A co-worker let me know that there will be a rugby match between Cyprus and Azerbaijan teams this Saturday, March 6th, 2010. The game will take place in Pafos at Paphiako Stadium, which is opposite the McDonalds restaurant. The kick off is at 14:30. The entrance is free!
The weather forecast is warm and sunny with scattered clouds, which should make for a good day outside and easy photo opportunity.
Cyprus Mail runs an article with some statistics of drug use in Cyprus. It is said that drug use doubled over the last three years. That’s not too good. But the report itself is hard to understand – quotes say one thing and numbers say another. For example:
“Cannabis is not so fashionable anymore among young people,” said EKTEPN head Neoclis Georgiadis. “The United States and Europe had their [cannabis] peak in the nineties, our peak was in 2004. We are ten years behind Western Europe.”
That’s on one hand. And on the other:
THE PERCENTAGE of cocaine and cannabis users in Cyprus doubled between 2006 and 2009 with more women using, and a hike from zero to 1.6 per cent in the 55-64 age group taking up cannabis, it emerged yesterday.
Judging by what I can only see around myself, cannabis use more than doubled. People who were occasional users before seem to do it more often, and those who wouldn’t even think about smoking pot just a few years ago, seem to welcome an opportunity now. Also, on a few occasions where I could observe the high-school generation, I was rather surprised as to how familiar they are with the drug, how easily they can access it and how integrated it is with their culture. I obviously can’t compare it to my own high-school years, but I’d says that even during my college years in this country the situation wasn’t the same.
And for the record, since I did mention cannabis, I have to say that I was pretty much neutral on the legalization issue for a long time. Now I am more inclined towards legalizing it. However, it should be clearly separated from the rest of the drugs, which should remain illegal. And I do think that there is a whole lot of education to be done if legalization is to be considered.
Cyprus Mail reports that unemployment rates are through the roof and kicking all previous records in the butt.
By the end of November, there were almost 21,000 unemployed people in Cyprus, representing a 73 per cent rise compared to the same month last year.
That’s mostly due to the downfall in construction and tourism industries. On the other hand, pretty much every company I know is looking for IT people. Accounting, management, and marketing seem to in demand as well.
Cyprus Mail reports that environmental commissioner turned his attention towards piles of SPAM – advertising leaflets distributed by numerous companies to people’s house, mailboxes, and cars. The initiative to regulate this is very welcome. However:
Theopemptou insists that a law should be passed to regulate leaflet distribution in streets, cars and post boxes in order to protect the public and prevent the pile-up of waste. One possible measure he recommended was the creation of a special stamp that people could put on their cars, which would indicate that they do not wish to receive advertising material.
I think that SPAM should be opt in, not opt out. In other words, it’s the people who WISH to receive the advertising leaflets should indicate that they want to, not the other way around. You can see how well it works in email vs. RSS and Twitter. In emails, people just send you loads of junk with an option to unsubscribe from it. First of all, you already received the junk. Secondly, you need to receive the junk to get an option to unsubscribe. That’s just not fair. It doesn’t work. Opt out. In RSS and Twitter it’s the opt in. You don’t get anything until you actually subscribe or follow. Which is all up to you. And that’s how it should be.
Blogoscoped reports that Google has expanded their Public Data Onebox functionality and now you can see the Internet penetration rate for population of any country. All you need to do is search for “internet users in cyprus” (or use your favourite country). Currently, it reports Cyprus having 38% of the population connected to the Internet. And that sounds just about right.
The country with the highest Internet penetration rate that I know of is Netherlands. Google reports it having 86.8% of population connected. Which also sounds just about right.
While catching up with recent Cyprus Mail articles, I came across the one about involvement of foreigners in serious crimes in Cyprus. Quote:
FOREIGNERS are involved in 40 per cent of all serious crimes, and 30 per cent of road deaths in Cyprus, the House Human Rights Committee head yesterday.
Being both a foreigner and a local (after almost 14 years here), I know how a lot of Cypriots are concerned with crimes being related to foreigners. A quote like the above would be music to their ears. However, on the other hand, that quote could be easily turned inside out. For example, like so:
CYPRIOTS are involved in 60 per cent (or a majority) of all serious crimes, and 70 per cent (an absolute majority) of road deaths in Cyprus [...]
This now would be music to the ears of many foreigners who think that Cypriots are too crooked with all cabaret, real estate, and gambling activity going on, and who are also extremely incosiderate and undereducated while driving on public roads.
Now, which one sounds worse?
A recent arrest in Cyprus proves that gambling is an old problem, as Cyprus Mail reports:
FORTY TWO women aged between 75 and 85, including a 95-year-old from Limassol, were shocked on Sunday when police raided their card game and confiscated their €100 in betting money.
