Booking Your Family Vacation - Go Self Catering And Fend For Yourselves
This year for the first time in many years we are beginning to feel the pinch of an economic slow down which one way or another is going to affect all of us, whether it be with the rising price of fuel, the rising prices of everyday goods in the shops or if the worst comes to the worst some of us may even be made redundant from work. Whatever happens we will all be touched by it in some way and because of these we will all have less spare money in our pockets and whatever money we do have we will be slightly reluctant to part with it. Many of life’s luxuries we can afford to do without and this will help us to save a bit of cash but could you and your family bare to go without a summer vacation this year? A year without a two week vacation can seem like a very long and desperate year but if times are hard what option do you have, if you cannot afford to take your family away on vacation what can you do? Maybe all is not lost there may be something you can do. Read more »
Affordable Summer Vacation For Even The Largest Of Families
If you are part of a large family taking an annual vacation can be a very expensive luxury and one that you really do not want to do without. For many families taking a vacation this year will be even more difficult than in years gone by what with spiraling fuel costs and the fear of economic slow down affecting nearly every family in the land. For many people their annual family vacation is the only time that they get to spend any real quality time with their whole family away from the stresses and strains of everyday life and the family vacation is an important part of most families bonding ritual. Take away the annual family vacation and many families would fall apart. It is forecast by most economic experts that most families will try to cut back on their non essential spending by as much as 25 per cent over the next few months in an attempt just to make ends meet. All of this does sound rather doom and gloom but it does not have to be, by making the right choices you can have your family vacation even if you do have a large family. Read more »
Why Would A Real Estate Agent Overprice Your Home?
Why a real estate agent would take an overpriced listing and how they could still make money off of a homeowners house even if the house never sells. Read more »
Looking To Move Abroad And Give Your Family A Better Standard Of Life?
For so many of us our dream is to retire somewhere warm and relaxing, somewhere where we can wake up with the sun rise and not have to worry about how many layers we are going to have to wear for the day to keep the cold at bay. For those of us lucky enough to be able to think about retiring to some where warm and relaxing it gives us a focus as we approach the time in our life when we start to slow down a little and take things easier, but more and more people are looking to retire early and get out of the rat race and take their family with them and go and start afresh some where else, hopefully giving the whole family a better and more fulfilling life. In many countries the number of young families leaving to start a new life in another country is more of a stampede than a meander, so where are they all heading off to and what is the great attraction about leaving your home country and going to start a new life else where? Read more »
Booking A Private Holiday Home
For many of us taking our annual two week summer vacation is the highlight of the year, having made it through the long cold winter months, fighting off illness after illness and putting up with cold dark mornings and nights when we get to the warmer months of the year we feel as though we have earned the right to have a bit of a relax on the beach and enjoy some quality time with the family. Over the past 15-20 years the holiday market has changed greatly, with the greatest changes coming in the past 10 years mainly thanks to the growth of the Internet and the rise in popularity of the low cost airlines that now fly to so many popular destinations. Because of these changes the way we book and take our vacations has evolved from being a trip down to the local travel agent to see what deals were available to being able to book our vacation ourselves directly with the accommodation and the airline. So with more vacation options available to us than ever before where should we look to book our vacation to this year? Read more »
Secrets To Reading The Bible
Did you ever wonder why the Bible is so hard to read? It is simple really. God is looking for people who are willing to pursue Him. The Bible is like a gold mine. Now, if I were to give you a real live gold mine, would you just walk in and pick up the gold? No, of course not. You have to dig for it, but the reward is incredibly valuable. I promise if you dig into the Bible you will find secrets FAR more valuable than just gold. Read more »
You Really Should Write An Article
Everyone on the Internet needs lots of new, high quality content. Website owners, bloggers, and publishers of ezines and newsletters all need content. All businesses including yours need exposure and advertising. Writing articles allows you to get your exposure and advertising while sharing your expertise with others. Read more »
Moving Abroad?
