Two and a half months after the collapse of Malév Hungarian Airlines the nation’s travelers are losing out on many connections, with the beneficiaries being Vienna and Prague because of a lack of Hungarian aviation agreements in certain markets. While there are indications that a formal tender on these routes will be under way soon,… Continue »

Each nation must come to terms with the darker chapters of its own history. For the United States such chapters include the genocidal destruction of Native American peoples, the deaths of millions of Indochinese, and more recently the death of over one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians. Continue »

It’s official. The population is at its lowest in 50 years, having fallen steadily from 10,709,000 in 1980 to 9,986,000 in January. The decline is now a record 0.5 per cent a year. Unless immediate steps are taken to increase birth rates and encourage immigration there will be well under 8 million people living in Hungary by 2050, with twice as many (one in three) over the age of 65.Of the 27 European Union member states Hungary now ranks last in terms of natural population growth. Between January 2001 and April 2010 some 333,000 fewer Hungarians were born than died. Net immigration in this period helped to offset the figure by some 150,000 individuals but these days Hungary is more of a transit country for immigrants than a final destination. Continue »

Although Hungary is filling the Presidency of the European Union for six months the US and the Western European media have been busy ignoring this news. The media are engaged instead in a rather consistent effort, initially orchestrated by the government’s opposition, to discredit the new rulers and to significantly darken the image of the country. Not a conspiracy, I think, but a somewhat shameful effort by those unable to accept the will of the majority and using the foreign media as a willing tool. Continue »

On 1 July 1863 in a remote corner of Pennsylvania scouting parties of two great armies exchanged fire in a skirmish that became the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point in the battle for the heart and soul of 19th-century America known as the Civil War. At issue was whether slavery should continue to be tolerated. A century later another battle for the hearts and minds of Americans was fought in Selma, Alabama and towns throughout the American South. This time the issue was whether 100 years after their emancipation African-Americans should remain second-class citizens or be permitted to enjoy the same civil rights as whites. Continue »

During the 1970s and 1980s Hungary was rightly considered the breadbasket of Eastern Europe. A thriving agricultural sector employed 14.8 per cent of the national workforce, accounted for 8 percent of gross domestic product and operated in a manner that was environmentally sustainable. Over the past 22 years the sector has experienced upheaval and contraction, in large part due to the winding-up of the cooperative farm system. The situation has been aggravated by meteorological phenomena associated with global warming. Continue »

A nation is judged by the way it treats its weakest members – so wrote Aristotle in the third century BC. One wonders what he would make of last Thursday’s conviction and sentencing of five Roma and one Hungarian to a total of 29 years in prison for what prosecutors said was a racially motivated attack on a Hungarian student. Four of the six suspects had been held in detention since their arrest on 23 October 2009 even though their victim did not sustain any permanent or life-threatening injuries. If their conviction is upheld on appeal, most of them will serve out the balance of their sentences in prisons usually reserved for murderers and repeat violent offenders. Continue »

2010 was the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. And yet Europe’s estimated 8-10 million Roma found themselves poorer and more socially excluded than ever after the Italian and French governments demolished “illegal” Roma settlements and deported thousands of Roma in clear violation of their rights as citizens of European Union member states. A bill introduced recently in the Romanian parliament to change the official name of the Roma people to “Gypsy” so as not to confuse them with ordinary Romanians merely added insult to injury. Continue »

Ordinarily men and women throughout life and especially in youth feel a strong impulse to share that life with another person, usually of the opposite sex. Thus both seek companionship, affection and complementary psychological help with their projects, dreams and difficulties that existence presents us all. Through the satisfaction of sexual union they bring children into the world. This trend to marital union becomes more intense as they reach adulthood and grow in maturity and sense of responsibility. Continue »

European Union membership has been a mixed blessing for Hungary. While certain sectors of the economy have thrived, agriculture has been dying a slow, painful death. Farmers find themselves no better able to compete with their Western counterparts today than when the import tariffs were first lifted seven years ago. Small farmers who traditionally grew produce and raised livestock for local consumption have been particularly hard hit.  Continue »