Volunteerism is nothing new

E DII TO RII A L

put some order in the “NGO market”. Of his own admission this week, there is still a 50% rate of apathy, with a worrying 25% simply “not interested” and tese mainly from among the under 30 year-olds.

Despite what the survey said, it is wrong to conclude that young people are disinterested or not well informed. Quite the contrary, for decades volunteer teams at private schools, and more recently in public schools, have been raising funds for charitable causes, at home and abroad. These youngsters, who go off to study and become ‘community activists’ at Cyprus or overseas universities, are the ones who really care about the wellbeing of their fellow people and the environment.

In fact, the greatest segment of apathy comes from none other than the civil servants, who, as is the case of volunteers popping in to get collections from government offices, are often snubbed or turned down with excuses such as “I’ve already made my contribution” or “I don’t have loose change.”

These “have-nots” are the same people that the civil servants’ union chiefs arrogantly argued should not have had their salaries cut in 2013, claiming that state employees were the ones who supported the economy by buying milk and bread back then, and making their shopping from local supermarkets.

These are the same civil servants who have duped the administration into returning their pay scales, to be subsidised out of the license fees from the awarding of oil and gas exploration rights.

No wonder then that we need volunteers, because this government is broke and it cannot afford to spend on development and social welfare.