Someone Left the Door Open

Wouldn’t it be incredible if Hungary has to be maintained by non-Hungarians? What would that do to nationalism? Would all of you Hungarian ex-pats return to the homeland to hold the support poles in place? 

According to a Hungarian news report that was translated into English, “Around 72,000 Hungarians left the country in 2012… According to the latest Eurostat figures, 230,000 Hungarians live in different European countries - in officially registered status.” The article continues to fill in the blanks lest anyone should forget that there are worldwide destinations besides Europe. 

Just as I was reading this article a second time, I received an e-mail from a former student who has been living in Canada for the last two years and is not planning on returning to Hungary other than for a family visit. Last week, I received two e-mails from two former students who were sending me their updates on their life in the USA. 

Athough the article clearly states that the return statistics are difficult to master. There are no reliable sources for colleting this data; but what they are finding is that the nation sending the most immigrants to Hungary is Germany. The older Germans have some affinity to the country and culture. Probably country living makes the retirement euro go farther too. 

If you want to read the whole article brimming with numbers Google Will Hungary become a country of migrants? May 23, 2013

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Hungarians in Duquense, PA Video

Our nephew came across this video and shared it with us. He lives in Pittsburgh and was here to visit with his new wife on their honeymoon trip.
This is a short video of Hungarians who went to PA to work in the steel mills. When they interview people, it is in Hungarian, but the English narrator does give an overview.

From YouTube " This documentary, Krisztus Vándorai, filmed in the United States by Debrecen Televízió, aired in Hungary in 2009. It recalled the Hungarians' plight within their own country from which they fled for a better life, leaving their native homes of Northeast pre-Trianon Hungary (present-day Slovakia and Romania).

This 10-minute excerpt from the four-hour-long production, documents the congregation of my home church, the Hungarian Reformed Church of Duquense, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), for which I am the Assistant Chief Elder. Appearing in this portion of the film are Rev. Dr. József Posta, Marian Balázs Nagy (1920-2010), Olga Balázs Darnay, and Julius Nagy.

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Oh Those Hungarians

This is a little of this and a little of that. First, I want to tell you about a book I picked up after this last Saturday's walking tour. The book is A Country Full of Aliens: A Briton in Hungary by Colin Swatridge. I had no intention of loving the book when I started it. Actually, it was the title that drew my attention, while the back of the book quotes a Hungarian journalist, George Mikes. Mr. Mikes is responsible for calling Hungary "a country full of aliens", hence the title. 

I am not one to mark up books other than academic texts, but even before I desecrate them, I need to pay homage to the spirits of Gutenberg before I dare bring my highlighting pen close to the paper. For this reason, I just may have to buy a second copy of Colin's book. One to mark up and one to keep as a pristine example of Hungarian lore. Yes, I referred to the author informally by this first name; this is due to the fact that Colin and I are of such one mind, I could have written the book myself. Well, had I had the guts to write it, I could have. He has it easier being in and out of the country whereas I am planted and rooted here. 

Nevertheless, this book is such a reflection of my thoughts, my ideas, my observations that I have been reiterating for years, it is almost as if we were one and the same person. Oh my gosh, maybe I suffer from dual personality disorder and my other persona is a married Brit educator disguised as an American. Let me think about this, there was that week that I cannot account for my comings and goings, but other than that life has been in Budapest, stable and routine. 

Image via WikipediaThis book should be required reading for all Fulbright scholars who are destined to come to Hungary. It would be interesting to see a similar type book with the U.S. or the U.K. as the main topic, but it will never happen. It has nothing to do with superiority or ethnocentrism, but diversity. If you read my newly found friend, Colin's book you will understand exactly what I mean. If you do read it and either live here or are planning a visit, let's meet for a coffee to discuss it. If I could get students to spring for the 2,500 Huf, I would somehow try to fit it into one of my courses, perhaps Critical Thinking or Intro to Journalism.

On a somewhat related note, I am re-posting a news item that was in today's Caboodle, the English news portal. This article is a direct quote or at least the part within the quotation marks, so I cannot take any responsibility for the English grammar or the content. Some of it has me still scratching my head trying to figure it out. I have another short commentary at the end.

