Peter Droussiotis and the Cypriot Federation

There is no doubt that the Cypriot Federation of Great Britain has a role to play but it also needs to modernise and look at new ways of reaching second and third generation British citizens of Greek origin living and working in the UK. The language of 'today' must be adopted and used and old ideas and theories should be put where they belong.

The decision to re elect Peter Droussiotis to the position of General Secretary sends a good message out and the signal could be a positive one. Peter Drousiotis wants to move the organisation towards the right direction and move away from ideas and thoughts that dominated the previous generation. That does not mean that there is no role for those who help build what we have today and the first generations contribution must never be forgotten but times have changed.

On the other hand it is clear that the majority of Brits of Greek origin who are under 50 have no idea of what the Federation does or what aspirations or objectives it tries to promote. I was amazed, for example, to find that of the 6 members of the editorial board of Byzantinos, the only member that had any contact with the Federation was Nick Venedi and even he had some serious doubts about how integrated the Federation or its ideas are within the London Greek community. Roulla and Christos who are also prominent members of the Trade Union movement in Britain had no contact with the Federation at all. But I will quote Nick Venedi, who is possibly the most prominent member of the editorial board, who said that the Federation and its work will become meanigful if more effort was made to reach out the second and third generation before its members lost interest in anything Greek. Nick feels that Peter Drousiotis is the right man to do this but also thinks that concentrating simply on electing the first Greek MP (even though that Lord Adonis had already done that years ago) will not, in itself achieve much.

We wish the Federation the best of luck and welcome the fact that its board now has more women members than before. that is a positive step.

Andreas Cristou