Think about this for a moment. Is a fine of that size really commensurate with the crime? What is it that is so special about the possibility of the smallest wisp of smoke in the air that justifies such a penalty? Or is the huge fine simply a reflection of the fact that most Hungarians would laugh at such regulation of their private lives twenty years after throwing off the Soviet yoke? Why would Hungary betray its hard fought freedom by accepting a new rule of law that will eventually depend upon secret police and informers and upon neighbors snitching upon neighbors, not just around underpasses, but eventually when the Hungarian Antismokers follow in the footsteps of American and EU dictates and demand bans inside of public housing and even private apartments?

Ask yourself that, and ask yourself whether the small additional benefit to the “quality of life” for someone who doesn’t smoke and doesn’t like the smell of smoke is worth the disastrous loss of freedom that smoking bans eventually always bring to pass. Think back just to recent history and you’ll see that every time any concession has been made to the antismoking extremists they immediately come back to demand more. They are never satisfied, and never will be, until they have absolute control over everything.

The US city of Boston is now moving to threaten to throw thousands of public housing residents out onto the streets if they don’t give up smoking in the privacy of their own apartments. Bans on smoking in cars if someone under 18 is a passenger are now spreading across the US and Canada like wildfire. Many North American colleges have banned smoking in student dormitories and are now starting to ban smoking for everyone — students, visitors, workers, and passers-by — on all the open-air properties legally owned by their campuses; in some instances even including bordering sidewalks!

When Hungary agreed to join the EU it was largely with an eye to the better trade position and ease of travel and security that such membership would bring. The vast majority in favor of such membership never imagined that it would bring with it pressures for the government to begin sticking its nose into private lives and choices in a way not seen since the Soviets and their tanks ruled the streets.

The arguments that extreme smoking regulations are needed on a health basis are largely false and rest mainly upon various ways of lying with words and statistics. For example, the US government claims that working or living with smokers increases the risk of lung cancer by almost 20%. That sounds pretty scary until one thinks about the fact that only four nonsmokers out of a thousand get lung cancer and that the statistic applies to forty years of constant daily exposure to levels of smoke far higher than would ever be common today in any decent bar or restaurant.

Those background facts are never mentioned in the scary propaganda put out by Antismokers. But when you add them in you realize that it all adds up to one extra lung cancer for every 40,000 years of daily exposure. That sounds a lot different than just telling people they’ve got a “20% increased risk of dying from lung cancer” if they’re exposed to smoke, doesn’t it? A simple customer spending one hour a day in a smoking bar or restaurant would get one extra lung cancer for every half million years they spend eating and drinking.

The EU may be a good thing for Hungary in many ways, but EU membership has brought some real negatives with it as well. Hungary has fought hard for its freedoms, and it should remember Benito Mussolini’s lesson from World War Two: It’s easy to steal the entire “Freedom Salami” from the butcher shop provided that you steal only one small slice at a time. A very highly respected US Supreme Court Justice had this to say about the loss of freedom many years ago, and it is just as true today:

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there’s a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”

Don’t trade your freedoms to the EU or anyone else in exchange for just a tiny bit of extra comfort. It’s not worth it.

by Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains”
TICAP (The International Coalition Against Prohibition)
Philadelphia, PA, USA

My name is Robert Keats of Canada and I wish to tell a story of a Hero. The story starts early one morning in Alberta (Canada) when  Mr. Laszlo Korozstos was getting his work truck ready for the day, when just a little was from him a women was clearing the snow off her car.

The door was open and she went to the front of the car. A man just came out of no were and jumped into the car. Laszlo heard the women scream for help as she tried to pull the man out of the car. Laszlo went to help her but the man drove of with the women being dragged a little way’s.

Laszlo the with his wife in the work truck took persuit after the man in the womens car. After a chase in the city he got the guy stopped at a red light. Soon as the the car stopped Laszlo parked his truck close to block the guy in.

Then Laszlo jumped out of his truck and went up to the car opened the door and tried to pull the guy out. The the man went forward and smashed into the car in front of him. But Laszlo just went to the guy again and pulled him out with such power according to whitnesses. You see Laszlo Korosztos is a very tall and strong guy.

