Twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down, commemorated on the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8347695.stm

I remember well what our "Iron Curtain" border looked like: machine gun towers, searchlights, electric fence, mine fields; very much like the perimiter of a prison. The communists said it was to defend the country from imperialists, but anybody who was not invested in lies knew it was to keep our people from leaving. The guards did shoot at people trying to do so.

I also remember the time when you couldn't leave Hungary to go abroad to a non-communist country, unless you were elderly, or would leave people close to you behind, like spouse or children, to give you incentive to return. Asylum seeking and defections of athletes, stars and officials were considered bad publicity for the "workers paradise".

I hated that damn wall in Berlin; it was a symbol of what I felt was wrong with that regime. It was ugly to look at, and stood for an ugly truth. Was I glad when it came down.

An astute commentary on the "fall of the wall" at:

http://www.slate.com/id/2234782/

A qoute from it:

"While the revolution from below was not animated by any great "new" idea, as had been the case in 1789, 1848, or even 1917, the intellectuals and the masses were agreed that they wanted the unexciting objective of "normality"—a life not unlike that of Western Europe, where it was possible to express everyday criticism, register a vote, scrutinize a free press, and become a consumer as well as a producer. These unexciting demands were nonetheless revolutionary in their way, which gives you an idea of the utter failure and bankruptcy of the regimes that could not meet them. In 1988, in a public debate with a hack official of the Polish Communist Party, Lech Walesa won over the audience with his simple statement that "Europe moves by car, and we are trying to catch up with them by bike." "

@Laci: Great article, thanks again! I was thinking this weekend about the state of the people's attitudes towards progress as a mix of learned helplessness and false memory syndrome. For some reason I fell across Radnoti's poem "Hetedik ecloga" (Seventh Eclogue - an eclogue is a very old form of reflective bucolic poetry) and it reminded me of Philip Larkin's poem "Wires". In Radnoti's he is in a Serbian labour camp (1944) imagining being back home in Hungary, imagining what life is like beyond the wires, whether it goes on as normal etc... In Larkin's you have the image of hoping to escape and live life beyond the electric wires only to run up against them and quickly learn not to try to escape and know your place:
"Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses."
For me Hungary is psychologically/socially still somewhere between these two poems.
p.s. Haven't found a translation for Radnoti's so you'll have to struggle through yourself: http://verslap.extra.hu/versek/radnoti_miklos/hetedik_ekloga.html

Hello all,

As I reflect on the header article to this thread, (which appears to have been shortened since I last read it.), I have to think back on 20 years ago and what we were expecting and hoping for the future. The statistics mentioned sound dismal enough; we are not well adjusted to the post communist world, as measured by our attitudes. Back then, if someone would have told me that 20 years hence, we would lag behing Czech, Poland and Slovakia on the "positivty index", and that we would fail to create a free market driven "economic miracle"- honestly, the realist in me would not have been surprised, but the idealist and patriot would have been saddened.

Any attempts to correct this via a political platform, will run up against the strong divisions in the people and their politcians. Constructive suggestions either 1)don't provide short term pick up or relief, important to an election cycle, 2)violate someone's corruption racket or 3)would require the prosecution of some of the rich and powerful. Carrying through an agenda of any kind would also require political compromise with one's ideological opponents.

From time to time, I've tried to make some constructive suggestions, all the while saying that we lack a political leadership that could carry them out. Hope and realism continue to clash within me.

Thank you for your comments Farkas .
My comments below.

I have recently moved to Hungary from the UK. My
work is on the internet.

Regarding involvement in EU:

The reconnection of Hungary to the people of
Western Europe, is perhaps seen as a good thing.
The bad thing is the loss of control to the
undemocratic, European Union Governemnt.

Regarding corruption in governement:

I think one strategy is for socially minded
patriots to create economic activty , even despite
the intrusion of corrupt powerful interests.
To demand policies that lessen the intrusion of
government into natural society.

i.e Be the change you want to see in the world,
despite the corruption.

Farkas László. I know you have led a personal crusade over a period of time on these sites to
create optimism in an otherwise inefficient, and corrupt, political arena. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed.
I will try and find an article I posted nearly a year ago and see how it figures today?

Herewith Mr Farkas. (Written 9 months ago).
It is a self-evident truth that Hungary has become a sick nation in every aspect of its culture.
Bribery, corruption, poor administration, low self-esteem, all contribute to the appalling mess the country is now in.

