I’ve mentioned a few times already that I became a big fan of P2 theme for WordPress. I currently maintain multiple installations of it, just…
After the news of Google Reader demise broke out, I, like many others, started looking for an alternative. There are many RSS readers out there,…
As most of you know, I spent most of the yesterday in Nicosia, attending the second ever TEDxNicosia event. I know quite a few people who wanted t…
I live in Cyprus for many years now. It is a beautiful little island in Mediterranean Sea. It features warm weather for most of the year, sea, very kind and hospital people, plenty of jobs in IT industry, good food and plenty of alcohol, stable currency, and more. It’s really a nice place to live if you can handle small towns and villages. It’s also a great place to raise the kids.
Not much happens here. It is a quiet and simple place. Yet, when something happens or when I write about it, I post it to Cyprus category.
The idea of online supermarket is super old. I remember one of the companies I worked for back in 1999 was trying to pull this off. But for this or that reason, it never happened. I am glad that someone finally succeeded.
P.S.: Too bad they mostly cover Nicosia area currently, but hopefully that’s only an issue of time.
Anybody knows anything about this? Is it open? Is it real? Is it any good? Please let me know.
Cyta – Cyprus Telecommunications Authority – has updated its website. First time in years you can visit it without having 20,000 animated banners thrown in your face from the front page. In fact, the new site looks pretty good. And it’s easy to navigate around as well, which is not so common for sites with a lot of information.
And these aren’t even all the news. They’ve also reduced the prices of the mobile internet. How often does that happen? Exactly, never!
Good job, guys.
Disclaimer #1: For the last few years I’ve worked in the Forex industry. I worked for a number of companies – FxPro, Traders Trust, FXCC, and, currently, Easy Forex. I was also involved with a few others. But I’ve always worked in the IT and web development part of those companies – never in marketing, or “anti-marketing”, sales, or any other business unit.
Disclaimer #2: A few of my friends – close and otherwise – work for FXTM. Even though, FXTM is a new company, and it is a direct competitor of the company I work for, this rant is not so much against FXTM, who are simply looking for exposure anywhere they can find, but rather against Cyprus Mail, which is a well established mass media entity with a long history.
Disclaimer #3: Purely for legal reasons, pretty much everything in this post is my personal opinion, which might or might not coincide with my current employer.
Now, to the business. A couple of days ago, my eye caught this article in Cyprus Mail.
FXTM will be marking a strong presence at this year’s iFXEXPO, promoting their innovative partnership programs and in particular the FXTM Introducer Programme.
The FXTM team can be found at the expo’s Stand 16, eager to welcome visitors and explain the unique features of the company’s all-new partnership programmes.
That was my first “oh, really?”. If you are not living in Limassol, you might not be familiar with the fact, that it is somewhat of a “Forex capital”. There plenty of Forex companies based here. There are plenty of local offices for Forex companies based outside. Heck, there are even plenty of companies who are not directly Forex brokers, but who are based around Forex industry.
So, what’s the problem? – you ask. I’ll tell you. Pretty much every single one of those companies are taking part in the iFXEXPO. This year and years before. What is so special about FXTM taking part in it? Absolutely nothing. That’s just one of those companies participating in something that everybody else is participating. Hardly any news. But. For one reason or another, Cyprus Mail decides to cover just this company.
What’s that? An advertising? I don’t mind that too much. Try to stay away from them, or clearly mark one as such, and I don’t have any problem at all. After all, everybody needs to make a living.
My second “oh, really?” comes from a bit of censorship. Obviously, I wasn’t happy with such blatant advertising in a newspaper. So, I wrote a very polite (in my humble opinion) comment, pointing out the article being a blatant advertising. Expressed opinion, nothing more. Guess what happened to that comment? It got deleted. Oops.
I’ve been online for a few years now, and I completely understand that Cyprus Mail has the full right to control the content, including the comments, of their site. But, to me personally, it looked weird. After all, there was no hate or anything like that in the comment (again, IMHO). And, I’ve seen Cyprus Mail keeping criticizing comments before. It’s feedback, isn’t it? We all have opinions, we all make mistakes, and we all disagree with each other. The world would be a boring place if everybody agreed on every point. But, they chose to remove it.
