Ανακοίνωση για το νέο έτος

Nicosia, January 2nd , 2009

Platform of Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot Teachers
UNITED CYPRUS

Dear fellow teachers,

We are at the beginning of a new difficult year, which we ought to face with fighting spirit, optimism, creativity and efficiency.
Uncertainty and pessimism dominate all around the world after the – expected for years crash of new-liberalism financial policies, and this should mobilize us in order to protect ourselves and our society, but also to keep the spirit of hope for a better future alive among our young people.
International financial crisis creates an atmosphere of instability all around the world; poverty is enlarged, unemployment is escalating, the standard of living of the laborers is falling and the environment is further degraded. Education and Health sectors, which have already been strongly beaten by new-liberalism, are expected to receive further strikes, this time due to the deflation of the international economy.
In several countries the financial and political instability creates waves of social protest, especially among young people; this protesting might deepen and get spread out in the near future, as it happens in Greece. This movement of social resistance is leaded by the students and the teachers.
In our own country – especially in the schools – under the leadership of the two major left parties who convey themselves as leftists, is taking place (in a differing level maybe), a first very serious effort of modernization, democratization and humanization of the school, its catching up the European standards and – the so much absent for decades – cultivation of a culture for co-existence between the two (still fighting each other) communities. Instead of the reactions, the disorientation and neutralization games of the nationalists and the conservatives inside and outside the school in both communities, the schools in Cyprus have in determination started its moving forward; for the future of all the children of the common land Cyprus which will be peaceful, independently of national origin and independently of the faults of their ancestors. We wish for the continuation of these steps.
The negotiations for resolving the Cyprus Problem, are for the time being mainly a based on wait and see tactics; but we want to believe that soon will accelerate, become more fruitful and give us some handy results. Nevertheless, it’s very important to promote the involvement in the procedure of those Cypriots who are standing for the rapprochement of a united Cyprus, in both communities, and their co-ordination. This is needed in order to create a positive atmosphere which will be able to sustain the expected progress in the negotiations and face the fearful reactions of those in the two communities who are standing for the separation, who are hanged on their past, since they have no future. All the walls must be removed from our island which is so small to be divided.