Hungary has had twenty years to adjust in the post-communist era but has held on grimly to all the bad practices bestowed on it by its former rulers.

The young leave the country en-masse (100,000) in search of better- paid work abroad.
This leaves a vacuum for any real change to take place with an alternative perspective.
Instead, the country is ruled by incompetents who have neither the skill, nor the will, to lift the nation out of the ever-deepening black hole!
.
Reform: Where are the plans? The means? The advocates? (Bokros? I think not)
And where is the determination to bring together a nation that has already been “butchered”
by Gyurcsany and his hapless government?
The rural economy doesn't exist - The government borrows from every available source to prop up its incompetent strategies.
GDP and other such economical statistics are so grim they hardly warrant mentioning.
And so on....ad infinitum!
Is it any wonder the far-right are emerging at a rate of knots once again?!

Dear QC,

I appreciate the dialogue with you on this, as it pertains to something very close to my heart.

The "Litany of Dysfunction", that you so very well write of, actually can describe many other nations as well. In the course of my world travels, I've seen many nations that share some of our developmental problems; the difference is often just a matter of degree.

To me, what these kind of nations have in common are six main factors:

1)they are coming out of a long historical period of foreign occupation or colonial rule.

2)The people never became fully socialized to be capitalists and entrepeneurs.(Or to think like them)

3)Limited historical experience with democracy and self rule.

4)High levels of societal and governmental corruption, along with a lack of transparency in both public and private sectors.

5)A lack of accountability.

6)The people not knowing or expecting better than the above; often voting for leaders and parties who deliver nothing and rob them blind.

History tells me that nations and peoples afflicted with the above profile, need many decades and sometimes quite a few generations to evolve out of the mess they are in. There is no "fast track" out of backwardness, at least none that would be compatible with our present political realities. Look at post colonial Africa and even India. Africa is still going nowhere, and India took over 60 years to get momentum.

(cont)

(To QC)

Realistically, our best hope is to educate our youth not just in engineering and sciences, but in business as well. We need for them to dare to be entrepenuers, to start their own companies and to create a real Hungarian owned and controlled private sector that dictates how govt serves private enterprise, and not the other way around. As it is, not enough Hungarians have faith in themselves, or their govt, or their fellow citizens to create a "Hungarian economic Tiger" We are like some actor playing a part we never rehearsed or studied for.

(cont)

(cont)

If any young, ambitious Hungarian would like to make a lot of money in business, here are a few suggestions:

1)Tap into venture capital; get it from wherever you can.

2)Given that Hungary is a big grain producer, forget winemaking, and go into microbrewing of beer.(And grow from there) Beer is a big global business, and very very profitable, given that you can sell beer for almost 100 times it's ingredient cost. 20 or 30 average investors can start a small microbrewery.

3)Compete with companies like Campbell's canned soup, make and export canned versions of goulash and other Hungarian specialties. Canned soup is a big global business; there is plenty of room for people with a culinary tradition like ours.

4)Modify Hungarian food for fast food franchising. Why can't one if us come up with a Hungarianised variant of Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, complete with drive thru windows? Do this in 60 countries! Don't give me crap about how that kind of food sucks; bottom line it sells. The first Hungarian who really does this is going to become a billionaire.

5)Let's not forget our kin in the Ural regions. They are sitting on a lot of resource wealth, much of it waiting to be tapped. I especially reccomend that those of us who are geologists and mining engineers, go up there and start making lots of friends.

We don't have much to lose by trying any of the above ideas, and possibly a great deal to gain.

@Farkas László
Bravo! I can never understand why there are 20x more kebab shops in Budapest than Lángos stands. Why there is not a worldwide Lángos fast food franchise is also a complete mystery too.
Yum yum.

Hello Bob,

Fast food franchising seems like a purely American concept in it's origination, but ends up winding up in most countries. McDonald's is the most successful restaurant chain in France, the home of "haute cuisine"! When you go to the corporate websites of various fast food merchants, you invariably see a world map somewhere showing in which countries the chain has or has not a presence. It's often a level of penetration that Hitler himself would have envied!

Europeans like patronising such places, but it hardly ever occurs to any european to start such an operation and make it branch out. I don't know why that is, and it's not just the Hungarians I'm talking about.

