The Writing On The Wall

Our View: The writing is on the wall: time to bite the bullet on economic reform

THE MEETING between President Demetris Christofias and the unions on Thursday to discuss economic measures is to continue next week with the aim of taking a package of measures to parliament on Thursday.

While the meeting two days ago moved a bit closer to a deal, a week is a long time in politics and the pensions reform is not a small issue. Also with DIKO now out of the government, there is no guarantee of passing the package on Thursday.

Until then it would be premature to comment on who will win and who will lose in this package, although it might not be too hard to guess.

Meanwhile foreign markets continue to be antsy about Cyprus.  And even the appointment of a new finance minister may not be enough to restore confidence in Cyprus.

The delay in putting right the economy has been unacceptable, Mari blast aside. The ‘dialogue’ between the unions and the president have been going on for well over a year with no results. All they are doing is prolonging the inevitable.

In the meantime countries like Ireland – the first eurozone country to be hit by the crisis - have been getting on with it.

This week positive news from Ireland is prompting a growing number of investors to look at the troubled economy, said US billionaire Wilbur Ross, who has just invested €300m in Bank of Ireland.

Ross said the deal was fuelled by positive news from Ireland that indicated it was breaking away from its troubled peers in southern Europe and embarking on a solid recovery.

These included the government’s announcement it was ahead of target to bring its budget deficit under control and the lack of protest against a harsh austerity programme,

Although Ireland is mid-way through an unprecedented eight-year cycle of austerity, social unrest is almost non-existent and unlike Greece and Portugal, Ireland is expected to return to growth this year. “Ireland bit the bullet and faced up to it,” Ross said.

What happened in Ireland was that everyone, including civil servants took their cuts in the interests of the country. Here everyone – civil servants, employers and government and parties – are first and foremost looking out for themselves  - their pockets and their votes.

If President Demetris Christofias showed any strong leadership tendencies people would be probably willing to sacrifice that bit more to help put things back on track, but when your leaders are only out for themselves it sets the worst of examples.

The Writing on the Wall is Yellow and Black « West Bank Mama

The news is very appropriate for just before Tisha B’Av, the worst day of the Jewish calendar. The stock markets around the world are shaky at best, and it looks especially bad in Europe.

Add to this the latest from extremist Muslims in Britain. They have posted bright yellow and black signs in neighborhoods calling them “Sharia Controlled “. I don’t know about you, but I keep thinking that we should not only be building a lot more housing for those in Israel already, but we should be building for the hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe that we will need to rescue in the near future. I see in my mind’s eye those lovely blue and white El-Al planes swooping down and rescuing our brothers and sisters and bringing them to Israel.

Oh, you’re so right! I saw that sign and thought, what if they did this in Brooklyn, Queens, Skokie, and all the other states where they are gathered. What about the remnants in all the countries in Europe, Africa, not to mention the Middle East and Israel?

Let those Blue and White planes get their motors revved up and let it happen all too soon!

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