Official KSH numbers In 2023, you could live in Budapest [in NE Hungary] very well: from $1535 /month [$921] well:…
July 15th, 2023
At USD/HUF = 360
Average (not median) net monthly salaries in Hungary, 2023. Highest: Budapest $1286 Lowest: Szabolcs county $754 https://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/megy/234/index.html
On top of the arrests at Chicago’s prestigious Art Institute yesterday we had this development in Chicago https://blockclubchicago.org/2024/05/05/chicago-cinco-de-mayo-parade-canceled-due-to-gang-violence-police-say/ . The…
This development here in Chicago of arrests at Chicago’s Art Institute over pro Palestinian demonstrations sort of stunned me. (See…
DW Hungary has an interesting video about Hungary’s attempt to become a battery plant superpower on behalf of clients from Asia – with accelerated official licensing and without any regard for local people’s protests and concerns about the environmental health impacts.
The video is only available in Hungarian at the moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnwKVuYQK4E
New factories are springing up all over the country
An update on this critical article?
https://www.dw.com/en/hungarys-big-bet-on-batteries-and-its-costs/a-65193569
Well yes, but not just in Debrecen but at various sites through out the country and interviews with affected people
A really good example of Fidesz politics:
https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarian-motorway-reaches-croatian-border-runs-into-nowhere-photos/
Maybe someone can get the picture to appear here?
Here it is: The M6 dead end.
Michael, thanks!
We discussed this right now with our neighbours who visited us – and one of us (Maybe it was me even?) had a great idea:
This together with other Fidesz “accomplishments” would be a great start for a sequel to my favourite Hungarian movie!
The witness = A tanu
You’re welcome Wolf!
Several things strike me as rather odd, when examining the picture. A road looking like the one depicted, wouldn’t last a month with 50+ ton trucks driving on it and could easily be washed away by heavy rains.
In conventional road constrution, under the asphalt, there has to be either a 60 cm. deep, heavy load absorbing base, built up by at least two carrying layers of stable gravel, wide enough to provide shoulders for the road, and draining trenches on both sides, deeper than the road layers. Or, a 30 cm. double layer of stable gravel, covered by 20 cm. of double steel-reinforced concrete and a stable gravel layer on top, with drain tubing running on both sides and reservoirs for containig the drained water at regular intervals along the road. This road looks more like a paved railroad. But railroads distribute the weight of the trains evenly through the length of the train through rails and sleepers, whereas trucks and cars apply point pressure directly to the immediate contact surface – I don’t get it! Or as Spock would have said: “Doesn’t compute”.
Obviously, the coordination between Hungarian and Croatian road-authorities needs some improvement!
Another Fidesz “method”:
While they are whining about too many refugees arriving they are releasing human smugglers from Hungarian prisons to continue their activities?
Wtf?
hungary-will-we-lose-even-more-money/https://dailynewshungary.com/eu-begins-new-procedures-against-hungary-will-we-lose-even-more-money/
The NY Times yesterday ran an extensive story on significant losses taken by Ukrainian forces in the first two weeks of its counter offensive. It’s behind a paywall, but this DW summary of the article gives the bottom line of the story. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrKjgeCUAZA The NY Times will not allow me to link to yesterday’s story so I can’t post it.
In the USA our media completely dismissed all Russian video being aired about these losses as a propaganda effort by the Russians. In fact there were claims the footage was created by computer technology.
Really at this point it is very hard to accept any claims from either side relating to the counteroffensive. One thing that seems likely true many casualties on both sides are mounting.
Do you mean this post …
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/us/politics/ukraine-leopards-bradleys-counteroffensive.html
Yes if you have not sent two or more links then you can link it. If you are over that amount you are blocked.
The bloody reality of the war is far too much and too cruel for the sides’ media to face. And also a story they can’t sell.
We know where Russia stands – “Protecting Russian interests agaist the evil Nato. Innocent victims of Western aggression, as always, and we can always outbleed the Ukrainians”.
We know where Ukraine stands – “Fighting for our national borders and integrety”.
Where Nato stands? Behind the Ukrainians and the sympathetic, experienced professionals from Europe who offer to man the front line and train recruits, for as long as they are provided the best hardware needed for carrying out the task of killing great numbers of adversaries.
After decades of easily thwarting “weaker enemies” in the middle East and many other places, these people smell real blood, sacrifice, and honor.
“Lured in, ripped off” Barley advises German companies against going to Hungary …
… “Once companies have invested in Hungary, everything goes great until they are then in the black. Then the harassment begins,” the SPD politician added. For example, she said, companies were suddenly being asked to pay “special taxes of up to 90 percent”. In addition, companies reported threats against employees, Barley said. Several companies have also already complained about a lack of investment security in Hungary. …”
FAZ, the leading conservative newspaper in Germany, has a scathing article on how Hungary fights against Sweden joining NATO – now behind Turkey.
But as the author writes:
O1G has not too many friends in Europe – so who gives a sh*t???
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/nato-beitritt-schwedens-orbans-ist-nicht-beim-wort-zu-nehmen-19038089.html
Probably, the only country in the EU that isn’t wise to the Orbán mafia’s game in Hungary, is Hungary.
That’s not true!
All of our neighbours here near the Fidesz stronghold Esztergom know about this and tell us unbelievable stories – but the majority of Hungarians just doesn’t care.
