We get so many emails from readers about perceived weaknesses in the foreign media’s coverage of Hungarian politics that we tend not to follow up on them. But earlier this week one tipster put us on a case involving the UK Guardian that is weird enough to warrant a look.
Our correspondent’s note concerned an opinion piece by Finance Minister (and MSZP operator) János Veres published in the left-leaning paper last Saturday which is mostly about how Hungary isn’t totally responsible for its current economic plight, and is poised to emerge from the crisis stronger than ever. While making the occasional concession to reality (“In the early years of this decade, Hungary was not a model for either prudence or dynamic growth”) it also contains some laughable falsehoods (“Whenever it has been possible, our government has opted for market-oriented solutions”) and in general seems to be mostly the sort of slick government PR BS that makes me wish there was a worldwide ban on this sort of taxpayer-supported propaganda, like the one Princess Di helped get for landmines. I say this even though the minister or his editors at the Guardian gave a link to our sister site, realdeal.hu. (Thanks, Jancsi!)
But what makes the whole thing unusual is a) the fact that it was published the very day that Veres’s boss announced that he was resigning and that the government was essentially kaput; and b) that in the six days since the Guardian hasn’t published a single story about this seeming more important development. What gives?
While this and other governments have been known to splash out lots of cash on the media, and traditional media outlets like the Guardian these days need cash more than ever, I have to assume (hope) the answer to the riddle is cluelessness rather than corruption, or even ideological solidarity. In which case the whole thing makes Veres look pretty clueless, as it suggests he didn’t know in advance of the actual big story the Guardian somehow forgot to cover.
Guardian’s coverage of this story has sucked. Probably because they think MSzP is ideologically close to New Labour and several of the editorial staff at the Guardian are pro-NuLabour. Or because nobody cares about little ol’Hungary’s political horror show
Good to see Veres got a bashing in the comments though. Hope he didn’t read them
No Brit can truly understand us and our situation. Any comparison they might like to draw, would be based upon incomplete understanding. They have had a vastly different historical evolution than we. Unlike us, they had a nobility and upper class that was discontent and was always power and money hungry. That’s why they built up a navy, commerce and empire. Our “nobility” (And the use of quotation marks is meant to be very sarcastic), were like fat contented pigs in the sty; they were happy to live off the proceeds of land based peasants. For a nation to evolve, it needs a good ruling class; one capable of thinking beyond pleasures of the moment.
Like them, we once had a monarchy and nobility; ours is gone. Theirs is still around. Why? Because their feudalists had sense and adapted; ours did not and paid the inevitable price. Where is our “Princess Di”?
I love the Brits. Their BBC has honored me in the past by asking me to join them on the air on a number of occasions. But they can never understand a people like us. Before our Mohacs debacle in 1526, their ruling class was already building up a navy and had serious ambitions. Ours just wanted another glass of wine.
Who cares about the intellectual, left-wing British rag, – The Guardian. It can only be understood by university lecturers and other erstwhile know-alls, anyway.
The Guardian and Dr Ki were right about Veres.
But they should have included all the Hungarian politicians from whichever end of the political spectrum they sit. “Clueless, corrupt, and constipated.” That’s what they are.
Once the Hungarian people get to grips with these facts, and stop bickering among themselves, perhaps some progress will be made.
No new messiah, no Bokros “austere package” solution etc this time around.
No-one outside of Hungary cares about the place. So, Hungarians unite and, start doing things for yourselves. A bit quick, too!! Some nasty things await you – just around the corner.
The joke of the day:”left-leaning Guardian” bruhahha, btw. Gardian
and Veres just deservs each other…
@énfog Yess, Hungary should have learned from it’s 1000 years of
History in Europe. Do not expect anything good comming from the
west! Saving your ass from the Turks was rewarded by giving the
Country to the Hapsburgs, At shamful treaty trianon the west
handed over or land and people (not too mention property) to the
slavs. But you are not even faithfull to your slavic ally, the west
handed over entire East-Europe to the Soviet, as a price for the
Red Army to stop and your ass saved again! so the first thing
should be to remove all the western bloodsuckers and advantage
takers from the Country, having them leave with nothing more than
they come with! I think the last 20 years have aproved what
happens if you let them roam freely… Start packing guys!)))))))