Life can seem a bit hard sometimes, we all go to work to earn our daily crust so we can provide for ourselves and our families and then through no fault of our own the prices in the super markets and at the petrol pumps shoot through the roof leaving us with less money to spend on the things we enjoy doing with our loved ones. We have to start to cut corners and make savings in our lives but still we have to go to work for the same pay but with much less to show for it at the end of the month. So what can we do to make changes to our life so we do not feel the financial pinch as much and changes that will enable us to live a more fulfilling life with our family? Read more »
A Dog Well Trained Brings Joy!
A well trained dog is obedient and happy. An obedient dog will bring joy and happiness to your entire family for years to come. It is very important to start your dog’s training in his early impressionable years. Read more »
Moving to Europe - Do Your Planning Properly
In a recent survey over 45 per cent of the people polled stated that they would like to leave the country and move abroad, that is a pretty shocking figure but it just about sums the state of the country up at present. In another study it was reported that over 450,000 people are leaving our shores each year to set up a new life in a different country with their families. It used to be the realm of the older generation and the retires that when they finally finished their working life they would move to somewhere with a warmer winter as well as a slower pace of life, but not it is people and families of all ages that are looking to get away as soon as possible to try their hand at starting a new life in a foreign country. It sounds wonderful getting away from the dreary miserable winter months, the rain and the snow to spend your life in the sun but as with everything it is not quite a stroll in the park, you have to work at integrating into a new society. Read more »
Where Should I Invest In Real Estate
Investing in real estate is one of the few ways for the average person to gain wealth. Can you become rich overnight? Not very likely. Real estate investing should be considered a long term strategy that can gain you tremendous amount of wealth over time but you must do your homework first. The majority of people that are getting into the real estate investing market are simply purchasing a home in an area that they are familiar with and then wonder why they are not rich after a couple of years. Read more »
Two Hungarian opinion polls: the gay pride parade and political popularity
Szonda Ipsos, a Hungarian pollster, has been busy lately. Two days after the the ill-fated gay pride parade in Budapest Az Este, MTV’s late night political program, asked for a quick poll on the public’s reaction to the event.
I don’t think that the results are terribly surprising. More than two-thirds of the people blame the gays for the debacle on Saturday. According to these people the gays should not behave that “provocatively.” Only twenty-one percent of those asked think that what happened was shameful. Sixteen percent don’t know whom they should blame. About twenty percent of the people simply don’t give a hoot one way or the other. Seventy-four percent of those polled believe that the actions of the mob are motivated by hatred or that they want to create an upheaval. However, eighteen percent consider their actions acceptable, even a proper way of expressing one’s opinion. A large majority is convinced that the mob doesn’t really care whom they attack as long as it is a minority. Only fifteen percent think that the gays were the specific targets. About twenty percent of the people haven’t got the foggiest idea what the extreme right really wants.
About half of the people wouldn’t have allowed the radical counter-demonstrators near the parade, but as we know very well the police had no choice in the matter due to the less than perfect legislation concerning street demonstrations. Almost thirty percent of the people would have forbidden all demonstrations on that day. Perhaps the most telling: 75% of the people consider human dignity a more important consideration than freedom of speech.
The Hungarian judges try to explain things away
Dissatisfaction with the Hungarian judiciary has been growing in the last couple of years. Earlier complaints usually focused on the inconsistency of decisions: different judges came up with opposite verdicts in virtually identical cases. Or that on appeal the judge of the appellate court reached entirely different conclusions from those of the first judge. In the last two years the law-abiding citizens who are horrified at the behavior of a fairly easily defined group on the streets of Budapest have been noticing a certain reluctance of the courts to punish people for acts that ordinary citizens consider to be criminal. Yesterday’s decision reached at summary proceedings (gyorsított eljárás) really was the last straw. People are by now convinced that the Hungarian court system is defending the criminals and that the members of the Hungarian judiciary have a political agenda. And let’s face it, there have been several cases where the courts’ inconsistencies are politically suspect. When demonstrators threw eggs at Gábor Demszky, SZDSZ mayor of Budapest, the court decided that a public figure like Demszky must suffer such acts; they are simply expressions of some people’s contrary political opinion. However, when a similar situation occurred in the case of the Fidesz mayor of Esztergom, suddenly egg throwing became a different matter. The egg throwers were punished.
