GreekIslandGirl wrote:bill cobbett wrote:Yes... but where is the reaction from ordinary CYs to two calamities, to Mari and the Banking Scandal...???
Things won't change without such a massive reaction.
Why haven't we seen thousands of CYs out on the streets ... ???
As awful as Mari was, that's a one-off which has to be put into perspective, part of the learning curve. It's not as though worse things don't happen elsewhere for you to beat the Cypriots about this one disaster (from which lessons
were learnt as Christofias turned away a similar consignment afterwards.)
Here are some similar disasters (wiki) for people to stop being racist against Cypriots and accept that disasters happen everywhere (we poor humans are only wise in retrospect! )
February 7, 2010: 2010 Connecticut power plant explosion. A large explosion occurred at a Kleen Energy Systems 620-megawatt, Siemens combined cycle gas- and oil- fired power plant in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. Preliminary reports attributed the cause of the explosion to a test of the plant's energy systems.[6] The plant was still under construction and scheduled to start supplying energy in June 2010.[7] The number of injuries was eventually established to be 27.[8] Five people died in the explosion.
March 2011: Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan. Regarded as the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster, there were no direct deaths but a few of the plant's workers were severely injured or killed by the disaster conditions resulting from the earthquake.
February 7, 2008: The 2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion in Port Wentworth, Georgia, United States. Thirteen people were killed and 42 injured when a dust explosion occurred at a sugar refinery owned by Imperial Sugar.
February 1, 2008: Istanbul fireworks explosion. An unlicensed fireworks factory exploded accidentally, leaving by some reports at least 22 people dead and at least 100 injured.
November 19, 2010: Pike River Mine disaster in New Zealand. At 3:45pm, the coal mine exploded. Twenty-nine men underground died immediately, or shortly afterwards, from the blast or from the toxic atmosphere. Two men in the stone drift, some distance from the mine workings, managed to escape.
April 17, 2013: Fertiziler plant explosion in West, Texas, an explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas, 18 miles (29 km) north of Waco while emergency services personnel were responding to a fire at the facility. At least 14 people were killed, more than 160 were injured and more than 150 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Sadly, the list is endless ...
The problem in Cyprus is that there are no independent watch dogs.
For example, if Mari were to happen elsewhere, you would have a Royal Commission, and Senate Inquiry and Federal Court hearings.
The Ministers can't have access to any presiding Federal Judges, and no one is able to pull any strings. Or at least it is much harder to do so as chances are it will be discovered.
I will give you an example. You have a Minister for Transport, who is in charge of Aviation and so forth. The Parliament issues the Civil Aviation Regulations which are passed as Law. A regulatory body is formed that is handed responsibility for enforcing the Regulations. The Minister has no decision making power, nor can it interfere with any investigations. The Regulatory Body in effect is untouchable in terms of conducting its duty and its officers can't be sacked for doing their job. On top of that, if there was a major accident killing 400 people let's say, a Senate Inquiry may be formed to audit the Regulatory Body and the Investigation process. Then the matter proceeds to the Courts.
You can't have the airline owner, calling his political mates, and then the Minister calling the Director of the Regulatory Body.
Anti corruption protections are multilayered for a reason because corruption does exist, so you need Parliamentary and Senate Inquiries, a Judicial System, Independent watch dogs, to oversee the Regulator and verify that it has the power to do what it is suppose to do without political interference and to also make sure that it is doing its job properly and not trying to cover up any endemic failures on its part due to let's say improper or insufficient auditing and surveillance of the industry.
Many things can be done to improve, but even with such an approach, the system is still not full proof.
Maybe Cyprus is just too small to have all these systems in place. The sad thing is, it can't afford this approach at this time.