Kedves énfog,
I like what you said. No “messiahs” for the likes of us; that belongs in the realm of religion. To want one, implies an abandonment of personal reesposibility.
When you say:
“No-one outside of Hungary cares about the place. So, Hungarians unite and, start doing things for yourselves.” This is indeed the truth. Better to blame yourself than others and get paranoid.
Our potential for national renewal lies in ourselves and our strengths, which are actually very, very significant. I have great faith in our brilliance, intelligence and talents. What kills us is our mindset; we need as positive “brainwashing”.
For the benefit of English only readers, “énfog’s” username means “I grab”, or metaphorically “I get a grip on myself”. That kind of attitude is exactly what we need!
There will be a better Hungary!
@Farkas László
I’m a native Hungarian living in Bp. And I was wondering what
“énfog” means. For me it’s simple a gramatic error without any
obvious utterance!
” For the benefit of English only readers, “énfog’s” username
means “I grab”, or metaphorically “I get a grip on myself”. That
kind of attitude is exactly what we need!”
you topped the days joke ” left-leaning” Guardian with this!
Grats! I loughed for five minutes non stop, really really thank
you! I think this only makes it clear your not hungarian or live as
long abroad forget our linguage (what is for us the same)…
personally i would not dare to give english lessons with my
trashy English… but thanks for God we areall different!
Kedves Robi,
There are two kinds of “left”. One is the product of a poor and grossly unequal society. (Lenin, Dozsa, Kun, Guevara, Castro etc.etc.); then there are those that you find in rich developed countries. The disctinction between the two is that that former is complaining that his people never got a slice of the pie. The latter is complaining that that their people did not get a big enough of a slice of pie! BIG difference!
The “Guardian” is left alright; I’ve read it and I know. But it’s the kind of left that is like a rich man’s girlfriend; she expects fur coats and platinum bracelets, because she knows there will always be a chump to buy these things for her. The kind of left we have known is like the old ugly angry woman who decides to pull a long knife on somebody out of psychotic rage. She knows she is not beautiful, has no feminine power and has nothing to lose by flying off of her nut. The first kind of woman is essentially harmless, except to her suckers. Tha latter can rewrite history.
Dear László,
We just dumped Guardian, cuting back on newspapers and
magazines from abroad…I’ve always finded very interresting how
easily western people tag societies not sharing their values, like
you do “poor and grossly unequal society”. The other thing I just
cannot get what makes you put to the same list Lenin (read him,
before falling to western propaganda) Dozsa was a leader of a
medieval peasant uprise in Hungary (ages before the other guys on
the list and modern politics) Kun Béla was an idealist with a limited
chances to manouver, Chegeurra is a hero for most of his people
(no matter that you like it or not on the west). On my list Castro
would go into into an other list with Stalin and Chauwhatever from
Romania… so what you write is very nicly put, but as we say it’s a
“csusztatás”)))) or you just mean that those ones who doesn’t bend
and bow for western values are evil or at least loosers?
Dear Robi,
An interesting take on my words. One can look at things in terms of a civilizational divide, such as east vs. west, or one can look at things in terms of inequalities within a society wherever it occurs, whether it is east ot west. With all due respect, I say the short end of the stick is the short end of the stick, east ot west. The people running such a “casino” had better be ready for anything.
I am not here to say that Dozsa and Lenin were alike. I do think they were responding to something similiar; namely that the people they claimed to represent were getting nothing at the expense of another class of well-heeled people. Their solutions and strategies were of course different.
Whatever century you are in, or wherever you are, if you allow too much inequality and you allow a minority to do this at the expense of a majority, all I can say is watch out! It’s worse than playing with gasoline.