Fine! I’m not gonna whine and complain more about it. It is their right to do so. But it is also, I believe so, my right to express my opinion. And, gladly, I have my own place where I can express it. So, even if it’s gone from the Cyprus Mail site and Facebook comments that they are currently using, it’s still gonna be here.
So, in summary, here it goes.
P.S.: And this is not the only FXTM-related article in Cyprus Mail either. Here are another two that I’ve managed to find with a quick seach – one and two.
Update (May 31, 2013): there appears to be a bit of confusion over the deleted comment. It might be a malfunction on the side of the Cyprus Mail’s website. Or it might be my own stupidity. If that’s the latter, I sincerely apologize to everyone. I can see two different URLs to the same story. One is on Cyprus Mail Beta site, which has my comment. And another one is on Cyprus Mail WWW site, which doesn’t. I have no clue why both of these exist and why they are different.
I am genuinely impressed. Not only you can order Domino’s Pizza online, but their progress tracker actually works. That’s probably the most technologically advanced food joint around here. Well done!
That’s a lot of things …
Cyprus Mail reports:
PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades yesterday invited the shipping sector to play a leading role in the recovery of the economy.
Anastasiades was speaking at the 24th Annual General Meeting of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber in Limassol where he said the industry had not been affected overall by the banking crisis.“The shipping sector now constitutes a crucial part of the ‘spinal column’ on which the Cyprus economy will depend in its road to recovery,” he said. Shipping contributes around 5.0 per cent to GDP.
“Foresight, proper planning and hard work are therefore virtues which are now indispensable in our mission to preserve Cyprus’ leading edge. For this precise reason the government is determined to introduce those mechanisms necessary to protect this important sector, as well as reinforce it further,” said Anastasiades.
Here is my translation to human-speak: we, the government, helped to demolish tourism, banking, and real estate industries. Shipping – you are next!
Cyprus Mail reports:
FORMER supreme court judge Panayiotis Kallis has resigned from the committee of inquiry tasked with probing the circumstances which led the economy and banking sector to the brink of collapse.
In a letter to the President and the justice minister, Kallis said he felt obliged to step down citing a possible conflict of interest with his sons’ law practice.
In the letter, Kallis explained that he could not in good conscience continue his work as his sons’ law firm has taken on clients challenging the ‘haircut’ on deposits at Laiki and Bank of Cyprus.
That in itself did not constitute a conflict of interest, Kallis explained. However, he subsequently discovered (on Monday) that some of his sons’ clients plan to argue in court that the haircut and the winding down of Laiki are the result of inadequate supervision/negligence by regulatory authorities such as the Central Bank and the lack of corrective fiscal measures on the part of the state.
I certainly do appreciate the openness in such a sensitive issue. But I also wonder if we have enough people in this country to staff such a committee. I mean, it should consist of people who are competent enough to understand and investigate the problem. Yet, on the other hand, we live in a small country, where everybody is connected to everybody, and where competent people are scarce resource. Is it possible to find enough competent people who aren’t somehow in conflict of interest in regards to the problem that has affected the whole country?
I’m not so sure about their desk offerings, but conferences and presentation rooms and facilities are interesting.
Reading the news these days is interesting. Have a look at the following snippets, for example.
One:
THE CABINET has decided to fire the chairman of Cyprus’ natural gas company, DEFA, because of serious misconduct, government spokesman Christos Stylianides said yesterday.
Two:
THE HOUSE Ethics Committee will look into whether parliament was misled by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) governor over the terms of reference of an investigation he launched into the island’s banking debacle.
ON SUNDAY a Greek newspaper carried a report that Attorney-general Petros Clerides had suspended prosecution for driving offences against his son.
Clerides, declined to comment until Monday night on a television current affairs show where although he was not specific about the reported offences – drink driving and not having an MOT – he did confirm that an offence had taken place and that he had suspended prosecution.
Everybody who spent even a few month in Cyprus knows how corrupt is the government. But lately there is a flood of reports on all sorts of government officials. What’s going on? Did people have enough finally?