He slammed the guy to the ground and yelled for someone to call the Police. Keeping in mind the guy could have been caring a gun he held him there for some time. Weeks later he was called at home and was told he would be receiving a medal for Heroism at a ceremony in June.

Mr Lazlo Koroszto use to live in (balaton)  Zamardi and left for Canada in 1988.

He was teased as a child because of his skinny tallness. An now that tallness plus strength and bravery helped  a  women in need and put criminal to jail.  Great job to you Laszlo  Korosztos. Cheers.

by Robert Keats, Laszlo Korosztos’s brother-in-law

The Garda was formed as a self-regulating „militia” to protect citizens from Gypsies (Roma). The term Gypsy should always be spelled with a capital letter. From the Wiemar Brown shirts, now Black? At Hero’s Square, a World Landmark venue, the Extremist Militia hails to the God of the Magyar.

All the world‘s a stage, all men and women on it merely its prayers. As You Like It (or not)

The new arguments against ideological Isms in Hungary are troublesome, and translate to far more than a “play on words” or recasting a textual reality. They have started to eek blood. People here express rage, without expressing it directly. The danger has long been expressed that this will turn from veiled aggression to actual violence. In terms of actual economic disadvantage felt newly by the masses as existential hardship, the daily struggle to survive is frought with anxiety for which they blame minorities –Jews, Gypsies, Gays, foreigners, and foreign interests.

To focus on how one hurts oneself and others, understanding social boundaries are important. But many people here are simply blind to this. If one steals, one has hurt another person’s trust –stolen bike be gone, one has stayed to experience “the little dying”. If one becomes homeless, this is another loss of a boundary. In this case, the „boundary“ is shelter from the elements – but the homeless have stayed to experience “the little dying.” If an addict punctures his body with a needle –for the first time having risked a critically dangerous step –he has overstepped a boundary, his own skin. He may never return alive from “the little dying.”

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AS A DANGEROUS PUN
In a literal sense –the borders of nations are also “boundaries.” Many High School students of business will learn that regulating Trans National trade requires much more than border guards, or guards around the “boundary” of countries. Before 1989 the Iron Curtain was a boundary that cut off many countries and most citizens from open freedom to travel, trade, or cross borders.

At the exhibit opened July 26, 2009, at the Terror House Museum (Terror Háza), called “Átvágva,” the program focuses on Hungarians taking a leading role in 1989, twenty years ago, in cutting the wires that made up the Iron Curtain. This allowed East Germans to stream across Austria to loved ones in West Germany.

The word, “Átvágva,” as the exhibit is called, refers to the barbed wires having been cut. Of present continuous tense, it is like the word “walking,” as in the phrase “keep on walking.” But in reference to this rupture in history, the term generally used is Átvágott, meaning that it had already taken place, namely over 20 years ago, June 27, 1989. The Hungarian reader whom the placard addresses in Hungarian understands at once that the exhibit reflects an ongoing process of cutting „even now.“ So many ask, “What is continuing to be cut?”

For some Hungarians, the question raised by the Terror Háza placard, What is ongoing? may clarify when one understands that „Átvágva” also means, literally, “scam.” As hard as it is to imagine for many westerners, the disappointments in self-determined choice undermined the paternalism of Communism. In fact, many felt themselves all the more enslaved to uncertain forces beyond their control. Few, including the new business specialists calling themselves accountants could explain the APEH system of taxes. A new type of consultant called political scientist could not explain constitutional law. The masses felt “cheated” by the changes. Security undermined, so was trust, and eventually belief in human goodness. Security, trust, love –develop in that order, according to psychologist Maslow. To allow for an informal voice, “átvágva” for many Hungarians literally also meant, “We got screwed, and (being of continuous present tense) are continuing to ‘get it.’”

The man shown cutting the wire on the placard is reputedly a former KGB (Stalinist) collaborator, allegedly involved in torturing during the Revolution of 1956, but also became Prime Minister in 1994. That he is also heralded as Jewish reveals the ugly, undigested historically-based pains mixing religion and politics. That he undertook one of the most rapid privatizations –from which many gains are by now squandered by political corruption, requiring new, painful sacrifices –leaves the information of the placard all the more open to personalized “interpretation” (for Hungarian readers of a ’nationalist’ leaning) as a mixed blessing and of the “olden days” as a viable option.

