Cyprus Mail reports that the government is to tackle animal welfare. I wonder if that qualifies as animal testing. Once the government figures out animal welfare, will they finally address human welfare?
Category: Cyprus
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.
Welcome to Cyprus traffic violations
Cyprus Mail reports:
OVER 2,000 traffic violations were recorded last weekend by two fixed speed cameras installed on Grivas Dhigenis avenue in Nicosia.
Just give it a minute to sink in. Two thousand violations. In only two days. Recorded by only two fixed cameras (fixed means people know where and when they are). These numbers are mind-blowing. And yet what does the police decide? Here’s what:
Deputy head of the Electromechanical Services Department (ESD) Loucas Timotheou said that no one would be prosecuted or fined, for now.
I think this basically explains the attitude towards the traffic laws. Furthermore:
Timotheou told the Cyprus Mail that the weekend traffic violations caught by the cameras could add up to €100,000 in fines. “Of course, it’s not about the money. It’s about protecting people and making drivers obey traffic laws,” he said.
Two things that catch my attention here are:
- Isn’t Cyprus trying to survive a bad economy, scrubbing for money everywhere? Why 100K in two days is completely ignored?
- How exactly are you protecting people by recording videos of violators and not issuing fines?
Cyprus Attorney General’s office to buy 600,000 EUR server
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
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.