EDITOR – I am a Cypriot Grecian South African, and take serious umbrage in what Maria wrote about South Africa. Both Cyprus and South Africa were under the Imperial yoke and its evil tactic of divide and rule.
In both countries Greek and Turkish Cypriot and “Black” and “White” lived in perfect harmony until the tyrannical British colonialism created emnity between them, eventually ending in Britain and the USA giving half our island to Turkey. Had we majority Greek Cypriots not so foolishly fallen into this trap, and embraced the Turkish minority, protecting them from extremists in our midst, there is no way Turkey would have taken half of our Island. Is there a worse crime than facilitating this? In South Africa, we overcame this oppressive division and as a result live in an integrated society. What we have achieved, no other country in the world has ever done in recorded history. But she obviously doesn’t consider this important.
Maria then goes on about the wonders of Europe. Since 1878 when Britain took Cyprus from Turkey, the Cypriots had been living in a tyrannical police state, where you were imprisoned for rolling your own cigarette or even taking salt off the rocks on the beach! Meanwhile the island was raped of its resources and forests burned, leaving Cyprus to this day a semi desert. In addition, young men, innocent of any crime were murdered by hanging, one of the Colonialist’s fiendish “scare tactics”. The few years of freedom after liberation of the colonial yolk in 1960 were heavenly years.
In 1974, our Anglo-American “friends”, with the help of a divided Hellenism both in Cyprus and Greece, orchestrated the savage rape and genocide of nearly half the island, with nearly half of it, with all the best parts still under Turkish occupation. However, despite that, Cyprus heroically survived, and the free part was soon booming, thanks largely to Russian investment and tourism. Then in another traitorous act, the Cyprus government joined Maria’s “saviours”the EU and betrayed/ditched its currency (considerably stronger than the British pound) for the Euro. Since then these “European saviours” on whom Maria bases her faith have impoverished the island which became the scene of the biggest bank robbery in the history of the planet with the confiscation of people’s bank deposits, ruining people’s lives, destroying a banking system which was the envy of Europe, and putting an end to Russian investment.
And when Cyprus’s very existence is threatened by Turkey, the latter is supplied with weapons by our “Eurosiblings”. Maria, when you in Cyprus manage to get things in order, so that I may go back to (what is left of) my patriarchal village, then start complaining about South Africa. And, as for your insane suggestion that “white people” pay more tax, sort out your economics in Cyprus before telling foreign countries you know nothing about (and which accept you as a guest) what to do. And if you don’t like the crime, nobody forced you to come here. Instead of coming here, rather send your relatives the money so that they can fly up to Cyprus, thus sparing yourself of this life threatening risk.
I have nothing personal against Maria. She is probably a very nice person. But even the best of people can be misled.
Apollo Pampallis
Durban North
