Frank and Joan's news for 26 October 2008 in Northern Cyprus

Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus

Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

Remembered to take the clocks back one hour this morning which was very welcome after the late night Friday and me needing to get up early Saturday to take the Bosch boys out to Esentepe.

Sat in bed to read the papers this morning before getting up to be breakfast chef, Arie has been waiting for his full English breakfast since last year.

Most of the paper is full of the same sort of thing that you are all reading in UK. Financial crisis world wide. Some senior bankers here are suggesting that the TRNC is slightly protected by its isolation, but we of course use the Turkish currency so money converted from pensions etc is of course subject to exchange rate fluctuations. The Turkish Lira went to 2.75 against the pound on Friday, bad for the economy, but a good day to draw money out of our UK account.

A leading TRNC banker is being highly cr

itical of the government policies to claw back it's budget shortfall. He is suggesting that they are adding to the economic woes by increasing tax on everything to cover their budget deficit. I can't agree more with his findings, but as no member of government or the opposition has any experience in running anything how are they going to get it right. They still refuse to bring in any outside experience so guess they are going to stumble on and hopefully learn by their mistakes.

Here is an example of the sort of thinking we get. You will be able in future to get a discount on your vehicle road tax annually. How? Well if you are a good driver, with no motoring offences in 12 months you can get a discount of 10% and 20% if this applies for 24 months. In addition if your vehicle is between 5 and 10 years old you are entitled to a 15% discount, 10 to 15 years gets you 25% and over 15 years 30%. This came out of the department responsible for economy and planning. Should be good for the sale of 20 year old Renaults.

The two presidents are continuing to meet on a regular basis but now it is reported that TRNC President Talat has asked the leader of the South to stop calling him "Comrade" in meetings. Now how important is that? I still don't hold out much hope for these two without some serious external intervention from the rest of the world. Why does Europe or the rest of the world not ask the Turkish Cypriots what they want? For that matter why does the Turkish Cypriot propaganda machine not seem to be able to get through to the rest of the world.

Meantime, here on the island we continue to sit in the sun and enjoy the warm weather and outdoor eating and all the other things we have enjoyed for the last 7 years.