Among the professionals who use digital photo and image editing tools in their work was a well-known joke, which said that the best way to lose weight and look younger and more beautiful in a photo, is the photoshop program.
They do not need cosmetic or plastic surgeons, nor diets, nor exercise. In the world of “appearing” instead of “being”, photoshop is enough, since without real effort any image is preferably changed and is now displayed publicly and widely as true.
And because in recent years we have been circulating with masks, at least most of us who are not afraid of “demons”, our only unhindered public image is our photo on social networks. Where there, every form of photoshop works “miracles”. And as the famous saying goes, what is considered true, even if it is not, has real consequences… for a while, though. But why do we care about communication rhetoric in our text today?
We are concerned because in the last few days I have noticed in various financial media, specialized and not, an attempt to create in the public opinion the impression that in 2022, almost all the important sectors of our economic production will go from good to better. Tourism is losing ground, foreign businesses are crowding out “our door”, the real estate sector is recovering, international capital is flocking to our coffers, our trade routes are reviving rapidly and the first unicorns will appear in Cyprus. . Personally, I want to believe them. I want to believe that we will live in Singapore and not in Ramallah. I really want to believe that next December and just before the end of 2022, except for the unexpected, Cyprus will be where it deserves. Dynamic, renewed, largely free from the effects of the coronavirus and rapidly growing in all areas. And without a trace of irony in what was written, he could be in such a phase.
Cyprus, indeed, can achieve a lot if we really want it, even if our collective intelligence is not so high, it is enough to change our mentality. Political and economic. It is enough for the institutions: the parties, the church, the banks, the businessmen, our people, to want it. It is not enough just to believe what we say to each other and what we claim publicly about the prospects of this or that branch of economic activity. We need the perspective to make a proposal and the proposal to find implementation. It takes effort and not photoshop.
All of us who work to make the place better, equating the staff with the general good, instead of just the former, are not indifferent to our image, nor to its effects. The opposite in fact. But, we know that we can “edit” it up to a point, since no matter how much we show the photo of Eleftherias Square in Nicosia and the coastal front of Limassol at dusk from above and from the sea, both sparkling spectacles both, the reality is somewhat different. Similarly, the enchanting image of Petra tou Romiou at a winter sunset can create a different impression from the impression created by a real, real visit to this place in the summer.
The live visit does not hide the clutter of the nearby kiosk, the tourist of the “line” nor does it silence the noise of the bus engines in the adjacent parking lot, and where all this in the dust, heat and humidity of July, mingles and reinforce each other's tragic ugliness. But, no matter how ugly we imposed on that place and our place in general, it does not cease to be true that Aphrodite chose to be born there / here…
