government

Shipping to save Cyprus, President says

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!

The problem of a small country

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?

Really, FairSearch?

Apparently, there is a new kid on the block – FairSearch.org. Here is a quote from their About page:

FairSearch.org is a group of businesses and organizations united to promote economic growth, innovation and choice across the Internet ecosystem by fostering and defending competition in online and mobile search. We believe in enforcement of existing laws to prevent anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers.

Further down on the same page is the list of companies involved. Among them, some of those that should not even be allowed to use the word ‘fair’: Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia.

So, this bunch of clowns (my apologies to the clowns) tried and failed to control the web search and the mobile markets, and now they are trying to bring Google down by joining their forces and attempting a government campaign. Pathetic! Here is what they write to the EU:

Google’s Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, running in 70% of units shipped at the end of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. Google also dominates mobile search advertising with 96% of the market, according to eMarketer. The complaint says Google uses deceptive conduct to lockout competition in mobile.

“Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,” said Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel to the FairSearch coalition. “We are asking the Commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market. Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google’s Android operating system.”

FairSearch is an international coalition of 17 specialized search and technology companies whose members include Expedia, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, and TripAdvisor.

Google achieved its dominance in the smartphone operating system market by giving Android to device-makers for ‘free.’ But in reality, Android phone makers who want to include must-have Google apps such as Maps, YouTube or Play are required to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone, the complaint says. This disadvantages other providers, and puts Google’s Android in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.

What a load of bollocks! Google Android devices aren’t all built by Google. In fact, the majority of Android devices are shipped by other companies. Are all of them producing below the cost? Of course not. That would just be stupid. Secondly, Android is very much based on the Open Source Software, Linux and such. I’m guessing that’s one of the main reasons it grows so fast and is cheaper to make. Microsoft, Nokia, and Oracle are well-known foes of Open Source. But guess what, it’s not up to them anymore. People vote with the wallet. The choice is here, and people can finally buy the devices that they like, not the ones that are being shoved down their throats.

And as far the as the web search goes, that’s even more pathetic of a subject than mobile. Just build a better search engine and people will switch over. It takes nothing, absolutely NOTHING, to use a different search engine. But the truth is, Google is by far superior search engine to Microsoft’s Bing or anything else that popped up recently. Result manipulation my a$$. If people who use the search engine will lose trust in the results, they’ll just leave. But as long as it works, who cares really?

Cyprus, what’s going on?

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.

Three:

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?

Because they know better …

Cyprus Mail reports:

THE MINISTRY of education has been forced to take action after videos of high school students doing the Harlem Shake have been uploaded onto the internet showing obscene behaviour, the ministry said yesterday.

“The videos show obscene behaviour. Some show students pulling down their trousers and pants,” sources at the ministry of education said.

“We are trying to protect these students because anything that is uploaded onto the internet can stay there forever. The students are children and are not grown-up enough to understand how this can affect their lives in the future. Some students may become doctors or lawyers and these video clips may harm their professional lives in the future,” they added.

This sickens me. It’s one of those things that the government shouldn’t be anywhere near. But not only they are watching it close, they are interfering. Like they know better…

This whole Internet thing is such a huge change for the society, that even people who are leading up the change don’t really know how things are changing and affecting us, and where it is all going. Yet, the ministry of education in Cyprus seem to have quite a good idea. And not only that. They seem to completely ignore parental role in this whole thing.

Oh, and the censorship worked so well with the rest of the Internet stuff …