Until now every time I heard spokesmen of either the courts or the prosecutor’s office talk about controversial cases they always defended the decision, however implausible it sounded to the layperson. They always had a complete explanation for anything the members of the Hungarian judiciary did. However, there seems to be a slight change in the attitude most likely as a result of the outcry that followed yesterday’s verdict.
The last straw: the Hungarian police and the judiciary
Prime Minister Gyurcsány stood alone in front of the parliament building Sunday morning and announced that the mob attack on a peaceful demonstration the day before was the last straw. Hungarian society has had enough. It is time to show that the majority will not tolerate a few thousand troublemakers’ constant threat to public peace and order. He suggested that on September 2 there should be a mass demonstration. In addition he asked the president, the speaker of the house, the chief justice of the constitutional court, the chief justice of the supreme court, and the chief prosecutor to get together with him to devise a course of action to put an end to lawlessness.
To tell you the truth, I don’t believe that this is the right course of action. I simply don’t know what either a demonstration or a meeting of the chief dignitaries would achieve. I suspect mighty little. A lot of words, a few thousand people, a few thousand policemen defending the few thousand peaceful demonstrators and then comes October 23, 2008, and everything goes its merry way again.
Realpolitik and the Hungarian political situation
Realpolitik, as the English spelling of the word testifies, means political conduct or analysis that takes into consideration the given political reality. It is a practical way at looking at politics. Instead of wishful thinking the politician or the political commentator analyzes a country’s actual political situation and bases his actions and analyzes solely on the real, tangible political reality. I happen to believe that this is the only viable way of looking at politics. (And I don’t want to hear that I’m an epistemological dunce.)
I find it rather annoying when some Hungarian “political scientists” or politicians say such things as “Gyurcsány and Orbán will have to disappear.” These two men will not disappear; they will be part of Hungarian politics for the foreseeable future. That’s Hungarian political reality. Hungary’s future lies in the hands of these two men, and the voters simply have to choose between them.
Hungarian Public Television
Hungarian Public Television (Magyar Televízió = MTV) is not exactly a haven for high-brow programs. It’s just like all the other television stations that vie for viewers and through them for more advertising revenue. Although I know that in Europe life cannot be imagined without publicly funded television stations, one has the distinct feeling that the rationale for these public television stations is fading in our modern world. It is impossible to cram everything that the public “should be interested in” within one station: operas, concerts, theater, history, documentaries, movies, literature, religion (all denominations), cooking shows, news, sports, political discussions. Should I continue? Theme channels now dominate cable TV in the United States: entertainment, history, music, do-it-yourself, cooking, sports (including one dedicated to golf), and politics. Just to mention a few. With the introduction of digital television such a thematic solution is easily attainable in Hungary; if I recall, a few years ago, during the contest for the position of president of MTV, Sándor Friderikusz’s proposal actually contained the novel idea of making four or six channels out of MTV, each devoted to a specific topic that would draw targeted audiences. In my opinion no public television station can today compete with the plethora of channels catering to specific audiences. Thirty years ago in the United States the appearance of National Public Television was an oasis in the desert for those, like myself, who weren’t too thrilled with Mr. Ed or the Beverly Hillbillies. Today there are still some excellent programs such as Masterpiece [formerly Masterpiece Theater], the American Experience, Frontline, and Nova, but the general level of evening and weekend programming has deteriorated. (Daytime programming is dedicated to children’s shows.) The fifth time–actually, probably the tenth time–around the same “Keeping Up Appearances” is not exactly on the Tivo “to do” list.
But let’s go back to MTV and the constant trouble there. Most people I know tell me that they hardly ever watch MTV with the possible exception of the late evening political program, Az Este, and on Sundays A Szólás Szabadsága, especially if there are interesting guests. With the populace at large the early morning political show, Napkelte, is also quite popular, but apparently the real winners are quiz shows and light entertainment: Örökös, A Társulat, and Csináljunk Fesztivált. I discovered a few Hungarian-made soaps that were predictably boring (though apparently it doesn’t take long before people become soap-opera addicts), and I found a murder mystery that wasn’t exactly captivating but watchable.
MTV is not so much a producer as a disseminator of content; it produces only 30% of what it airs. The only shows that are produced in house are Az Este, A Szólás Szabadsága, Híradó, and the religious programs. All the others are purchased from outside studios.
