Ági cikkei és egyebek/ Articles and Other Reflections by Ági

Yesterday (June 25, 2013) a few hundred people joined the demonstration titled "Coward Peoples Remain With No Homalend" (Gyáva népnek nincs hazája) organized by 13 civil organizations and parties. The title of the event quoted Sándor Petőfi, the romantic poet and symbolic figure of the 1848 revolution. Unlike the demonstrations opposing the current Fidesz-government organized so far, in this case parties and politicians were not forbidden to take party flags and symbols, on the contrary, everybody opposing prime minister Viktor Orbán was encouraged to be present and represent any of the parties. The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the Democratic Coalition (DK), and a recently founded liberal party participated, however, the Együtt 2014-PM coalition led by former prime minister Gordon Bajai, a major hope for those who oppose both Orbán and the Socialists, was absent. (It is constituted of Együtt 2014 and PM Párbeszéd Magyarországért, one wing of LMP, the liberal party pres...

This article was originally published in The CEU Weekly, Issue 26, Year 3, January 16, 2013 http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/01/ulitskayas-novel-on-stage-in-budapest.html Lyudmila Ulitskaya is certainly the most popular and well-known contemporary Russian writer in Hungary. She has already visited Hungary twice and she has even an official Hungarian website ( www.ulickaja.hu ). Ulitskaya was the honorary guest of the International Book Festival of Budapest in 2009. At this occasion I succeeded to approach her for a dedication in one of her books. When she was invited to several Hungarian cities in 2011, she had already pain in her hands by the time of her arrival to Budapest, so she did not give dedications, for my disappointment. Eleven of her books have been translated into Hungarian, some of them were published more than once. For instance “Sincerely Yours, Shurik”, which has been adapted to the stage by a Hungarian play reader, Bea Selmeczi. This staging now is played ...

Original publication: The CEU Weekly, Year 3, Issue 29, February 29, 2013 http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/03/violation-of-privacy-rights-committed.html In the midst of student protestations against the government that made HaHa (Students Network) and HÖOK ( the countrywide organization of Student Unions of Hungarian universities) cooperate, suddenly a really disgusting document became public that ruined the respectability of the Student Union of the country’s most prominent faculty, Faculty of Humanities of ELTE. The document is an Excel table containing private data of 600 students who participated 2009 in the faculty’s camp for new first year students. Beyond the data provided by the students themselves for the purposes of application (name, address…) there are additional columns indicating notifications made by Student Union members to sign who might possibly become Student Union member later and who not. These notifications provide information collected from social m...

Original publication: The CEU Weekly, Issue 32, April 10, 2013. http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/04/follow-up-what-is-new-in-siraly-story.html As you might have read in the previous issue of The CEU Weekly, Sirály was evacuated following the discovery of a WWII Soviet grenade in Király utca, after a series of conflicts between the capital’s mayor’s office and Marom Cultural Association. The mayor’s office let Marom work in Sirály until the 3 rd  of April, until the end of Passover, accepting the request of the Jewish Community. However, not even the last week of Marom’s work in Sirály could pass in complete peace. On April 29, Easter Friday evening (and during Passover), while a drag-show was taking place in Sirály, 20-25 policemen invaded the club asking for identity documents from everyone inside. They did not answer questions regarding the aim of their action. Some CEU students were present as well. Diana and Chris kindly agreed to share their personal experiences from t...

Original publication: The CEU Weekly, Issue 31, Mrch 27, 2013 http://ceuweekly.blogspot.hu/2013/03/hungarian-news-of-issue-31.html Sirály Club (Király utca 50.) has become one of the meeting points of student protestors involved in the recent series of HaHa demonstrations, especially in the occupation of Fidesz’ Party Center by students. The club is rented by Marom Cultural Association that organizes alternative cultural events, among others offers modern ways of celebrating traditional Jewish holidays due to its mission involving the spread of Jewish culture, support of civilian initiatives and fight against discrimination of socially disadvantaged people. Marom did not by chance choose Sirály that is in the heart of the old Jewish district. And Sirály is not by chance a meeting point for young people (Jews and non Jews) who oppose the current political leadership. On March 22 the owner of Sirály, the capital’s Lord Mayor’s Office suddenly declared to break the contrac...

I had the chance to watch Agnieszka Holland’s new film before the Hungarian premier on the occasion of an exclusive screening organized by the  Polish Institute in Budapest . The film confronts one of the hardest topics of Eastern-European history, namely that of the indifference of civil populations towards the fate of Jews during World War II. The protagonist is one of the above 6000 Poles who belong to the “Righteous among the Nations” (those Gentiles who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust). At the same time most Gentile characters of the narrative either collaborate with the Nazi occupiers or remain simply indifferent towards the persecution committed by them. The story – based on true events as usual for Holocaust films – might have been a basis for a very exciting film since it tells the story not of a good kind-hearted man but that of a thief who starts to help Jews in escaping only for money, but getting more and more involved in their fate in the end saves them eve...

Visiting Transylvania is considered a somewhat must-to-do travel for Hungarians. I will not get into speculations on the Trianon-trauma, on nationalism and on politics, the point is that after a while I started to feel slightly weird not having seen anything there despite having travelled to quite a few countries of the world already. This month I changed the situation and went with my boyfriend for the first time in our life to discover a part of it, on the occasion of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). Since the festival takes place in Cluj, we have spent there most of the time, visiting besides the must-to-see spots– for instance the building in which Mathias Corvinus was born – several cinemas, cultural venues, churches, bars and museums where tourists have apparently a surprising effects on the people who work there. The film festival’s atmosphere is really open and international, apparently I looked like a local (until opening my mouth), since several times...