As you know North Cyprus is a small place; you can drive from one end to the other in three hours. So our little spot rarely makes international news headlines. With this in mind you may be unaware of what’s happening here.

Of course Covid has made a comeback here too. The Government has mandated mask be worn inside buildings open to the public but it doesn’t seem to be enforcing the rule. Most supermarkets and such seem to have little interest in the regulation. You will not need a negative test result to enter the country.

This story broke only yesterday but you can be sure it will be the biggest controversy this Summer: the Government wants everyone who makes more than ₺15,000 (Turkish Lyra) a month to take a 20% pay cut. This pay cut applies even if you work for a private sector business. The first lawsuit has already been filed. --UPDATE-- The PM has backed down and the proposal rescinded.

Surprisingly, the cost of gasoline (petrol) has been going down over the last few months. With the news from Ukraine, it would be reasonable to guess that fuel would move up in price. A liter is a small unit compared to the gallon, so when the price is reduced a couple of Turkish Lyre over a couple of months, it adds up.

For the rest of us the biggest story over the last two months has been the fuel shortage at the Power Plants. Kib-Tek is the name of the local utility and they mostly use large, internal combustion generators. These power plants need a constant supply of clean, quality fuel to produce electricity. Contracts to provide this fuel via ship are let on an annual basis. --UPDATE-- Minister of Finance Sunat Atun has resigned from his post, largely because of the Kib-Tek power cuts. He says it's not his fault, blame lies with the PM.

For reasons that are currently under investigation, these contracts were not re-bid until shortly before they ran out. Predictably, the generation plants ran very low on fuel. So poor quality fuel was shipped in on an emergency basis and that messed-up the injectors. It cost well over one-hundred thousand US dollars to replace the damaged components in every generator.

As they say on TV: “But wait, there’s more!” Because the fuel ran low, Kib-Tek was forced to impose rotating blackouts. Perhaps three times a week the power was cut for an hour at a time for maybe two weeks. Then as a bonus, then the power had to be cut in rotating blackouts while the generators were repaired. Now you know what motivated the investigations: nobody is amused when the power is cut for an hour several times in late June.

Yes, the above sounds bleak, but this has been a good Summer for our little country: The tourists are back and this is a big deal for many here. For the first time in two years there are red people wearing t-shirts over bikinis in the supermarket. I assume people who live in the UK are all red. That seems the most logical explanation.

The local car rental company, Sur Car Hire, has no cars this week and everything for the next week and a half is already rented. The owner is a friend, Hakan, and he normally has about 98 cars. This afternoon I ran down to the Pharmacy and Sur Car’s lot was totally empty.  

So while the top half of this article sounds a little bleak, the truth is this has been the best Summer North Cyprus has had in a couple of years. The tourist are back, Ex Pats are here, Hotels are full, and red people are running around Lamar Supermarket. As an aside, the new terminal will open at the airport in October. Yes, things are looking up.