Onasagoras
Two days before the devastating wildfires, the Auditor General sent a letter asking why helicopters, hired through a no-bid process, were sitting idle in Paphos instead of helping fight fires. This, after a prior investigation had already flagged “sloppiness, omissions, and possible interference” in how they were originally leased. Add as many exclamation points as you like; we’re going to need them.
So, brace yourselves for new blazes, this time, the political kind, that could singe state officials over how firefighting helicopter contracts were awarded. And believe me, we might be talking about fires no fleet of water-dropping aircraft could ever put out. My gloomy prediction? Some of those choppers might end up dropping flames instead of water.
Every cloud, though, has its silver lining. While the wildfires scorched the image of our young Nikos, just as his approval ratings were beginning to recover, they also, politically speaking, brought him one small blessing: they burned down the bridges Annita was trying to build with our “national prince.” The prince, acting as the picture of responsible opposition, except for Pantelides, who calls it as he sees it, felt duty-bound to find excuses for the government’s handling of the crisis. This became even more urgent once the shadow coalition partner, ELAM, started taking potshots at ministers and every “relevant authority” in sight to avoid any political fallout. And so, as Tsouroulis might say, any hope of rekindling relations between DISY and DIKO will have to wait.
And honestly, one has to wonder: how can you build bridges with other parties, like DIKO, when you haven’t even built bridges with dissenters inside your own party? Did Dimitriou’s firefighting efforts amount to anything? Do the shadow players operate as a state within a state, or do they answer to someone? And what’s the point of chasing DIKO or DIPA support if you can’t even secure backing from the Averof faction?
As for the Christodoulides loyalists within DISY, the situation is even murkier: some are assumed to be coming back. But how many? And when? You see, quite a few are still waiting for the moment young Nikos will erase their names from that infamous little black book. Besides, with all these cabinet reshuffles, Christodoulides might just make the Guinness World Records for “most ministers and deputy ministers appointed in a single term.” As he himself might put it, yet another first for this government.
He may not be one of the 45 Yiannises, but he’s definitely the Yiannis of our hearts. The man is a phenomenon, ahead of his time, and his case should be studied and taught in universities. I have only one (three) question(s): What exactly did his studies in the “Psychology of Humor” entail, and who were his professors? And why did he choose to specialize in laughter? Did he simply enjoy laughing? Did he want to make us laugh? Or did he perhaps think we were laughable in the ridiculous sense? In any case, the trial has gotten off to a promising start, since, as someone cleverly put it, “out of the five charges, eight have already been dropped.”
