Ashamed and proud 2023
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Old Cypriots say the youth have lost their traditional friendliness, heads in phones. Hope lives. While food shopping my card blanked, so I separated necessities and ...
Articles
Christmas and the F-word
THE WAY THINGS ARE
You’ll read some articles relating to the celebrations around December 25 that include a health warning. Not just don’t overeat or drink but the F ...
Cannabis, or a Chinese master
THE WAY THINGS ARE
Self-help books advise on a range of things – grieving, diet, stopping smoking/drinking etc. This works for some people depending on their personality, how they think, ...
Biden’ your time, Joe?
THE WAY THINGS ARE
America’s main reelection candidates are two ageing men with no one apparently able to differentitate between them. Rumours augur Michelle Obama as a future Democrat ...
Horror entertainment for the young
THE WAY THINGS ARE
On a favourite site among the usual gems of advertised literature, I found horror stories especially written for children. Young adults enjoy scary thrills. I lied ...
War: words are never enough
THE WAY THINGS ARE
In the Jewish insurgency against the British, Israel’s Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety one people died, 49 were ...
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 ...
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 ...