Argo Ideon: the cup of Cyprus

Photo: Argo Ideon

One does rejoice, at times, at having some cups pass us by. And that’s the way I felt when leaving Nicosia, yesterday – with hotel attendants telling me they won’t be taking bookings for longer than a week, and the taxi driver lamenting it’s all over with Cyprus: «Who would come here now?» To say nothing of the bankers, so terrified at the thought of losing their bread that they’d call on Russia for help, or whoever.

I wouldn’t be that pessimistic. People will surely be visiting a place with +20 C⁰ in March and no culture shock to be feared when arriving from Northern-Europe. True: the money will probably be kept in some country with a more stable banking system. But people will keep coming, even if they have to carry cash with them. After all, people have travelled with cash in pocket for millennia, Visa cards being like a speck in the sea of time in comparison.

The main conclusion of my few days’ acquaintance with local crisis was, rather, related to Estonia: let us rejoice, from time to time, at what we have been spared from, these last times. Estonia abounds with things unfinished and problems unsolved, but relatively sound public finances and solid Swedish bankers are definitely not included in the list.

Here, we weep when bank terminals fall offline for 30 minutes. Let’s imagine, for a moment, how it would feel if, like some fellow-Europeans, we couldn’t move our deposits for a week – the whole time worrying how much of it we’d be able to rescue anyway. That’s not funny at all and we have to thank good fortune or Heavens above that Estonia is seeing a generation emerge with no experience of such trouble.

Cyprus (at least the Greek-controlled part) is no poor place. Estonia probably has more of the barely-get-by folks or people with no savings whatsoever. But, as the saying goes, the rich also weep. We may say, of course, that the Southern European trouble is of their own making… but where lies the guilt of a pensioner or waitress in a café, to have their bank accounts plundered to save the system (and owners)? No credible explanations, so far.

The more so that the mere idea was enough to spark systemic insecurity, probably impacting the rest of Europe – in a future not too distant. Who indeed would believe the Cyprus case to be so unique that in all other places, owners of under €100,000 guaranteed deposits never ever have to fear for their money? However unique Cyprus is in EU – with part of the country under neighbour’s military sway and another held by former colonial masters for bases – doing it «Cypriot-style» is in no way excluded closer to home.