Cyprus-Forum.com

[ozzie]

right so my car got hit by a cyclist and cause 400quid of damage i got it fixed but the body shop wanted to charge me 1grand more to get it painted when they found the car was mine and not the cypriot friend of mine i got to take it down there. any way thats another story.

so there car is half painted with no number plate on the front. goin thru limmasol u see billions of cars old and batters with panels missing and no number plates, bikes with no number plates.... so imagine my frustration wen i get pulled and the copper starts shouting at me saying there is a very strict rule in cyprus and i dont understand cause im british. well actually mate im australian.
personallly i dont think i would have got a ticket if i was a local. im nto saying all cypriots are racist but alot of them dont like foriegners.

please dont take offense to this and if u do i am sorry for that, im not call u racist im calling the copper racist. i think its a disgrace.

another time a friend of mine had an accident in ehr car with a cypriot i t was obvious to every one it was the cyps fault but the copper said t the local dont worry we will blame it on the british girl unlucky for him she speaks fluent greek

[kafenes]

ozzie, you were just unlucky. Tha police started a strict campaign on number plates starting last Monday (they had announced they were going to, 2 weeks ago).

[Peterc]

As a past Met Police officer, I can confirm that unfortunately, wherever you are in the world it is human nature to be prejudice towards 'your own'. A policeman is unfortunately in a no win situation. If he stops you for speeding, then you think, surely there are more important issues that he should be dealing with. If he stops someone else, then, we believe that they shouldn’t have been speeding.
My own experiences with the police here have been good, they found and arrested the idiot British Greek that stole my motorcycle, and they are always helpful if I have a form to fill in if I don’t understand part of it.
I have seen the police deal with British yobs in ways I wish I could have dealt with them back in the UK. I suppose there are pros and cons to us being on a sunny Island in the med.

[Crivens]

You would have loved where I grew up then. Basically back in Anglesey (small island on the north of Wales) we have so many car deaths it is unbelievable for the size of the place. Kids driving like nutters basically. Anyhow, thanks to the massive racism towards english people, it was never a surprise to read stories of accidents with total bias towards the locals.

One great example I remember was of an elderly english couple who were on holiday. They got hit head on at a typical accident black spot (S-bend) by a car with 4 local teenagers. Think everyone died. As was normal for that corner about once a month they covered it in flowers to the boys who died. The paper then reported it as the elderly couples fault (bit old to be driving basically) and what a terrible waste of young welsh lives. Front page stuff. A tiny small paragraph appeared the following week stating that the teenagers had been totally wasted on whatever drugs and alcohol they could get their hands on and a witness came forward to say the teenager's car had been on the wrong side of the road going round the blind bend at about 90mph. Nice...

Cheers

[tessintrnc]

When I went to Wales on holiday some 25 years ago a lot of the dual Welsh/English road signs had the English bit sprayed over with paint to confuse us who speak no Welsh. The funniest incident was at the local post office where we went to buy stamps for our postcards. The lady gestured that she didnt understand - even when we showed her the postcards, so my husband said "so you dont mind me calling you a fat racist cow then do you"? And of course - she couldnt say a thing could she?....... Tess

[devil]

Typical. When I was here in 1956, I was walking along Byron Avenue in Nicosia. There was an RAF flight sergeant a few paces in front of me, walking in the same direction. A teenager on a bicycle shouted all sorts of impolite anti-British and EOKA epithets at the guy, who responded by drawing his sidearm and letting loose two shots in the general direction of the kid at a range of perhaps 15-20 m, missing him by a mile. As it happened, one shot grazed the back of the calf of a woman pushing a pram on the other side of the road, without causing more than slight skin damage, not even bleeding. When I saw she was OK, other than a bit shaken, I looked around for the RAF guy, but he had scarpered. To the best of my knowledge, no enquiry ensued.

The UK papers, without exception, all carried a report citing an EOKA terrorist on a bike who shot at the pram carrying the baby of the wife of a UK serviceman, but missed, seriously wounding the wife in the leg. I wrote to several papers asking them to carry a corrigendum giving my account as an eye-witness. Not one paper published it.

Since then, I have never believed in anything published by the papers where a spin could be placed on it.