An example:
deleted …
The abominable heat forces us to stay inside all day so I got too much time to browse the net where I found this:
A far-right EU?For a long time, a far-right European Union seemed inconceivable. Today, however, things look rather differenthttps://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/a-far-right-eu-6854/
Let’s just hope sanity prevails …
Chicago is an anomaly in terms of heat this summer, but since I am in my early 70s the massive added air pollution coming at us from the Canadian wildfires limits my time outdoors too. I now carefully watch the air quality index everyday, today is an outside day based on the data.
My wife’s sister lives primarily in Tucson Arizona and it has constantly been above 100 degrees F for weeks now. Yesterday was a true nightmare with a combined temperature of 109 F and a dust storm. Here is a link to photos from Tucson last week on the dust storm https://tucson.com/weather/tucsons-intense-dust-storm-weekend-storm-captured-on-social-media/article_5379b16e-e26b-11eb-a447-b78ebade3562.html.
My sister in law is leaving to stay with her relatives on the Seneca reservation in New York. Periodically the smoke from Canada overwhelms the reservation where many poorer families do not have air conditioning.
She was living with us in Chicago for several weeks and hoped the normal monsoon rains might make Tucson survivable, but it so far has done very little to make it survivable. There are fewer safe havens available in the USA.
Because my wife and I own Forrest land in Wisconsin we have been obsessed with clearing deadfall that could ignite with lightning strikes. It is very time consuming to collect it and do controlled burns that have to be carefully watched with a water truck near by. We hire many people to do that as do other owners of Forrest lands and lumber firms. Of course a mass fire could spread and still burn us out.
We actually have computerized ground moisture monitoring in our forested land that transmits the data to us. But really there is not much more you can do than just watch and hope for the best.
The Kyiv Independent today ran this opinion piece
https://kyivindependent.com/george-monastiriakos-the-only-way-to-save-russia-is-to-dismantle-it-2/ . While it is not the editorial opinion of the Independent giving prominent coverage to the idea that the goal for the western supporters of Ukraine has to be the complete elimination of Russia as a world power.
As the article opinion piece stated: “Unless Russia’s defeat is decisive, however, Putin, his successor, and the Russian people are likely to seek revenge against Ukraine. With hundreds of thousands of young men returning home in body bags or wounded, its land army decimated, its economy crippled by sanctions and export controls, and its former prestige evaporated, history suggests Russia will go through another period of regrouping and reloading.”
This unfortunately is what Putin is telling the Russian people every day is the goal of NATO and Ukraine, and not a defensive war to return seized Ukrainian territory. This is also what Orban more or less claims is the vision of the so called NATO supporters of direct war against Russia. For one of the more liberal media outlets in Ukraine to promote these ideas is not a good development.
Hungary’s president as a right wing anti LGBT, anti feminist, anti abortion activist gave a talk at a conference in Rwanda that shocked many participants:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/19/gut-churning-anger-as-hungarian-president-addresses-major-womens-rights-conference
Her understanding of the role of women as serving their husbands and child producers would be funny if it weren’t so horrible!
Quotung her boss Viktor:
Hungary, in “a unique way” in Europe, adheres to fundamental values such as family, nation and faith.
Hungary the sad country without education and health care system in which 30% can not eat a proper meal every day and 30% lives at the expense of those also abroad live in luxury and hire with public money prostitutes for the vacations or participate in drug parties in Brussels and the remaining 30% lie on the couch and watch 😀 as Fidesz steal lie cheat. Man are they family oriented, Christian and proud of their nationality. 😀
This year’s Fidesz nationalist fest Tusványos has adopted a new slogan: A béke ideje (the time of peace). This is of course based on the great fake Orban peace plan for Ukraine which would hand over to Putin if implemented today all of Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts.
The young Fidesz supporters camping out in Transylvania will be taught how Ukrainians can trade land for peace, how the Americans want war against Russia, how NATO has become more and more an offensive tool to destroy Russia. Most of all they will learn how only Orban is for peace in Ukraine in a Europe gone mad.
Will there be present at Tusványos some Hungarian speaking Ukrainians who support the Orban peace plan? I would bet there will be. Some of them will no doubt argue Transcarpathia should become part of a greater and happier Hungary, just like Transylvania should.
“Hungarian TV channel reported on Crimean Bridge Blast with a video of Northern Irish football fans from 2016. According to HírTV, Ukrainians were celebrating the explosion, which killed 2. In fact, this is footage of fans celebrating player Will Griggs in a pub. Screenshots below” – publicly financed madness what else can you say about it.
DId Hun TV also report on the Hun tennis player who destroyed evidence by her adversary?
She destroyed the impression in the ground hat the tennis ball had made which would prove that it was good.
Hun TV is an insult to stakeholders and Hungary it is Orban culture and also Stefan culture and especially the Trianon culture and also everything that is lied like Hungarians are better than migrants and everything else. 😀 People who steal lie and cheat just do things like steal lie and cheat. That’s it.
When it comes to sports US TV is no better. Outside of Chicago Northwestern University is experiencing a massive sexual abuse story initially related to US football and the school’s head coach Pat Fitzgerald (the highest paid employee of the University)and now is extended to many sports both men’s and women’s.
The story was broke by the University’s student newspaper because mass media was enchanted with the school’s coach and would not touch it.
Really sports reporting globally is often sports promotion and hero creation, not really journalism.
Istvan that was my thought too – especially in Hungary. There is certainly a story behind the story. Interesting it is virtually a dispute China – Hungary.
Sports, with all the money involved, is a source of corruption and exploitation.
Inherent in the building of a sporting success-story, is the building of the downfall.
Either way, the bookies and the media win.
You are not well informed.
