Ági cikkei és egyebek/ Articles and Other Reflections by Ági

    While numerous new statues of Governor Miklós Horthy have been recently inaugurated, the statue of Miklós Radnóti – a Hungarian Roman Catholic poet of Jewish origin who was a victim of the Holocaust –was destroyed and his books burnt.   The man who drove his car into Radnóti’s statue in Győr states that it was an accident due to his drunkenness. It is somewhat difficult to believe that his driving while being drunk exactly in the vicinity of Radnóti’s martyrdom particularly during these days was a mere coincidence. However, the presumption of innocence is due unto him. Regarding the burning of Radnóti’s books, a Nazi group explicitly takes the responsibility.   Heinrich Heine postulated in the 19 th century that "where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings" (" Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen "). Indeed, historical experience shows that the act of book-burning (biblioclasm or libricide) is rather...

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...

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...