Cyprus-Forum.com

[Mills Chapman]

Dear Cyprus Friends,

I find that listening to music helps me to think in a creative fashion and to have vivid daydreams. I often think what the storyline would be for a movie called "The Cyprus Solution," a film that would have to be basic enough to be a box-office hit around the world. That leads me to ponder what the song in the closing credits would be, a song that would encapsulate all of the emotions that Cypriots have felt, their underlying connections to each other, and the awareness of all Cypriots that the worst of times are now behind them. The song that makes me think the most about Cyprus and my own feelings for it is U2's "Two Hearts Beat As One." To hear a sample of it, visit this site hosted by amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 33-7505743 (scroll down the page to where the songs are listed; it's #7.)

If someone took the lyrics literally, he or she might think that they are about two lovers in the midst of an argument. However, most folks say that this song is about Northern Ireland and the troubles there between the Catholics and Protestants. After all, this song came from U2's "War" album. I personaly think that it's an excellent fit for Cyprus - it's not in Greek nor in Turkish and it's sung by someone whose allegiances are to a country that it's seen as relatively neutral by Cypriots. He (Bono) also made millions of euros by singing a fabulous song about a lowlight in British military history (Sunday Bloody Sunday).

Pasted below are the lyrics. Enjoy. It helps to read the lyrics aloud in a somewhat passionate voice - as if you are reciting at a community poetry session - and to close one's eyes while listening to the music. I hope that most of you will get a chance to hear it. For those who haven't seen my Cyprus website, it's www.cyprussolution.org - Mills

p.s. Yes, I understand that most GC and TC folks know which side they are on; this part applies more to outsiders - some of us are fools for you. (And this is also why I'm not a professional music reviewer.)

"Two Hearts Beat As One" by U2

I don't know / I don't know which side I'm on / I don't know my right from left / Or my right from wrong / Say I'm a fool / You say I'm not for you / But if I'm a fool for you / Oh, that's something

Two hearts beat as one / Two hearts beat as one / Two hearts...

Can't stop the dance / Honey, this is my last chance / I said, can't stop the dance / Maybe this is my last chance

Two hearts beat as one / Two hearts beat as one / Two hearts... /
They beat on black, beat on white / Beat on everything don't get it right / Beat on you, beat on me, beat on love /

I don't know / How to say what's got to be said / I don't know if it's black or white / There's others see it red / I don't get the answers right / I'll leave that to you

Is this love out of fashion / Or is it the time of year / Are these words distraction / To the words you want to hear

Two hearts beat as one / Two hearts beat as one

I try to spit it out / I try to explain / The way I feel / Oh, yeah / Two hearts

I can't stop the dance / Maybe this is my last chance / I said I can't stop the dance / Maybe this is my last chance / I said don't stop the dance / Maybe this is my last chance / I said I can't stop the dance / Maybe this is our last chance / I said don't stop the dance / Maybe this is our last chance

[insan]

Thanx for your kind and genuine contribution to Cypriots rapproachment, Mills...

I also would like to dedicate a song to Cypriots, especially to the GCs. I believe that this song absolutely reflects a lot about the past, present and future aspects of the problem; acknowledgements and concerns of TCs in a poetic style...




BROTHERS IN ARMS LYRICS

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you’ll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you’ll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I’ve watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There’s so many different worlds
So many differents suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun’s gone to hell
And the moon’s riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms



I wonder which song reflects the GCs feelings and thoughts most appropriately... Once I've dedicated the song "Brothers in arms" to all Cypriots on an other discussion board and a member of that forum; most probably a Greek one came up with one of the Kavafy's poems...









Waiting for the Barbarians
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
When the barbarians come they will make the laws.

Why did our emperor wake up so early,
and sits at the greatest gate of the city,
on the throne, solemn, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
And the emperor waits to receive
their chief. Indeed he has prepared
to give him a scroll. Therein he inscribed
many titles and names of honor.

Why have our two consuls and the praetors come out
today in their red, embroidered togas;
why do they wear amethyst-studded bracelets,
and rings with brilliant, glittering emeralds;
why are they carrying costly canes today,
wonderfully carved with silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today,
and such things dazzle the barbarians.

Why don't the worthy orators come as always
to make their speeches, to have their say?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today;
and they get bored with eloquence and orations.

Why all of a sudden this unrest
and confusion. (How solemn the faces have become).
Why are the streets and squares clearing quickly,
and all return to their homes, so deep in thought?

Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.

And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1904)

[brother]

Insan that was a beautiful poem.

But like you in other forums i have been shot down with lets say unkind gestures which i choose not to mention.

Which has lately left me doubting our cypriot brothers in the south about if we can trust them? do they really want unity with us in the north and most importantly to me, do they still harbour dark thoughts and desires?

I come from a inter mariied cypriot family and mix with a lot of gc and sometimes their actions and words, REALLY WORRY ME and i do try to talk to them and say 'hey what was that about' and you get the usual 'slip of the tongue' answer.

So lets keep chatting with our brothers in the south and i hope i am wrong about my doubts.