The Hungarian gay pride parade
This morning I heard one of the right-wing organizers explain that his organization is a peaceful group of concerned citizens. They just want to defend family values. Their only aim is to stop the yearly gay pride parade in Budapest because they consider it a form of advertising for homosexuality. But they will never resort to force. The organization’s name is Rendszerváltó Fórum. And what do I see in the online edition of Népszabadság tonight? “The most forceful attack against the demonstrators came from Rendszerváltó Fórum’s meeting at Franz Liszt Square.” Well, well! The report continues: “On the square the demonstrators tried to break the cordon [the police had erected] and attacked the police, who answered with tear gas.” At the far end of Andrássy Street, on Heroes’ Square, hooded and often masked demonstrators attacked the policemen, using Molotov cocktails, rocks, eggs, whatever. Here the police used water cannons as well as tear gas. Because of the “battle” on Heroes’ Square the police diverted the participants in the parade off the main road. In order to make sure that they were not attacked after the parade was over, as happened last year, the police directed the gays into the old nineteenth-century metro that was closed to the public for the duration. That way they could leave the scene without insults or bodily harm.
However, some people were not so lucky. József Orosz, a reporter for Klub Rádió, was recognized at the Kodály Circle. His attackers first abused him verbally, but soon enough they became violent. He was hit on the head and on the shoulder. For a brief period he lost consciousness. According to Orosz, one of his attackers yelled to the mob: “Come here, you can spit on Orosz.” Orosz is a liberally minded reporter and hence often the target of the extreme right. Gábor Horn, the SZDSZ politician, was also recognized by three young guys who spat on him, poured beer all over him, and at the end slapped him around. Gábor Szetey, former undersecretary in charge of the reform of public administration and the only member of the government who openly admitted to being gay, was recognized as he was leaving the scene with Katalin Lévai, a MSZP member of the parliament of the European Union. They managed to survive the ordeal unscathed thanks to a police car that came to their rescue. The mob subsequently broke the window of the car, but the passengers were unharmed. Lévai, who is a great champion of equal opportunity in Brussels, was shaken. She expressed her total amazement at the behavior of the extremist demonstrators. The whole scene reminded her of what she imagined to be the mood at a lynching or a pogrom. She added that it was horrifying to witness the egg and rock throwing and the physical attacks. Something like that shouldn’t happen in a European city, she said. She will write a report to the socialist delegation of the European Parliament and also to the head of the organization dealing with gay rights.
How can this happen? Why is it that until two years ago these gay pride parades went off without any trouble?
Read the rest of the article »
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A bit more math
As I predicted yesterday numbers are flying. And not just numbers but words too. To recap: Viktor Orbán and Mihály Varga held a press conference on Wednesday where they outlined Fidesz’s remedies for the soaring food and energy prices. They claimed that a drastic decrease in VAT (ÁFA) would not cost the central budget a single cent (or to be more authentic, a fillér). The loss of revenues would be amply compensated for by increased domestic consumption.
One didn’t have to wait long before Ferenc Gyurcsány responded with his own press conference. Like Orbán he didn’t come alone. But unlike Orbán he didn’t have a high-level economist in tow but rather an ordinary elementary school math teacher. The claim was that any sixth-grade student should be able to realize that Orbán’s proposition is nonsense. The school teacher stood in front of a blackboard and explained that if Mr.Citizen went shopping for food in the supermarket and purchased 1,000 Ft worth of stuff, at the checkout counter he would pay a total of 1,200 Ft given the 20% ÁFA. If that ÁFA were reduced to 5%, Mr. Citizen would have to buy 4,000 Ft worth of food for the budget to receive the same 200 Ft in revenues. Surely, said Gyurcsány, this is an impossibility. People will not buy four times more food than they do today. Here is a photo with the simple arithmetic on the blackboard.
