THE WAY THINGS ARE

The Greek armada that sailed to Troy, supposedly to bring back the wife of a cuckhold, was a deception, and deception is still in vogue. Someone must have whispered Sun Tzu’s ‘All wars are based on deception’ in Donald Trump’s Iran-cocked ear.

Human advancement creates change through industry or wars. The world is in a tectonic moment where the actions of a few ruthless players cause widespread civil destruction and cost the lives of innocent people.

Ukraine is shoved aside as Iran becomes headlines. Land grabbing continues in Gaza, also removed from focus as the Iran-US-Israel war hits Lebanon. In Golders Green, luckily, only ambulances were attacked. The security bill for protection of UK Jewish communities should go to Netanyahu. Defenseless, blameless Jews pay for racist or terror strikes because of the extended regional wars of Israeli leaders haters can’t touch.

It was interesting that the European war machinery prepared to defend Cyprus, Spain excepted, were donated by former colonists, including Greeks who settled here around the 14th century BC. The Turks, former overlords, also sent fighter planes.

Strife can breed advantage, lines on old maps literally drawn by powerful countries to divide and share, are being redrawn in the mentality of European leaders, tentatively pushing back against the gas lighting whims of Donald Trump, doing what major European powers have done throughout history, asserting themselves for their own good.

Denouncing enemies pronounced guilty of war crimes by Western leaders rings shallow when they prevaricated over allies Conan the Destroyer in Israel and the self-perceived Superman in Washington, willfully ignoring international legality.

Personal wars are also waged silently every day. Health problems accompany old age along with limitations we learn to accept. Cyprus is lucky to have Gesy. However, when statistics show a continuous set of poverty related figures, with even working people struggling as the island apparently grows wealthy, it may be time to reappraise some of Gesy’s functions.

I have very painful osteoarthritis in my knees. My super GP sent me to an osteopath, a lovely man, I needed X-Rays, superb equipment, courteous young radiologist. So far, so fine. An operation is out for me, the alternative is injections in the knee to ease the pain, the hiccup: I have to buy them from the pharmacy, each costing €48. No big deal you high earners cry. For a pensioner watching the cents, having to buy expensive necessary supplements as we age adds up.

Gesy related means testing could allow an extension of certain pharmacy additions not presently on Gesy, to be cheaper for pensioners on low income. Correct supplement use can make life easier and healthier for old folk, and cost Gesy less in the long run.

But, the list of side effects in instruction-info leaflets in medicines makes me wonder how some ever got passed for human consumption, and feel guilty for the torture creatures suffered to produce them. We all have the same body parts, yet we don’t all react to medication in the same way. Some psychiatric medicines cause body image discomfort when weight gain, brought on by pill-induced, increased appetite, adds to psychological distress already being felt by a previously slimmer patient.

The pleasure of eating turns to guilt when ungovernable greed makes food and treats an apprehension, anxiety compounded when clothes no longer fit. An increase in abnormal sexual appetite by women in the UK was laid at the door of prescribed medication that had altered their normal behaviour, it took time to trace the reason. Lack of vital medicines in war zones also kills.