Ravaged yet again.

I have just returned from Cyprus which is my homeland. I love going back to see family and friends, eat souvlaki, spend time by the sea and catch up on all things, island wide. The island has a rich and troubled history, many conquerors, colonial masters and passing traders. Over the thousands of years and in many different ways each one has left their mark for us to witness today. Barrels and abandoned homes by the Green line, Gothic and medieval architecture in walled cities, amphitheatres by the sea and much much more.

My sister and I wandered through the old streets of Nicosia which have now found new life, with little coffee shops and restaurants sprouting out everywhere, where Armenian tradesmen once sold their cashmeres and their silks to my mother and her friends. It is wonderful to see the transformation and regeneration of these areas but equally disturbing to witness them ravaged in a new brutal and unacceptable way.  Perhaps these signs are not so obvious to those who live in Cyprus day after day but for me coming in as an outsider it was so very shocking and harsh. The whole of the old city is covered with horrible, horrible graffiti. It is not just on gates or walls, garages and fences but on old sandstone heritage buildings of considerable importance which have been vandalised and covered with painted scrawls which say nothing other than that these disrespectful scrawlers have no understanding of their culture and heritage, have no appreciation for the beautiful architecture of old  buildings and even more galling have nothing to say for themselves or to offer to us.I could not bear to take photos, it was too upsetting but I think Jill a fellow blogger https://readingthebooktravel.com/nicosia/ sums it up eloquently in this photo from her blog. 

I am appalled and saddened by the state of the city and cannot understand why more stringent measures have not been taken to prevent this disfigurement. Perhaps those in authority themselves have not set good examples of choices they have made for the city but that is a whole other (concrete/ skyscraper) matter. Suffice to say cleaning the stones is almost impossible and stopping this scourge is long overdue.