Meanwhile Fidesz altered their estimates. No longer do they claim that there would be no loss; rather, there would be a shortfall of only 120 billion as opposed to the government’s estimate of 320 billion. Read more »
Monsoon country
We turned into a monsoon country, with massive rainfalls and storms that take about 3 hours to get here from Vienna. No problem that I spend every other day at least 20 minutes watching the lightings around 1-3AM and drag along the following day…
But today :) Once again I had delicate footwear on (some orange sandals) which I wanted to protect from the heavy afternoon rain so I crossed the Vérmező Park barefoot (again). It is an awesome feeling when the hot concrete is warming your sole as the refreshing rain is pouring down from above. It makes you feel energised and alive. And out of the box. How refreshing, before the 10 year high school graduation reunion tonight… :)
Balkan Beat Box… numero uno
Oh my… This is music… I made up my mind. For progenitorial purposes Idan Raichel is the one, as I have already said. But as of today, the gypsy band Amaro Del was overcome as far as liveliness is concerned… Still can't believe… The Balkan Beat Box simply rocks… we were jumping, dancing, smiling throughout the entire concert and I spent all day today in semi-asleep thankfulness that they came. And not only because of Dylan's 20-year-old version with cigarette sticking out of his mouth (Uri)! :)
They are a must and here is the list of their upcoming concerts. They are going to make you move… this time they haven't even used all the instruments they could have. They don't update neither the photoblog nor the shots on their website, but if you would like to get a feel of the concerts it's worth checking them out! And listen… no - go to a concert!!!
The latest Fidesz ideas about the economy
Yesterday with a certain fanfare Viktor Orbán and Mihály Varga held a joint press conference during which they outlined their plans to ease the economic pressure on the Hungarian population caused by rising food and energy prices. As we know, the parabolic rise in the price of oil and all other energy sources is influencing the economic health of the whole world. Even the price of food is partly connected to the rise in the price of energy. Although in the United States the presidential candidates advocate immediate remedies (like lowering the excise tax on gasoline or a windfall profit tax on oil companies) cooler heads who aren’t trying to get elected prefer to let the market work things out. Admittedly so far the market hasn’t done a very good job. Crude oil in the U.S. is up 400% since Bush was inaugurated in 2001; heating oil is double what it was a year ago. There’s lots of finger-pointing: China and India are using huge amounts of oil, the U.S. dollar is in the toilet, environmentalists prevent oil exploration, speculators are driving the price into bubble territory. So far we’ve seen only limited demand destruction in the U.S. The upshot: no one knows whether oil is heading to $170 as the president of OPEC predicted, whether it will hit the round number of $200, or whether it will settle back down to more reasonable levels.
The Gyurcsány government is pursuing a cautious course: next year’s crop should be very good and lowering VAT on food usually makes no difference because, based on past experience, any decrease in VAT is offset by an increase in the price of the product. VAT goes down, the price of the item goes up, and the consumer doesn’t gain a cent. On the energy front Hungary is suffering from horrible inefficiencies. For instance, the Hungarian consumption of natural gas is sky high because of the shoddy apartment buildings erected during the era of plentiful and dirt cheap Soviet gas. Moreover, these rows and rows of ugly apartment houses are heated by distance heating that is very convenient but also very expensive. Most of the apartments in these buildings don’t have their own thermostats, and the only way to regulate heat is by opening windows. The owners of these apartments cannot turn a thermostat down at night or during the day when they are at work. Or during the two weeks of winter holidays. Insulation is practically nonexistent, and through the single pane windows heat pours out. The government did introduce some financial incentives for the owners to consider investing money into fixing up their apartments and for all the owners jointly to do something about the thermostat problems. In East Germany these apartment complexes (in Hungarian panelházak) were simply torn down. Hungary and I assume the other former socialist countries couldn’t do that: there was no rich West Hungary or West Czechoslovakia behind them.
The dead cucumber thief: Whose fault is it?
Three gypsy men had a jolly good time in the local tavern in Kesznyéten, a medium-sized village in Borsod county. After consuming a fair amount of alcohol they decided to steal cucumbers from a villager’s vegetable garden. The gardener, a sixty-eight-year-old man, had had a lot of trouble with intruders who time and again stole his produce. He apparently reported the incidents to the police, to no avail. So he decided to take things into his own hands. He fenced his property with aluminum wire connected to the electrical current. At night at 10 o’clock he electrified his fence and the next morning at six, he shut it off. Apparently a lot of people in the village knew about his home-made contraption, including the three who decided to try to steal some cucumbers anyway. I guess they figured that they just had to be careful and all would be well. It didn’t turn out that way. The oldest (age 48) died on the spot, the second one (age 30) was seriously injured, and only the youngest managed to escape with minor injuries–some burns on his feet. He was the one who ran for help.
