IMPRESSIONS OF CYPRUS

If my absence from contributions to this blog has been noticed it has been because of our having taken two weeks holiday in Cyprus.
Yes I know we went 3 months ago, for the first time and really enjoyed it so we decided to go again.

On our second day we went on an off road safari through the Trudos Mountains with a Cypriot driver in a Land Rover.
Our first stop was at a resevoir which to my surprise was three quarters full in spite of there being no rain on the island for 6 months. I mentioned to the driver my surprise at the quantity of water available bearing in mind that all crops in summer must be irrigated.
His reply? I don't know what's wrong with your country, 3 weeks without rain and you have a hosepipe ban and I had to admit neither did I.

Sitting in the front of the Land Rover with him he told us how he had been driven out of his home in Northern Cyprus by the Turkish army and his father was among the hundreds killed.
The Christians had been driven from their homes and their homes taken by 300,000 Turks who "previously had lived in caves" (his words)
We drove through a village which looked a bit different which he said was populated by people who hoped their occupancy would be temporary and that they would be able to return to the North, a folorn hope I think.
And after all the Turkish aggression our politicians wish to have Turkey , a country in which the army and muslims battle for control admitted to the EU.

I was struck by the infrastructure and general prosperity and asked the reason. He told me that the only exports were cement to Saudi Arabia and potatoes etc to Britain. The main industry was tourism but people gained no benefits if they were capable of work and refused to do so, so everybody found jobs.
The villages were clean and graffiti free but the thing that struck me most was the absence of non Europeans. There was a problem he said, with illegal immigrants coming through the border from North Cyprus having crossed Turkey and crime was increasing as a result he said, but I saw no evidence of non Europeans there.
He distinguished strongly between illegals and legals. The former he complained about but the latter he accepted as they came to contribute and not to suck the society dry.

Of course Cyprus has not our population density so perhaps he could afford not to worry especially as the legals were European.
I never saw a police car or policeman for that matter and felt safe wherever I went, unlike the feeling I get in some of the more diverse parts of our country.
Yes they have the weather but little water and few natural resources apart from the sun but they have made the most of what they have without the help of non Europeans, and we were sorry to have to finish our holiday.

A final point. In our Land Rover was a woman who had been born in Cyprus in the RAF base but was from Yorkshire which goes to show that it is not where you are born which dictates your nationality but the stock from which you stem and confirms that "if a dog is born in a stable it is not a horse".
It's ironic that on returning to Manchester Airport in my own country I saw more third worlders in 5 minutes than I did in 2 weeks in Cyprus.

To once again quote Enoch Powell "when the Gods wish to destroy a people they first make them mad".
My return to my country seemed to confirm that we or those controlling the country must indeed be mad OR TRAITORS