Careful
what you wish for
Cyprus is in a complete mess right now with blame put on the banking sector, but in my opinion, Cyprus lost itself a long time ago as a result of our greed and desire to become something we were not.
When I moved to Cyprus in 1988, there were things I hated, and I was too young to appreciate the things I should. My first Christmas here was miserable as I was used to Christmas in England; decorations and festive music everywhere, the huge variety of gifts, the atmosphere… Mum did what she could with our stockings, but there was such limited choice in the shops and it felt like the end of the world for 11-year-old me.
Television was only broadcast for half a day on CYBC, with nothing of interest to me, and I couldn’t get my Smash Hits magazine. There was no MacDonalds and little choice for fashion. What I did have was fresh air, nice weather and a new bike that I could ride without fear of abduction. I had freedom and nature, fresh food and all my relatives nearby – some of life’s most precious things, but at that age, they got the thumbs down.
Slowly, Cyprus started to ‘modernise’ and we Larnaca kids would go up to Nicosia for the day to enjoy UK shops and Big Boy burgers, wishing that Larnaca would catch up. The trendy cafes started to open, and with them the price of drinks went up astronomically. This led to a horrible rise in snobbery, the obsessive need to have expensive, showy things and looking down on anything that wasn’t over-priced or carrying a designer label. And this was from average people on low salaries who wanted to project that they were something ‘better’, as if that was more attractive than being from a warm, humble island, famed for its generous, hospitable and down-to-earth people.
Fast-forward to today and Larnaca can rival Nicosia for shops and cafes, in fact, in a role reversal, it is the Nicosia crowd flocking to our Mackenzie seafront - the island’s current hot-spot. Fast food chains are everywhere, swallowing up our traditional tavernas and the trendy cafes all blend into one with their generic white décor and (still) over-priced drinks. We have too many TV channel choices and Christmas decorations are out from October. Crime is up and you are more likely to be met with hostility and a look of pity than a warm welcome.
I do not wish to belittle the genuine suffering of the people of Larnaca, but it was inevitable that this loss of identity and false disguise would one day no longer hold.
I feel that when we come out the other side of this, we are going to regain a lot of what we lost. People will no longer be ashamed to have less than their neighbours; they will not blow an entire month’s salary on a handbag to prove something. We will not put up with extortionate prices or rude customer service, and those who dished them out in the first place will eat some serious humble pie.
And maybe, just maybe, there is a glimmer of hope that we will become that island I moved to in 1988; I sure would appreciate it now.
This column first appeared in the Cyprus Weekly, 26/10/13
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