Franchising presupposes that entrepeneurs put up the cost of the building and land, and pay for the use of the name and process; in other words, they share in the recognition of the brand. The franchise owner is often a successful manger within the chain, who is given company financing to become an owner

If a Hungarian started such a thing, he would make billions, while allowing his franchise owners to become millionaires. Such an operation could give some people a chance to pull themselves up and create hundreds of newly rich people.

(cont)

Of course, Hungarian cuisine would have to be rather bastardised to meet the needs of such an operation; the end result would something not something your grandmother would have apporved of!

Your mentioning langos is spot on. That would be an ideal menu item, as it is fried, filling and quick and easy to prepare by unskilled workers. As the ideal fast food is finger food, my suggestion would be to use the langos as a wrap (burrito style) or pocket (pita style) for beef cubes seasoned goulash style, or skinless boneless chicken meat and dumplings in paprikash style. A langos "pita" could also be filled with fish seasoned halszle style as well.

Although these ideas might not appeal to the purists, I think they would work to provide food that would be fast and easy to turn out.

Other interesting menu item possibilities present themselves of course, and I hope that someone out there gets inspired to go for this. The secret to fast food success is to be able to serve a long line of people quickly, as well as people pulling up in a drive through window in their cars.

This isn't some untested fairy castle in the sky concept, but rather a business plan that has been proven to work all over the world. It's a license to print money. Too good for the Americans alone!

"Talpra Magyar"!

@Laci: First the bad news then the good.
Bad news: The spread of kebab outlets has spread even further at Octogon taking out the 'Vajas Sütemény' ice-cream and cake shop. Whilst not the best purveyor of cakes or cuisine, it's still depressing to see this go.
Good news: You'll be glad to hear then that my brother came across a lángos outlet in the West Midlands (Central England) with a savoury and sweet menu, alongside an explanation of the delicacy and its history. It was apparently going down a storm.

Good job Vándorló,

I'm glad to hear it! The secret to mega riches is to trademark a name and menu, and then find franchise buyers. (These may turn out to be anybody with money.)

My idea is to name the food chain after a fictitious Hungarian girl/woman. Give her a name that is easy to remember, spell and pronounce by people all over the world, regardless of language. Something like "Kati". Have an artist create a cute and endearing image of a woman in folk costume, with red white and green stripes. Trademark it. (The Hungarian national colors are good to use in the restaurant business, as they reminiscent of the Mexican and Italian colors, two cuisines that have a powerful presence in the global food business)

My menu proposal would be:

Fry and cut lángos pita (pocket) style.
Fill with a choice of gulyás seasoned beef cubes, or white skinless boneless chicken meat and dumplings seasoned paprikás style, or fish seasoned halászlé style. Finally offer a lángos pita filed with tarhonya and gravy. Side items could include pickled "Balaton" salad as well as a soup. Soft drink could be some pop or beverage of Hungarian origin.

The above would be a filling menu. The meat items could be cooked in advance, only the lángos would have to be fresh fried, which would take no time at all. The lángos pitas could be eaten by hand, with no utensils. Indeed it might be possible to eat them with one hand, while the other is on the steering wheel! This is fast food!

FL: One hand holding a pita, and one hand on the steering wheel? What would a Hungarian Police officer say??! Answer..."but how will I hold my mobile phone now?"

@Cinead and Laszlo:

This has been a really mouth-watering discussion,but there several problems:

I don't know if there is enough room for another fast food franchise.

Langos is a delicate thing: if the oil and dough are not fresh...

Goulash meat to fill the langos is probably too expensive, one of the economic advantages of burgers is, that you can use rather cheap meat...

Anyway, as soon as we go back to Hungary, I'll ask my wife to make some langos - or maybe we'll settle on pörkölt - and the next day my alltime favorite:

Hortobagy Palacsinta !!!

Hi Wolfi,

Mexican taco places, and the Taco Bell chain, have succeeded in mass producing and selling, small sized and cut steak cubes in their products. There is precedent, and I think it is very doable on a global scale. I believe a product derived from Hungarian culinary traditions not only can can be created but should be created! You are right about how the dough should be just right. Professional chefs would have to be consulted and of course a period of product testing would have to be done, but at the end of the day, I firmly believe that Hungarian traditions can be adapted to a fast food environment.

There is so much money that can be made in this kind of business and industry. Fast food franchising has produced tens of thousands of millionaires worldwide! I hope that gives someone out there the incentive to consider this kind of venture.