According to this Telex article with the complete video of the incident, the Chinese media manipulated the incident. The way the Chinese player is behaving after her ball was incorrectly given out is not normal. It may have to do with her psychological state. Of course, the young Hungarian player will be judged on this incident. The question is, is this fair?
Telex: A kínai média manipulációján múlt, hogy közellenség lett a világsajtóban a magyar teniszező
Jan, are you telling us that the players of the WTA as well as US and European sources are all lying and following the bad, bad Chinese?
PS:
If any!!! Hungarian media tells me anything I would first look it up elsewhere – my wife does the same …
Where in my post did I write the people you mention are lying??
If the only information you have is the Chinese video, you will condemn the young Hungarian tennis player.
Watch the video please. There is English comment.
I give you an advise back: if any!!! Chinese media tells me anything, I would look it up elsewhere.
Telex is not a reputable source, unfortunately neither are the other “free” Hungarian media. “the Chinese media manipulated the incident.” This can be read only in Hungarian media German and Swiss media do not mention manipulation. It was about a possible wrong decision of the referee what remains is unsportsmanlike conduct. The question of fair is in my opinion out of place.
The moment the Hungarian player destroyed the mark was after the players played already 2 new points, so the wrong decision was accepted.
The Chinese player wanted the mark to be in the national museum of Peking after archeologic preparation (:
Just watch the video, no cuts in it like in the Chinese version. As always it is not about the case, but which newspaper writes it, is it in the international papers, what did the person giving an opinion do ten years ago? etc.
If you write that the Telex is the Bild Zeitung from Hungary and are not trustable, give me some examples.
I have criticized here several times Telex.hu texts, from confused history scribblers to the points that were simply concealed to such texts that also fit into Orban’s media propaganda. Ergo, Telex for me is to be enjoyed with caution. But everyone is free to believe everything.
Ok. here are two articles one from a Dutch newspaper with the Chinese manipulated video, if you watch the video, you can see that on the moment of the destruction of the ball mark, the standings are blurred, because this happened like 9 minutes later.
Tennis world in shock after ‘disgusting’ feat of unsportsmanlikeness, opponent gives up crying | Tennis | AD.nl
The second article is from the 444, showing the whole video and describing the happenings.
Tóth Amarissa csak egy 20 éves teniszező, aki győzni akart (444.hu)
My post to Wolf was only to inform that the Hungarian tennis player was condemned with the help of manipulated material.
The same way I was and am upset with the treatment of the two brave young female students by the regime and Church I feel it necessary to defend this young tennis player.
That’s who I am.
I am sorry, but I do not need lecturing about the sources of the information, accusing me of telling that everybody lies.
I do not remember that I knowingly informed with false information, and normally check my links. With interviews I choose the original article if possible.
“That’s who I am.” I consider your contributions enriching.
“Just watch the video” what I saw in the single image was, if it was the ball in question, that the ball was on the line. But there could be a parallax error. The referee could have been a Hungarian ? but there is no information about this in the article. I must admit that the pictures are bad and I am not a referee. An article with which I can do nothing.
As a half-Hungarian, I can say that your vision may have been impared – momentarily – if not, who’s to know?
I have been told that if the ball touches the line by just a millimeter, it is valid. Sloe motion shows the ball on the line the still image of the impression of the ball has touched the line. The Hungarian linesman has declared the ball out. The linesman decides and is responsible for wrong decisions – that is in the nature of things. The Spiegel wrote Tóth Amarissa had now two possibilities either she reports a point for the opponent or accepts the decision of the line judge. She decided for the second one.
As you have undoubtedly seen in the full video of the incident, the umpire went personally to the ball mark to check.
After around 20 seconds in the video, it doesn’t even take long.
John Driver on Twitter: “Here is the full video of what happen with Zheng vs toth, these small clips are manipulating you all. It was a god awful call. No doubt, but the decision was made and wasn’t going to be changed by anyone. Also another point was played before she even erased it. The… https://t.co/aKr8fqgbly” / Twitter
So, it is not the Hungarian linesman who decided as you write, but the official umpire. This was of course not shown in the video from Zhang.
Amarissa Toth apologizes after ‘disgusting’ and unsportsmanlike behaviour: ‘I feel very bad’ | Tennis | AD.nl
Toth was forced to apologise I think and decided to do so in the interest of her future career.
Removing the mark is a normal procedure to avoid confusion if another ball lands near the same spot. I have seen it done many times.
If you look at the video, you can see the audience was only some friends and family from Toth. The cheering was not appropriate, but I can understand it.
Well then the Hungarian official referee decided it. The pictures remain and say something else … in my opinion.
Here is Reuters, lying about Toth.
She did not apologize for erasing the ball mark as you can hear in the video from the second link.
Hungarian Toth apologises for erasing mark in match against Zhang | Reuters
Ryan on Twitter: “Amarissa Kiara Toth has released an apology to Shuai Zhang she’s definitely reading from a script but at least she’s apologizing https://t.co/M08rfar3Vu” / Twitter
Don, not sure why you think Telex is not a ‘reputable’ source… why not? And reputable in what sense?
Reader the first question I have already described several times in comments. The second question – reputable simply means reputable and Telex is far from it.
The answer is not exhaustive but everyone should be able to answer the question for themselves 🙂 so to speak self-knowledge on the way “Cogito, ergo sum”. No one should accept my opinion everyone should form his own opinion that would be the renaissance of humanism.
