales for his continued inspiration.

Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you.  Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.
- St. Francis de Sales