Tag: lifestyle

Coffee shop code of conduct

I found this image in Web Workers Daily post and I think it’s brilliant. More and more people are spending their time in coffee shops using laptops and other devices. Too many of them have no idea that they are surrounded by people. Hopefully, at least some of them will see this infographic and, perhaps, think for a moment.

Sex worker excuses

Cyprus Mail reports:

A SEX WORKER in Nicosia’s old town yesterday spoke out after a heated altercation with residents and police outside her place of work on Tuesday night. “I’ve been in the business on this street for six years, and now all of a sudden the neighbours remember to get annoyed” the 49-year-old told the Cyprus Mail. 

I’ve heard this excuse so many times and even used it myself a few times. But if you think about it for a second, you’d realize that it’s plain silly. If something wrong is going on and it annoys you and you don’t do anything about it for a long period of time, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do anything about it forever. There is a breaking point for everything.

“I do not bother anyone and if they do not like my line of work, then they should help me get out of it, not persecute me.”

Obviously, you do bother someone. And even though they probably should help you to get out of this line of work, they don’t have to. After all each one of them makes an effort on his own not to get into it. And each one of them succeeds, so why shouldn’t you?

Not that I have anything against this line work.

Residents complained that clients of the sex worker would often wander on the street in their underwear or completely naked, while some drunken clients would even urinate outside their doors.
“Several cars pass by every night, blowing their horns and shouting at the sex worker” said another neighbour.

There we go against “I do not bother anyone”. Maybe not you, but your clients do.

Mavrou said that the authorities had encountered serious difficulties in proving the pimping charges due to the vagueness of the current legislation on prostitution.
According to police, the legislation is unclear as to whether brothels can operate in residential areas or anywhere else, while the circumstances by which a person engages in paid sex are also vague.

That, for some reason, is my favorite bit of the article, together with this:

Nicosia’s “red light district” has been predominantly confined to three streets in the old town since the 1950s on Soutsou, Pentadaktylou and Theseos streets. The woman in question was working out of a house on Theseos Street.

It’s so nice of them to specify exactly where the “red light district” is for those of us who don’t know Nicosia highlights that well.

On Cyprus’ marriage laws

Being happily married now, civil marriages and other forms of living together aren’t high on my interest list, but I still found this Cyprus Mail article interesting.

Cyprus law does not provide for any other form of recognised cohabitation beyond marriage.

The matter came to the fore after authorities denied a 93-year-old woman a widow’s pension because she had never married her partner of 67 years who was also the father of her eight children. The woman had applied for a widow’s pension after her spouse – who had been making his social insurance contributions as long as he was alive – died in February last year.

The couple had been living together since 1943 and had eight children. They were not married because they were relatives by marriage – her brother married his sister – and were banned from doing so at the time.

This makes me think of the laws in historic perspective. Each and every law currently in existence has a history. Some time ago, someone somewhere had a need for a law being introduced or changed. There was a human being, a life, and likely more than one that would be affected by the law. How often do we really look back at and consider that?

Friday

We have a little tradition in the office where I work now.  We call the last working day of the week – Friday.  It doesn’t really matter which day of the week it is really. If there are some public holidays ahead, then, even Wednesday can be a perfect Friday.  Sometimes we refer to such Friday as an Early Friday.

A good example of this is today.  Even though the calendar on every electronic device around me says “Thursday”, my colleagues are walking around with smiles on their faces.  “It’s Friday finally”, they say.  That is because tomorrow the Republic of Cyprus joins Greek in celebrations of the Ohi Day.  It is a public holiday which usually also features a military parade.

Interestingly, we don’t have a similar tradition for Late Monday.  Even though it would be logical to call the first working day of the week Monday, we don’t.  I think that is because Mondays are special.  They are tough and ugly and nobody likes them.  Calling another day of the week Monday is an insult.  Whereas calling another day of the week a Friday is a compliment.

With that, happy Early Friday to all of you guys!