THE WAY THINGS ARE
Flat, calm August welcomed an interesting September. The reaction to Odysseus Michaelides’ sacking as auditor-general was an example of the law versus the people. His wasn’t a case of life or death, just career death. Then, the European Court of Human Rights rejected Cyprus’ list of potential judges. I’ll bet Odysseas’ supporters had fun with that. No fun to lose a job but he’s not poor or desperate, he has choices, and he’d have support if he ran for president.
Electricity subsidies will discontinue and lesser mortals with zero choices will live in fear of that bill. The finance ministry said benefits and pensions were in line with the Cost of Living Allowance but, really, for whom and by how much? In the eleven years from 2013 to 2024 one of my pensions ‘improved’ by €48, the other by €30. I have a small pension from Ireland which presumably, by the scale of who reckons what’s enough for whom, I’m on cloud nine. The fact that one pension won’t cover my rent is neither here nor there.
It would be edifying to see how much the CoLA benefits for public servants have gone up in that time and compare it with the living costs and rent rises for people who don’t have strong union backing or elected power to implant safety measures in law to ensure very comfortable life survival.
Poor people eat ultra processed, cheap products, and low-quality food can cause health problems. Add mental anxiety as stomachs clench and depression sets in from constantly, unsuccessfully trying to make ends meet, and it could cost Gesy more in genuinely needed medical assistance.
Gesy promoted an awareness campaign against the public’s misuse of its services. This should also be aimed at those taking advantage of a system with possible gaps for medical staff cheating on costing patients’ treatments, some officials enjoying luxury hotels and for others – whopping, unjustified sums for overtime. The publicity blurb is long but words leap out – ‘equality’, ‘social solidarity’, ‘use of system’, ‘concept of responsibility’. These proud words need a great deal of reflected meditation by the government and those with the high salaries/pensions they expect and take for granted, knowing that they come in part from long, hard-work hours in the private sector from people whose earnings are monitored for social security dues and taxes and whose earnings/lifestyles will never match theirs.
People on benefit or low pensions can’t take holidays at home or abroad, eat out as a matter of course, enjoy paid entertainment or hotel weekends at the beach. Clothing is never a whim-buy, merely when necessary.
In this beautiful land there is no equality, abuse and overuse by takers who offer only faux lip service to the true social responsibility their supposed Christian values command them to adhere to. Ireland also has its ‘stupid-spend sins’ aplenty. Irish journalists reported on one: a nondescript shed for 18 bikes (€336,000) in the grounds of Ireland’s seat of parliament. One journalist found online a perfectly fine shed for €6,449.90. Reasons/excuses given didn’t convince the raspberry blowers. Public rancour saw a sinful waste of tax payers’ money in a land enriched by hosting lucrative, high-tech brand headquarters, where governments have neglected adequate social housing for years, and where a high number of Irish children are homeless, not including an immigration percentage. My communications with the Irish pensions office have always been met with courteous, fast replies, and small though the green pension is, I have seen CoLA movement.
Injustice is Benjamin Netanyahu avoiding facing Israeli law by continuing war, applauded at the UN podium brazenly inferring, I’ll do what I like, where I like because I can, knowing you won’t stop me, as Western allies, cry-wolf ceasefire. Have his allies, the USA in particular, no honest concept of responsibility towards the death toll they are wilfully accomplice to in arming a corrupt bully? Why can’t the mindset that created Israel for the safety of Jews, do that for Palestinians, or do they believe that only Israelis have the right to self defence?