Hmmm, I agree, it’s certainly not exhaustive and I’m not even sure it’s an answer. Reputable implies something about truth, doesn’t it? Are you suggesting that Telex deals in untruths?
The renaissance of humanism surely depends on the existence of a ‘social’ world, i.e. a world of shared and collective representations and understandings, far from ‘everyone forming his/her own opiniion’…. perhaps that’s a recipe for chaos…?
“Are you suggesting that Telex deals in untruths?” No that would be unfair. I would call it blinders or board in front of the head. Quite funny when I read an article in Telex declaring Russian historical claims in Ukraine and as possible opposition to Orban’s policy not taking the opportunity to mention Hungarian interests. Not to mention that if you go further back in history, everything explained becomes bullshit. No, I don’t think that the general intention is to bend the truth.
Wow!
Varga Judith went to Texas for a visit and gave an interview to a local right wing newspaper- never heard about it before.
https://dallasexpress.com/national/exclusive-hungarian-minister-talks-texan-european-borders/
Be careful when reading this …
Varga would have been better off becoming a housewife, since such statements could still have been counted as “normal”. As a right-wing nationalist politician with right-wing nationalist policies, which after 13 years demonstrates the failure at all levels, seeks the conservative international. Jézus Mária és József …
The head of Harghita County Council, Borboly Csaba (UDMR) Băile Tușnad , on Thursday requested a squad of gendarmes in view of threatened protests by nationalists against Orbán separatist efforts in the Transylvanian town of Tuschnad. 🙂 What did Varga say in Texas … she is looking internationally for like-minded people. In the Trianon state, nationalists are looking for protection against nationalists.
Orban spoke in Tusnádfürdö about a stable Hungarian economic situation until 2024 with even more employment and even higher production rates. 🙂 To me this sounds like planned economy. At Pusztaranger you can read – kitchen staff is wanted in Kerekegyháza (near Kecskemét) for 116,000 HUF gross or 77,140 HUF net at 40 hrs a week. Whether the ballot at the next election will be checked by the Fidesz employer was not written.
Of course, there was also the usual all are spinners only Orban-Hungary not echo.
Really the photo below from Telex taken at Tusnádfürdö says it all.
If you were to print the crosses that caused the two in the pandemic by failure on the T-shirt it would be Uni colors probably black. I still have a scythe that would match. 🙂
Orbán’s peech in English – the master has spoken: has spoken – the unchristian gay EU is dying and USA is losing against China – that’s why Hungary must be China’s trojan Horse in Europe.
https://dailynewshungary.com/pm-orban-keynote-speech-the-usa-does-not-accept-chinas-victory-and-may-go-to-war/
The comments on this look a bit different however.
I can’t write down what I think about this …
I wonder how the EU will react and hope they will not give him all that money.
Always the same record.
General government deficit in EU countries in 1st quarter of 2023 .
(non-seasonally adjusted), as % of GDP:
#1 Italy 12.1%
#2 Hungary 11.2%
#3 Belgium 10.0%
#4 Greece 9.9%
#5 Romania 7.2%
#6 France 6.2%
surplus:
#1 Cyprus 4.8%
#2 Denmark 2.8%
#3 Netherlands 2.4%
#4 Ireland 1.4%
#5 Portugal 1.2%
#6 Luxembourg 0.4%
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/17215486/2-21072023-BP-EN.pdf
Hungary (Szijjártó) really wants to get OTP bank off the list of war sponsors:
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-doesnt-want-20-billion-euro-fund-ukraine-military/
Spanish elections
89.9% of the votes counted
176 seats are needed for majority in the llower house.
Right: PP+Vox = 169
Left: PSOE+ Sumar = 153
Catalans + Basques = 14+11 = 25
153+25 = 178
Others : 3
Will there be a PP+PSOE grand coalition ?
Orban’s favorite (Fascist) party,
Vox has lost seats.
2019: 52
2023: 33 (97.7% of the votes counted)
Lots of Catalans refused to vote.
Catalan parties:
2019: 23
2023: 14
Not as bad a result as pre-poll predicted, but difficult to manage.
Vox losing 19% is positive news.
Conservatives probably settle for dominating cross-center, if possible.
Some thoughts.
#1
President Biden has not restricted the power of the opposition US Supreme Court (e.g. by packing), so the court was able issue anti-abortion and other anti-[last 60 years] rulings.
#2
President Biden tries to micromanage the Ukrainian army by delaying weapons shipments (tanks, then long-range weapons, now airplanes)
#3
The Israeli government tries to restrict the power of the Israeli Supreme court. This power is more extensive than that of the US court. The court can veto the laws of the Parliament and the decrees of the executive just by declaring them “unreasonable”. The executive cannot even nominate the new members of the court.
The Israeli public is split in the middle. Both halves feel they have to protect the future of democracy – either from the overwhelming power of the government or from the overwhelming power of the judiciary.
President Biden tries to micromanage the Israeli political system too, by siding with one of the two opinions or fears.
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/23/biden-netanyahu-judicial-overhaul-bill-israel-protests
I think you stretch the meaning of “micromanagement” out of proportion.
It’s applicable to corporate management without internal resistance or control, but not to political decision-making against an active opposition.
For people like Orbán etc and the kind of management they conduct, you can use the term correctly – but otherwise, there are many other factors, besides the will of an executive board involved.
I do not remember VP Biden raising similar objections when Orban packed the Hungarian Constitutional Court and even abolished the constitution in 2011.
Well, Hungary seems too insignificant a country ….
Right!
And today, Biden walks a careful balance between the Isolationists and the business of armament.
