"Oxi" fever by SMS

Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos in a televised address two weeks ago urged his people to vote oxi (Greek for no) in the April 24 referendum on the latest United Nations plan to reunite the Greek and Turkish sides of the Mediterranean island, reports Time Europe Magazine.

"Since then, Greek Cypriots have taken up their President's call with fervor. Oxi fever is sweeping southern Cyprus: the slogan screams out from highway billboards, T shirts and posters.

From the pulpit Cypriot Orthodox priests have pilloried the mild-mannered U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a "Judas" and branded his plan* dangerous, even "satanic." Mobile phones are lighting up with anti-Annan sms messages.

[...] *The Annan plan is the most ambitious effort to find a solution so far: a 9,000-plus-page tome that would establish a Swiss-style "United Cyprus Republic" in which two constituent states are unified by a federal government but retain responsibility for their own daily affairs, from policing to tax collection".

emily | 4:17 PM | SMS and Politics |
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