These three men were related, part of an extended family of about 50 to 60 people who vowed revenge. Luckily the police arrived with a large force and prevented any bloodshed. The old villager is charged with attempted murder (“több ember ellen elkövetett emberölés” is the Hungarian legal term; it implies that homicide was attempted against several people) while the two survivors are charged with larceny. The older villager apparently didn’t have the foggiest idea that his idea of protecting his property was not legal in Hungary. He believed that if the police didn’t defend him he had to defend himself. (I assume that in Hungary as in the United States ignorance of the law is no excuse. And that a person can’t take the law into his own hands.) According to György Magyar, one of those “star lawyers” who take high-profile cases, the Hungarian criminal code considers such a dangerous way of defending personal property disproportionate to the potential theft of that property. (Your life for my cucumbers.)
Hungarian justice
One can hardly find words to describe how poorly the Hungarian legal system functions. Both the prosecutor’s offices and the courts are terribly slow. The judges don’t seem to be able to differentiate between important, often political, cases that should have speedy trials and trivial matters. To give two recent examples. First, the blockade of the Elizabeth Bridge in the summer of 2002. On the surface it was a very straightforward case. György Budaházy, then an unknown, organized a blockade of the bridge in order to protest “the fraudulent elections” that returned the socialists to power. It is unnecessary to dwell on the paralysis of the Keystone Kops who took at least three or four hours to figure out how to remove the few cars and reopen the bridge to traffic. Well, six years later we have a verdict: Mr. Budaházy can either pay a 40,000 forint (170 euro) fine or spend a few days in jail. But, if I recall, Mr. Budaházy can still appeal, and I bet he will. Or, a current case: the Hungarian Guard. Everybody knows that the visits of the Guard to Gypsy villages and the trouble they cause is no small matter. The whole world is full of stories about this notorious paramilitary group. The court simply has to decide whether the Guard is really a cultural organization as they registered. The court began its deliberations in April. There were two or three court appearances, but yesterday the judges decided that this weighty case must be continued until September. Unfortunately, the Hungarian Guard also continues its activity.
But this is only one problem.
Soccer and related topics
It doesn’t happen too often that I write about soccer because I must confess I have virtually no interest in the sport. I think that in my entire my life I witnessed only one soccer match–at the age of nine. I was visiting some relatives in Vasas (today part of Pécs) and there was this huge event in the life of the mining village: the Pécs soccer team came to play Vasas. It was held on an ordinary field, and the audience stood on the sidelines because there were no seats. Pécs won, everybody was cheering for Vasas, I was alone on the other side. I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on, but that didn’t prevent me from cheering madly for the visiting team. Even then I was an independent soul.
My interest in the game hasn’t grown since, so you can imagine how much attention I was paying to the European championship. However, it was impossible not to hear bits and pieces about the different teams and their chances. I must admit that this little information came in handy the other day when I went to the hairdresser who is Italian and an avid soccer fan. I casually mentioned the Dutch, the German, and the Italian teams. I sounded like a pro. Fortunately the conversation didn’t go far enough to expose me as a total phony.
What I really don’t like about the game is the violence that often accompanies it. The hosts of this year’s European championship, the Austrians and the Swiss, boasted about how peaceful the games were. They added that no liquor could be taken into the arenas. Moreover, from what I hear about ticket prices perhaps the audience was not the brawling sort. Even if in Austria and in Switzerland there was no trouble, the situation was different in Madrid. Fifty-nine people were arrested and one was found dead. The Spanish fans in their happiness broke shop windows, set garbage cans on fire, and acted half-crazed. And there was a scene that I hope Krisztina Morvai also saw: two policemen mercilessly beating a guy with their nightsticks. Wow! Maybe the defender of the “innocent” Hungarian demonstrators should shift her focus from Budapest to Madrid.