Note how my above suggestions for wealth building draw upon our existing strengths and advantages. Our grain production(beer), our culinary traditions(canning and food franchising), ancestry and kinship (connecting with Finno Ugric tribes). Work with what God, fate and history has given you, and build from there.

Our people will have to go forth and succeed in the private sector, with or without the help of our political system and classes. We can't sit around waiting for corruption to end, or for our politicians to get a clue. We just may have to succeed in spite of them.

FL: 'subway' also markets a product with messy ingredients, and what's more, they also appeal to the health food fashion. So to be honest, a lot of Hungarian food is not exactly marketable as 'low fat' or such, BUT it could be promoted as being a REAL flavour instead of processed cardboard and toe jam.

I meant to add that I think these aren't the only Hungarian foods that could make their way in. I think there is much greater potential for things like kalacs and kurtos kalacs...what passes for 'Hungarian loaf' here is often just bread with a few herbs and cheese on top. Hardly Hungarian really. ...but even in the junk food market...what about turorudi (spelling?) or the ever popular Balaton bar. I don't think it is just one product that could be marketed and sold, but if some enterprising person was to put a package together, it could be a nice alternative in an otherwise bland culinary landscape. I bemoaned the loss of all the family corner take-aways, and the market type food stalls when the fast food giants took over...something like this would be a relief.

Dear Cináed,

Thanks, the food industry is a huge tent, that can allow for a lot of activity and niches. One can think in terms of selling locally and on a smaller scale of course. We need entrepeneurship at all levels, and for all kinds of products and clientele.

Having a finance background, I naturally think in terms of leverage. One can only get so much return from opening one outlet. That is why I suggested franchising. It has been a proven pathway to large returns.

About the health concerns you have expressed, good point. However my suggested menu need not be more "unhealthy" than existing and successful fast food operations.

There is a sub specialty in science and engineering devoted entirely to food processing and production. Hire the consultants. Tell them what you want as an end product, what kind of price range you want for it to sell for, and what kind of fat and calorie content it should come under. Then let the experts go to work and devise a plan for ingredients, their procurement, portion sizing, processing and packaging. This is not theoretical; it had been going on for decades and is going on now. Such expertise should be put to work by a Hungarian and his investors.

There is a big difference in outlook between Americans and Europeans on this. As soon as an American has one really successful restaurant, he starts toying with the idea of franchising. Europeans are not so much like this. Too bad. There is just too much money at stake.

All this sounds very nice - but with food and drink there also is a large chance element, you have to be there with the right product at the right time and the right place...

On the other hand we prefer the small, individual, local restaurants in Hungary and Germany. Only when we travel to the UK or the USA, that's when we choose Wendy's or Burger King, because we have not enough time to try out different restaurants and the risk of getting "nothing for your money" is to big...

I remember several smaller and larger fast food chains internationally that didn't make it or had to radically change: Wimpy's, Checkers, German/Austrian Winerwald... - it is a difficult business.

I view this discussion as having to do with what can be a "bootstrap" for Hungarians (derived from the old expression:"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps"- a metaphor for self improvement.) What kind of businesses can we develop, in light of what we already have and what we already know?

Cináed, by having mentioned pastries, gave me the idea to elaborate on other possibilites in the food industry.

1)Confections and candies. We have a rich tradition of pastry making, cakes and confections. Anyone with the proper training can consider starting a catering business or bakery. A successful baker goes from bakery shop to factory production. A smart one develops products that are trademarked, patented and sold globally. Baked snack food products and candies are a multibillion euro global business.

2)Condiments. There are thousands of brands of table sauces out there, from ketchup to "hot sauces". Think of Lea and Perrins (Worchestshire sauce) Tabasco, HP Steak Sauce, A-1 Steak Sauce; all of these products have been around for over a 100 years, are often family owned, and make their owners filthy rich. This too is a multi billion euro market. Hungary, as a big centuries old producer of fine paprika, is a born natural for this kind of business. All one would have to do would be to combine peppers, vinegar, salt and a few spices and ouila, you have a marketable product! Many hot sauce producers started out in their kitchens or garages!

(cont)

Business opportunities cont:

3)Frozen dinners. Why not prepare and mass produce frozen Hungarian style "TV" dinners, and sell them globally? Our cuisine can serve as an inspiration for processed, microwavable or oven baked food. Food processing professionals would have to be in on the design and marketing of these products, to make them fit certain markets of course. A glance through any good Hungarian cookbook furnishes a lot of tantalizing ideas. One can say: "Oh I hate eating those kind of meals!"; yeah but you wouldn't mind depositing the profits in your account! Frozen dinners are a 300 billion euro a year business!With a market of that size, there is plenty of room for us to make an entrance.