[the_snake_and_the_crane]

Typical. When I was here in 1956, I was walking along Byron Avenue in Nicosia. There was an RAF flight sergeant a few paces in front of me, walking in the same direction. A teenager on a bicycle shouted all sorts of impolite anti-British and EOKA epithets at the guy, who responded by drawing his sidearm and letting loose two shots in the general direction of the kid at a range of perhaps 15-20 m, missing him by a mile. As it happened, one shot grazed the back of the calf of a woman pushing a pram on the other side of the road, without causing more than slight skin damage, not even bleeding. When I saw she was OK, other than a bit shaken, I looked around for the RAF guy, but he had scarpered. To the best of my knowledge, no enquiry ensued.

The UK papers, without exception, all carried a report citing an EOKA terrorist on a bike who shot at the pram carrying the baby of the wife of a UK serviceman, but missed, seriously wounding the wife in the leg. I wrote to several papers asking them to carry a corrigendum giving my account as an eye-witness. Not one paper published it.

Since then, I have never believed in anything published by the papers where a spin could be placed on it.

Yep - and then Turkish Cypriots use stories made up like this as anti-EOKA propaganda.

[MR-from-NG]

Typical. When I was here in 1956, I was walking along Byron Avenue in Nicosia. There was an RAF flight sergeant a few paces in front of me, walking in the same direction. A teenager on a bicycle shouted all sorts of impolite anti-British and EOKA epithets at the guy, who responded by drawing his sidearm and letting loose two shots in the general direction of the kid at a range of perhaps 15-20 m, missing him by a mile. As it happened, one shot grazed the back of the calf of a woman pushing a pram on the other side of the road, without causing more than slight skin damage, not even bleeding. When I saw she was OK, other than a bit shaken, I looked around for the RAF guy, but he had scarpered. To the best of my knowledge, no enquiry ensued.

The UK papers, without exception, all carried a report citing an EOKA terrorist on a bike who shot at the pram carrying the baby of the wife of a UK serviceman, but missed, seriously wounding the wife in the leg. I wrote to several papers asking them to carry a corrigendum giving my account as an eye-witness. Not one paper published it.

Since then, I have never believed in anything published by the papers where a spin could be placed on it.

Yep - and then Turkish Cypriots use stories made up like this as anti-EOKA propaganda.

Go on snake, convince us all that nothing happened in 63 or 74. Its all propaganda, nothing more than the creation of our imagination Soon you'll have the whole world believe you are nothing but angels and you are in fact the victims and the TCs the aggressors.

Are you guys born natural liars or do you take evening classes?

[Eliko]

Compared to the police forces of other countries, I have found the Cypriot police very polite and helpful.

The Poms have got their 'Sweeney'

The Yanks 'Starsky and Hutch'

But you should see Australia's super cops, their names are 'Fair and Just'.

[Crivens]

When I went to Wales on holiday some 25 years ago a lot of the dual Welsh/English road signs had the English bit sprayed over with paint to confuse us who speak no Welsh

Yeah, they are scum. Once a government official said that to save money we should only have the signs in Welsh. When it was pointed out to her that something like 99% of people speak English fluently in Wales, and only some stupidly small number (like 30%) spoke Welsh, so how about saving money by getting rid of the Welsh bits, then she shut up.

The lady gestured that she didnt understand

Scum again. They all speak English fluently. The only person I ever met who, apparently, only spoke Welsh, was some 95 year old man. I went to his house for school sponsor money, but he pretended to not understand me. While watching Eastenders... Basically I understand the point about keeping the language alive (I am actually Welsh) but they are just rude. I remember times when groups of decent people would start talking totally (and they all spoke perfect english) welsh even though members of the group didn't speak welsh.

Brought it to a head for me when local morons got my mum chucked out from the local primary school (60 kids size). She was teaching 8 year olds english reading and writing. For no money. But some parents argued that an English person should not be allowed to teach their kids english. Yep... Even after it was explained that my Mum is actually Welsh but doesn't speak Welsh, they still pushed it. And the argument for not being able to communicate without speaking welsh is not true. All welsh kids can speak english as well as any english kid. She was just helping them with their reading. They then replaced her with a proper teacher (costing money) who was as thick as s**t. I know, because I was a pupil there. Seriously retarded. Our headmaster used to leave the school in the afternoon and go get drunk at the pub (was always flushed when he got back and got done for drink driving once). He said to my Mum when I left (11 years old) that I could read and write better than him. I believe that.

Sums it up though that some painted sign on leaving Anglesey says "Go home English!" or something like that, and has been there for as long as I remember. Only it is written in Welsh. Honest. Also once a year they used to spray anti-english sayings on English owned shop windows in my local college town. Only, again, they wrote them all in Welsh. Honestly...

Cheers