Source: in-cyprus.philenews.com
AKEL is right to take the problems caused by the switch to the new DVB-T2 television standard to parliament. Both the government and the companies involved must give explanations.
Because, all of a sudden, it was decided that a change had to be made to improve the picture reaching our homes, but what they actually achieved was hassle and extra cost for citizens. And when questions were asked, both government representatives and the company that undertook the project dumped the blame on the public. Apparently people were too slow to equip themselves. Apparently they have old televisions. Old aerials. Old everything. As if anyone has the right to order people what the hell kind of television sets they should have in their own homes.
Although they kept saying that some televisions might need a decoder, it turns out there are thousands that do. And thousands of households also need technicians to reprogramme sets or replace aerials and cables. On top of the decoders, there are other problems too. If there are amplifiers on the aerials, that is another problem. If the cables are old, that is another problem, “because the new system is sensitive to old installations”, they say.
Explanations must be demanded so we can all find out why this change had to happen so abruptly, what preparation was made, how citizens were informed and protected, why the problems were not foreseen and dealt with in time, and how people were helped once those problems appeared. We also want to know who made money out of this whole story.
It is not enough to tell us that the new system is sensitive to old installations. Did they not know that beforehand? Or did they think every house had brand-new wiring? There are homes in this country that still have EAC cables and meters from the 1960s.
Cyprus was obliged to implement the new DVB-T2 system because it provides high-definition pictures on all television sets, Hellas Sat chief executive Christodoulos Protopapas told philenews. High definition was what was killing us, Mr Protopapas. What “all television sets”? We are being told there are homes that have gone back to the days when there was only CyBC. At the very least, people should have been given time — years, probably — for both systems to run in parallel, so the switch could happen when citizens were ready, not when Hellas Sat or anyone else was ready.
Some people take a decision in their offices and then citizens are left running around, paying and suffering the consequences. What kind of place is this? We cannot even manage a simple transition from one television network system to another without causing chaos. Is this really the time for the state to encourage profiteering? Because that is part of it too. When you create the need for mass services or mass purchases, some will exploit demand and rip people off. And the criminal part is that the need is created by the state itself. Unthinkable.
P.S. And they are going to bring electricity from Greece! God help us.
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Remember the Sandy case?
Well, yesterday we finally got an answer to the question raised by this column about the Sandy case. We had asked what happens next, whether the file had been closed, whether the air would be cleared, or whether we would be left with the police finding that it was all the fantasy of some woman with obsessions.
The Attorney-general was at the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee yesterday and was asked about it. He said the investigation had been completed and the case was now on his desk for decisions on whether prosecutions would be brought. The instructions given to police concerned the leaking of false news, forgery and the circulation of forged documents.
What he did not tell us was how much longer we are supposed to be patient. In any case, let them be aware at the Law Office that our patience has run out. We have none left. Move a little faster, please. If two prosecutors sit down to study the evidence, they should not need more than two days to reach a conclusion. Provided, of course, they understand the urgency of the matter.