TALES FROM THE COFFEESHOP: RACISTS TAKE PRINCIPLED STANCE ON DELIVERY DRIVERS

WHAT is our world coming to when the party that has based its steady growth on xenophobia and racist rhetoric expels one of its municipal councilors for being racist? It would be like Diko kicking out a member for demanding rusfeti or Akel suspending a member that wanted to destroy the capitalist system.

Betraying its ideals and values, Elam took an unprincipled stand and expelled Limassol municipal councilor, Fivos Alkiviades because he was caught on camera mouthing racist threats during the Limassol riot 10 days ago, which most party members would normally applaud. Nevertheless, Elam announced he was expelled as his “behaviour goes against the party’s code of ethics.”

It makes you wonder whether there is a stipulation in the party’s code of ethics about not mouthing racist abuse on camera, or a stipulation for exempting delivery men from racist abuse, even though they are dark-skinned migrants, because of the important service they are offering a lazy public which has grown dependent on them.

Alkiviades was caught on camera saying, “I am telling you, from here on out, whenever I see a delivery driver, I will kill him.” He was reported to the AG by Akel chief Stef Stef and an investigation was ordered, because our delivery men must be protected – it says so in Elam’s code of ethics.

DESPITE the protection of delivery men a few were beaten up and had their money stolen during the mob’s rampage, but the biggest embarrassment for Kyproulla was the hiding administered to Kuwaiti tourists.

Our government ended up issuing groveling apologies to the government of Kuwait, which had made a demarche about the treatment of its citizens. Foreign minister Kombos met the Kuwaiti ambassador to apologise personally, while our ambassador in Kuwait made a statement of apology to a Kuwaiti newspaper. Tourist arrivals from Kuwait might decline a bit next year.

Keeping the flag flying, two Greek Cypriot men, reportedly beat up two young French sailors walking on the Limassol seafront on Friday and are wanted by police. It was unclear whether this was a racially motivated attack, but the thugs are re-writing our tourism advertising which has always focused on the warmth and hospitality of the Cypriot people.

PREZ NIK II, being sensitive to public sentiment, must have felt hurt by the criticism he received for his failure to mention the racist thugs in his routine condemnations of the violence in Chlorakas and Limassol. He stuck to general comments about “shameful pictures,” and actions “that insult our country.”

He did not say for example that the behaviour of the racists will not be tolerated. In fact, he never mentioned the word ‘racist’ in his condemnations. Is he so averse to confrontation that he shied away from offending the racists or was he thinking that they will be voting in the next presidential elections?

On Saturday Phil published a long interview with the Prez, who was probably trying to answer the criticism of his dubious stand regarding the violence, but again he chose to sit on the fence, as if to prove his critics correct.

He was asked: “Do you not consider that the violence displayed in the episodes in Chlorakas and Limassol was racist?” His response was: “I must first mention that any form of violence is condemnable and everything we saw was unacceptable.”

He added that this was “a (xekathari) crystal clear positioning without tails and footnotes,” in case anyone thought he was still mincing his words. He skillfully avoided any mention of the word racist, which he just cannot bring himself to utter. Maybe it is a medical condition.

SAYING things that upset people, even violent racist, is not Prez Nik’s style. He likes to be positive, talk about sweet nothings and promote the feelgood factor, which was why he was in his element when he visited the Acropolis gymnasium to talk to kids on the first day of school.

He said he went there because he wanted “to experience how someone feels on the first day of school,” before exhibiting his unrivalled skill of pandering to his audience.

“Many time we make changes to the education system, we who are not students, who are not directly affected and decide changes or innovations without discussing them with you. And this has proved a big mistake.”

So now the government will discuss any proposed changes to public education with 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds before implementing them. Nik II can do that as his daughters go to private school and their education will not be affected by the idiotic ideas their father has for public schools.

