If you go to the Arab world, it is more complicated. In Saudi Arabia, alcohol is banned completely, although how big the underground alcohol business is, I am not sure. In the UAE, alcohol is available to foreigners, but in most cases not officially to locals. In Jordan, there are bars in Amman where foreigners and members of the local middle class will drink, but outside Amman, you will find the odd bar in a hotel but not much more. (There are liquor stores, normally owned and run by Christians, however). In Morocco, there are a few bars, but they are seedy places that respectable people might not be all that willing to frequent. However, if you go into a supermarket, the liquor section seems as large as it would be in a supermarket in Britain. So Moroccans clearly drink quite a lot – just not in public. Again the stigma is not as strong amongst the urban middle class. (In Tangier last year, I wanted to watch a Champions League football match. Finding a place in public in which to do this was simple – the Moroccans love football. The cafe/restaurant where I sat down charged me a small some of money for admission, and gave me a ticket, which could be exchanged later for a drink. (Pubs in the UK sometimes do this, too. The admission charge is usually about the same amount as the value of the drinks the ticket can be redeemed for. The purpose of the ticket is to prevent freeloaders from watching the game and not spending anything at the bar). Anyway, after I sat there for five minutes or so, a waiter came up to me, took my ticket, and asked if I wanted tea or coffee).

Through the front windows I could see small tables, a band stage, and a large, fully stocked bar. There were a few customers outside on the sidewalk for a smoke, and they told me the club was a hangout for Bosniaks. From which I gather they aren’t exactly the most observant Moslems either.

Mind you, in both my case and Michael’s, we were observing a self-selected subgroup, which is not necessarily representative of the whole population.

Last time I was there we were staying in a very beautiful hotel with a real beach that you had to pass a Turkish army checkpoint to even get into. Oh and there are signs all over the North saying no Pics allowed etc, but nobody takes a blind bit of notice. Anyway, I’m not a gambler, except perhaps for a bit of Poker, a game of skill not chance. But one night I wandered into the Casino that was in the basement of our hotel just for a looksee. I wish I had gone earlier in the week. Down there all the drinks and food were free, when I’d been paying the standard rate at the bar upstairs. There were huge plasma tvs on the walls, shimmering scantily clad ladies of uncertain virtue sat elegantly around. Large blokes of swarthy hue in suits with big bulges under the left armpit, and all they wanted you to do was leave your money with them as elegantly and effortlessly as possible.

I had no intention of gambling that night, especially when I’d seen number 14 come up 4 times in ten spins (are we on a bit of a slope here?) So I had a few Whiskies and helped myself to the club sandwiches and eventually one of the waiters sidled over and enquired when I might like to start losing my money… What time is it I said. He told me, and I said… ah but it’s two hours behind in England, and my Astrologer has told me never to gamble before midnight, so it will be a few more hours yet before I hit the tables… And they bought it! Kept bringing me drinks and nibbles.

What I’m basically saying here is that for a supposedly Islamic Nation they are the least fundamental I have ever seen. They like money and beer and Raki and a good time. There are also thousands of British and German residents there too. It may get poorer due to circumstances happening throughout Europe and the world, but it is certainly no Afganistan, or even Egypt. Without tourism and the Casinos, they’d have fuck all to live on.

Or maybe not. It could just be sportsmen enjoying the pseudo-nature-reserve. But one has to ask, if the wildlife is so populous now, why was it so sparse before?

The last time I heard the Islamists were NOT yet in power there (unlike in Turkey itself) – although, given the dependence of Northern Cyprus upon Turkey, they most likely will eventually take power.

As for Greek Cyprus – historically more prosperioous, but going bankrupt (like Greece itself).

Oddly enough Islamic law should (if it was applied) prevent that sort of thing in the Islamic world. As credit bubble banking is forbidden under Islamic law (actually all forms of lending for interest are forbidden – which is absurd over-kill, as there is nothing wrong with lending out REAL SAVINGS for interest, but there we go) and welfare spending is supposed to be limited to a couple of taxes.

Taxes that are supposed to be vastly lower than ours – our tax level being at dying days of the Roman Empire levels now.

However, Islamists (to judge by Iran and so on) appear to be more interested in persecuting women (and other nasty things) that they are combatting credit money or limiting government spending.

As for Greek Cyprus, and Greece itself, well President H. of France (recently in Algeria to apologise for more than a thousand years of Islamist attacks upon France – no I do not understand it either) says the problems are over.

So that is O.K. then………