Cyprus Attorney General’s office to buy 600,000 EUR server

Cyprus Updates point out:

According to an article in today’s issue of Phileleftheros newspaper, the Attorney General’s office is planning to purchase a server which will cost more than 600,000 euro in order to analyse the thousands of documents relating to economic scandals. The purchase was proposed by a British expert on the field in order the “strengthen the investigation”.

Always according to the article, the ‘electronic brain’ will store 150000 documents sorted and coded for each suspect for quick retrieval. As any owner of a mid range laptop today will tell you 150000 files are nothing by today’s computer technology and could probably even be analysed by any decent smartphone.

The whole article sounds as if it came out of a late 1960′s newspaper. Even though it made it to the front page we still hope this it was a farce or result of journalistic error.

Cyprus public sector employee worked a total 47 days in 2 years with full pay

Cyprus Updates reports:

an employee of Cyprus Press Information Office (P.I.O), managed to attend work for only 47 days during a 2 year period and get away with it.

The employee under investigation in 2010 showed up to her job for 37 days (followed with 116 days of medical leave) and for just 10 days in 2011. In September 2010 an officer was appointed to conduct a disciplinary investigation and on October 2011 the case was taken to the Attorney General who in April 2012 drafted an indictment which was submitted to the Chairman of the Public Service Commission. In June 2013 after the bureaucratic process finished and after the employee pleaded guilty of the 15 charges she was facing a penalty of 1500 euro was imposed. Finally the employee was to be let go after a decision of the Public Service Commission on 26th March 2014 but to their surprise the employee had already retired prematurely 4 months earlier and now enjoys all pension benefits she would have normally lost had she been fired.

And if all this was not enough, the case has not been closed but has been brought to the Supreme Court because the now ex-employee of P.I.O. is claiming additional 44 days of pay for 2010 which were not approved by the medical board as sick leave.

The University of Nicosia launches the Bitcoin course

The University of Cyprus launches the Bitcoin course

unic-bitcoin1

 

THE University of Nicosia (UNIC) has launched a six week, free and open enrolment online course called “Introduction to Digital Currencies”, aimed at anyone wishing to gain a greater understanding of the fundamentals of bitcoin and digital currency in general.

The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is due to start on May 15, with other sessions starting each month thereafter.

Cyprus to have its first Gay Pride parade

Cyprus Mail reports:

Cyprus first-ever Gay Pride parade will be held in Nicosia on May 31 and it will be part of the 15-day-long Cyprus Pride Festival, according to ACCEPT LGBTI Cyprus head Costas Gavrielides.

Just for the record, I am against the parade.  Not against gay people, but against the parade.  I am as much against the Straight Pride parade.  I don’t think that sexual preferences are a good choice for parading.

As far as the actual rights, laws, and morals go – I do agree with some and do disagree with the other, but, once again, I think there are other ways to work them out.

This is dog crap!

Cyprus Mail reports:

DOG owners who walk their pets but don’t clean up after it is an increasing problem within the Nicosia municipality, which has launched an awareness campaign on the issue.

The campaign is titled: ‘Behind each dog we are looking for a responsible citizen not an uncaring owner’.

As part of the effort, municipal workers are visiting parks handing out flyers and plastic bags to people walking their dog.

And this made me so happy I’m not a dog owner:

Not cleaning after a dog can lead to a fine of €1,700 and/or up to 12 months in jail.

On a serious note, they are right of course.  I don’t know how bad it is in Nicosia, but I’ve seen plenty of dog owners in Limassol that just walk away from the steaming pile of crap their dog just left in the middle of the street.