| Post Europe
Cyprus: No Longer a Jewel In the Mediterranean Crown |
| Cyprus
is a little island with a big ego; its people somewhat conceited and
aggressive. Maybe not surprising since this rock in the Eastern Mediterranean
has been raped and pillaged over the last few thousand years; by the ancient
Greeks, from whom the Cypriot culture was derived; the Romans, the Ottoman
Turks, The British - Richard the Lionheart married his Queen Berengaria
in Limassol Castle (beautifully preserved and well worth a visit) on his
way to the Crusades. Cyprus in its time has been variously
handed over as a battle prize to glorious warriors, and a pawn in political
intrigues. Although the island finally gained its independence in
1960 and became a Constitutional Republic, it still hosts a British military
presence.
Sadly, despite
its long history - archealogical excavations put the first signs of civilization
in Cyprus at 11,000 years -the island is keen to embrace all that is modern....and
European. |
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The Cypriots
are very proud of themselves and their achievements; they rallied to accommodate
the several thousand Greek Cypriots who were shoved south as refugees after
the Turks invaded the northern part of the island in 1974; they have embraced
the 21st century and have invested greatly in their infrastructure;
they have educated their children to a high standard, and struggle financially
to send them abroad to train as doctors, lawyers, dentists.
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The island
has a big percentage of highly qualified professionals. |
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| Cyprus finally
joined the European Union in May 2004, thus achieving a long sought after
prize. Despite a last ditch effort to unify the the Turkish occupied
north and the Cypriot Greek south, with a plan put forward by Koffi Annan,
Cyprus entered Europe as a divided island. The United Nations plan was
soundly rejected by the south with the powerful Greek Orthodox Church putting
its weight soundly behind the 'no' vote. The Turkish north voted
'yes'.
'The Cyprus
Problem' (the division of the island) remains front page news in every
Cypriot paper, and uppermost in every Cypriot mind. It is a complicated
and politically sensitivie issue. But outside of Europe and the Middle
East and certainly in the Americas, many people have never even heard of
the place! On a visit to New York in 2003, I had to draw maps of
the Mediterranean, let alone a dusty rock in the eastern corner to describe
where I lived. |
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| Little did
many Americans know that Cyprus was used as a preparation point for some
of their troops to invade Iraq that same year.
Three years
later, Cyprus was put ‘on the map’, by a young Cypriot Greek tennis
player, Marcos Baghdatis, when he nearly (but didn’t) won a Grand Slam
tennis tournament. Every Cypriot claimed to know Marcos intimately,
and Cypriot children, island-wide appeared at tennis clubs with their state
of the art racquets…just for one day, and then it was time to move on to
the next craze!
Tourism
is the island's biggest earner, and Cyprus is the preferred holiday
destination for millions of ‘Brits’, particularly, every year. Do any of
them know that Agia Napa is a seaside resort…sun, sea sex, booze and imported
white sand, not a country in its own right? A lot don’t. Nor
do they know that geographically the island is nearer to Turkey than to
Greece. Many are unaware that the small island is politically split in
two…legacy of the Turkish invasion: one third to the north (approximately)
Turkish occupied, two thirds to the south, home to some 700,000 Greek Cypriots.Others
have no idea that Nicosia is the only divided city in the world today,
with a Green Line, bunkers, sand bags and minefields. |
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| The sun shines
for about nine months of the year (not the 365 days the brochures profess),
the beer is cheap, and virtually everybody speaks English. The downtown
tourist resort menus offer egg and chips and full English breakfasts!
The quest for
European accession was to gain protection from the Turks; the resulting
economic problems were never alluded to. Prices have gone up and the tourists
have gone down…Cyprus is no longer a cheap holiday destination. Old family
run tavernas have closed down because they don’t comply with EU Health
and Safety standards, and a Starbucks coffee in Limassol is more expensive
than the same one in London!
There is a
very long way to go before the island can boast a clean and user friendly
environment; despite the roadside "keep Cyprus clean - offenders will be
prosecuted" notices, 'fag' packets are regularly thrown out of car windows
and domestic rubbish is dumped in sackfuls by the side of the road. |
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| A line of
black fumes and factory emissions can be seen hanging over the towns most
mornings, and one of the supposedly most luxurious spa resorts on the island
lives next door to an ancient power station and a cement works, that gushes
out black, oily smoke daily.
