In the end, the practice of turning into government policy whatever impulsively comes out of the presidential mouth is proving a bit of an embarrassment.
The weakness of this policy-making formula was exposed once again when it became obvious that Prezniktwo’s plan to have females joining the national guard, as soon as they left school on a voluntary basis, was resoundingly idiotic.
By the October 24 deadline, just two females – yes two – expressed an interest in joining, assuming they do not change their mind before October 31, the day they are expected to present themselves and become guardswomen.
The defence ministry said it would not scrap female recruitment just because there is no interest and the two volunteers will be welcomed into the national guard on Friday for six months of service, or 14 months (like male conscripts) if they are really enjoying army life.
My bet is that both guardswomen will volunteer to desert after a few weeks of the mind-numbing tedium that is army service and get a lowly paid job that still pays better.
THE JOKE was the result of a presidential brainwave during the celebration of 60 years of the national guard in September last year, when the Prez proudly announced that from 2025 women would “would have the ability to enlist voluntarily in the national guard”, for a minimum six-month service.
Even Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas was taken by surprise, but nobody questioned the idiocy of the proposal. The council of ministers approved the relevant bill and the legislature approved it, no party wanting to be seen opposing a decision aimed at boosting the numbers of our undermanned (or should I say underwomaned) army.
Speaking at the House a few days ago, Palmas said he had reservations about the plan as enlistment would be voluntary. The defence ministry was now “looking at ways of amending the law so as to make the procedure more attractive”, he said.
He did not elaborate, but there are rumours that the Prez is considering offering a Range Rover Evoque to every female volunteer that enlists and completes six months of service.
I WAS very disappointed that while the female enlistment fiasco was unfolding the Commissioner of Gender Equality, Josie Christodoulou, disappeared from public view and said absolutely nothing to encourage her sisters to volunteer for the army.
She announced no list of actions, as she usually does, aimed at introducing gender equality in army enlistment. This champion of gender equality could not even bring herself to say a few words of support for her boss’ doomed initiative. Perish the thought that she would demand female conscription.
It seems she wants women to be equally represented in the top positions of the state services, on company boards, in senior management of business, but not in the ranks of the national guard. When it comes to army conscription, the commissioner seems to fully support gender inequality.
COULD there have been a more honest admission of failure than that made by Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis at the House on Wednesday? “Organised crime will never be eradicated,” said the minister.
Should he not make way for someone that does not feel defeated and at least believes organised crime could be eradicated? What does our positive-speaking Prez think? Is it not time to move Hartsiotis to another ministry where he might be more positive and effective?
Hartsiotis is said to be untouchable because he is a closet Elamite and enjoys the favour of the bishop of Limassol, with whom the presidential couple has very close ties.
His Elam sympathies were evident on Wednesday, when he revealed that organised crime was “imported”, introducing an element of xenophobia to the matter. He lamented the fact that in the past, organised crime in Cyprus was “purely Cypriot” and of “Cypriot interests” whereas now many people “come to Cyprus to commit crimes on behalf of others”.
If he knows so much about organised crime – he also revealed that crimes are no longer carried out at night but in broad daylight – why can’t we eradicate it?
‘COLA FOR ALL’, another impulsive presidential declaration, has created more problems for the negotiations ever since it was announced and without anyone being consulted beforehand.
As far as slogans go, it sounded pretty good, but the only problem was that employers had said they would never accept this. So now, the labour and finance ministers are involved in endless proximity talks with unions and employers’ organisations in the hope of finding some compromise, which is looking pretty unlikely.
Smooth-talking, deputy spokesman, Yiannis Antoniou, claimed on Saturday that the labour and finance ministers were formulating a proposal, aimed at providing a “holistic and permanent solution”, that would be submitted to the social partners.
Funny, because the previous day Keve and Oev sent a letter to the ministers that diplomatically rejected the government’s latest five-point plan, responding with nine counter proposals.
CoLA is turning into a Cyprob negotiation, with the unions in the role of the intransigent Turks, as they insist on the restoration of CoLA to 100 per cent.
YOU HAVE to laugh seeing our Prez who, domestically, leaves a trail of messes behind him (see above), thinking that he can assist in the implementation of President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, by writing a few platitudes on a piece of paper, which he christened as a six-point plan for the implementation of the next stage of the agreement between Israel and Hamas.
He claimed to have submitted this document at the Trump gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, a fortnight ago, and that he discussed it with several leaders. A few days ago, he decided to present this six-point plan at the European Council meeting attended by Egypt’s president.
It was left to his spokesman Victoras to explain how Kyproulla sought to offer “operational support” for Trump’s peace plan. The Prez, said Victoras in a written statement, “has proposed an applied contribution model which has already been codified in six operational pillars, building on the successful implementation of the Amalthea plan.”
We shall call our plan the Six Pillars of Wisdom. And it also includes our Prez’ plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, which was analysed on Euronews but we will not bore you with.
BEFORE the European Council, the six-point plan was also presented at the Med-9 summit in Slovenia. His proposal was “was warmly welcomed” by the summit said Victoras, adding that the Prez was able to “brief exhaustively” the leaders of the other eight Mediterranean EU member states.
THE IDEA that the United States and other big countries involved in the Gaza peace efforts, which have at their service the world’s best talent, including renowned professors, Middle East experts, top diplomats and prominent politicians would require the assistance of our Prez to implement the Gaza peace plan is extremely amusing.
Does the Paphite really believe he has such a brilliant mind that he can out-think highly intelligent experts and come up with ideas for the implementation of the Gaza peace plan that are beyond their intellectual grasp? From what I hear Donald Trump has still not picked up the phone to ask for his operational support, but it can still happen.
It is one of the small wonders of the world that a guy could not organise a policy for enlisting women in the national guard, could arrange the implementation of the Gaza peace plan.