Is he for real? Or were we "Átvágva?"

Gyula Horn is seen cutting the Iron Curtain between Hungary and Austria in 1989. A western official is pictured holding the wire as a souvenier. One piece like that is in the White House, guilded in gold. The Berlin Wall was also a „boundary.“ Parts of the Berlin Wall were cut up for expensive „keep-sake,“ as garden decorations.

But why were many people who suffered under Communism troubled by „sourveniers“ from what made others suffer? Is it inevitable for pent up aggression to be loosed by the conquering forces? Such a „catharsis model“ of change, or lack of change, is used by extremists to argue that „unworked“ trauma in some post-Auschwitz Hungarian Jewish leadership allowed „unworked“ Stalinist aggressions and post-Communist corruption.

MUTUAL DEFILEMENT OF MEMORIAL: Three Important Memorials
When all the world is a stage, and Hungarian extremism is aspiring

1. Not kosher. Pictured below is the well-known Danube Embankment Shoah Memorial. It recalls the sacrificing of the Budapest Jewry in 1944 by lining them up, having them undress, and shooting countless men, women, and children into the Danube.

Soa in Hungarian is a homonym for the Hungarian word „soha.“ Soa means „to destroy completely,“ but „soha“ means “never.” Several Right Wing newspapers wrote this year, „When will we remember Shoa, „soha.“ ie. That is, „We will never remember.“ Wiesnethal, Zuroff rolling over (hardly from jest), this is the very opposite of the knell from decades of Holocaust Education, „We will never forget.“ This Shoah Memorial is important for many Jews world-wide, especially Hugarian Jews, and of those, the immediate, elderly Survivors.

2. Even eagles get to lay eggs. The Turul, or Eagle, is part of Hungarian national history. It is part of the mythology of how the wandering Magyar tribe discovered their nation in the Carpathian Basin over 1000 years ago. Also, the word „turul” is part of ancient Hungarian language that was forgotten due to assimilation and revived only 150 years ago by poets of the Romantic and patriotic period. It is part of national identity, and as a word, part of „linguistic identity.” Often shown with a sword, or some weapon, the Eagle is a symbol of strength for many nations.

One always sees the Turul with a weapon. But in the picture above, the bird is also represented with St. Steven’s crown.

3. Another clown „when all the world is a stage,“ was cast of St. Steven (St. István), no lesser figure than the Father or Founder of Hungary. His crown was considered so Holy that all during Communism, after 1948, it was taken to Washington, D.C.. and protected by the government of the United States of America for safety. It was given back only during President Carter’s tenure, after he felt assured it would not be destroyed.

How does one act of defilement lead to another?
1. On the left wing: Just days prior to the Memorial Ceremony by the Danube, 2009, when the names of Survivors are read, the a controversial, major Turul Statue –a national symbol – in the center of Buda Hill was defiled. A young „artist“ placed a „mock, plastic“ figure of St. István’s forehand into its mouth.

2. Right wing. Then, as a reaction to this „defilement,“ the next day the Memorial Ceremony at the Danube was defiled. A number of the shoes were filled with pigs feet, by extremists.

Cabbaret? Until they actually geared up in the EU Parliament. Disbanded by court-ruling, this past June 2009, the Garda reformed in several days. The political party, Job-bik, the extreme Right, won 15% of the votes to gain 3 seats in the EU Parliament. It has scrambled since to lift its name beyond Cabbaret. Its EU representive, Morvai Krisztina, in her first major speech before the EU Human Rights Commission reiterated police brutality from 2006, but ignored Roma “race-killings” from just days prior. Extremist, nationalist militias, much like those pictured above, are now on the rise across Europe.

By adapting the scientific understanding of teenagers, how they think, learn, and are moved to action, a successful program of history teaching, called Facing History and Ourselves, has gained prominence internationally. Adaptable to all regions, a basis for this method is to draw on the parallels with clearest modern tragedy from Holocaust Education.

