I’m finally a citizen of my motherland. It’s been almost a fortnight now, except being a citizen isn’t nowhere enough when it comes to living in North Cyprus. Whereas if you’re rich or ‘well-known’, you’ve got no doubts that you’ll be able to get what you want with hardly any issues, if at all any.
But I want to tell you about one of the biggest problems I feel there is in this country. It’s deadline day as I type and yesterday (Tuesday) I witnessed rain like never before. Not only rain, but horrific scenes of flooding and damage to such a beautiful island. Tuesday morning in the office began with drizzling rain and light winds, an hour in and the worn-out wooden shutters began bashing against the windows.
By this time the rain had become heavy, hailstones the size of olives were pelting down, roaring thunder and lightning wasn’t far either. My colleague had gone downstairs to make us tea for breakfast, two minutes later she was back up in the office like a shot. “I changed my mind.” she said. We decided breakfast could wait until the thunderstorm and pouring rain was over, that was probably around two hours later. Breakfast became brunch and I was anxious at whether I should look outside or not, we didn’t realise how bad the flooding was till we had to make a quick trip home. As we drove through floods of muddy rain water, a car decided to wash my colleagues with a great big splash. Anyone walking along the pavement would of been soaked, dripping from head to toe and very angry too.
Checking the news back at the office, reports weren’t any better either. An ambulance had toppled over, several roads closed and public transport had stopped any running services- all because of three hours rain. I dread to think what would happen if the weather was anything like it is in London. Could you imagine?
A day’s worth of rain and the island would be flooded, ruined and need weeks on end to re-function again. What I can’t seem to understand is that in a country where almost every food place from Turkish Burger King to the local patisserie can deliver, everywhere and I mean everywhere has wireless access, yet they still somehow haven’t got ‘enough money’ to build a drainage system. Hundreds of students at a secondary school along with teachers were stranded until almost seven in the evening. The flooding was so bad that they couldn’t leave, they had to be rescued by the army, police and the fire-brigade. I hate to imagine what those people must have gone through waiting to be taken to safety.
I’ve been told it will cost at least £100 million if not more to get works under way, no matter how high the price it shouldn’t be an issue right? If the country I’m ruling is going to be flooded and citizens are going to be left stranded after just a few hours of rain, then I should be doing everything I can to prevent that. Being a prime minister or ruling a country isn’t just about giving the talks, but about standing behind everything you say and actually carrying it out. I hope that this is the last time I see such unspoiled beauty gasping for air under a bed of water.