By the way, the protests in Israel are substantial and potentially dangerous for the Israeli govt.
Besides, Hungarian politics sort under the (tolerant) EU.
It’s a little discouraging to think about the American activities of a known international arsonist (ok, he doesn’t burn books in public, but he fans all that does) like Orbán – I’m sure it must have been on the table when Von Der Leyen last visited the White House – Perhaps the problem finds a solution, somehow.
Actually I worry more about the East German and Polish slide to the right.
As the Spanish election shows there generally is a limit to the number of far right/extreme voters, Vox lost many votes …
and in Germany when Afc wins the extreme Left loses. It might bevome interesting and even funny if Putin fan Sahra Wagenknecht really starts her own party – taking many votes from the other estremists.
“the protests” – there was an equally large protest for restricting the powers of the Supreme Court. I was watching CNN – they simply did not mention this protest (in Tel Aviv) at all.
‘They lied, misled then, so they must be lying, misleading now, they always lie’
Trump was able to use this false logic.in 2016 and later because of the biased, sloppy journalism of “the liberal media”
These protests are not something the govt. media can control, well, perhaps in Hungary and Russia and similar places. But not in Israel.
Fierce protests have been rocking Israel for months. What’s fueling them? – POLITICO
A report on the business relations of O1G’s family and the unbelievable atrocious corruption of it.
https://dailynewshungary.com/one-of-the-richest-hungarians-gave-a-fortune-to-pm-orbans-son-in-law/
I have had two days to think about Orban’s performance at the Tusványos Festival in relation to his response to the Romanian nationalist protesters led by the Orthodox Brotherhood led by Dan Grăjdeanu and also by Mihai Tîrnoveanu, the leader of the Path of the Nation. Orban was just thrilled by this and he could prove he was a proud Hungarian who supports the liberation of Transylvania. I am pretty confident the Hungarian Army could not take back Transylvania no matter how it tried and not because the Romanians are a military powerhouse themselves. But rather because both nations are corrupt and disasters for many people who live in them.
I think the Hungarian-language portal Transtelex got to the essence of the problem when they wrote: “When Orbán weaves into his speech that Székely Land and Transylvania are not Romanian territories, he shows that he is not in the least interested in what he leaves behind him apart from the cloud of dust from his car. … What remains, beyond the shouting of the Romanian extremists [the protesters who demonstrated against Orbán during his visit] and the Hungarian visitors, are the Hungarian minority and the Romanians for whom this region really is their home. They are the biggest losers of the conflicts and games of politicians and lunatics.”
Now I have been to Băile Tușnad and stayed at a spa there. I have also been to nearby the Lake Sfânta Ana (Szent Anna-tó in Hungarian). Instead of this nationalist nonsense Orban should be promoting protecting this beautiful place from global warming and logging. My fear is massive wildfires will destroy this area eventually. There is illegal logging in the area impacting rich biodiversity of Transylvania have been catastrophic in some places; once-beautiful mountains and valleys reduced to barren expanses of earth, scarred by fallen and dragged timber. This illegal logging is being carried out by both ethnic Hungarians and Romanians.
Psychologically Orban is incapable of understanding that some of the Székelys are ecological nightmares themselves because of isolation and poverty. Because my wife and I own forestland in Wisconsin many of the problems there were obvious to me. While visiting the area I also learned about 1990 and the ethnic rioting in Târgu Mureș (also known as the Black March which resulted in serious clashes that took place between 19 March and 21 March 1990 in Târgu Mureș , as a result of which five people lost their lives, hundreds of people were brutalized and injured. It seems to me the pig Orban would like very much to see a revival of communal violence in Transylvania as would the pig Dan Grăjdeanu on the Romanian side. I thought the theme of this year’s Tusványos Festival was a time of peace?
I met intermarried Hungarian and Romanian families during my visit there several years ago. I suspect they are hated by radical nationalists from both sides which is just tragic. I actually discussed what I saw with people here in the USA from my own Hungarian Catholic Church, a few said I told lies, more often they said nothing or both sides were to blame but nothing could be done.
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania according to the censuses:
1948: 9.45% (1.500 million) [mother tongue]
1956: 9.08% (1.588 million) [ethnicity]
1966: 8.48% (1.620 million)
1977: 7.95% (1.714 million)
1992: 7.12% (1.625 million)
2002: 6.60% (1.432 million)
2011: 6.10% (1.228 million)
2021: 5.26% (1.002 million) [ethnicity]
In 2011 and 2021, lots of people chose not to declare their ethnicity.
2011: 6.15% (1.237 million)
2021:13.04% (2.485 million).
In Bucharest for example, 25.56% of the people did so in 2021.
https://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Tabel-2.01.xls
Breakdown by towns and villages in 2021:
https://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Tabel-2.02.1-si-Tabel-2.02.2.xlsx
Breakdown by mother tongue in 2021:
Hungarian:
5.45% = 1.038806/19.053815
https://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Tabel-2.03.1-si-Tabel-2.03.2.xlsx
Religious distribution of the 1.002151 million ethnic Hungarians in 2021:
Calvinist: 45.26%
Roman Catholic: 40.43%
Unitarian: 4.61%
Romanian Orthodox: 1.91%
Greek Catholic: 1.27%
https://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Tabel-2.05.1-si-Tabel-2.05.2.xlsx
https://www.recensamantromania.ro/rezultate-rpl-2021/rezultate-definitive-caracteristici-etno-culturale-demografice/
https://romkat.ro/2023/02/11/nepszamlalas-2021-felekezeti-eredmenyek/
For the nationalists and the Catholics and the Catholic nationalists and the street thugs like Orban, I would have Matthew 5:3 instead of nothing.
