I recently saw a post from a Facebook friend that showed a picture of the Cyprus flag with an eye crying one, single tear and his comment "…my beloved Cyprus exists, no longer. It has now become the home of everything that is wrong with today's world."
As a general rule, I don't get involved in Facebook debates and comments, and am not one to publically talk politics or religion, but this sweeping statement that the island is literally where everything bad is, really riled me. And so I wrote a long comment back where I nicely said that every single country has good and bad, and that I did not accept this generalised comment (in a nutshell). And of course there were additional comments from others about how anyone who cannot see how corrupt the island is, and how bad things are, is basically blind or an idiot.
It's my fault! As a writer, I am used to measuring my words and carefully writing in a balanced and factual way. So, when I read something like '…the home of everything that is wrong with today's world', as a writer, I take it literally and am offended by the inaccuracy and abuse of the English language. I am used to working to the policy that every word a journalist writes has the potential to be slanderous, defamatory or controversial if it is sweeping, generalised or not backed up with hard evidence – and that includes on social media sites too.
The writer clearly has strong and impassioned feelings about the state of the island, and when he wrote his comment, it would not have crossed his mind that he had written something that simply, cannot 'literally' be true! Cyprus is not and cannot be the home of EVERYTHING wrong with today's world, and it is not. Yes, it has many issues – corrupt politicians and officials being one of them – but it is far from the worse country in the entire world, and if we were to take this statement literally and offer evidence to argue against it, there is a whole catalogue of reasons why there are many countries where more 'wrong' things exist!
My stance remains the same as always; that every single country has good and bad people, elements, policies, practises and conditions, and whilst I am not blind to the negatives of Cyprus, I am also not blind to the positives. Sometimes the bad elements are more evident and obvious here due to our small size, and I personally choose to have a balanced view where I focus more on the good than the bad. But that said, the fact that FB friend feels this way, and was then backed up by others expressing the same sentiments (and vilifying me in the process for my 'ignorance') got me thinking. Are things really that bad here?
Well, I guess the answer to that depends on who you are and how your cards have been dealt, as one size does not fit all. And perhaps for some people it is easier to move back when they feel things have become intolerable here. In the case of the FB friend - and some of the others who commented - the common perception was that they had been 'forced to flee' Cyprus, and indeed, there are many who in recent years have left. I do not know the merits of each case, and I do not doubt that for some of them, the move back was the right thing to do and they are much happier, but I wish they would stop making out that the island is the villain and has no redeeming features…
…because in the process, they are insulting everyone who does still live here, as though we are too stupid to know any better.
First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 12/06/15
