Onasagoras
AKEL is organizing a protest outside the Presidential Palace on Sunday, demonstrating against the dismissal of Odysseas Michaelides. Hearing this brought back memories of the protests outside the Presidential Palace after the Mari incident. "Let’s see if they like it now that we’ll do to them what they did to us," an AKEL friend said to me with a glint in his eye. But, my comrade, these two situations are not comparable. For Lenin’s sake, seriously.
The discussion regarding the renegotiation of the terms with the American company Chevron for the Aphrodite gas field is being pushed to next year. No rush, of course. What’s a few more months in the grand scheme of eternity? The irony is, we used to laugh when Lillikas suggested we pre-sell the gas (considering his suggestions as nothing more than hot air), responding sarcastically, "We haven’t even seen it yet, and you’re already calling it 'John'." Or, to paraphrase a well-known saying, "We haven’t even extracted the gas, and we’re already calling it Aphrodite."
Of course, back then, when we tried to pre-sell to the Americans, they told us, "Do you take us for fools?" Houston, we have a problem! Evidently. Or as the Americans would say, “Clearly!” In a statement, Aphrodite herself famously declared: "I will not surrender my gas!"
Slowly but surely, under pressure from journalists, all the major political parties released the names and salaries of their advisors—except for one. The party of our national prince (Papadopoulos of DIKO). The rumor mill suggests there’s a serious reason for this, with at least two names on the list expected to cause a major uproar. As they say, 'it was already a rotten vine, and now the donkey’s eaten it too'.
Tonight marks the premiere of Loukis Patsalidis' show on Alpha, while Michalis Sophocleous’ show has already started on ANT1. Lukas Constantinou is also launching a political satire show on RIK every Sunday. With all the events of recent days, these satirical programs will have plenty of material to work with.
This season, among other things, we’ll have the third episode of "Famagusta" and a new series by Tsiakkas about Saint Paisios. There’s also a local production of a Social Experiments show on Omega, while Chrysso Lefou has left RIK for Sigma. RIK has also “managed” to lose its highest-rated show, "Paradosiaka Vradia," which is moving to Alpha. Meanwhile, "Trikymia," which held down the post-news slot for years, is now being moved to 7 PM—a baffling, nonsensical, and self-sabotaging move. Finally, Fotis Georgiadis' team has started filming a comedy series that’s expected to air in early January. Wishing everyone a good TV season!
[This op-ed was translated from its Greek original]