In a research study that was done by the European University in 30 countries *Cyprus topped the list in most of the negative categories including: racism, low trust in others, selfishness, negative attitude towards immigrants, possessive individualism, being passive and detached from a set of important issues, and obsession with television while at the same time we are the slowest at becoming an information society. Among our few positive aspects of our society it was found that we are the most satisfied by the public health system, the tax system, the standard of living and trust in state institutions.
In 2006 the 30% of the population was watching more than 3 hours of TV per day and sadly by 2008 this increased to 50%. Considering the quality of TV programmes that are popular in Cyprus this is indeed an alarming issue. At the same time, we have the lowest use of Internet with just 20% of the population engaging into daily Internet activities compared to 40% in case of Nordic countries. On the xenophobia side more than any other European country we do not like people from different cultural backgrounds. More surprisingly Cypriots even present racist tendencies towards fellow Cypriots who have different sexual preferences or different attitudes than themselves.
Cyprus Updates
*Greek part