4)Liquor. Has anyone noticed what is going on in the premium vodka market lately? Countries like Sweden, Finland, Poland and Russia are busy meeting a huge global demand for high end and fruit flavored vodka. Hungary has a centuries long tradition of distilling liquor from fruits. It's not so far fetched to think that a person who buys and drinks premium fruit flavored vodka, could go for a fruit derived liquor. All it takes is a fancy bottle and a marketing plan. We have the grain to distill with, and we have the fruit production as well. You make so much more money converting fruit and grain into premium liquor than you would selling it as a food item! It's a no-brainer. The liquor business has produced many rich people and dynasties.

Talpra Magyar!

Dear Wolfi,

Capitalism is all about risk taking. Without it, you get stagnation. It's not for everybody, but for those who are willing to try, the rewards can be tremendous. No society has gotten fat and rich without economic risk takers! Hungary is in need of such people, and needs to develop young people who will be willing to step up in the future!

We have borrowed too many billions, both under communism and after, from the west, that we didn't know how to put to effective use. Our leaders still wouldn't know what to do with multi-billion euro loans and how to make the money grow. Our politicians, and too many of our people, don't think in terms of business opportunity and economic growth. All my posting here is about raising awareness, and putting out ideas to all, in the hopes of changing that.

Talk of frozen dinners and mass produced "Kati" langos is not about what one would like to eat personally, but about what we can profit from. Big difference. There is a huge world out there, full of money, with needs that we can profitably fill. We just have to try and make the effort.

Talpra Magyar!

@Laszlo: You're absolutely correct about risk-taking. I wnet freelance about 35 years ago, do I know - and I was lucky.

But what i meant to say, Hungary right now is (maybe) not the best place to take too many risks, I really don't know. But I wish every entrepreneur the best of luck (just like every Hungarian in general) in these difficult times...

Goose Liver! is a Delicacy, or has this been destroyed by Bajnai? EU and Hungarian politicians tax entrepueners and screw our own industries!

Kedves Tormay Cécile, (Great author by the way!),

What you mention about the EU is all the more reason to go global. If necessary, set up offshore companies and become real multinationals. They can tax intiative, but they can't kill it!

There is just no way around it. We have to create corporations, find investors, get financing and go from there. If we don't it's just more of the same, and I don't want more of the same.

Many viable businesses have been started in bad economic times. Labor and raw material costs are lower, but needs continue. When there is an upturn, then you are well positioned to take advantage of it.

Marginal tax rates in the US and UK at one time were as high as 90%! Even that didn't kill intiative.

PS: Goose liver pate is another niche product that we could work with. Find a market for it somewhere, and you have the making of at least a good family owned business.

Talpra Magyar!

Mr Farkas. You should be an owl not a wolf....such wisdom?
Hungary is a great country - no doubt about it. Great traditions and, for the most part, great people. It is a shame to witness the lack of confidence and sheer desperation among folk at the moment.
I truly believe that without corruption and the instillation of a positive leadership that Hungary can succeed.
Here is the equation for that success: R+R=R.
In other words: Reform and Regulation = Renaissance.

Hello QC,

I appreciate your views and concerns, as well as an understanding of my efforts here.

We must never stop trying to find ways out of the box we are in. I'm trying to suggest practical things that the private sector can start doing now to increase our wealth. Almost all of the suggestions I've made here were non-partisan, in the sense that they can be encouraged and supported by any of the political parties. I'm for common sense and pragmatism.

Until we develop a vigorous private sector, I don't hold out much hope for political reform. Our leaders will become totally accustomed to ruling over a populace that has a "plantation mentality", (i.e. a people given to apathy, low expectations and who take poverty and powerlessness as a given). They will go on like the leaders in Africa, who steal from everybody and give the public nothing in return. They'll feel no incentive to change their ways.

In order for us to expect performance, results and integrity from our leaders, we must first make sure we have these qualities ourselves. No self respecting person would vote for a leader and his party that admits to having lied to the people for years! Then it's shame on the people; such a PM somehow reflects a shadiness in ourselves.

The other tendency we have to fight is that of the big "cop out"; the constant blaming of forces and institutions beyond our control as the excuse for a lack of national progress.