If we’re being honest, should we still be discussing halloumi? We submitted a comprehensive file to the Commission seeking Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status over 15 years ago, yet we still can’t implement the standard.
Half a dozen ministers fought for years in the European Union to secure it as a PDO product. They succeeded despite fierce opposition, legal battles, undermining tactics, and objections – not so much from foreigners as from our own people.
They celebrated like never before when they achieved it. Yet we’re still not prepared to meet the requirements, even though the President himself is monitoring the situation.
They submitted the file in 2009 and by 2012 wanted to withdraw it because cheesemakers decided we needed to increase the percentage of cow’s milk in the standard.
As if the milk proportions used to make halloumi for centuries were anyone’s decision to change. Or as if it weren’t fraud to make halloumi from milk powder and water.
Now the farmers are protesting again, demanding a roadmap for when the sheep and goat milk percentages will increase as specified. But why protest? They need to face reality. We simply can’t do it. Full stop.
They can make halloumi in Denmark, Egypt, Britain, and occupied Cyprus, but we can’t manage it in free Cyprus. That’s who we are.
The PDO specification requires that “sheep’s or goat’s milk or a mixture of both must always exceed the quantity of cow’s milk” as a traditional product.
We achieved the designation but haven’t implemented it. They say it’s complicated. We say it’s a matter of competence and planning. Everything else is just excuses.
Do you know how many PDO products Greece has registered? 88 products, including 20 cheeses. Twenty – no joke.
We’re not just talking about feta. Graviera from Agrafa is different from Cretan Graviera, which differs from Naxos Graviera, for example. Then there’s Kopanisti, Ladotyri from Mytilene, Manouri, and Metsovone.
All cheeses, all EU-certified PDOs.
We only ever knew how to make one cheese: halloumi. And we’ve made a complete mess of it. Is there any reason to continue making fools of ourselves?
WE’VE BECOME A JOKE.
And what’s this new nonsense now? Another farce? Apparently there are “postal judges” under agreements Cyprus signed who can do whatever they please because they’re subject to US jurisdiction, not the Republic of Cyprus.
Just because they felt like it! One fugitive posts a video making proclamations to the people, demanding the release of two detainees. “It’s an order”, he even told them.
Now the Police are scrambling, journalists are running around, and even the President is rushing to reassure the public, as if we’ve uncovered some new international conspiracy masterminds rather than just a bunch of conspiracy theorists, of which we have plenty.
Their statements alone tell you everything you need to know. And since the Police state there’s no armed group or terrorist activity involved, this should probably be treated as just another scam to extract money from victims who believe they’ll get help with various problems.
The victims are probably a bigger problem than these “postal judges”. We’re going from one farce to another.
THE BUILDING PLOT?
Shall I go on? Someone applied to the state for a plot meant for poor families and got it. Only the Audit Office noticed that his first-degree relatives own property worth over a million.
But when a parent with many children or a single parent applies for benefits, they’re put through fifteen different screens to find ways to deny them. Some serious state we have, eh?
