Cyprus-Forum.com

[SSBubbles]

Cabaret owners cause mayhem
By Elias Hazou


MILITANT cabaret owners went on the rampage yesterday, occupying the Interior Ministry building, accosting a senior government official, blocking roads and generally making a nuisance of themselves in the streets of the capital.

A group of some 100 protesters yesterday staged a demo outside the Presidential Palace, demanding that the new stricter hiring conditions be lifted. While a delegation requested a meeting with the Undersecretary to the President Titos Christofides, the rest deployed smack in the middle of Demosthenis Severis Avenue, blocking traffic.

Several banners were hung on railings, one of them reading: “The government is sensitive about the human rights of foreigners, but it tramples on the constitutional rights of the ‘natives’.”

“With these new rules, Cyprus will become one of a handful of countries in the world where strip joints are banned. Great! Now we can join the ranks of Saudi Arabia and the Vatican,” said Kleitos Kleovoulou, owner of the Mirage cabaret in Limassol.

“If this is all about vice, you just can’t regulate morals by passing laws. It’s not a theocracy,” he added.

Kleovoulou, who worked at Las Vegas’ Olympic Garden Cabaret before returning to Cyprus, said the new rules were a guise to run cabaret businesses into the ground.

“Hypocrisy, that’s what it is. If the government really wanted to crack down on sexual exploitation of women, there are other ways of accomplishing this. But because they can’t come up with clever ideas, they want to chop off the head, as it were, and be done with it,” Kleovoulou told the Mail.

Under the new regime, performers must be hired in dance troupes of four. They must also have papers proving they are professional dancers with a minimum of two years paid experience and dancing qualifications. Where necessary the artistes will have to show they are “well known” in their own country or internationally.

Cabaret owners say these are impossible stipulations that will drive them out of business, which they suspect is the government’s ultimate goal.

Previously, cabaret owners could hire any foreigner who was over 18 with repeated reports the women were being forced into prostitution by their employers. The procedures were changed after the Cyprus Republic came under fire for allowing trafficking of women under its very nose.

Having gotten nowhere with the Palace, the delegation returned to the main protest, furious with the Under-Secretary to the President for refusing to see them. A few unflattering expletives were heard about Christofides.

The dejected crowd then decided to march onto the Ministry of the Interior to carry their protest there. Throughout the two-kilometre walk, they deliberately shunned footpaths, instead marching in the middle of the street and causing a minor bottleneck at the Honda traffic lights.

Having reached their new destination, the cabaret owners demanded an audience with Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis.

Outlandish scenes ensued when the protesters spotted Lazaros Savvides, the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry, in his limo. A group of about 30 gathered menacingly around the car, hurling abuse at Savvides, whom they consider to be the ‘mastermind’ of the new regulations.

A hapless Savvides was forced to exit the limo and head to the minister’s office on foot.

“Here, let me escort you to your office,” one demonstrator sarcastically remarked.

When they again received word they were getting nowhere with the Ministry, it sparked a mad rush for the minister’s office, with at least one man falling over as he ran up the stairs of the colonial-era building.

Up until that point, the atmosphere had been fairly subdued, but once tempers flared the demonstrators decided to occupy the central building housing the minister’s office.

The crowd eventually scattered around 4.30pm, but not before causing more traffic mayhem in the streets outside the Ministry. There were minor scuffles with police, and the demonstrators even argued and jostled with exasperated motorists madly honking their horns.

At the end of the day, all the cabaret owners got was a promise of a quick-fix: the requirement for artistes to have prior dancing experience would be suspended for six months.

This failed to satisfy the majority, and they came away from the ministry with vague threats of further disruptive actions.

Mirage cabaret’s Kleovoulou told the Mail one way of clamping down on sexual exploitation would be for authorities to interview prospective artistes as soon as they set foot on the island.

“That way, the girls would know exactly what their job involves, and with this information they would then choose to stay or leave. The choice would be theirs. Long gone are the days when artistes were forced to go out for sex with customers…today hardly any cabaret does that. And if they do, then I say arrest them and shut them down.”

Antonis Neophytou, a bartender at another Limassol establishment, said 500 families would be left on the street unless the new regulations were thrown out.

“Out of 100 cabarets, only 65 remain because the owners can’t meet these criteria. Business already took a hit from the financial crisis…and now this is like the final nail in the coffin for us.”

