Suddenly it went dark, CyBC went off the air, hospitals ran out of patients and the economy fell down a bottomless pit.
Can it get any better than this? Yes it can.
Milk and medicines are astronomically priced in a country where the consumer has ‘sucker’ tattooed across its collective forehead.
There should be special praise for that civil servant who managed to go to work for 37 days during 2011 because he figured that only a moron would bother turning up at his desk instead of taking an extended ‘sickie’.
I’m using the term ‘work’ in its most elastic interpretation because most public sector employees are immune to it.
Ample everyday proof is provided if you are desperate enough to pick up the phone and dial a government department.
Apparently there’s more chance of winning the euro lottery than having your calls answered – which is why only 800 of 2,500 daily calls to the social insurance department successfully get put on hold.
Strangely our very own Nobel Prize winner has suggested that public services stay open in the afternoon to facilitate the private sector by being useful.
People living hectic working lives might – on the off chance – like to visit a post office, bank or pay utility bills at a more convenient hour.
When we travel to other parts of the European Union don’t we expect flexible opening hours – so why not demand it closer to home?
Slowly life styles are changing as the only thing open on Sundays a decade or so ago was a church – not to mention the lack of TV options when CyBC was the only station available.
Even the Soviet bloc had more choice than Cypriots back in the crusty old days when television closed earlier than the corner shop.
Everyone deserves a living wage for an honest day’s work but I feel little sympathy for the people at CyBC turning their pay issue into one of national importance.
They went on symbolic strike to prove they were guardians of free speech which is translated into whatever the government tells them to think. Did anyone notice any tangible difference when the corporation went off air?
What did we miss - various half-baked cultural shows featuring ageing rockers who haven’t grown up or some pseudo appearing in a dreary monologue that makes eating one’s fingers desirable?
If the corporation can generate revenue from advertising, like its private competitors, why does it need €40 trillion of tax payer’s money – that’s a lot of mullah for period dramas set in a mountain village before sex was invented.
No seriously, what do all those people do in that building – it’s not exactly the BBC. Politicians would be on safer ground if they were actually asking the question about the value of a toothless CyBC and its mandate – instead of just cutting the budget because they’d like to see their faces on the box instead of the government’s.
Penny-pinching MPs have also upset the posties who receive an advance from the state to buy a moped to deliver letters as they must use their own transport.
Now that budget has been cut they are threatening to strike.
I suppose walking would be high risk – too old school.
If I had my way posties would get paid higher than Cyprus Airways pilots. Another section of the population that is under the delusion the world owes them a living and then some.
The best way forward is to strike while the national carrier is bleeding money and on the verge of bankruptcy. I get it, I really do. Bring on Barca.