On the Ground in Cyprus, Day 1: Fear and Loathing in NicosiaIn approximately three weeks time, the island of Cyprus will begin receiving its annual cash injection from holiday tourism. Thats whats known as a good injection. After only a day here, it has become very clear that the people of Cyprus are concerned, some even scared about a financial contagion and shock treatment which threatens their future prosperity. Soon, they will get another bad injection, which we are told will be deadly. So we are treating this like a crime scene. The next injection will be administered by Dr Troika. Just utter his name in public here and you will see wrinkles in peoples faces. Dr Troikas injection is the equivalent, in economic terms, to an experimental vaccine designed to treat a financial contagion which originated in Greece, and Wall Street before that. It is certain to provoke an auto-immune reaction. The people of Cyprus did not ask for this, yet, they are being forced to take it by the mad economic doctors in Brussels, Berlin and the IMF. Its the sort of bad medicine that the banking syndicates and corrupt officials have been administering for a while now, in order to take down governments and economies all over the globe with devastating effect. The majority of those queuing were older people, but these included many of the top depositors whose life saving have been clipped by the Troika. We asked around and quickly learned why the Cypriots did not all rush the bank on Thursday at high noon. Many residents told us that there was a community feeling that islanders did not want to stress the Bank of Cyprus by storming its branches. Strict capital controls have been put into place to slow the cash hemorrhaging this week, with most residents restricted to 300 euros per day, for four days, followed by an official assessment of the situation. Theres a lot of talk of Cypruss potential riches from untapped gas and oil, and many residents believe the bankers have taken down the economy here in order to exchange the islands future riches for a series of expensive (if not utterly debilitating) ECB and IMF loans. But thats still a ways off, and more pressing matters are salary cuts, pension cuts, a flight of wealth off of the island, and of course that fact that peoples money is being literally stolen from their accounts. When elites go to war, and fight their financial battles, it seems that the only victims are the average mom and pop. After meeting five or six local residents and business owners, it became abundantly clear that even the street sweepers knew that a criminal banking syndicate had held a gun to their heads and then stolen their money in broad daylight. He adds, Our friends in Europe have treated us like gangsters and criminals. Our government leaders have made mistakes, yes. But why are we being forced to pay? Its blackmail. This is stealing from the people, thats all. Not surprisingly, there were no Russian Oligarchs waiting to get inside any of the islands branches on Thursday, many of them apparently withdrew their money from still-open Russian branches of Laiki and Cyprus banks at the same time that the banks in Cyprus were shut. Mr Kiriakos, a local bar owner lamented over a beer with us before closing shop, explaining the reality of this latest banker-led heist in Cyprus. 