The Irish writer Paul Murray in his book “The Mark and the Void” wrote: “Between the choice of a harsh truth and a lie, people will choose the lie every time.” This is how the fairy tale in Cyprus is maintained. We choose what we can afford! The fairy tales are happy to us. It makes us feel calm and “safe”! This is how the photographic material works on the multiple daily posts of the President of the Republic. A series of poses with the sole purpose of fairy tales. All photos are selected and posted with great masterlessness to capture a “success story”. The aim is to cultivate the illusion that everything that concerns Cyprus and the President’s political practices is going well. In this logic, the Diakoretic and the Pentameris moved!
A very small number of people withstand the truth. The truth can initially hurt a lot, but in the end and over time it releases you. But who wants to get out of the small world that created in his head to see a critical look and to reflect on what is really going on around us? In her book Hannah Arendt, “The Life of the Mind”, Arendt records that the mind is looking for what “meaning” and is not interested in whether it is true or not. It is no coincidence, then, that at the time of the take -off of image, social networks and fake news, fake stories, the human mind simply detects “whatever” meaning and embraces it without any doubt. There is no disposition for critical thinking or at least to look for the truth in what is served. He adopts it as true and let it be the biggest lie or scam! Man cannot withstand the unknown, the uncertain, so his mind creates stories on the basis of his own beliefs, assumptions and prejudices.
What costs us to do this in the narrative that has served many political careers for half a century and has maintained the status quo? What does the narrative cost us that Turkey is and will be our eternal enemy and the resolution of the Cyprus problem that we are afraid of and thus avoid? No one can deny that patriotic crowns have shaped a loose state dipped in corruption, in which democracy is undermined daily. But that probably sounds a bit intangible because, we said, our minds are looking for meaning and not the truth. We may not immediately realize that every year that democracy is in threatened, corruption and partition is established. We have a complete understanding of the scandals that are happening. But because of the sense that we cannot control them, we embrace apathy and move on.
But let’s look at two real tangible consequences of patriotic crowns and how they touch the pocket of each of us. 4-5 years ago there was interest and there were diarrhea on the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) in Brussels for electric cable that would connect Turkey-Cyprus-Crete and would cost a few millions that would fund us. The completion of such a project was calculated in about two years. If it were flesh and bones, so this opportunity 4 years ago, we would all enjoy cheap stream for two years! Guess who they said no. Patriotic crowns are more important than our survival and prosperity. If we left behind the cases and prejudices, I am sure that the formula would be so as not to recognize the occupied territories, and at the same time we all won this opportunity. About a month ago, Cyprus bought very expensive electricity from the occupied territories without having to recognize the occupation regime. Our networks are obsolete and it was the first time in many years of having a power outage, and not because of some bad weather or individual damage. Who knows what summer is waiting for us!
A second tangible consequence of patriotic crowns is the management of water lacking. We have already announced the possibility of ceiling water from time to time. Our dams are almost fastened. Climate change will make things even worse in the coming years. Our desalination units need electricity, and it already costs very expensive! The occupied territories have been supplied by 2020 with water from Turkey through an underwater pipeline. The pipeline from Turkey has the capacity to transport 75 million cubic meters of water per year. We rejected this collaboration then! Only now that we realized that we would say water water, the president asked Tatar as a form of payment for the T/K to pay those who owe the Republic of Cyprus to build the Wastewater Factory in an apple tree, to give us water water until they paid us.
The country needs a robust serious leader who can think outside the box, see the harsh truths and rationalize the best possible for the well -being of everyone. We have been bored with patriotic crowns, slogans and dramas. It is not possible after the Pentameri to let Nikos Christodoulides be understood that we have avoided the worst. What worse? The least he owes is to return with a list of tangible projects that will benefit the whole country and lead us to start the talks to resolve the Cyprus problem. I had rewritten it in an earlier article. Bazerman (a Harvard researcher) says in his research that negotiations with a very good outcome focus on the creation of common value rather than the competition to share the existing one. As long as the president refuses to understand this, he leads Cyprus to adventures that the people have not chosen or want.