As she counts another day's paltry takings and frets about how to pay the rent, Dimitra Charilaou knows she is a tiny cog in the machine that drives Cyprus's once thriving economy.
She owns a small hole-in-the-wall electrical supplies shop squeezed between a kebab joint and a dodgy-looking nightclub adorned with photos of blonde East European women in the old town of Nicosia, the island's capital.
But multiply her predicament by 850,000 – the population of this former British colony - and it is clear that the island that claims to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, and which has streets named after Greek heroes like Odysseus, is going to need the luck of the gods to avoid plunging off an economic cliff in the wake of last week's controversial bailout deal.
Picking out a €10 note from her cash till, Mrs Charilaou, 59, told The Sunday Telegraph: "This is what I've earned today. My rent is €500 a month, how am I going to pay it? The retail business is bleeding, everybody is shutting down.
"Today it's Cyprus, tomorrow it will be Italy. It will be a domino effect. We use to live peacefully, we had jobs. Now they have changed our lives." Full story...
Related posts:
She owns a small hole-in-the-wall electrical supplies shop squeezed between a kebab joint and a dodgy-looking nightclub adorned with photos of blonde East European women in the old town of Nicosia, the island's capital.
But multiply her predicament by 850,000 – the population of this former British colony - and it is clear that the island that claims to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, and which has streets named after Greek heroes like Odysseus, is going to need the luck of the gods to avoid plunging off an economic cliff in the wake of last week's controversial bailout deal.
Picking out a €10 note from her cash till, Mrs Charilaou, 59, told The Sunday Telegraph: "This is what I've earned today. My rent is €500 a month, how am I going to pay it? The retail business is bleeding, everybody is shutting down.
"Today it's Cyprus, tomorrow it will be Italy. It will be a domino effect. We use to live peacefully, we had jobs. Now they have changed our lives." Full story...
Related posts:
- 'I went to sleep Friday as a rich man. I woke up a poor man'
- It's head for "the mattress" time for savers worldwide...
- One of the nastiest and most immoral political acts in modern times...
- It's official: Banks in Europe may now seize deposits to cover their gambling losses...
- The European destruction of Cyprus has begun...
- Get all your money out of Europe now...
- Cyprus 'Eurogeddon': deserted streets of a country closed for business...
No comments:
Post a Comment