I again go back to my intial point; there are two kinds of left wherever you find them. The kind that is desperate and ready for violence, and another that just wants an extra slice of pie, with emphasis on the word extra. One is incendiary, the other just wants to snuggle in bed with the powers that be, but with more blanket covering. The “left” in Britain is not going to be starting any violent revolutions, just because thay have been given just enough to buy off their constituency resorting to regime change violence. I say there is a big difference between being so poor that you are ready to die and take a rich person with you, versus just wanting a bigger relief check.
ok, I’ve got what you mean by the difference in the left now, and
and acept as an opinion different from mine. What I fully agree
with you is “Whatever century you are in, or wherever you are, if
you allow too much inequality and you allow a minority to do
this at the expense of a majority, all I can say is watch out!” Is
true but that what happens now in Hungary, the power is in a
hand of a small groop of people and forigners again. The wast
majority of people (I mean Nyiregyháza, not the hillside of Buda)
suffers from it, there are more and more people here who is
hardly has money for food, and if they rise the government
beats them up with the Police (what is works like a maffia, but
that’s another issue) And what happens, the west support these
folks in our neck, with loans and so forth and fo course they do
it’s been a good business for both parties but not the people,
and if there is a civil war in Hungary the west do not care
becouse they could take a chance to grab more and rebuild a
country is one of the best busniss in the world…
The Guardian is awash with its own definition of crusading. I was
outraged a while back regarding a piece that they printed
pointing out all the bad things in Hungary regarding the “right”.
I got so worked up that I actually started a series of
correspondence with the readers’ editor. Oh, naive little me, I
thought I might actually get somewhere with it…A couple of
revealing gems from her reply:
“Articles and blogs are not fact-checked before they appear in
the paper or on the website. The writer is responsible for the
accuracy of his or her piece.”
I also complained that the author of the original piece had
labelled Magyar Garda as “a militant, neo-military, neo-nazi
group”, which is grossly inaccurate. The reply to that point was:
“I note that the author of the blog is not alone in this view.”
Well, that’s obviously all right then! The trouble is, as I see it (as
a Brit evolving into a Hungarian), with the foreign press in
general is that they’re not interested enough to bother to find
anything out. Let’s not forget that the BBC have a reporter here
(I forget his name), who’s been here for donkey’s years and has
yet to master the correct pronunciation of “Taszár”. This
illustrates the problem perfectly…the foreign media couldn’t give
a toss about what’s happening outside of their little land. I’ve
stopped even bothering to check…they only print anything when
they’re short of a story and then they react with predictable
knee-jerks.
OK, I brought up Guevara and Castro, my bad. But I have spent a lot of time in Latin America. What impressed me is the weird similiarity and parallels between our history and theirs. As a reality check, I have compared notes and observations with many cultured and intelligent Latins. What we have come to understand is this:
Both the Magyars and Latin American people have a very long history of being ruled by an oligarchy. That this oligarchy was agriculture and resource based, and never welcomed the reforms that would change this. People were traditionally kept in place with violence and legal restrictions.
That there was an obscene collusion between Roman Catholicism and this state of affairs. As an officially established state religion, the priesthood were collaborators with keeping the majority of the population poor and landless. In both our country and in most of Latin America, the church owned up to as much of a fourth to one third of the land at one time, while tha majority had none. Reform was not in their interest, and they fought it every step of the way. I think the priests should marry, get real jobs and give up their humbug. I detest their cult.
That this state of affairs can produce a violent reaction.
Both the Hungarian and Latin American peoples are struggling with the historical fallout of this. If some Hungarian doesn’t understand my comparisons, well I can go to Buenos Aires or Mexico City and find many people who can.
Hi Laszlo, what happened to our earlier conversation? I know there was a comment that upset a certain person and after that it all went haywire?
Hello Robi,
We both understand each other better now. By all means, go on exposing what’s rotten in today’s Hungary.
I just wish we were rich enough to afford the kind of lah-dee-dah leftists they have in Britain. Our dear poor Dozsa would hardly have understood such a thing, as he was up agianst something far worse. Perhaps his welfare check got lost in the mail?