Yes prior to my confirmation as a Catholic I was required to memorize “the Beatitudes” in Magyar -Matthew 5:3 through 12. In our Church we combined Catholic doctrine and Hungarian language instruction.
Apparently that is no longer done at St Stephen King of Hungary parish in Chicago. Language instruction and Catholic doctrine are separately taught.
You know I just realized I no longer could pronounce properly “a Boldogságokat” and had to phonetically do so.
István, for all the thunder and 1930’s nazi style argumentation Orbán produces about Transsylvania, there is a simple answer:
“You haven’t a hope in hell”.
Hungarians are a minority, as they were during the empire days, only much smaller today, and without any legitimate claims to sovereignty – It’s all a dream and symbolic of the massive procrastination Hungary practices within the EU.
An act nobody in Europe really pays attention to. A lost cause. A choice between getting real and working together or dreaming on.
All but the ones who drink the kool-aid know it.
Istvan the Orban said the Enlightenment, a time that began about 500 years ago and continues to work today, has failed. The time that gave air to science and allowed knowledge outside the history of origins would have turned us into hedonistic pagans. Is not that sadism? Should we gel ourselves so that the pain of Orban’s ego is no longer so strong …
Orbán’s speech wasn’t really enjoyed by the neighbours …
And now back to reality:
Inflation in Hungary was by far the highest in June 2023, around 3 times the EU average!
https://hu.euronews.com/2023/07/19/haromszor-akkora-az-inflacio-magyarorszagon-mint-az-eu-atlaga?
Can anyone find the info in English?
Following what the Fidesz honchos have said or written over the last days I see several non-compatible strategies:
Now the last developments in the EU like the extreme right wing in Spain nowinning the elections, CDU nor really willing to cooperate with the fascist AfD, Austria, the other memnbers of the V4 and of course Romania being not enjoyed ba O1G’s speech make all this really unrealistic.
And don’t even think about Hungary being the worst performer in the EU regarding inflation, wages etc.
So what do they really want/expect???
Historically, far-right nationalism never concerned itself with compatibility. Only power.
Perhaps a future strategy that Fidesz may consider is to leave the EU but, unlike the UK, remain in the single market for the obvious economic reasons. This would mean that Fidesz might be able to dispense with all of the “corrupt and ugly Brussels system” whilst keeping the advantages of FDI from Germany in particular but China etc. as well as it would maintain their route into that market. My sense is that other rightist politicians in the EU (Meloni especially) are a bit smarter than OV and are more able to play a subtle game with Brussels. How far Bruussels would go along with Hungary in the single market and not a member of the EU is an intersting question.
The alternative is that OV thinks it possible to establish an ‘ethno-region’ in the EU territory, i.e. white,Christian, anti LGBTQ+ resistant to the present ‘progressive neoliberal/liberal’ consensus (ironically, Hungary is a localised version of neoliberal political economy). Such an arrangement would, of course, depend on ‘the right’ being more successful electorally than they were in Spain, for example, last weekend. But, if you look at OV’s speeches over the last few years, and last week, he sees a parallel between ‘protecting’ what he identifies as European and Hungaran values, i.e. these are apparently coterminous… so, a kind of ethno-regional consensus in which liberal democratic sensibilities become marginalised…
Just a thought…
No matter what Fidesz will do in the future, one basic premise will define the goal: Corruption.
that goes without saying.
And because of that, the benefits of a freer association with the EU would probably not amount to a positive effect for people in HU. But the money Hungarians working in EU send home amounts to quite a bit.
Reader, to “remain in the single market” without staying in the EU is surely impossible – Hungary would have to prove that they follow all the rules on products they produce and sell etc …
And Hungary would also confront a border again – or do you think they could stay in Schengen, that would be fun.
In reality it would be worse for Hungarians than for the Brits – and it’s bad enough for them.
Wolf, certainly not impossible in principle, and yes, the requirerments would be onerous. Norway, Iceland and Switzerland (within EEA) are part of the single market under diffferent regulations. The point for Hungary, I guess, would be that Fidesz would not have the problem as they see it of Brussels ‘liberal democracy’…
But they would have to follow the rules, only selling ok products and services etc.
Just look at the UK’s difficulties.
And they would have no chance to get any money from Brussels …
But they don’t now anyway! That tap has been tuned off by the look of it. If it remains turned off, there will be decisions to be made in relation to the question ‘what’s the point of being in the EU?’
Remember, this regime’s interest is purely in capital accumulation, and that is now in trouble in relaiton to benefitting from EU funding.
But the UK is not in the single market, had it been, people who live there might be in a better place now.
Coup d’etat in Niger.
Largest uranium producers in 2022:
Kazakhstan: 43.4%
Canada: 15.6%
Namibia: 11.5%
Uzbekistan: 6.7%
Russia: 5.1%
Niger: 4.1%
China: 3.5%
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/facts-and-figures/uranium-production-figures.aspx
Hungary is bankrupt – the government asked the European Central Bank today to be allowed to hide this fact by not repaying the debt of the Hungarian National Bank.
https://24.hu/fn/gazdasag/2023/07/06/mnb-magyar-nemzeti-bank-jegybank-inflacio-nhp-ekb-suranyi-gyorgy-rona-peter-veszteseg-monetaris-politika/
https://nepszava.us/orban-rejtegeti-hogy-csodben-van-az-orszag-a-ner-kozeli-cegek-miatt/
https://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20230726_Kesz_a_kormany_terve_arra_hogyan_tuntetne_el_az_allam_tobb_ezer_milliard_jegybanki_veszteseget
“A country that has no financial revenue of its own, that cannot even run its own civilian life, let alone finance the war, that country is not sovereign.” Orban said about Ukraine. 😀 Stolen money does not make sovereign either.
