Limassol - the city of dreams, light and other sellable descriptions

 How should we approach conversations on the city of Limassol and it's modern-day becoming?

Clearly, there are two non mutually exclusive points of view on the matter. One is the narrative evolving around the political decisions that allowed for the uprooting of whatever we may call local culture. The neoliberal understanding of a modern state in which markets run freely with the help of the corrupted public institutions, allowed everything - every piece of land and its surroundings, native populations and the quality of the job market to name a few, to be exploited by the highest bidder.  

The other perspective focuses on the consequences of modernization as an improvement to our well-being. The job opportunities and the erected apartments, the newly local branch of another multinational company indicates to them a sign of improvement. As if, progress is measured with the vivid signs and the height of buildings covering the sunny sky. For them, the local culture is a petty and laughable preoccupation that only hinders the modernization process. 

We may identify local culture as what has been left in our memories of the city. To me, it is the scattered tripods one could see every morning at Molos (the jetty) occupied by elders, painting the early morning sky and its reflection on the Mediterranean sea leading up to the horizon. Mostly carrier ships disturbed the blueish colours of the chosen frame. All of them, except the carrier ships, have disappeared around the time of the latest upgrade of the jetty. As if the elders were covered with cement as well, leaving their bodies bound to the artificial land of the jetty..

In any case, there is still a certain population grinding through the emissions and inequality. Despite the hardships new forms of communities emerge while the suffocating systems of oppression kill the idealised standard of individual prosperity. There is a need to distinguish polites from the polis. The city feels like a warzone ready to swallow any one at a moment of absentmindedness. That doesn't necessarily mean that forms of cooperation and mutual aid have disappeared. On the contrary, this aggressive environment prioritises them. The local culture has not actually been eradicated but shifted to match the social conditions imposed to the locals. 

Some of the influences of modernization are being claimed by the the locals in an effort to express and distinguish themselves from the powers that be. You can only claim the identity and no one can do it for you. Of course, re-enacting some of the viral trends from social media in domestic workplaces does not contribute to the liberation of people but merely and romantically presents a monetized consequence of the techno-globalization of the world. Denying to partake in folly  activities such as this, does contribute to the liberation of people from the influences of digital capitalism. I suppose it is of importance whether one is conscious of this motive or not. 

Raising awareness and framing the struggle must be beneficial to the cause. A narrative evolving around the historical forces build up to this day reminds us that history is not finished.  The resistance is as broad as the influences of the bio-practises of capitalism....