The focus of Holocaust Education in Hungary, and for Genocide Studies elsewhere, is different and in many ways more complex than in the US. For Facing this is not news. The study of the complexities history holds for all regions must be seen for the geography, culture, and historical antecedents that uniquely define societies. New Hungarian policy that also elevates knowledge of lost territory to Trianon from 1920 is part of a vital picture. Lost territory, from even 100 years ago, is not mere abstraction.

For many, the experience of Peace Treaties that served to punish, the loss of 2/3rds of Hungarian territory was and is experienced as families severed. as discrimination inflicted long-term, and as lifespans measurably shortened by unrelenting stress,

But history education can point toward the future –especially with the teen who is eager to partake in life and eager to take a stand against forces of evil. Facing.org holds a key in this regard for its 20 years of success. The role of the “historian as healer” is not new to Facing.

The role of Facing.org as a facilitator for change in regions where historical pain had calcified –the 150 years-long struggle in Ireland, the deep pains of Apartheid in South Africa is well-known. The role of Facing.org comes at a critical time in Hungary when key features of Weimar Era Germany seem to be repeating themselves. In post WWI Germany this era emerged due to the “humiliation” of the Prussian power –peacemaking served to punish the looser.

Artists at the time, such as Grosz, captured the need for the masses to identify with virile bombast. In Hungary, the recent radical right win of 17% of the vote wells from similarly enflamed national historical pain. It reflects xenophobia, closed attitudes, nationalism, and vents rage on the minority –Jew, immigrant, Gypsy, the gay, and those seen as “useless.”

The parallels to Weimar Germany are striking.

• Serious economic crisis has endangered families by the score and
• Poverty has enflamed humiliation of “breadwinner” and “caregiver”
• The constitution will certainly need major rewriting
• The extreme right leadership has offered to run for President
• A bizarre, cabaret-like denial discolors depression, especially in the young
• Austerity deepest in 20 years, deeper austerity is mandated by Brussels
• Jewish leadership, and leadership generally, is at a loss and policy is knee-jerk. It lacks the essentials of ongoing dialogue –a capacity for some studied distance from impulsivity –that can engage conflicting interests
• Present leadership has won by mandate and now holds an iron rule
• Faced with almost certain economic shamble –yet also a likely leadership role well into the future –a shift toward extremism is likely

Despite their deep anti-Jewish sentiment, many Hungarians ironically also hold to a mythology of being “the lost tribe of Israel.” Certainly a Moses-led, Exodus-like “let us off to the promised land,” cultural ethos is rife. This is reflected in the present desires of the Prime Minister to integrate Hungarians in foreign regions.

How this can be done, whether it will lead to chaos is yet to be seen. Can it heal “historical truncation,” similar to what Weimar Germany suffered when Germany was divided. Premier Orbán gestured to the extreme Right after his 1998 victory by threatening multinationals with forced audits. Now he seems to be giving political nods both left and right. On the one hand he has set in place Ministry Heads of former communists as a sort of “buffer zone,” in a gesture to the left. His gesture to the extremist right is the awakened elevation of Trianon, feeding a dream to reclaim “the lost tribes of Greater Hungary.”

That the economic truncation of the country is basic, took place across twenty years of denied corruption, and has been –as in the Weimar Era –exacerbated by a world-wide economic depression can not be offset by brief applause from new IMF leadership –though this may be good intentioned. A need for radical overhaul of government, public domain expenditures, now also meets with deepest antagonism toward the private sector. Western transnational firms remain the backbone for investment essential to recovery at a time when the new Democracy and the free market they herald is questioned.

So are things rotten? Ask your child! Teens are filled with hope. So where does hopelessness mirror? Many analysts of the present economic depression have suggested the answer –most effected by the global turmoil are those seeking for future generations. Need one keep feeding ECE youth false hope –ask elders.

Facing in Dialogue
Forced transparency due to the internet and mass communication suddenly available to many, Western policy makers understands that the process for influencing Democratization can not come by imposition any longer but rather a longer process of dialogue. One such is the hope Facing.org holds for dialogue in a region that seeks to become deafened by its own historically-based rage.

Efforts to say the correct thing by western policy-makers –in terms of desires for transparency, gender rights, human rights –lead to mistrust, when those who “mouth them” then seemingly contradict their policies “in house,” with neighbors, their own companies, their own homelands.

