Christmas at The Library

A load of junk! - Paula Manoli-Gray

Christmas in Larnaca has either exploded with colourful joy, or vomited tackiness and hypocrisy all over the town, depending on which side of the Christmas coin you land on. But either way, you won't be able to hide from it, and especially not in your local supermarket, where there is suddenly a whole new world of junk food, especially for the festive season.

It is quite remarkable how many seasonal tins of chocolates, biscuits and cakes appear in the run-up to Christmas. It's like these poor 'treats' have been waiting eagerly all year for their special moment, so they can stand proudly on the shelves all shiny and cheery, waiting to shower your Christmas with sweet promises… of weight gain or a heart attack!

It is just baffling and a little crazy too that we equate Christmas to eating a ton more than we would normally do, and in the form of these specially designed, once-a-year sugary confections. And yet we do; we go all out and buy calories by the truckload to gift, to offer guests and to stuff our faces with just because 'it's Christmas'.

But Christmas aside, the size of our supermarkets are largely determined on junk and packaged foods all-year-round. Imagine how small supermarkets would be if they only sold real food such as fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, nuts, legumes, rice, dairy and the like. Imagine entire aisles of processed, packaged or junk food eliminated, and you would probably be surprised at just how much space they had taken, whether in the freezer or on the shelf.

I (generally) only buy real food, so my trip to the supermarket involves bypassing the majority of aisles on most occasions, but I am noticing as the years go by that the number of processed and packaged foods our supermarkets stock is increasing, although not to the point of other European countries. I think that due to our cultural relationship with food, we won't ever reach that point where our children cannot identify fruit and vegetables (I saw a documentary on children's diets in America and many of them literally could not identify basic fruit and vegetables). Cyprus wouldn't be Cyprus without the aroma of souvla, the rubbery texture of Halloumi, juicy watermelon in the summer and small but tasty village cucumbers… all enjoyed around a big table of family and friends.

And I am happy to have noted that even the Cypriot ready-meals are by far superior to their imported counterparts. If you compare Cypriot frozen pizza or sausages to imported products, you will find around three-four ingredients in the Cypriot products versus a whole slew of unidentifiable and unpronounceable ones in the imported versions.

But there is one fresh food area where we are really failing – and which I have written about before – children's menus. This is where processed, packaged and junk really sells in Cyprus and keeps the 'fake food' industry afloat. It is a scary indicator of our times and our changing relationship with food.

As for me, I try to stay clear of junk in my house for the most part, but I may just sneak a tin or two of seasonally designed biscuits and chocolates into my trolley, after all, it is Christmas…

First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 05/12/14

Fragrant Christmas Decorations Workshop - with Miranda Tringis

Мюзикл для детей "ПО ЩУЧЬЕМУ ВЕЛЕНЬЮ"

Там, где появляется Московский драматический театр «Русский терем», жди небывальщины!

5, 6 и 7 декабря 2014 года в преддверии Нового года приглашаем детей и их родителей на веселый и красочный мюзикл «ПО ЩУЧЬЕМУ ВЕЛЕНЬЮ» (по мотивам известной русской народной сказки). 

Давным-давно в некотором царстве, в некотором государстве жил-был Емеля. Пошёл Емеля за водой на речку да поймал щуку. Отпустить - отпустил её и получил за это волшебный дар: все желания его стали исполняться. И вёдра с водой сами пошли домой, и сани сами поехали без лошадей, и топор сам нарубил дров…А вот что произошло дальше…

СМОТРИТЕ И УДИВЛЯЙТЕСЬ:

5 декабря в Никосии – Театр «САТИРИКО» (18.30)
6 декабря в Ларнаке – театр «СКАЛА» (17.00)
7 декабря в Пафосе – театр «МАРКИДЕО» (11.00)
7 декабря в Лимассоле – театр «ПОЛЕМИДИЯ» (17.00)

ОТКРОЙТЕ СВОЕ СЕРДЦЕ СКАЗКЕ,
И ОНА НАВСЕГДА ОСТАНЕТСЯ С ВАМИ!

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Стоимость билетов 12 евро.

Дополнительная информация по телефону: 96 30 2770
и на сайте: www.magictheatre.ru

Always too late - Paula Manoli-Gray

The community of Larnaca – and the island as a whole - was shocked by the murder of a 22-year old man two weeks ago, and even more so that the suspect is a 17-year old.

There won't have been a single parent whose heart did not break upon hearing of the family's loss. It is truly unimaginable and I cannot begin to comprehend how they are suffering.

If the loss of a bright young future was not enough, it transpired that the suspect was well known for his criminal activities from a young age to the point that he had amassed 60 known cases. The victim's family - and surely anyone else who read the stories – had one simple question, 'why was this youth allowed to continue committing crimes?' which leads to the logical conclusion that had he been dealt with, then there would not be a family grieving right now.

I must admit that personally, I had not been aware of the situation regarding juvenile offenders, and when the story broke and I read that there simply isn't any proper mechanism in place for dealing with underage crime, I was astounded.

Authorities may try to claim that technically, underage perpetrators cannot be held accountable for their crimes due to their young age and a need for guidance and hugs rather than punishment, but who are we kidding? A 17 year old who has been repeatedly offending knows the difference between right and wrong; he is not your average school boy who gets his grades, respects his elders and just so happens to make a mistake that could tarnish his whole future if we don't show leniency on account of his age. This is a hardened criminal who was naturally going to escalate if left unchecked. From his cocky 17-year old point of view, he had carte blanche from the law to commit his crimes until the age of 18, so why should he stop? Without a deterrent, and with a feeling of being 'hard' or 'cool' or 'dangerous' – and the intense feeling of power that would bring to a young man, there was simply no reason for him to stop.

I am not saying that he did not need help as a preference to punishment – clearly there was something terribly wrong there, to the point that his poor family were begging the courts to hold him - but that is neither here nor there, because apparently, neither was available or offered. 

Of course, there is a flip side to this tragedy. The family of the suspect are also suffering unimaginable pain from knowing that the child they brought into the world, cradled in their arms and envisaged a future for has taken such a dark and unfathomable path that even they, as parents, were powerless to prevent him from taking the life of another parent's child. Again, as a parent, this is absolutely terrifying. We do the best we can, but what if it is not enough? And that is where we expect the state, the law, the authorities, teachers, doctors, society to help and support us.

Sadly, two families were let down by society and all its associated authorities, and with the worst possible consequences. No doubt things will start to change now, and the victim's family are fighting for these changes. But once again, as with many things, it is always too late.

The first appeared in The Cyprus Weekly week 28/11/14