But time is against us now and one way or another all cypriots will need to make a choice very soon(referandum) and that will be DO YOU TRUST THEM TO LIVE IN HARMONY TOGETHAR? all the other nitty gritty about lands, settlers etc. are miniscule next to that big question, ultimately that is what will define our futures, if we do not trust each other then society WILL breakdown again and lives will be lost.

[erolz]

if we do not trust each other then society WILL breakdown again and lives will be lost.

and the real challenge for all of us as indivduals as well as communites and as Cypriots is to ensure that this does not happen, ever again and regardless of how and what kind of solution gets 'forced' upon us.

[Piratis]

and the real challenge for all of us as indivduals as well as communites and as Cypriots is to ensure that this does not happen, ever again and regardless of how and what kind of solution gets 'forced' upon us.

Would you say the same if the solution that was supposed to be 'forced' upon us was the 90% of the GC desires?

[Bananiot]

Insan, how about Ithaka by Kavafis:

As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Insan, this journey is worth embarging on, Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon (read Papadopoulos, Denktash, God) do not be afraid of them ...

[erolz]

and the real challenge for all of us as indivduals as well as communites and as Cypriots is to ensure that this does not happen, ever again and regardless of how and what kind of solution gets 'forced' upon us.

Would you say the same if the solution that was supposed to be 'forced' upon us was the 90% of the GC desires?

I would say the same if it was 100% of GC desires, because for me whilst there are causes I would be willing to die for there is no cause I would kill for. As an individual it really is that simple for me.

On this whole issue of 'personal responsibility' I really would recommend that people get (beg borrow or steal) a book by a modern philopsher called Mary Midgley. The book is called simply 'wickedness'. Below is the 'blurb' from the back of the book.

"To look into the darkness of the human soul is a frigtening venture. Here Mary Midgley does so, with her customary brillance and clarity. In 'Wickedness' she sets out to delineate not so much the nature of wickedness as its actual sources. Midgley's analysis proves that the capacity for real wickedness is an ineveitable part of human nature. This is not, however, a blanket acceptance of evil. She provides us with a framework that accepts its existance yet offers humankind the possibility of rejecting this part of our nature. Out of this dark journey she returns offering us: an understanding of human nature that enhances our very humanity. To read 'wickedness' is to undestand Mary Midgley's reputation as one of the worlds's greatest moral philosphers."

and for a less 'hyperbolic' intro here is an excerpt from the book itself.

"At best, this can come near to a Socratic, negative diagnosis of moral negligence. We may be saying that people, including ourselves, are evidently much less sensible, clear-sighted and enlightened than they make out, that human insight and honesty are weak-that public sanity cannot be relied on to operate mechanically, but needs constant attention. This, I believe, is true, and is a useful attitude. But there is another one, superficially rather like it which gives a very different diagnosis and shows evil as positive. This is the mood in which we treat wickedness as something quite alien to ourselves, something belonging only to certain lunatics in black hats, the other guys, who are always the cause of the trouble. We may name these guys as a definite group, preferably a remote one, with whom we can have a feud. Or we may leave them unnamed and put the black hat on an abstraction such as Society. The first course will probably lead to more actual shooting; the second will lead to more confusion and bad faith. But in either case there seems to be a fatal element of bad faith, of unreality in this distancing of evil. It seems clear that a great many of the worst acts actually done in the world are committed in the same sort of way in which the battlefields of the First World War were produced-by people who have simply failed to criticize the paths of action lying immediately before them. Exploiters and oppressors, war-makers, executioners and destroyers of forests do not usually wear distinctive black hats, nor horns and hooves. The positive motives which move them may not be bad at all; they are often quite decent ones like prudence, loyalty, self-fulfillment and professional conscientiousness. The appalling element lies in the lack of the other motives which ought to balance these – in particular, of a proper regard for other people and a proper priority system which would enforce it."

In my view if we (as indivduals and communitrs) spent half as much time and effort trying to understand the ideas in books like this, rather than in trying to undermine each other at every opportunity then our prospects for the future whould be a lot rosier.

I am sorry for the 'sermonising' nature of this post. I do not say or imply that I myself or my community is any better (or worse) in this regard.

Oh and if anyone would like to borrow this book from em then just send me a pm and I'll see what I can do.

[insan]

As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Insan, this journey is worth embarging on, Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon (read Papadopoulos, Denktash, God) do not be afraid of them ...

Yes my friend... It really worths... It really worths for the honour of those Cypriots, whose hearts and souls are full of wisdom and love of humanity...

[erolz]

as we seem to be chucking song lyrics around why not one from a (half) GC convert to Islam - a true Cypriot brother

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/lyrics/peacetrain.html

let's all 'ride on the peace train'

and for anyone who wants to steal this classic track it's here for you

http://www.visionmatters.co.uk/cyprus/peacetrain.mp3

[Alexandros Lordos]

Insan, this journey is worth embarging on, Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon (read Papadopoulos, Denktash, God) do not be afraid of them ...

God?