Either your identity has been hijacked Farkas Laszlo or you have a bad case of amnesia! This does not sound like the FL I know!
Dear Tufty,
I feel for you, as I have been heavily involved with the BBC in the past, and understand your concerns. Few Hungarians understand what the British are living under right now. Many of them don’t like it at all, but they feel helpless. The rule of “Political Correctness” has truly run amok and has permeated their society at all levels. Many feel that their nation is run by liberal schoolmarms, who love any minority, but despise the British majority. For a British citizen to declare himself a violent Muslim jihadent, ready to blow up London nightclubs where a “ladies night” is being held, they feel is worthy of respect and civil protection. But wear a necklace with a cross to school, and they look at it like it was the nazi swastika and want to throw you out of school! (I kid you not! There was such an incident last year!)
How did they come to this? They’ve had a powerful left for many decades. Some of it is due to their ex-colonial guilt, something we wouldn’t know anything about. (Whatever you want to say about our “Ferenc Jóska”, he at least did not waste his resources on colonial ventures!) The Brits took in many of their ex-colonials of all races, out of guilt mostly, and wound up with an extremely multicultural society. To maintian the peace between these dissimiliar groups, there arose the attitude: “Let’s not offend any minority”.
The nannyish schoolmarms who run that country would dismiss anyone to the right of the communists a potential nazi.
Rózsa Sándor kedvesem,
It sure doesn’t sound like the Farkas László I know either! I just know that I could not have mocked his username. Actually his username reminds me of the exotic auto engines of the 1930′s, with their 12 and 16 cylinders! My memory is good enough on this point; it’s not my style to mock a person’s username. I might ask about it, as I have for two individuals. Once there was a poster who called himseld “Uncle Joe”; I couldn’t resist asking him if that was a reference to Stalin. (He told me it wasn’t!) The other occasion was you, when I asked about “Rózsa Sándor”. I always do this respectfully. I have better things to do than to decsend to the level of a 7 year old.
There are times when I have to pull away from my involvment from this site for weeks on end. Perhaps in my absence, when I was not checking in every day, someone might have misused my name. That is very possible, because I know it has happend in the past, not just to me, but to others as well. I also found out that complaining to the web administrator about this does no good whatsoever. Post here at your own risk.
As to what happened to our prior discussion, it fades out according to an order of posting precedence. No matter, feel free to address me with your comments whenever you want.
I want to talk to you all about the issue identity theft on this website. It affects us all, as there is nothing to stop anyone from using our usernames and posting any nonsense they want to, and degrading our reputation in the process. A number of us have been affected by this in the past. The web administration here is lame and irresponsible, for some reason I can’t fathom, and so don’t expect him to do anything about it if it should happen to you.
I have seen phony Farkas László posts here, so let me help you all distinguish the real from the fake. The real Farkas László deals in ideas and policy; if I address another individual, it’s always within the bounds of respectful rhetoric. The opposite is true of the counterfeit Farkas László’s; their posts are short, personally insulting and devoid of ideas. People who do this are childish pranksters and lack real substance, that is why they descend to such a level.
For a fool to try and counterfeit me around here is impossible; they might as well try and make a fake American 20 dollar bill. It won’t work and it will be caught by someone eventually.
With great regards and respect to everyone in this fine cyber community,
I am
Farkas László
Ah Robi,
I just saw your post about “énfog” and his username! It made me laugh! I don’t always catch every post around here. I know that it’s not grammatical Hungarian, I assumed it was some telegraphic abbreviation, like when you are charged for every letter. I was just spinning him, and I should not have done that; I have enough work here spinning myself! You have caught me with my pants down! Perhaps “énfog” should enlighten us on this interesting point.
Hát ha az “énfog” nem fog fogni, akkor én fogok fogni! Talán csirke fogó vagyok?
The above I refuse to translate into English! It’s all in good fun.
BTW, this is a genuine Farkas László post