Tag: government

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.

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.

Every being in the Universe knows right from wrong

Here is one of my favorite movie moments and quotes ever.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-tmgC0GYs]

The movie is called “K-PAX“. Lead roles are played by Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. The rest of the movie is as good as the above snippet.

Is it OK to take pictures in public places?

Google Blogoscoped asks the question:

If your country’s police were to drive around town with cam-equipped cars, automatically taking photos of all public spaces, would you mind? If so, why? If not, why not?

I guess that has something to do with their earlier posts on issues related to Google Street View (one, two, three, four, etc).

I think that public places should be open for non-commercial photography, whether that is by police, mass media, amateur photographers, aliens, terrorists, or anyone else.

When I was in London earlier this year, I was at first shocked by the number of CCTV cameras.  It seems like every square meter is covered from several cameras at once.  And it wasn’t very welcoming.  However, less than a day later I simply got used to them.  I couldn’t even see them no more.  That hopefully illustrates the extent to which I don’t care.

What about you?

The Pelican Brief

“The Pelican Brief” is one of the older movies (around 1993).  I guess, conspiracy fans and theorists would love it.  It is about yet another government conspiracy.  There seems to be some sort of conspiracy (coincidence? I think not!) in the cast for this film.  The director, Alan J. Pakula, did at least another film about conspiracy before – “All The President’s Men“, back in the 1970s, together with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.  Two leading actors in “The Pelican Brief” did conspiracy movies before too.  Denzel Washington played a part in “The Manchurian Candidate” and Julia Roberts played in “Conspiracy Theory“.

I, myself, am not a big fan of conspiracy movies unless they have plenty of action and surveillance technology.  “The Pelican Brief” didn’t have much in terms of technology and could use some more action.  Despite that, though, I have to say that it wasn’t too boring or anything.  I enjoyed it.  And, yes, both Denzel and Julia performed good and made them movie so much better.  Without them it would have been a total loss.

6.5 out of 10 (make it 7, if you need an integer).  Recommended, if you like conspiracy mysteries and scared Julia Roberts.