Afxentiou, is this what you fought for?
THE WAY THINGS ARE
My son one day excitedly told me of a real life hero whose story he heard in class, that of Afxentiou in Macheras. On Sundays pre ...
Articles
Nasty men and women who admire them
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Yet another famous man is hitting headlines for alleged lewd, predatory behaviour towards women. Russell Brand wowed audiences with his audacious style – not for him the ...
Culture and the last straw for renters
THE WAY THINGS ARE
China’s one-party political system is not in tune with the West’s practice of democracy. Yet, as a major source of trading exchange for so ...
Cutting off our nose
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Liberty, equality, fraternity, a lovely thought to wrap around any flag. How many democracies live up to that? Liberty? Still mostly in evidence. Equality and fraternity? ...
Privacy and the unwanted
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Some in Cyprus won’t say they have adopted a baby, perhaps from the need to protect the child’s assumed identity or their private business. ...
Are you a boiling frog?
THE WAY THINGS ARE
For those who can’t afford hours of expensive aircon, the heat is hell. Are you a ticking pollution time bomb adding to climate crime? Mediterranean ...
The way things are going
THE WAYS THINGS ARE
Maari, hyperventilating, called from her retreat on Troodos. She’d been in her garden having a smoke, when a soundless, fluid presence passed through her plants ...
Home and hatred
THEWAY THINGS ARE
Going to her parked car, a teacher overheard a boy talking to pals, not about the usual social media trends but politics, and she could see where ...
Gesy, one for all but not all for one
THE WAY THINGS ARE
I’m a little confused about the ‘free’ aspect of Gesy; I stand ready for correction. When I asked around I was told everyone pays the ...
What I’d miss about Cyprus
THE WAY THINGS ARE
A piece in The Irish Times spoke of what I miss about Ireland: the hometown of my childhood and teen years. What would I miss if ...
Who deals out death?
THE WAY THINGS ARE
In mid-June readers of James Joyce’s Ulysses who know his characters Molly and Leopold Bloom, will know what ‘Bloomsday’ is all about. Ulysses is an ...
Move it, fatso!
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Weight is a constant in the lives of people who don’t conform to what experts and beauty addicts maintain is the correct number of kilos. ...
April and Easter, freedom and death
THE WAY THINGS ARE
For Cyprus, Ireland and Palestine, Easter and April carry ongoing significance, their history still a living thing because of unresolved political issues. Cypriots and Christian Palestinians ...
When the welcome turns sour
THE WAY THINGS ARE
It was bound to happen. Some predicted severe water shortages in the region, particularly affecting lives and lands in Africa and the Middle East, would cause ...
Flashers and ‘sporting’ cruelties
THE WAY THINGS ARE
On March 7, just before International Women’s Day, the BBC’s Today programme interviewed three young women who had been flashed. That shock intrusion frighteningly elicited ...
Youth: ganging up and exclusion
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Exclusion: youngsters can be inordinately cruel to each other, causing mental agony particularly for teens also coping with changes to their bodies. When stealth bullying turns ...
Children of the stones
THE WAY THINGS ARE
The ability of our species, present and prehistoric, to endure whatever the elements or other people inflict on us, and survive tragedies such as the earthquakes ...
Cyprus/Ireland: questions of unity and equality
THE WAY THINGS ARE
My two islands have much in common. A reputation for hospitality and friendliness, a history of British occupation, civil strife, emigration, a brain and labour drain ...
The steal deal: Elgin, lobbyists
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Obvious thievery makes headlines every day. Then there’s historical thievery where old, lax ways enabled procurement of indigenous cultural artefacts by other countries for their ...
New year, but what’s new, ladies?
THE WAY THINGS ARE
For many the answer to that question is not much. Here we have free speech and expression, but inequalities still exist. Girls in Afghanistan can’t ...
Death in the time of life
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Breath leaves our bodies and that of other warm-blooded species, taking warmth with it. Death is cold.
A breeze ruffles the grey feathers of a pigeon ...
Joni, Cyprus and the ‘ra’
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Back in the Sixties, the immaculate voice of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell drew fans to her in droves. Her songs were smart, beautiful and relevant. Recently, she ...
Watchers come in all shapes and sizes
THE WAY THINGS ARE
The word ‘watch’ is as versatile as the cliched egg. On Netflix, The Watchers centres on a family new to town who find that people who ...
Guest recipes with Colette Ioannidou
An Irish take on Halloween
When I used to bake for my family, there was a book by Darina Allen I relied on for special Irish days, The Festive food ...