Demetris Kolokassis, owner of Matrix cabaret, said that the new rules were both unfair and absurd.

He said that visa applications for artistes have since been transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Labour Ministry. The latter, however, does not yet have the mechanisms in place and is unable to process applications. In the meantime, cabarets are running out of artistes as their contracts expire.

“In which other similar profession do you ask employees for two years’ prior experience? And what’s all this nonsense about the dancers having to be ‘famous’ in their own country? Who are we supposed to bring? Jennifer Lopez?”

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

[CBBB]

Sunday Mail, 15/2/09

Extract from the Coffeeshop:

OUR DEAR friends the cabaret owners were back in the news this week, but their problems are not related to the economic crisis, which is a shame because a ‘buy one get one free’ offer from their establishments would be a mega success.

They are threatening to take dynamic measures in protest against the government’s tough new requirements for granting work permits to artistes. The new requirements - dance school diploma, proof that the woman had earned money as a dancer for the last two years and (this is the best) proof that the woman was a famous dancer in her country or internationally – make it impossible for the owners to find staff.

The general secretary of the Cabaret Owners Association, quite rightly asked: “How necessary are two-year experience and a dance diploma to do pole-dancing?”

It is just as well that interior ministry bureaucrats did not know that the artistes, apart from pole-dancing, also had to sit at tables and converse with customers about a range of issues of public interest, because they would have made a degree in sociology a requirement as well.

CABARET owners may be defending their personal interests, but their primary concern is the national interest.

They know that if they are left with no dancers all their customers would be heading to the sleazy cabarets of the north, having pseudo-sex with pseudo-artistes, who have entered the island through an illegal port of entry, without being checked for sexually transmitted diseases.

This is why one of the dynamic measures they plan to take is blocking the crossing points. An even more effective dynamic measure would be naming and shaming all their customers, who were crossing to the north for pseudo-sex. This would persuade the ministry to scrap its ridiculous new employment requirements in no time.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.ph ... 2&cat_id=7

[SSBubbles]

Sunday Mail, 15/2/09

Extract from the Coffeeshop:

OUR DEAR friends the cabaret owners were back in the news this week, but their problems are not related to the economic crisis, which is a shame because a ‘buy one get one free’ offer from their establishments would be a mega success.

They are threatening to take dynamic measures in protest against the government’s tough new requirements for granting work permits to artistes. The new requirements - dance school diploma, proof that the woman had earned money as a dancer for the last two years and (this is the best) proof that the woman was a famous dancer in her country or internationally – make it impossible for the owners to find staff.

The general secretary of the Cabaret Owners Association, quite rightly asked: “How necessary are two-year experience and a dance diploma to do pole-dancing?”

It is just as well that interior ministry bureaucrats did not know that the artistes, apart from pole-dancing, also had to sit at tables and converse with customers about a range of issues of public interest, because they would have made a degree in sociology a requirement as well.

CABARET owners may be defending their personal interests, but their primary concern is the national interest.

They know that if they are left with no dancers all their customers would be heading to the sleazy cabarets of the north, having pseudo-sex with pseudo-artistes, who have entered the island through an illegal port of entry, without being checked for sexually transmitted diseases.

This is why one of the dynamic measures they plan to take is blocking the crossing points. An even more effective dynamic measure would be naming and shaming all their customers, who were crossing to the north for pseudo-sex. This would persuade the ministry to scrap its ridiculous new employment requirements in no time.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.ph ... 2&cat_id=7

Don't know why - but I love this line!

[purdey]

At last, it's about time. Never really understood why the name ' Cabaret ' was used for these sleazy holes.
Only problem is there will be more pervs on the pull on the streets.

[bill cobbett]

WTF is the "pseudo-sex" referred to above?

[Get Real!]

WTF is the "pseudo-sex" referred to above?

Why is it that every time he sees a cabaret thread, Bill jumps right in and wants to have a say…

[Get Real!]

WTF is the "pseudo-sex" referred to above?

It's what Donktosh does to his pet pigs...

[miltiades]

Rip off whore houses run by mostly criminal elements .
The term "Kabaretchis" ( Cabaret owner) is similar to Mafiozo !!

[insan]

WTF is the "pseudo-sex" referred to above?

The mentality of getting the support of GC male masses behind their "cause". Moreover, get the benefits of the grapevine to spread their "rightful cause".

[Antreis]

Wanted artists with University Diplomas !