Cyprus-Forum.com

[Svetlana]

As a 'long term' foreign resident, I have to say that I have always found Cypriots friendly and helpful; treat with respect and get respect. However, my Sri Lankan friends are most certainly treated and regarded differently - it's a shame - most are hard-working and law abiding but their skin colour and culture sets them apart in many people's eyes.

As an aside, most British people I have met in Cyprus (it may be different in the UK) are pro-Cypriot and non-racist; it seems to be only the other Brits they do not get along with!

Lana

[Tim Drayton]

This 'old chestnut' seems to rear its head with monotonous regularity on the forum. Some people just seem to post to antagonise others. In all my time visiting and living in Cyprus over the last 30 years I can honestly say that racism on the island is far less rife than in the majority of other EC countries I have visited. Indeed as a Brit I have suffered far less discrimination in Cyprus than my wife who is Cypriot has in the UK.

I second that. I am British, and have been a permanent resident of Cyprus for nearly four years and have never experienced any kind of discrimination here. Perhaps it is also because I have lived in places where the locals make it clear that they do not like British people, such as Turkey, Qatar and Libya, that I have become desensitised to any small amount of anti-British sentiment that may exist.

[Tim Drayton]

Re: Romanian school student's experiences

When I was about ten, my family moved from Essex to Scotland. I suddenly found myself transformed from a junior school in an urban area of the south of England to a school in a small fishing village on the Ayrshire coast. I went through the same kind of hell that this Romanian child has described. While I can empathise with his experiences, I would suggest that this is quite a universal phenomenon. Children are very cruel, and pick on those whom they perceive to be outsiders, especially when these speak with a different accent and come from a different cultural background.
By the way, we moved again about two years later, by which time I remember I had settled into to my new school and made good friends there, so much so that there were tears in my eyes when I said my final goodbyes.

[denizaksulu]

Yer, Getcha, sling yer bleeden 'ook !!

(learned from an Englishman)

Oooh, Eliko, that was unlike you.

You are kidding, right?

[denizaksulu]

Stay where you are if it's so bad .....

Just the response I expected - how predictable!

Thank your lucky stars you were not shopping in the 'Murder Mile' around 1956/58. You would have seen real hospitality then.

[simonwjones]

I smell something large and brown here!!!

.... well if it was small and brown it may have been your brain

No bad, not bad at all...

Shouldn't an old man like you be tucked up in bed with Co-co and a crossword?

Pension day tomorrow isn't it?

Is that the clown?

Perhaps you were thinking of Cocoa?

I'm too young to spell it you see. Your showing your age now!

[cyprusgrump]

I smell something large and brown here!!!

.... well if it was small and brown it may have been your brain

No bad, not bad at all...

Shouldn't an old man like you be tucked up in bed with Co-co and a crossword?

Pension day tomorrow isn't it?

Is that the clown?

Perhaps you were thinking of Cocoa?

I'm too young to spell it you see. Your showing your age now!

Do you mean 'you're showing your age now'?

[simonwjones]

I smell something large and brown here!!!

.... well if it was small and brown it may have been your brain

No bad, not bad at all...

Shouldn't an old man like you be tucked up in bed with Co-co and a crossword?

Pension day tomorrow isn't it?

Is that the clown?

Perhaps you were thinking of Cocoa?

I'm too young to spell it you see. Your showing your age now!

Do you mean 'you're showing your age now'?

Sorry, didn't know you spoke the Queen's English

[Oracle]

Stay where you are if it's so bad .....

Just the response I expected - how predictable!

Thank your lucky stars you were not shopping in the 'Murder Mile' around 1956/58. You would have seen real hospitality then.

Was that when the British were shooting Cypriot school children

[purdey]

I had a simalar experience to Tim. Coming to the UK (Northern) from Cyprus at 12. Our English was spoken with an accent and we were slightly darker than most.
Paki was the first greeting we had at school, my brother been smaller and two years younger found it more difficult. However, when I left school I shed no tears. Yes children are cruel, unfortunately it is something you never forget.