I think that the attitude toward soccer has changed radically in the last fifty years or so. Both Péter Esterházy and his brother were avid players. Their aristocratic mother disapproved. As Péter Esterházy said in an interview, it was not suitable for her children. Only lower-class kids played soccer. And similarly, middle-class men and women did not go to soccer games. Today, there is a soccer mania and almost everybody is interested in the sport.
Gay parade: Trouble is already brewing in Hungary
Last year was the first time in Hungary that far-right groups attacked members of the gay festival held in early July, a day designated for the event worldwide. At that time I wasn’t terribly surprised because physical violence had became commonplace in Hungary ever since the fall of 2006. Initially the police managed to keep order and guard the safety of the participants. At that time (July 7, 2007) I wrote a piece praising the Hungarian police about a job well done. Two days later I had to change my mind: the police left the scene too early, and these extreme homophobic groups attacked people after the official celebration ended. Blood was flowing.
This year we might expect much greater trouble. First of all, the police have become weak-kneed. The gay community went to the the Budapest police to request a permit for their planned parade on Andrássy út. To the utter surprise of everybody, the police announced that, unlike in previous years when the gays didn’t unduly interfere with traffic, this year they would. So the police chief refused permission. An outcry followed. A day later the police chief changed his mind. (I suspect after some pressure from above.) Most likely the Budapest police simply didn’t feel like getting involved and, suspecting trouble, thought that the best course of action was simply to ban the event and save everybody a lot of trouble. But, let’s face it, this is a cowardly and in the final analysis an unacceptable way of handling extremist outbursts.
Hungarians and traffic laws
Hungarian drivers are notorious: apparently you put your life on the line when you try to cross a street. Just lately there were several fatal accidents at pedestrian crossings. One was really terrible: a grandmother was pushing her grandchild in a stroller, and a car that refused to stop ran them down. Both died.
Then there are the horrific pictures in the newspapers. The bodies of the vehicles are twisted beyond recognition, and the cars sometimes land upside down. Often these are single-car accidents; the driver simply lost control. He was going at such a speed that he was unable to take a curve and smashed against a telephone poll, a fence, or a house. People, including children, fly out of these wrecks because they refuse to buckle up. Children who are not supposed to ride in the front seat do.
Lajos Bokros et al.
Economists are looked upon in Hungary as a fiercely independent group within the intellectual elite whose only guideline is strict professionalism. They are respected scholars, and whatever they say is the "truth." Apparently, according to Zsófia Mihancsik (in the last issue of Mozgó Világ, a monthly), this high esteem of economists goes back to the Kádár regime when at one point it seemed that the ills of the regime were not so much political as economic in nature. Even practicing journalists, admittedly without any economic background, look upon economists' words as holy writ. I had an interesting experience with one of these journalists. Some time ago in Napkelte (Sunrise), the early morning political show on the Hungarian equivalent of public television, the journalist confidently explained to an MSZP politician that the American experience proves that lower taxes translate into higher economic growth. This was the situation under President Reagan, he added. Well, my curiosity was aroused and I decided to inquire from him where he learned that. Answer: From So and So. I asked him: Don't you realize that there is this kind of economist and that kind of economist? Or, as the standard joke goes about the dismal science, on the one hand, on the other hand, and on the third hand. It seems that this never occurred to him. If an economist says something it must be true.
Anyone who has followed recent Hungarian developments must be struck by the sudden activity of economists. Suddenly they are full of excellent ideas. Not a day passes that one of these gurus doesn't come up with some plan that will save, if not the world, at least Hungary. And their recipes are fullproof. Not long ago I talked about the four young economists of Oriens who promised an economic paradise in two years if their plan is accepted. Luckily it wasn't. There are two or three all-knowing economists who can be heard practically daily. One of them is László Csaba about whom I will say nothing because he is considered to be Fidesz's "court economist." However, I would like to say a few words about László Békesi and Lajos Bokros, both former ministers of finance under Gyula Horn, and both of whom, by the way, were eventually fired by the socialist prime minister.
