Tag: Cyprus

By Antonis Loizou F.R.I.C.S. – Antonis Loizou & Associates Ltd – Real Estate Valuers & Estate Agents We wonder whether there are people in this country who are trying to destroy Cyprus’ ailing economy just as it starts to recover. We wonder by what logic some people insist that shops should be closed at weekends. Your browser does not support HTML5 video. According to the labour ministry extension of shop working hours to include the weekend secured 7.000 people jobs, be it at a low income of €500 per month (two days a week). These same people are now unemployed leaving the rest of us, through our taxes and contributions, to cover their unemployment pay. If we are to take for example cruise ship visitors (nowadays not many) and other tourists, will they find the shops closed on weekends? Perhaps not only shops, malls, etc but restaurants and even offices should not be allowed to work over weekends! Similarly perhaps the Ayia Napa tourist shop areas should also close down. So, because it is obvious that the small shops may not be able to compete with the extended hours, shall we fire from their work the newly employed 7.000 unemployed people just for the 200 or so small shop keepers employing one to two persons?

Netta Barzilai’s “excellent” song could not win Eurovision “because Europe is imbued with bicolored anti-Semitism: The classic Christian anti-Semitism of Holocaust’s perpetrators and Muslim anti-Semitism that’s striking root” there, he wrote, vowing to eat his own “hat” if he’s proven wrong. Kishon, a political hawk and the son of the late humorist Ephraim Kishon, failed to predict the future: Barzilai’s unconventional song “Toy” in fact did win the contest, earning the fourth-highest score in the pan-European song competition’s 63-year history. But his prediction nonetheless illustrated how many Israelis apparently overestimate the politicization of Eurovision, the prevalence of anti-Israel sentiment in European societies — or both. At this year’s contest, Israel would have come in third Saturday if it were up solely to the official juries of the 43 countries that participated. For example, Israel was the top vote-getter from juries both in France — which many consider emblematic of Europe’s anti-Semitism problem — and the Czech Republic, which is a historic and contemporary bastion of support for Israel and Jews in Europe. Even though Israel won this year’s contest, the organizers were still accused of politicizing the event after its Portuguese hosts did not mention Jerusalem when asking the Israeli jury to announce their score. Greece and Cyprus are notorious for this, with each country giving the other top scores most years. In Israel, too, some saw a political message in the victory by Barzilai. But to some Eurovision veterans, Barzilai’s victory had little to do with her message and everything to do with the gimmickry and showmanship of a woman clucking like a chicken. “It’s a rarity show and that’s a shame in a song festival.”