Also, I have to disagree with a woman quoted in the same article:
The only thing police achieve by doing such raids is to ridicule women of a certain age
Not at all, no. I think police only ridicule themselves, not the women of a certain age.
I’ve noticed that @cyprusmail Twitter account became much more active recently. Today I followed one of the posted links to read the news article, and was surprised by the new newspaper’s web site. It is still in beta, but it’s already pretty good!
Finally, there is someone who knows what he (she?) is doing. Based on Drupal CMS, utilizing Amazon S3 service, integrating with Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook, featuring proper RSS feed, slick feedback form, and even placeholders for stuff blogs – that’s quite an achievement!
I definitely welcome the new face (and body) of the Cyprus Mail and wish them great success and to keep up the good job. Now their content is finally matched by its presentation and surrounding functionality.
As you might have heard, there was yet another Cyprus Linux User Group meeting yesterday. It was, as usual, aligned to the recent Ubuntu and upcoming Fedora releases. This time the even took place in the new University of Cyprus campus, in Nicosia. There were slightly more people than the last time, but I was hoping for even more.
There were three presentations and one workshop. Theo did a traditional Ubuntu Linux presentation in Greek. Alexandros presented, also in Greek, about Linux in Cyprus education – a very interesting one, too bad my Greek is so poor. And then I did a presentation in English about what Linux has to offer to students and why they should get involved. Here are the slides from my talk (Linux for Students and Linux for Students). After the presentations, Constantinos did a workshop about Compiz and Elisa media library. Both looked quite impressive.
After the event a few of us went to the tavern for some really awesome meze and beer. Altogether – good fun.
P.S.: If you missed the event, keep an eye on Ubuntu Cyprus web site and forums for announcements of the next one. Hope to see you there.
It’s been a month or so since the new food and beer place – Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern – opened in Limassol. I tried to get there over weekend evening a couple of times, but it was always packed and I forgot to book. However, today I had the pleasure of having lunch there.
And while the food there is pretty good (if you choose right), their customer service is outstanding – something many other places can learn from.
Here is the story for you. Four of us came for lunch. All of us were there for the first time. We were welcomed and offered a table. The beers arrived and we made our menu choices. I, for some reason, was expecting their steaks to be quite good, so I asked for the Fire-Grilled Fillet Steak. And I wanted it medium-rare. A few minutes passed and we got out food. It looked quite delicious, but when I tried my steak I was somewhat disappointed. It was rather dry and stiff. And it was smallish.
Being on a see food diet (“I see food, I eat it”), I could of course finish that steak easily. But one of the friends at the table suggested that I request to change it. It’s not something that I usually do. Or ever for that matter. But I thought why shouldn’t. After all it was a new place which seemed very decent and I wanted to fully enjoy it. So I called a waiter and politely explained that I am not enjoying my steak that much. The waiter asked to hold a moment for the manager.
The manager indeed appeared in a moment. He asked me what was the problem and I explained. Than something really good happened. The manager asked what would I prefer instead of the steak. I ran through my menu options again and selected The Big Irish Burger.
Just a few moments later, I got the burger and let me tell you this – it was fantastic. For those of you who think of burgers in terms of McDonalds, you don’t know what a burger is. The Big Irish Burger is huge. In fact, it’s so high that to keep it straight, they stick a steak knife into it vertically. And listen to this – the full blade of that knife is hidden inside the burger and it’s not going through the whole thing. Of particular interest are two chunks of meat inside that burger. Those are something – soft, juicy, and delicious!
After I’ve eaten the first half of that burger I already totally forgot about that whole steak thing. I was really enjoying myself. And I mean really enjoying. I guess it was so obvious from the outside that the manager noticed it and wanted to finish me, sending another Guiness pint on the house. Oh, boy!
Is that all, you wonder? Nope. I had to form my opinion about this place properly, so I asked for some dessert menu. I don’t remember exactly what I ordered, but it had “Xango”-something in the name. It turned out to be a huge scoop of good ice-cream, in the company of some bananas (cooked or marinated or something like that) and with a few spoons of delicious syrup. It’s been a while since I had a dessert this good. In fact, I remember exactly when was the last time. It was when they used to serve home-made ice-cream with nuts in that Italian restaurant in Akrotiri. But they don’t do it any more.
Oh, well. After the food and beers and desserts we paid a reasonable bill and left.
So, what do I think about that place? It’s awesome! The insides are nice, the atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming, outstanding customer service, some of the food is really good, while some is not, reasonable prices. I’m pretty sure I’ll be coming back for more of that burger and dessert. And I want to try their barbeque ribs as well.
