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.

PrimeTel maintenance

I just received an email from PrimeTel, informing me of a scheduled maintenance work.  Just in case you didn’t get yours, here is the content of that email:

Dear Valued Customer,

This is to inform you that due to scheduled maintenance of our network infrastructure, you will experience service outages during the following period:

30/05/2011, from 04:00 am to 05:00 am Cyprus time.

It is expected that the total downtime shall not exceed 30 minutes and we will do our best to keep it minimal.
We apologize for any inconvenience and please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.

PrimeTel Support Team
Customer Support Service: 133

 

Cyprus PIO online presence expanded

Cyprus Mail reports:

GOVERNMENT spokesman Stephanos Stephanou yesterday presented six Press and Information Office (PIO) websites which aim to internationally promote Cyprus and make the task of searching for information a bit less daunting.

The websites are:

  • Press and Information Office website – the main PIO website which is updated daily with all government announcements.
  • PIO Press Releases – a search engine for government announcements archives.  Even though most of the documents I came across are in Greek, I still like the way search results are presented (see screenshot below).
  • Aspects of Cyprus – a large presentation about Cyprus, covering history, culture, politics, economics and more. It includes a few videos and more than 300 photographs.
  • Peri Kyprou – the Greek version of the Aspects of Cyprus.
  • Cyprus Film – a 40+ short films produced by PIO and other government offices.
  • Elections 2011 – a website built specifically for Cyprus parliamentary elections of 2011.  This will probably be obsolete after May 22, but I wouldn’t know for sure as the website is in Greek only.

The Yale Globalist team visits Cyprus

The Yale Globalist is a magazine written, edited, and published by the students of Yale University.  The topics are chosen by the students as well, and often cover politics, economy, culture, science, technology, and more.  Every years, the team does a field trip to a particular country, where they meet with locals and get better understanding of the country and the people.

This year, the team is researching Turkey.  As part of that research, they are also visiting Cyprus.  They are arriving tonight and will spend a week on the island.  They are looking for people to talk to about the Cyprus problem, support and opposition of the unification plans, occupation and the aftermath of the military conflict, religious differences, and more.

If you are interested, have a look at their web site, as well as their Turkey travel blog.  They also have a page on Facebook.  If you have something to say, get in contact with the team and they will arrange for the time to meet with you.  You can email the Editor in Chief Sanjena Sathian directly at sanjena [dot] sathian [at] yale [dot] edu.

Cyprus police anti-brutality

Here is yet another story showing the soft side of Cyprus police:

At around 5am yesterday morning, the police chased a 24 year old across town who failed to stop when the police signalled him for an alco-test. The chase started in Kennedy street, and finished when he was captured at his house in Mammari village in the Kokkinotrimithia area. During the chase he went through 3 police road blocks injuring a policeman who was trying to stop him. At some point he drove into the buffer zone near his village forcing the police to stop chasing him; on his way back to the free areas he injured a second policeman. The police was forced to use their firearms in order to immobilise his car but even under fire and with broken tires the 24 year old continued driving. He managed to reach his house where he attacked another policeman and entered his house refusing to come out. He was finally arrested yesterday at 15:00. The police is holding the 24 year old’s car as evidence while they are suspecting that he entered the buffer zone to dispose illegal items he was carrying. His father claims his son entered the buffer zone because he was scared and the he didn’t notice the police road blocks due to limited visibility.

 

No more Cyprus ID cards for foreigners. What’s the problem?

For the last few days I keep hearing and reading about this bit of news:

FOREIGN nationals are no longer being issued a Cyprus ID card, a decision implemented islandwide last Friday without explanation or notification from the Interior Ministry.

I do understand that Cyprus ID card is a handy thing to have.  But I don’t see what’s the big problem about not having it is anyway.  I’m a Cypriot now and I do have an ID card, but I lived in this country for ten years without having one, and I never knew I had a problem.

First of all, Cyprus is not some weird police state.  One doesn’t have to prove his or her identity every day to anyone.  Nobody is policing the street, stopping random passers-by with routine identity checks.  The proof of identity is needed mostly when working with government and financial offices.   With online banking and JCC online payments is there really someone who goes to the bank on a daily basis? Except bank employees of course.  I don’t think so.

Secondly, Cyprus is a country with very weak public transport network.  So almost everyone, if not everyone, drives a car.  And if one drives a car, I think it’s safe to assume that driving license is not too far away.  Cyprus driving license is not the most compactest of things and certainly not the most convenient to carry around.  But I think it works well given how (not) far most people get from their vehicles.

Thirdly, I think having Cyprus ID cards only for Cypriots makes a lot of sense.  I’ve seen it more than once when non-citizens pass as citizens just because they have a Cyprus ID card.   Yes, not everyone turns it around to check for citizenship/nationality.

Fourthly, I’m sure that the majority of complaining people are British expats, who are used to much higher living conditions (including a working government) than most other expats and country guests.  The problem is not as big as they are trying to make it.  No offense intended.