GIVING a say on education policy to 12-year-olds and Elam expelling a racist were not the only bizarre events of the last week. The spokeswoman of the Russian foreign ministry, last Tuesday, felt obliged to condemn an attack on a mosque in Limassol that took place two weeks earlier.

According to our own Tass news agency, Zacharova described the throwing of two Molotov cocktails at the Koprulu Haci Ibrahim Aga mosque as “emphatically unacceptable actions that must be punished and barbaric actions must be prevented.” When the attack is “on a religious space it is a particularly worrying situation.”

Was this for real? Russia is suddenly so concerned about the throwing of two Molotov cocktails at a mosque in Limassol, that its foreign ministry felt obliged to take a stand? If throwing two Molotov cocktails at a mosque is a “barbaric action,” what is flattening another country, through an unrelenting 18-month bombing campaign? The Russian bombs never hit a mosque in Ukraine because, as Zacharova said, with regard to Kyproulla, attacks on religious spaces “provoke inter-religious divisions,” against which Moscow has always taken a principled stand.

PARANOIA and conspiracy yarns have returned to public life since former ambassador, Tasos Tzionis, was appointed head of our secret service Kyp and national security advisor to the prez.

As always, Tzionis uses his friends at Phil to report his paranoid yarns, which are never backed with anything remotely resembling a fact. In the latest manifestation of this practice, Phil informed us that everything happening in the free areas, regarding the serious episodes, “is under the close monitoring of the Turkish secret service MIT.”

MIT, according to unspecified information, has “focused its attention on everything that happened in Chlorakas and Limassol and have many scenarios before it for implementation. Both on an operational level, not ruling out a provocation, as well as in the field of propaganda.”

The Republic “is on tenterhooks” regarding the possibility of a provocation, reported Phil and explained: “After all, it would not be difficult, for specially-trained agents of the Turkish services to infiltrate a gathering of mask-wearing individuals, and provoke the worst.”

I disagree, not because I object to little old-fashioned paranoia-mongering, but because we have shown we are perfectly capable of provoking the worst without any help from Turkish secret agents.

THE REPUBLIC’S overlord Odysseas appears to have been shaken by comments made by attorney-general Giorgos Savvides in an interview on Rik Thursday night, about the possibility of asking the supreme court for the termination of his services.

Savvvides said he could do this if the allegations made by Odysseas against the deputy AG and sent to the anti-corruption authority for investigation proved groundless. Responding to Savvides’ comments, in an interview with the local Tass, Odysseas using the royal plural, said: “We reject them and consider them completely unacceptable; they verge on intimidation.”

It is quite pathetic that Odysseas, who has publicly intimidated half the state’s officials, is sulking like a baby, because someone has dared to give him some of his own medicine. Of course, he will report the intimidation to the international association of auditors (INTOSAI) as he has always down when his supreme authority and untouchability is questioned.

BEFORE the spat with the AG, Odysseas was intimidating the chief of police into giving him the names of all people entitled to carry firearms, as if this were any of his business. He claimed it was because the firearms belonged to the state and were subject to an audit.

Surely the audit could be carried out by the police chief giving the number of firearms that have been given out rather than the name of everyone with a licence. Odysseas demands to know names because he heard that someone he does not approve of, was given a licence for two pistols. As our overlord, he has the final say on who should be issued with a licence to carry a firearm.

ALPHAMEGA supermarket came under attack on its website by a patriotic lady who posted the following rant: “Who can sell even his country? Only a nouveau riche who does not know what being a refugee is. Shame on you for making money for those of other faiths…there are so many European countries… sold-out anti-Christs.”

The supermarket replied: “Turkey is the bird. The specific post referred to Turkey Burger, that is a burger made from turkey.”

THERE was one piece of good news in the last week. The Rolling Stones released a new single ‘Angry,’ which is best thing they have done since Start Me Up in 1980. The video, which you can watch on You Tube is also a scream.

Source: TALES FROM THE COFFEESHOP: RACISTS TAKE PRINCIPLED STANCE ON DELIVERY DRIVERS

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