Sounds funny – the loudest in the EU are also the biggest failures.
I’m curious to see when Orban will have to drop his pants.
Taxpayers’ money —> Orban’s oligarch —-> Orban’s family
https://g7.hu/kozelet/20230727/kozpenzmilliardok-is-vannak-a-tiborcz-istvan-fele-aramlo-vagyon-mogott/
Putin on the Russia – Africa summit today:
“we will be ready in the coming months, in the next three to four months, to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Eritrea with 25,000-50,000 tons of grain free of charge, and we will also ensure free delivery of these products to consumers.”
Free grain – stolen from southern Ukraine/
Wheat production in Ukraine by oblasty:
https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/countrysummary/Default.aspx?id=UP&crop=Wheat
Prigozhin was photographed with the chief of protocol of the Central African Republic in a luxury hotel of St Petersburg, a few kilometers from the location of the Africa summit.
Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger …
Will Chad be the next former French colony to be taken over by Russia?
plans for Chinese battery plants in Hungary
2022-08-12 Debrecen (CATL) $7.6 billlion
2023-05-09 Debrecen (EVE) $1.0 billion
2023-07-27 Nyiregyhaza (Sunwoda) $0.3 initial billion
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-catl-build-new-756-bln-battery-plant-hungary-2022-08-12/
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinese-battery-maker-eve-power-build-plant-hungary-2023-05-09/
https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinas-sunwoda-plans-2747-mln-hungarian-battery-plant-2023-07-27/
The Orban regime does not permit any local or country-wide referenda on the environmental impact of the battery factories.
July 28:
The EU will give 2.36 billion euros to Orban to develop ‘climate neutral’ technologies in Hungary, including electric battery factories.
https://24.hu/kulfold/2023/07/28/unios-tamogatas-800-milliard-forint-klimasemlegesseg/
I could not find the original announcement on the website of the European Commission.
“Commission approves €2.36 billion Hungarian scheme for accelerated investments in strategic sectors to foster the transition to a net-zero economy”
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3851
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/State_aid__Commission_approves__2.36_billion_Hungarian_scheme_for_accelerated_investments_in_strategic_sectors_to_foster_the_transition_to_a_net-zero_economy.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2583
This?
Orban will be able to hide his bankruptcy for a while yet.
“Big talk, bad performance: Viktor Orban’s Hungary is in a worse position than any other European country
The prime minister recently provoked NATO and neighboring states again. Meanwhile, the economic situation in his country is desolate. Orban is largely responsible for this. He pursued an economic policy that is typical of an autocrat. …
… On average, they suffered a real wage loss of 15.6 percent from the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, the highest of all OECD countries. …”
So Hungarians have to eat cheap unhealthy food and that’s why their life expectancy has fallen again – and the rate of obese people is the highest in the EU!
Bad joke:
How do you realize someone is a real Hungarian?
It’s easier to jump over him than to walk around him …
Really even more than diet Wolf it’s alcoholism and tobacco use in Hungary killing people. (See https://hungarytoday.hu/hungary-alcohol-alcoholism-consumption/) According to the World Health Organization 28.2% of the Hungarian population were regularly smokers out of people aged 15 or above. This compares to · 18.4% of EU population 15 and older who smoked daily.
Even when Eva had the Spectrum going did a number of articles on these issues and related it correctly to Hungarian tax policies that promote death.
She also discussed the really poor state of cancer treatment in Hungary. In some ways the USA has a bigger problem with drug related deaths of young people due in particular opioid overdoses and fentanyl related deaths that have actually reduced the US life expectancy here in the USA.
But we all can take solace from what a disaster Russia is now. Older males might just as well join up with Wagner combat death brigades because their life expectancy is now around 66.4.
One of my younger cousins in Esztergom has his own theory. That the Hungarian heart attacks are indeed due to fatty foods.
But he says why do we like them so much? I told him because they taste good. No, no he said it’s because of the Ottoman occupation of Hungary. They took all the beef and left us with pork to eat.
I asked if he read a book about that? No a nun who was his teacher at Mindszenty
Elementary School taught him all about what the Turks did to us.
I am glad he got a good Catholic education.
That’s basically what you get, if you ask a “home”-Hungarian about anything. Or even asking, say, a Hungarian doctor about therapeutic matters, or any other professional, for that matter – Home-grown, Politicized evaluations, based on many generations of home-grown, politicized teaching.
#1
Cattle was the main export product of Hungary in Turkish times.
Hungarian merchant-s (tőzsér-ek) drove cattle from the Turkish-occupied Hungary to Austria and sold them.
#2
Tallow is as bad for the heart as lard.
“A marhakivitel három fő irányú volt.
Az egyik Bécs és a Német Birodalom (Nürnberg, München Augsburg, Regensburg, Ulm, Strassburg stb.).
A másik irány Morvaország volt (Auspitz),
a harmadik irány pedig Légrádon és Buccarin át Velencébe irányult.
