By Stavros Charalambous:
In a few days the flights to our beautiful island start from the icy Northern Europe. Flights that, as we hear from official sources, will bring thousands of tourists to Cyprus. Tourists who loved our island for its hospitality, its sun and its blue seas.
In these days, in these difficult days that our country is going through with the economic crisis and its consequences, we should join forces, we should join social forces, we should be in solidarity, we should give more love to our compatriots us. Because the 46 thousand unemployed and the other 200 thousand of our compatriots who live below the poverty line, need our support, our support.
We should show our support and assistance in practice. Not with meals, nor with social groceries, but with jobs.
With the arrival of thousands of tourists during the new tourist season, of course, hundreds of new jobs are created that could be staffed by Cypriot workers.
Unfortunately, some of our hoteliers instead of doing this, these days are in countries of the former Eastern Europe in search of cheap labor.
And I ask: is this how we join forces? Is this how we will overcome the financial crisis? Is this the way we are going to move forward?
However, there are also healthy situations. There are hoteliers who, feeling the urgency of the times, asked the unions to find Cypriot workers. This makes us believe that there is still humanity, solidarity, patriotism in our country. There is still a crack with traces of light. This gives another chance to hope.
Stavros I. Charalambous