The Greengos and The Brain Stain

It's been a long time coming. It all started in 1963 when that infamous green pencil came out and divided Lefkosia between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. Which part was safe and for whom depended on your ethnic background. It slowly started to dawn upon the entire population of Stravaraland that this line was for real.

More alarming, however, was that the line started growing inside our heads, becoming a second soul, and taking on a life of its own. Take any Cypriot born after 1963, do a brain scan and I am sure scientists will find the first green line going through a brain, dividing the 'good' part from the 'bad'. Moreover, for two otherwise identical species, the good part will be found on the north side of the brain, while for the second one the opposite would hold, namely a good part in the southern sector of the brain.

1964, 1967, 1974, 1996 brought about major brain shocks that firmly established the green line in both our heads and our collective conscience. The first two for the Turkish Cypriots, and the latter two for the Greek Cypriots.

Now, though, the Greek Cypriots have joined that club of higher nobility known as the EU. Now, human rights on both sides can be sorted out in courts. A complete and final settlement of the property issue by suing each other until Kingdom comes. Or disappears. You be the judge, depending on the size of your own Green Stain .

Allow me a metaphor. It is a bit like introducing seat belts. Without the seat belt you drive safely and a few people get killed for not wearing them. Introduce the seat belt and you feel that there is no need to be careful because the belt is there. End result? Same number of fatalities. If it so happens that you also have a green line running through your head, then fatalities will increase. If the green line, God or Allah forbid begins to wane, then what you need is just a major shock to revive it, making sure never to erase it from the brain.

Why do I suddenly say all this? Imagine the impact of all these law suits in the name of human rights that both communities are unleashing at each other. For sure this will solve the property issue one way or another. It might solve it by ending the uncertainty about property rights in the northern stravarapart but what the hell, they have some catching up to do so that TeePee can welcome them back to the Republixx. This may also help dispel the myth of the long overdue vindication in that elusive guise of a European solution.

But will it ever help remove the green line running through our heads? And if, in fact, it actually works towards making green line thicker, EU laws and safeguards not withstanding, will that not make for a dangerous new world for the future inhabitants of what we now [still] call Stravaraland?

originally posted by Apodimos Kypreos