A marhaindítás XVI. és a XVII. században nagy szarvasmarhatömegeket vitt külföldre és nagy pénzbevételt jelentett. Az 1560-as év egyetlen napján 7418 marhát szállítottak át a váci réven.”
https://www.nagyfatal.hu/gasztrokultura/a-magyar-szurke-marha
Look, this talk has nothing to do with present issues – like Why is Hungary supporting Turkey on Swedish Nato-membership? (Iknow Hungary is a dwarf compared to Sweden and Turkey), and why doesen’t Hungary handle it’s national defeceit like a responsible nation?
Sorry, Michael, but this just had to be. Of what were you thinking when you wrote:
“national defeceit”?
I think mostly about the poor economy of the state and the lack of control re. inflation and low wages.
It seems that procrastinating about anything but those matters, is an accepted shoulder-shrug policy.
Obviously the problems are worldwide – something has to be done there!
The rising occurrence of diabetes and cancer is a real problem for all of Europe and the USA. What my wife eg finds really horrible:
So many Hungarian women, especially young ones, are heavy smokers while the men drink palinka …
There was a festival organised by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, in Esztergom, north of Budapest, on Saturday.
So the Fidesz honchos had the chance again to whine about the big bad EU, ask for peace (i e Ukraine giving up to Orbán’s idol Putin), claiming that Fidesz represents the European values …
The list of ***expletive deleted*** could go on!
I’m sure our dear Eva would have anylyzed this meeting of lunatics, not only from Hungary – but I don’t feel up to it.
And then going for a walk near Esztergom where again you feel being in a Balkan sh*thole country and reading about the billions taken by the Fidesz honchos makes me sad.
For those who can read German:
There’s a scathing report on the (fascist?) MCC and its congress. Former Austrian Prime Mi nister Kurtz who was thrown out was also supposed to participate in a discussion.
Austrian Radio reports on the idea that MCC might be an antipole to CEU – that’s why the Hun government gave a billion € to it last year!
More than all the other Hun universities together got …
https://orf.at/stories/3325524/?f
There was always the belief that Orban’s sick behavior would stop when the money from the EU stopped flowing. That was all just Hungarian hot air because Orban doesn’t give a shit about Hungary. Hungarians don’t give a shit about Hungary either. But hot air is at the top of the cultural list and the Austrian “wonder boy” of hot air Kurz must not be missing. The inventor of hot air Mussolini was not named.
It is more than apparent that Orban’s stance of supporting peace in Ukraine is a total farce. This was
so obvious in the Fidesz controlled media’s coverage in the last few days of Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council.
Where Orban will rant and rave about how military aid coming from EU nations is exacerbating the war and actually causing more death, his news services report Medvedev stating Russia will have no option but to unleash tactical nuclear weapons on the Ukrainian Army if they stage a breakthrough of Russian defensive positions in their current counter offensive.
But no where in this coverage does the Fidesz media machine accuse Medvedev of being a warmonger. There are no diatribes by Zolt Bayer on Hir Tv against Medvedev‘s nuclear threats. By the way YouTube.com now carries Zolt’s shows, but because he often drifts into vulgarity people watching have to attest that they are adults.
Magyar Nemzet in fact today reproduced a telegram post in its original Russian by Medvedev saying about an attempt by Zelensky to discuss peace using the Saudi government (see https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/7/31/saudi-arabia-to-host-ukraine-peace-talks-top-official-says ) as a sponsor:
“How is it anyway, it is (actually) gratifying, that at the head of the decaying corpse of Ukraine there are narrow-minded mankurts ( Mankurt is the term for an unthinking slave in Chinghiz Aitmatov’s Russian novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years): corrupt businessmen and clowns who pray for overseas masters. How beneficial it is that these idiots put forward an unviable “peace formula”, and any other options for negotiating are rejected with foam at the mouth.“
Of course Magyar Nemzet has not one word of criticism for Medvedev’s hostile rejection of this rather bizarre Saudi sponsored peace effort that did not invite the Russians or for that matter Orban who is after all supposedly the world’s foremost proponent of peace in Ukraine, at least in the opinion of drunken Fidesz supporters at the Transylvanian summer camp this year.
Orbanistan is getting crazier and crazier(I thought that wasn’t possible …)!
Fidesz did boycott today’s session in parliament – so there was no voting on Sweden’s accession to NATO.
But of couse everybody in Europe and the USA already knows that Fidesz is just following Putin’s orders.
The international media are full with comparisons:
Hitler / Putin = Mussolini/Orban
https://dailynewshungary.com/parliament-did-not-vote-about-swedens-nato-accession/
And if you want to read some really abstruse stuff:
https://hungarytoday.hu/europe-has-fallen-into-war-psychosis-says-foreign-minister/
PS:
The German version of this site: Ungarn heute is even crazier – I can’t read more than one article of theirs in a week …
Reality in Hungary:
Our impression was that Hungary is a smoking country and now I found the statistics – Hun gary has the most smokers (men and especially women!) in the EU!
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HLTH_EHIS_SK1E__custom_1721096/bookmark/table?lang=de&bookmarkId=602df4da-f30d-4acc-b509-d5992435d3f6&page=time:2019
Maybe this will change from tomorrow when those price limits for food will be canceled and people will run out of money- today our neighbour came whining:
No sugar, no oil and other things available in her supermarket – and tomorrow that stuff will be maybe twice as expensive…
How is tobacco production in Hungary?
I imagine the black market for tobacco is booming.
T remember from many years ago when people were asking me to bring them those cheap – and really strong cigarettes that some kiosks sold cigis made in Ukraine.
Since nobody in my family and circle of friends smokes anymore I don’t know about today’s situation …