Bemused Cypriots wonder what has hit them

Siege mentality has gripped Cyprus, with banks closed, people on a drip feed of limited daily funds, and the looming possibility of a bank crash hanging over their heads. Confidence appears to have crashed already, with queues of people getting what money they can out before time runs out and the faceless world of international finance turns on the island. “I’m so unhappy and so mad. Because I think all the politicians are telling lies, just lies,” said one woman. “Nobody knows what really is going on. We just know what we hear through the news. We don’t really know what the others want from Cyprus or what the Cypriots really want themselves. Everybody is confused,” said one man in an ATM queue. In the fat years Cyprus diversified from a tourism-based economy by growing its banking sector until it was eight times the size of the rest of the economy. People are now learning money is rootless, flighty, and beyond their control.