2nd Cemetary Clean Up - Report

[erolz]

Yesterday was the second of the cemetary clean up efforts. Thr report on the first is here
http://www.talkcyprus.org/viewtopic.php?t=619.

Once again a small group of people got togeather to try and make a difference to the state of the Greek Cypriot cemetary in Girne/Kyrenia.

Some piccies

before

after


before

after


some of helpers


still to do


still to do



Although the numbers of people was around the same as last time we got a similar amount of cleaning up done I have to say I am disapointed. I am disapointed that we did not increase the number of people from last time and extremely disapointed that we did not get more CYPRIOTS to participate in this effort. The simple reality is that as far as Cypriots go there was myself (half cypriot) a friend of mine from the south and a Turkish Cypriot man who maintains the British cemetary ajacent to the Greek Cypriot cemetary. As a Cypriot I am saddend and embarassed that this effort is being done by non Cypriots and Cypriots seem indifferent. We had front page coverage of the effort in South Cypriot newspapers yet not a single Greek Cypriot turned up execpt for those that I knew personaly and had invited personaly. Sometimes I feel that the Greek Cypriot actualy prefer the cemetary to in a terrible state than tidy so they can reinforce their percpetion of the North.

I will be continuing with a third effort but it we once again failt to engage and Cypriot support for this effort I will not be continuing with these efforts. Why should British and American expats put time and effort into improving the state of this cemetary when Cypriots do not?

I will make every effort to 'promote' the next effort to Cypriots in the hope that next time we can get some Cypriot participation. If anyone has suggestions as to how this can be done I would like to hear them. If you know of any Cypriot Bi-communal associations or societies I would also like to know the details of these so that I can try and get them to promote the effort to their members.

In short as far as I am concerned we are at 'crisis point' with this project. If we can not get more Cypriots involved then it will end. I will not continue to ask my non Cypriot friends to contribute to such an effort if Cypriots will not also contribute.

[garbitsch]

Good job erolz. I wish I was in Cyprus so that I could contribute to the cleaning... I think it can be good if the forum users living in Cyprus start participating in such activities

[brother]

[garbitsch]

Or he can ask 19 May TMK in Girne

[cannedmoose]

Erol, thanks for your efforts once again...

Perhaps you could try the following bicommunal organisations?

www.peace-cyprus.org

www.handsacrossthedivide.org

www.humanrights-edu-cy.org

The least they should do is publicise the project to their networks.

[erolz]

Thanks Moose

That's exactly the kind of link I was hoping for.

Cheers.

[cannedmoose]

I get regular bulletins from the humanrights-edu one... so I'll keep an eye out for it in those and let you know if I see anything. Fingers crossed you get some support from at least one of them...

[cannedmoose]

Erol, I see from the calendar that your next cemetary clean-up effort is coming up soon. Have you had any pledges of support from any bi-communal groups for this? Or are you expecting the usual subjects only? It'd be sad if you didn't get any support from groups supposedly dedicated to such direct bicommunal actions.

[erolz]

No I have not had any specific pledges of support for the comming effort.

I will be making a call round of the 'usual suspects' on sunday (a wekk before the effort is due).

The current plan is to take a pause over winter after this effort and try and reignite interest and particpation early spring. Alexandros has kindly offered to help in this subsequent effort and I hope to meet with him and discuss what we can do over the xmas period some time.