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I understand that the coordinated tempo coming from the Hill and its “friendly forces” dictates enthusiasm for the baby steps taken in Calvin’s city, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the celebratory mood. Undeniably, prolonged inaction—especially over so many years—brutally torments the body and is terrible for the joints, as it weakens muscles and ligaments that subsequently struggle to keep bones in place, while stiffness worsens and pain increases. So indeed, shaking off the numbness of standing still offers some relief to the patient…
However, I should remind you that President Christodoulides has spent the past two years strenuously trying to find a way to… reset the cardiac arrhythmia of the Cyprus problem through electroshock therapy. This is what they kept telling us, repeatedly and insistently: “We need to find a way to deliver an electroshock to the Cyprus problem.” Not being a doctor myself, I struggle to understand exactly how merely marking time could help someone who supposedly needed a defibrillator and electroshock to recover.
As we wrote in this column back in April 2023—since Nicos Christodoulides had us learning new terminology: “It’s important to understand that timely defibrillation can increase survival prospects by 15-50%. This is because the functional problem causing cardiac arrest initially triggers arrhythmias rather than immediate death. With immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation within the first 5 minutes, the chances of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and consequently the victim’s recovery increase significantly.”
We continued by noting: “The key words in that paragraph? ‘Timely’ and ‘immediate’. The Cyprus problem this year (note: 2023) marks 49 years (since 1974, when we started counting) and 59 years since the UN first addressed the ‘Cyprus problem’ in a resolution. The negotiation process has been in a coma for six years. Consequently,” we asked then, “can the ‘victim’, in such a condition, recover after an electroshock?”
But now, two years later, we learn that simply marking time also raises hopes of recovery! So—considering that Geneva, the “dazzling Swiss lady” of travel guides, also bears another nickname, as mentioned earlier, as “Calvin’s city,” and given that Calvinism’s motto was the Latin phrase “Post tenebras lux,” translated as “After darkness comes light”—what else can we do but exclaim: Great art Thou, O Lord, and wondrous are Thy works!
And given that we exclaim while… standing speechless at the circular developments we’re witnessing, let this please be recorded as the first miracle in this evolving process of recovery that our chronic problematic situation will follow from now on. National reasons demand it, after all, as Efthymios Diplaros so eloquently dictated. That young politician of profound wisdom who stands out as a brilliant star in the political firmament: “Our Cyprus above all…. Responsibility is imperative… We move forward united…”
Therefore, although under different circumstances, if the leaders of the two communities, accompanied by five dozen single-minded officials—politicians, advisors, associates, Scribes and Pharisees—along with the three Guarantor Powers, the UN entourage led by its Secretary-General, plus the EU’s usher, had departed from their countries and travelled elsewhere for two days to decide on the weeding of cemeteries, the very same people who today explain to us this result—without triumph but still claiming victory—would have hung them out to dry. Nevertheless, we remain… “Diplarian.” Our Cyprus above all. And until next week, when we’ll seriously address the “alignment of stars” (finally, the unspoken truth timidly emerges), refer if you wish to Plato’s Cave Allegory. Unless, of course, the temperature rises, in which case you’d better go for a swim and, as the wise common folk say, “cursed be the one who owes and has the means to pay it back.”
This article was first published on 23.03.2025
Source: WE WON WITHOUT TRIUMPHING