Correct public statements must now be matched by clear plans for Organization Development, OD, to achieve these goals. In terms of the narrow area of needs for interfaith harmony which “the historian as healer,” can provide, the country is poised for truly transnational cooperation. As but one example, foreigners here, such as Italians and Spanish are thrilled to hear of their many countrymen saving Hungarian lives in WWII.

A New Resistance Tourism
A short walk down the street and leadership at Italian bank, Banco Popolare, Hotel Chain Boscolo are eager to participate to help actualize such goals. Italians saved lives here, Spaniards saved Hungarians, Swedes saved Hungarians, Danes saved lives –this is helpful, useful. In Hungary this is useful because a new form of tourism can emerge. Uprising Tourism –that far outstrips, but also adds to 1956 Revolution –can point youth toward a more hopeful future. To this date, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising has greater name recognition than Budapest as a source for tourism. Jewry there resisted with bullets across a few days. They failed. The Jewry of Hungary was enabled to save life –in numbers greater than anywhere –to help their own. They were aided in this by Christian diplomats, Christian clergy, and thousands of ordinary Christian citizens. Now onto the third generation from the War, a truly New Renaissance can emerge as a form of vital tourism. Can Hungary regain a sense of vitality –as the Rescuer here gains higher profile. How? By Organization Development of which Facing History and Ourselves is a leading part.

The tiny nation of Greece has finally reached a historic deal with the euro-zone and International Monetary Fund after having unconditionally begged for a massive bailout. However this is expected to bring stringent austerity measures that could economically plunge the nation back some 20 years.

Despite the new money the Hellenic nation still has its financial Achilles’ heel and will have to tighten its belt, the country’s prime minister said Sunday (May 2, 2010). “We need to bring sacrifices to overcome the national deficit,” said Prime Minister George Papandreou. “We have no other choice.” Greece received the bail-out as its recently announced public deficit (13.6% of GDP in 2009) was worst than analysts’ expectations.

With the aid, the country hopes to get its public deficit (based on the minimum 3% of GDP, as required by the EU) in order by 2014. Earlier the Greek cabinet had suggested the deadline be 2012. Brussels has neatly parceled and packaged a shoebox of direct loans proposed by the stronger euro-zone countries, Germany being the most generous, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which generally bails out incapable and corrupt country governments, has pledged its rescue package for Greece. The three-year rescue package will have a total wrap with ribbon and bow exceeding Euro 100-bil of which Euro 30-bil in the first year. The Greek rescue violates EU rules, as the crisis clearly shows that Greece was never ready to adopt the European common currency.

Analysts revealed that Hungary – just like Bulgaria, Greece and Romania – was prematurely allowed to join the EU. Although Hungary, hanging on in the financial incubator, was permitted to join the EU on May 1, 2004 visitors wanting to visit the Goulash nation required a separate visa as Hungary had then still not joined the Schengen agreement (EU common border system).

Despite tourists already having a visa to the EU, after having landed in Vienna airport (where they were compelled to exchange USD to Euros) they had to acquire a visa again if they wanted to visit neighbouring Hungary. Upon entering Hungary they had to again exchange their Euro to Hungarian Forints (Hungary has still not joined the European Monetary Union –EMU) as Euro was hardly accepted in Magyarorszag. But tourist were lost when non-English speaking locals sent them the opposite direction as only a fraction of the population speaks English, which is considered the EU common language, analysts said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that financially troubled EU members like Spain Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Romania are becoming more sober on colossal budget deficits after seeing Greece hit rock bottom. Despite Germany being the biggest benefactor for Greece, a public opinion poll showed that more than 60% of German taxpayers opposed the bail-out for Greece, complaining that Germany shouldn’t allocated public money to the corrupt and money squandering Greek government.

However tax-payers were defeated after the IMF called the cards, forcing Germany into joining the card game. German tax payers fear they may never see their money again, analysts said. One German tax payer from Hamburg argued, “If Greece couldn’t take care of its budget deficit then, how is it going to take care of it now?” he complained that if he did not receive a year-end bonus from his workplace due to the global economic crisis, then why should Greek politicians be allowed to claim a year-end bonus?

