Cyprus Bailout | Pauline Read’s Trip to the South

By Pauline Ann Read on March 26th, 2013

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Cyprus Bailout | Pauline Read’s Trip to the South

I have just returned from a trip to the south to do a little shopping. I sometimes wish my life was as exciting as some would have you believe, no I did not go to report to my Spy Master, the whole of south Cyprus have more to worry about that an ageing alleged Greek Cypriot sympathiser.

It was not anywhere near as busy as normal and that I suppose is to be expected. Cash is king and we noticed that credit cards and cheques were definitely not being taken at the Petrol Station.

What really saddened me was graffiti outside Lidl which said ‘BOYKOTT LIDL’. Now how sick and sad is that? Of course, being a naive soul, I said to Agile, why would we want to boycott Lidl, to which he replied ‘German, don’t talk about the war’.

Now the ROC might just like to take a leaf out of Germany’s book. When the Berlin wall came down, and they had to absorb the East Berliners, with all their problems and poverty, did they say, “oh well it is all the fault of the Allies, if they had not fought back we would have the whole of Europe and there would never have been a wall”. NO they rolled up their sleeves and got on with it. The model of Germany today is the result.

Too easy to blame the first scapegoat that comes to mind. What will that achieve? It is not the fault of the Turkish, the Russians, the British, the Americans, the Germans etc. It is the fault of poor governance and badly run, unsupervised banks.

Whatever were the Greek Cypriot Banks thinking of when the loaned money to builders using property already sold as security? Whatever were the Greek Cypriot Banks thinking of when they loaned money to Greece? Whatever were Greek Cypriots thinking of giving bank employees mortgages equal to twelve times their annual income? Clearly there has been very little prudence involved in such lending policies and too little supervision. Hopefully now that will all stop.

The minimum standard any depositor should demand from his bank is, due diligence, prudence in lending and care that money is not being laundered through their bank.

Now the lesson has hopefully been learnt and the restructuring of the banking system will include all the checks and balances needed in a modern, honest banking system.

Cyprus Bailout | Pauline Read’s Trip to the South

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