Békesi always looks as if the end of the world were at hand. He had the same demeanor during his tenure as minister of finance. Mind you, then the situation was really critical. But since then Békesi has not become a more cheerful soul. And now that Fidesz has managed to whip up a "crisis situation" Békesi is an obvious media guest. It is not necessary to go into the details of what Békesi says because he is completely in sync with the other suddenly active economists. What they all have in common is a firm grasp of textbook economic theory and a total disregard of the existing political situation.
Listening to Békesi, as I indicated above, is not fun, but I must say that I had to laugh the last time I heard him. He was being interviewed after the deal with Daimler-Benz became public. He was asked how it was possible that such a prestigious, world-renowned auto manufacturer decided to establish a large plant in Hungary if the Hungarian economic situation is as bad as he and his economist friends claim. Békesi was at a loss. The decision, he kept repeating, was totally unexpected. Something must be not quite right. We will perhaps one day find out what kind of illegal, sinister force is behind it. He didn't elaborate, but I had the feeling that what he had in mind was something like this: Perhaps pressure was put on Daimler-Benz from above (the German government, European Union?) to choose Hungary and thus bolster Ferenc Gyurcsány's government. One possibility he didn't contemplate: he is exaggerating the problems of Hungary, and the situation doesn't look so bad from abroad as the Hungarian economists would like us to believe.
And now let's talk about Lajos Bokros. I used to respect the man, but lately I have very serious reservations about him. Not as an economist because he admittedly did a very good and brave thing in the spring of 1995 that helped to save Hungary from economic and financial ruin. But where was he with all his reform ideas when the government announced its reform plans two years ago? Did he help? Did he tell Hungarian society that these measures were necessary? Did he tell the Hungarian people that Fidesz's attacks on the government's reform plans were misplaced? That Fidesz and Orbán were outright wrong? No, he didn't. He said nothing. Now that Fidesz has managed to put an end to many of the reforms, Lajos Bokros surfaces and attacks Ferenc Gyurcsány and his government for not having the guts to continue the reforms that were killed by Fidesz. This is not decent behavior. Not in my eyes.
And by the way, for those of you who understand Hungarian I highly recommend Sándor Friderikusz's final program tomorrow night on ATV. Inspired by Zsófia Mihancsik's penetrating article about Lajos Bokros in Mozgó Világ, Friderikusz has organized a get-together between Ferenc Gyurcsány and three economists. It should be a real treat. As for Mihancsik's article I will summarize it next time.
Half time: 2006-2008 (II)
As promised, let's review the Gyurcsány government's failures. First, there was the ill-fated plan to build a separate, modern government complex to which all the ministries would have moved. In theory, the idea was good. At the moment ministries are housed in old, inefficient buildings in downtown Pest. These buildings were not erected to house ministries or any kind of offices. Some of them were luxury apartments built in the late nineteenth century. Heating is very expensive because of the high ceilings. The rooms are too big for individual offices. Communication among ministries is cumbersome. By contrast, the proposed complex would have had a smaller footprint and maintenance would have been less costly. But the proposed construction, introduced in the middle of an austerity program, became a prime target for the opposition. And that wasn't the only problem: inadequate preparation, charges of corruption, professional criticism about the projected costs, all led to scrapping the project. It surely added to the government's woes.
The other very serious failure was the reform of the health care system.
Forint reaches five-year high against euro (Realdeal.hu - 04/07/08 10:11)
Hungary to step up checks on tourist buses (Caboodle.hu - 04/07/08 08:19)
Gastronomy Festival, Buda Castle, 4 - 6 July
“Culinary adventures from the Settlement to our days - the Festival of the first Hungarian white-table order.
Deák Ferenc
Deák Ferenc, (October 17, 1803, Söjtör - January 28, 1876, Budapest), was a Hungarian statesman, known as “The Wise Man of the Nation”. He supported the “Compromise” (Ausgleich, Kiegyezés, 1867) with all his strength, leading the delegation that signed the actual accord, and yielded the premiership of the new dispensation to Gyula Andrássy After 1867 his health weakened; the continuous work and the attacks on him by disappointed radical patriots used up most of his strength. His reformist ideas were often rejected by Parliament. He died on January 28, 1876, and was buried with great pomp. Parliament created a law to remember his excellent service and ordered that a statue should be created from national donations. (wikipedia)
