The Establishment and the Mob

Society can roughly be split into two teams; the establishment and the alternatives (aka the mob). Each has stuck to its own kind. Until now. With the growth of gloablisation, the credit crunch, the search for new lifestyles, the lines between the establishment and the mob have blurred to the point of erosion. The result is a hodge-podge of people crossing society’s lines. People who lived in caves until three years ago now drive around in BMW and eat in swanky bar-restaurants (you can find some of these in a place beginning with ‘A’ and ending in ‘O’) and people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth have now gone all hippy and hang out at a place beginning with ‘K’ and ending with ‘A’). Hmmmm…

Thing is, a leopard cannot change its spots. (Tell this to the Nicosia Housewife who can’t get out of her leopard-print leotard). The newly-rich will never become old money so they might as well try stop sending their kids to the posh schools. The establishment will never be able to mingle with the lower-classes (i.e. people who do not own a holiday home in Geneva) and people who emerged from the swamp a year ago will never be able to shake off that stink. So why try? Well because we all want what we can’t have and want approval that we are all encompassing personalities from everyone. Even strangers in remote social groups.

I once read that only the rich can afford bad shoes. This is because the rich are the only ones who do ‘poor’ well. It is easy to act as if you are a tree-hugging hippy when you own the whole forest or want to save the whales when your school serves sushi from lunch. But not matter how rich you recently became, you will never be able to pull off that pedigree you aim for, which takes generations to cultivate. (And leopard-print leggings are not fooling anyone).

One of those annoying people on facebook

I hate these people who add people on Facebook in order to have more friends. Recently a stranger added me (though we had a mutual friend) and I though ‘why not’ and pressed accept. However, there were no photos of himself, no ‘wall’ to write on, all in all… no information. I though facebook was a place for friends. Well if you want to be my friend then show me who you are. To no avail. After asking who he was written in a manner of ‘have we met before?’ there was no reply and so I sent a message saying that I would delete him and wished him the ‘best of luck with all his endeavors on facebook.’ So as you can see, I hate people who add friends to show the world that they have friends.
Nevertheless, due to professional commitments I joined LinkedIn, which is, let’s face it, a professional facebook/resume/CV. Instead of uploading your holiday pics you upload what you have worked on. And instead of braggin about how many friends you have, you brag about your professional contacts and who you know (and who can do you favours). I have become the annoying LinkedIn guy who wants as many connections (LinkedIn-speak for ‘friends’) as possible. How did this happen? Because whereas I have friends in reality who are on facebook, I don’t have that many professional connections. I am after all a BabyBusinessMan, so what do you expect?

Speak Greek

What I find interesting is people’s attachment to language. I like languages; I speak as many as I can to whomever I can. However, in Cyprus this is frowned upon! Speaking in a language other than Greek could have you deported to a Siberia, or another Russian region, like… Limassol.

Recently, I asked a friend (in Greek) if he could do me a favour. His response was a gleeful ‘of course I’ll do it! But only because you asked me in Greek’.

‘So if I asked you in English you wouldn’t do it?’ He smiled. Imagine what he would have done to me if I asked him in… Swahili? Or more shocking… in Turkish! Yikes!

I think Cypriots have a strange relationship with their language. They insist oversees-Cypriots speak Greek yet at the same time do not realize that they themselves pepper their Greek-conversations with words like ‘thank you, bye, okay’ or my favourite ‘sorrrry’ followed by a loud ‘ah’ and phrased as a question. They are constantly placing English words in between Greek words.

The problem is not that oversees-Cypriots do not speak Greek. All do (albeit at varying degrees of fluency) and all try! And when oversees-Cypriots do try and speak Greek to a fellow Cypriot, we are answered in… English. This not only embarrasses us, but it also implies that we are illiterate buffoons who can’t even properly speak Greek. Eventually the whole conversation becomes so uncomfortable that we give up and end up speaking in Pidgin English so the other guy whose English is so-so can understand. The issue for Cypriots is that oversees-Cypriots do not speak, perfectly fluent, accent-less Greek. The funny thing is, neither do most Cypriots. If you want to speak perfect, accent-less Greek you need to go to Greece. Sorrrrrry aah?