10.2.08

Reality check

Last week before the elections and all you hear is a bunch of idiots that keep talking about the solution of the Cyprus problem and I am pretty sure none of them can solve it, and add to that an unprofessional moron Yiannakis Kareklas makes Matsakis seem like a mentally sane person and you got the 2008 Cyprus Presidential elections... In reality, the Cyprus problem is a stale messed up situation that does not do any good to the people from both sides and it helps politicians manipulate the people. In reality, land in Cyprus is being sold to non Cypriots as a holiday land, foreign investment is minimal and you got an economy that heavily depends on cheap tourism and money laundering from Russia. The goverment is controlling a big chunk of the economy (CYTA, EAC, Cyprus Air) and although that has proven a disaster around the world and even the ex-soviet countries are trying to change that, in Cyprus nobody is questioning that but everybody's dream is to join one of these 'semi-goverment' organizations... Turkey has built numerous marinas and the Cyprus goverment took 10 years to award BOT contracts so rich people of the world, wait until we built our marinas and around 2012 come and moor your yacht in Cyprus. Dubai has lured away all offshore regional headquarters from Cyprus... "who cares re koumpare, others will come...", the price of real estate has skyrocketed but "sikkime re my friend, I sold the land my grandfather gave me for 300,000 pounds and now I have a Mercedes and a nice 23 year old Russian chick".
So, who from the idiots running for president has proposed skyscrapers to handle the real estate issue? Who has proposed privatization of CYTA, EAC, Cyprus Airways? Who has proposed incentives for foreign companies to come and invest in Cyprus? Who has proposed a plan for a plan to attract high end tourists? They all talk about fighting corruption but as long as the goverment controls a major part of the economy good luck getting rid of corruption. Trafic is becoming hell in every town of Cyprus but that's too dirty job for any politician to deal with, especially when they'll have to propose mass transportation system plans and screw with the powerful lobby of the taxi drivers... Let's take care of the needs of the people of Cyprus, e.g. more jobs in goverment and more Russian hookers and we got a winner... No need for a visionary leader, no need for planning, no need for timely execution of plans... opou katsi tessera tze oti arpaksi o kolos mas...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you name a successful case of competition in Cyprus? Have you tracked the prices of "free" and "competing" markets such as the gas prices, and the prices of bread and milk? You might be more sympathetic to the idiots who are skeptical about privatizing CYTA and EAC if you do.

Anonymous said...

Ρε συ φίλε Giorgio,

Επαρέτησες τα ελληνοκυπρέικα τζι’ άρκεψες τα εγγλέζικα; Πάντως ομολογώ (χωρίς να είμαι ειδικός) ότι εκφράζεσαι καλύτερα στα εγγλέζικα. Περνούν σου πολλά!
Όμως τούτο που διαπιστώνω είναι ότι εξακολουθείς να έχεις απωθημένα με τις ρωσίδες (και πρέπει να το κοιτάξεις σοβαρά).
Μιλάς για “…nice 23 year old Russian chicks” και για “Russian hookers”.
Πρέπει να βρεις λύση στο πρόβλημα σου φίλε. Γιατί κατά τα άλλα είσαι και μορφωμένο, διαβασμένο και σκεπτόμενο παιδί. Είσαι κρίμα να παραμένει αυτή η επιθυμία σου ανεκπλήρωτη και ανολοκλήρωτη!

Επί του θέματος; Να πω ότι η EAC και η CYTA δεν είναι απλά βιώσιμες επιχειρήσεις αλλά και κερδοφόρες. Γι’ αυτό και βάλθηκε το ιδιωτικό κεφάλαιο να πετύχει την ιδιωτικοποίηση τους!

Anef_Oriwn
Δευτέρα 11/2/2008 – 7:36 μ.μ.

Giorgio said...

This similar to trying to explain Democracy to people in a village in Saudi Arabia... At least ripsaspis is trying to make a point in a nice way, however, it'll take long to explain the free economy in a comment here and the role of the goverment as a regulator. In Cyprus, there are indeed a number of cartels that control pricing but a visit for lunch at date club in Nicosia will provide a lot of answers after you see the politicians from all parties having lunch with the wheelers and dealers of the market. Anef Orion, you are still an ass...le, and I suggest serious therapy sessions to address your superiority complex.
I have to admit that it's amazing how leaders can manipulate the people in Cyprus; for all our Cyprus problem related issues it's the fault of the foreigners who want to screw us and for all the economy issues we blame the capital... Same methods used by PASOK in Greece to ruin the country. Populist politicians coupled with a few rotten businessmen and you got a disaster.

Anonymous said...

I'm fairly confident that you don't have to explain to me how a free market works, thank you. You seem to be just as quick in low blows and straw-men arguments as any of us.

Anyway, all that aside, if you agree that there are systemic problems which hinder free market conditions in our context, at least for any part of the economy worth mentioning, then only one conclusion is possible.

Before asking for privatization, we need to propose realistic and effective measures to ensure these obstacles are overcome. Otherwise, we're just supporting the creation of new cartels.

Giorgio said...

Ripsaspi: I agree with you, that given the cirmcustances it might not be a wise thing to privatize CYTA, EAC and Cyprus Air and the corrupted oligopoly practices fostered by all the political parties in Cyprus need to be cleaned up first before we address privatization. Sorry about my rude answer but morons like anef orion malakias raise my blood pressure.

Anonymous said...

It's almost election day. We're all trigger-happier than usual. :-)