Analysts say that due to the Greek crisis Hungary’s financial market is also expected to suffer immensely. Its bonds and currencies were unscathed by the crisis before the ‘sheat heat the fan’ last week. Hungary was asked to further cut state spending and public wages. Hungarian schools are already lacking educators and if further redundancies are made parents may have to accept the fact that their kids will be attending classes where one teacher has 60 pupils.
Based on media reports Hungary has a minority about 3,000 Greeks.

Formal diplomatic relations between Hungary and Greece were established in 1956 and actual commercial and diplomatic representation via the two embassies started only in 1964. Hungary and Greece have always been hospitable to each other. Politicians and members of the two ‘east enders’ met to exchange ideas on how to cope with running their bankrupt countries – they always handed the door handles to each other at times of crisis.

Like when Greek President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos came to Budapest for comfort in 1998. Only four years later Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis came to cry (in 2000). But Hungarians also ran for benevolence and comfort to Greece, as was the case of corrupt Hungarian socialist Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy, who ran to Athens for cover in 2003. Nine months later President Ferenc Madl also “paid” Greece a “comfort” visit.

The latest big reunion was on March 16, 2010 when Greek socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou met with his Hungarian counterpart and other incumbent socialist government officials.

Little was mentioned about political integrity and proper fiscal governance during the Greek PM’s speech at the Hungarian Socialist Party (formerly the dictatorial Hungarian Socialist Workers Party – MSzMP). Instead he babbled on about socialist values and the need to “make sure that we hand over to the next generations a society and an economy and an environment which is viable, that people can live in.”

Well he certainly wasn’t talking about the next three years that Greeks would have to endure because of his government’s incompetence. Papandreou also said, “We are facing extreme situations where the next generation may have very, very difficult conditions to live in, as far as climate is concerned.” No, it wasn’t the economic climate the Greek PM was referring to, as we now know…

Whatever the PM was saying may have entertained the now ousted Socialist leaders – but it definitely sounds Greek to me!

There’s something admirable about the way the Hungarian Government express their pride and satisfaction in the success of the so-called ‘stabilization package’. One of them, Finance Minister Peter Oszko recently gave kudos to himself in The Wall Street Journal, and claimed that Hungary no longer needs the IMF’s assistance.

As Hungarians have heard throughout history, we are heading towards the proverbial ‘bright future’, provided to us by the unrelenting work of our Government.

If only this administration could have been in power for the last 20 years, then even the IMF loans could be avoided and we might already have Euro ascended years ago. Similarly, Socialist officials have claimed they are the nation’s only hope, when it comes to escaping the ‘far-right dictatorship’ of a Fidesz-Jobbik coalition.

Despite this, the reality is that Hungarian GDP has contracted by 6.3% in 2009 and  Hungary is still the third riskiest country of the world, behind Iceland and Greece, according to the latest country risk list of international financial services group Credit Suisse.

While Fidesz support has fallen in recent weeks, the Socialist Party will need more than self-confident rhetoric to avoid a historic defeat, and even more to escape the infamous ‘accountability’ promise of the opposition, should it become reality.

Although not an emigrant himself, Fox is the archetypal example of the crafty Hungarian, who, without any monetary or educational background, rises to the top by his ingenuity alone. He is also a perfect example for the scores of Hungarians who left Hungary for the US, and became an emblematic figure, thus underscoring the “American dream.” Fox, who never even finished grammar school, managed to become one of the fathers of the Hollywood “dream machine,” and a key figure of film and corporate history.

Fox, nicknamed the “man who forgets to sleep,” began his career doing laundry, and later, in an ingenious feat of economics, opened his own motion picture theatre on Broadway.

The biggest idea of Fox was to merge every aspect of the film industry into one company, which resulted in a Fox Film Corporation that took charge of the whole process form making to showing the movies.

The movies of Fox Film Corporation were mostly instant successes. Their success, according to Fox, lied in his principles of movie making which stressed plot, emotionality, humor and visuals, along with Fox’s aggressive stand on the use of voice, a rarity at the time.

Another historical innovation from Fox was his emphasis on “stars.” It was indeed Fox who came up with the idea of defining and appointing his stars, thus creating them for himself and drafting millions of fans by advertising the celebrity.