"June 30, 2011, 7:34 CET
Survey shows Hungarians hard-hit by crisis, unhappiest of post-communist bloc
By MTI

Hungary was one of the hardest-hit by the recent global financial crisis among countries in transition, according to a fresh survey by the World Bank and the EBRD, national daily Nepszabadsag reported on Wednesday.

Hungary ranked third among the countries of central and Eastern Europe in terms of suffering the largest blows. Two-thirds of Hungarian households were affected, 20 percent more than the average of the sample, taken at 39,000 households in 34 countries, the survey said.

Hungarians were the most unhappy about their life: only 18 percent said they were content with life. Respondents were especially pessimistic about their future, with support for market economy falling to one of the lowest levels in comparison to other countries and since 2006, when the survey was last taken.

Faith in democratic institutions in Hungary was very low compared to western countries. Exceptions were Hungarians' assessment of the government and parliament, which was 5 percentage points higher than the average in western states and nearly doubled since 2006, the survey said."

Okay, now me again. Hello...look at the above paragraph again. Low faith in democratic institutions in HUNGARY, as compared to western countries. However, Hungarians' opinion rose 5 points concerning government and parliament. Well if you omit government and parliament, what is left in the realm of democratic institutions that are of any importance? This paragraph must have lost big time in the translation process.

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Statue Park: Szoborpark

Statue Park (Szoborpark) is an open air museum that I have done in the past. As the expression goes, “Been there, done that”. Therefore, I have no desire to do it again even if personal guests begged me. It is located in the

Back then, the statues represented, albeit superficially, a powerful symbol of Soviet strength and unity. Today, stuck out on the edge of town, they've lost much of their dignity, instead being brutally exposed as the idealistic follies that ordinary Hungarians always knew them to be. Worth a look, but not as impressive as most guidebooks would have you believe.”

For myself, some of the statues are impressive as pieces of art, but as the emotional symbols they are meant to infuse, the feelings are long gone. The park is a large fort like area that reminds me of the old Wild West towns in the US used to ‘recreate’ the feelings of the wild frontier.

When you enter and the cheesy Soviet music starts, you are consumed with a creepy feeling. The inside of the park is a stark rectangle with the statues running along the perimeter of the fence. Other than the wording on the individual statues if there is any, there is nothing to read in any language, no description of the statues, its purpose, or history. At the time we went, which admittedly was four years ago, it took us a strained 45 minutes to look at the statues, take pictures, and take pictures yet again to waste time until the bus returning to the city would be available to pick us up yet again.

This is one site we never recommend to visitors unless they are staying in Budapest for more than seven days and have done everything else including counting the number of times a pooper-scooper could have been used on the streets within each district. No stars for this one.

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The Last of the Whine

The Last of the Whine

One of the California wine growers has or had the slogan “No wine before its time”. One nice thing about ex-pat living is that you are not infiltrated with advertising slogans to the point of mental numbness. But, I digress from the point of this note. If you have read past posts, you will know I have WHINED heartily about the Visa process here, the aggravation, the expense, and so on. This is the last of the whine. We found out last night that our 5 year Residency Permits were approved and we can pick them up on May 31st. So as of now, there should be no more whining about this topic.

With this we are fully legal Hungarian residents for a period of 5 years without jumping through any further hoops, diving through any barrels, not having to play nice with Immigration officers or shell out to overpriced agencies. We will have the same rights as Hungarians do, but since we don’t speak the language, we probably will not know all of them. Up until now, we have been legal with one year renewable Visas, but we had to have Work Permits in addition. Good-bye Work Permits.

At the end of the 5 years, we have two options. We can renew the Permit for another 5 years with a simple one page application or we can apply for Hungarian citizenship. The second option is not feasible for us since we would have to take an exam in Hungarian (ain’t going to happen folks), plus we would have to relinquish our U.S. citizenship and Social Security. I still have fantasies that there will be Social Security when I am retirement age. If not, I better get more serious about my writing and start to pump out something publishable.

For those of you who are not familiar with Hungarian, there are 44 letters in the alphabet. It is part of the Finno-Ugric, which comprises Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian; however, Hungarian is off on a branch of its own. It is one of the languages which is agglutinative, which means word meanings are modified by adding different and multiple endings or suffixes to the words, rather than using prefixes. It is not easy to learn and not easy for native speakers to understand when foreigners try speaking it.

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