I read in the media there is a buzz of excitement with the Royal Society’s meeting of 250 scientists airing their enthusiasm for the imminent discovery of alien life in space.
We gather that new technologies will open up the inner heavens, pinpointing innumerable Earth-like planets clustering in the orbits of possible suns.
Here, the very visions of strange creatures loping along in their desert-y environs comes to mind along with more disturbing flashbacks to the horrible Alien of that then-titled horror film that broke out of the guts of its space-station victim.
I read the details of the significance of the meeting with a sense of disbelief that ‘intelligent’ man can be so fooled... Read on

The dictatorship regime of Iran is approaching annihilation day by day now. According to Amnesty International, 271 people were executed in Iran in 2009. Most of them had only asked the innocent question: “Where is our vote?”.
After the presidential election in June 2009, most of these prisoners were tortured and some of them were killed by medieval means – many were raped and some had their fingers or limbs cut off for minor crimes.
The breach and abuse of human rights and stoning women and men have burdened Iran’s criminal record more than ever before. Iran’s barbaric regime must be overthrown and destroyed now... Read on

Following the announcement that the Apostolides lawyer, Costantis Candounas, now plans to target visitors to the Dome Hotel in Kyrenia for the same almost bizarre reason as he targeted the Orams use of a plot he himself has no intention of living in (“We mind them being there” – Cyprus Mail, 21/1), we are lucky that the ‘TRNC’ government is not planning to sue all the millions of visitors to Larnaca airport over the last few decades.
Presumably the totally uncompensated Turkish Cypriot title deed holders of those lost sites almost certainly also “just mind them being there”, however, luckily it seems the ‘TRNC’ are not so childish... Read on

Hi my name is Sonia and I lived in Ayia Napa for a few years with my daughter, Tuesday.
We made some great friends and have some very happy memories. I would love to get back in contact with friends who unfortunately I’ve lost contact with.
Siobhan Adamou from Sotira and her husband Adam used to work in the Square Pub in Ayia Napa, Caroline Pourgouri – her husband Jimmy had a diving school in Ayia Napa and Jean Cahill Mitzi, who I worked with for Budget Travel and I think now lives in Freneros.
I lost their phone numbers and have only partial addresses and I have only recently got an email address. I would love to hear from them and re-start our friendships – if anyone can help me with this I would be delighted to hear from them.
 ... Read on

No one leaves home with the intention of having an accident or killing someone else. In fact, there is no such thing as a road traffic ‘accident’. They are ‘collisions’ because there is a cause or reason for every one.
One could blame the weather, the road, other drivers or the vehicle but ultimately there is a cause – and there is a good chance that it could have been avoided if it was anticipated.
Having taken many statements from drivers in collisions, the word ‘suddenly’ comes to mind repeatedly. Suddenly a car came out of the junction; suddenly the car in front of me stopped; suddenly a child ran out and so on. ‘Suddenly’ should never happen because people should be trained to expect and be prepared for it. It can be done, try it!... Read on

I could not resist writing, after reading the article in your January 24 edition of the Sunday Mail concerning the Church and Archbishop.
First of all, it would not be amiss if the Archbishop read and I quote: Sermon on the Mount, St. Mathew, Chapter 5, No. 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”.
Now I cannot by any means associate the Archbishop with a peacemaker. Distributing questionable pamphlets of a political nature in the church is mindboggling. Funded by the Archbishopric to boot... Read on

I think the lawyer proposing to sue people who may have holidayed in hotels such as The Dome, must surely be skating on very thin ice.
This is not the same as people like the Orams, who have purchased and built illegally. Holidaymakers would be totally unaware about the ownership of a hotel or the land on which it has been built.
Do you know of anyone, anywhere, where those sort of investigations are instructed to a lawyer before booking a holiday? Get real…
 
Michael Strand,
Paphos... 1 comment

I am an author writing a book about Europe’s coming water problems. Cyprus has particular water issues and I am interested in hearing from people whose business or lifestyle has been affected by water shortages. I shall be in Cyprus the second week of February. Please email [email protected]. My current book is Peak Water: Civilisation and the World’s Water Crisis.
 
Alexander Bell... Read on

I refer to Peter Davis’ letter in your January 24 letters (‘Cyprus has run out of customers’). Mr Davis seems to wake up in a daily fog of negativity. I hate to disappoint him but many people will desire to move to Cyprus in the future.
It is a beautiful country with great weather and, generally speaking, the Cypriot people remain extremely affable and patient with their foreign ‘guests’. I have lived the dream and moved to Limassol from New York almost three years ago. I very recently completed construction of a house here and regularly receive visits from serious buyers – both Cypriot and international... 1 comment

The article by Sebastian Heller, “National Action plan for integration of immigrants” (Sunday Mail, January 17) declares that a National Action Plan for the integration of immigrants into society “should be ready by the end of February, after which it will be discussed with the local municipalities and ‘social partners’ who will help facilitate its application.”
This superficially attractive plan is a transparently obvious scheme, all while projecting the appearance of doing something dynamic and progressive, to establish an endless dialogue with municipalities and ‘social partners’... 1 comment