Once upon a
time the cost of living in Cyprus was about 50% lower than that in the
UK; now it is pretty much the same. We used to laugh that a meal
at our favourite taverna cost 9 pounds for the three of us, whatever we
ate or drank..now it’s more than double that. It is not unusual to
pay 30 pounds a head for a meal, with wine, in a more upmarket restaurant
in town…and remember that’s 30 Cypriot pounds which is about 36 pounds
sterling (or $US60). Electricity has gone up by over 25% in the last
five years and costs now about the same as the UK. VAT has doubled
in 8 years and heating oil is 100% more expensive. Petrol is
about the only thing that is still cheap - around 50cents (60p) a litre,
that and mobile phone calls. House prices have exploded…a decade
or so ago you could still buy a village house in need of renovation for
about 10,000 Cyp ($US20.000). Now a one up one down shack with no
roof fetches double that and more. The new building work is incessant….new
villas with pools, grandiose mansions, and hardly any of the beautiful
old architecture has survived, so great is the need for 'progress'.
Sadly, everything
is façade…nice new buildings, pretty shop fronts, but go behind
the scenes and nothing much has changed. The country has embraced
the European selling ethic but not its after sales service; its prices
but not its quality.
As a European
passport holder you can move to Cyprus to live and work, but you can only
work if the job you are employed to do cannot be done by a Cypriot.
You can start your own business, now without a Cypriot holding the major
share; but you have to live and pay tax in the country for 7 years before
you are entitled to any benefits, health or otherwise. Income tax
has increased and you are now taxed on your worldwide income, from all
sources, not just on what you earn in the country. Most foreigners
work for offshore companies - despite the inordinate hike in prices, local
wages remain at 400 Cypriot pounds per month on average (that's just under
500 pounds sterling or $US800) which would now be virually impossible to
live on. You still need to apply for a "pink slip", or a temporary
visa, to prove to Immigration that you can support yourself financially
and in order to be a legal resident. Requirements for other nationalities
differ.
On joining
Europe, Cyprus lost its favourable offshore banking status; people and
companies are leaving. Access to larger European markets and the
abolition of import/export duties has served only to benefit the larger
concerns. In many instances it is cheaper to buy imported goods than
local produce and smallhold farmers are going out of business. A
bottle of imported French wine is at least a pound cheaper than a locally
produced one - and Cyprus produces beautiful grapes, though it has not
yet learnt how to transform those into great wine.
Medical care
is essentially private, so you either 'pay as you go' or have medical insurance.
The care is very efficient and very good, as long as you can get over the
annoying fact that whatever is going on - even if you are lying half naked
having a small mole removed from your abdomen - your doctor will still
answer his mobile phone if it rings!
Foreigners
are tolerated on the surface (you would not want to be Sri Lankan or a
Philippino) and get used to a different price structure: one for locals,
one for foreign residents and one for tourists.
One of Cyprus’s
biggest assets is the lack of crime; many is the time that I left my car
keys in the ignition and the mobile on the dash. Safe in the knowledge
that both would be there the next day. I never worried about my daughter
going off into the village to play for several hours. Sadly though,
I fear even this will change.The demographics of the country have changed
immeasurably in the last few years…an influx of less well off Eastern Europeans
looking for a better life…and with a mixing of cultures, unfortunately
comes an increase in crime. Ex-patriot owned villas in the Pafos
area now sport locking gates and burglar alarms.
The island’s
other asset is, of course, the sea-magical, beautiful, but not thus far
treasured as the jewel it is.The Mediterranean is all but dead, with few
fish...those consumed in Cyprus are either 'farmed' or imported; so dreams
of sitting by the sea eating local seafood will be dashed by the 25Cyp(US$50)/per
kilo price tag on sea bream, a local favourite.
The ocean and
potentially stunning beaches, along with the island’s heritage and architecture
should be polished and preserved for future generations. But sadly,
all the things that are good about Cyprus….peace, tranquility, village
life, its ancient history and culture, are being engulfed by this desperate
need to be European. Of course, I am just a visitor and have had
the best of this little escape.
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