On Cyprus - Awkward Beginnings

Against my better judgement, here I am, blogging. 

I had no inclination to do this. It takes time, effort and means that my thoughts, words and feelings are going to be 'out-there' for people to commend on and judge. I usually have no problem with this, as long as I have spent months preparing a paper or article for the consumption of the four or so people who read them, on average.

And then Cyprus happened.

December in Cyprus

It is strange how, despite my better judgement, I have an emotional connection with a state which infuriates me and rejects me for being of mixed-race, a woman, young, atheist etc etc etc. As it seems, I really do care about the place and what happens to it. I guess it is ingrained in all of us, living in sovereign states that, even against our better judgement, we care more about what happens to our fellow citizens than to the citizens of other states. This, despite the fact that my fellow-citizens are on average: vain, uninformed, xenophobic and in general hugely infuriating human beings, individually and collectively taken. 

So for the last couple of weeks I have had a visceral reaction to developments in Cyprus. Not that I don't usually react, angrily more often than not, to the general state of the country and its public. But these past two weeks have been 'special'.

First it was the crucial presidential election which determined who would lead Cyprus during the bail-out talks. The election illustrated once more that we are constantly losing the plot. 'Right-wing' supporters of DISI were out celebrating with Greek flags, arguing that their flags were relevant because 'we' are proud to be Greek- Orthodox. As if Greek and orthodox are two words that go together in any sense. On the other hand the 'left-wing' supporters of AKEL were reciting numbers to prove that their President, the ex-President of the island, who, it is the general assessment, more or less drove the country to distraction due to his incompetence, was more popular when he was elected. They were also shouting that the new President was a fascist traitor. Because, as they seem to claim THIS was the time to settle old scores and determine who was to blame for the 1974 coup and the following invasion. 

Now, we have the bail-out plan. Which in essence has made me into a blogger. It seems that Brussels needed to try this out and selected to do so in a state which has a sheepish population, which was on a 'holiday' dancing in the streets, while the basis of its economy was being destroyed. Whether that basis was defend-able  since it was based mainly on Russian money gained or stolen in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union, is not for me to judge. What is certain is that the economy has been damaged and/or destroyed. 

Who is to blame beyond Brussels is also debatable. I wonder whether, as an economist pointed out on RIK  (the Cypriot state TV) today, this was another case of Cypriots going into a negotiation without a plan B.

It seems that Cypriot politicians are doing a good job in proving that no EU-state is irrelevant. However, the question remains: what now?  I see no viable choices here and I really hope I am wrong...

So what would be the consequences of an acceptance of seizure of a percentage of private savings? In my humble opinion the most important consequence of an acceptance of this measure in any form is the fact that the social contract between democratically elected governments and their constituents, which stipulates the latter's right to property, has been broken. With it, political rights gained from 1789-on in the road to 'liberty' are being violated.

Political rights and liberties are violated left, right and center. We only need to have a look at what is happening to Muslims in the US for example to realize the extent of the problem facing us. It is not far-fetched to argue that we are now inhabiting the world de Tocqueville describes as quite pleasant but without liberty.

 So what's next?

Maybe we will end up in a kind of 'Matrix', not run by machines but by a tutelary government, either backed or run by multinationals...

I, for one, am really not looking forward to it... 

I didn't even like that movie...