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July 11th, 2012

Quotable: Rózsa Hoffman’s advice to high school graduates considering leaving Hungary

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“Let [the new constitution] encourage you to be loyal to your country even though it is not easy to live here and the temptation to leave [Hungary] for wealth and an unimpeded career is big.”

Education state secretary Rózsa Hoffmann in a letter sent to 90,000 high school graduates. In addition to the letter, each graduate received a deluxe copy of the Basic Law of Hungary (HUF 10,000) from the Education Ministry. [vastagbor.blog.hu]
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  • steve

    what a waste of money, that could have been put into social benifits rather to help the newly unemployed school leavers with no prospect of getting meaninful employment, instead of wsting money on the likes, make things more attractive for them to stay……….

  • Mickey Horthy

    “Youngsters, don’t leave. You’ll not find better than here. Remember: Hungary is the most suicidal nation in Europe. So if you don’t succeed at first, join the Gloomy Sunday Suicide Club and cut your wrists. But please not before you have returned your deluxe copy of the Basic Law of Hungary; forints don’t grow on trees, you know.” – Mickey Horthy, Regent of the Empire

  • Democrat

    Finally they admit that it is not easy to live here. Trying to rally people around that rushed, confused and unnecessary document is just pathetic. The new constitution has removed the obligation on the state to provide social security, has made the country ungovernable with cardinal laws and placed FIDESZ cronies in positions for life. No surprise folks are leaving. Anyone want to bet that the constitution will not be amended before the year end?

  • oneill

    “….an unimpeded career is big.””

    I wonder who Rosie thinks is the major culprit “impeding” those careers?

    • http://www.allhungary.hu Erik D’Amato

      Good catch.

  • freedom

    Hungary hasn’t been easy to live in for nearly a century now.

    • Curious George

      How long have you lived in Hungary?

  • Janet Baker

    In Hungary, you have a chance to live for something larger than the secular values of the dead world. You have a chance to live a greener life, closer to the life intended by the Creator for His creation. You have the chance to stand up for real, life-long love rather than the momentary pleasures promised by the me-first crowd. You have a chance to live a real life, full of sacrifice and honor rather than the slave’s life of capitulation for one more crumb. Build Hungary, and build us all a future.

    • Oops I did it again

      Janet, WTF? How do you feed your family on this fairlyland BS? I suggest that if a young person does abroad for a year or three, gets some decent experience they are unable to get in Hungary, and then came back to set up an export business, the benefits to the hungarian nation are far more than in your fairytale world.

    • Cnut

      Do you live in Hungary, Janet?

      There’s nothing larger than the secular values of a dead world here in Hungary.

      They shoot porn in the flat upstairs from where I live, and I can’t go out without being accosted by lots of young Hungarian girls who want to have a slumber party at my place, all because I’m a foreigner.

      I’ve lived in a few places and I can safely say that Hungary is the most secular, dog-eat-dog place I’ve lived in.

      It’s a survival mentality, and the awful economic conditions accentuated by this government just make it more so.

      Your phrase “the me-first crowd” really sums up Hungary; from the local parking inspector, to the néni who lives in my building, to the local butcher, all the way up to the Prime Minister.

  • Bill

    Excellent comment Janet!

    Unfortunately, there is a sad trend amongst Hungarian left-wingers that there is a “what’s in it for me mentality”. Typical for a post-WW2 generation that has never lived through a war or a reconstruction period after a war. Rather than thinking about lining your pockets with gold, why not try to make things better. Instead of whining about a government that a majority voted in for, why not put your efforts into something useful?

    These are the kind of people who would cut and run when the times get tough, obviously no loyalty, fortitude or personal endurance. This is the big difference between the left and the right. I know many Hungarian relatives who would never leave Hungary for personal gain, because being a Hungarian and living in Hungary is far more important than a few pieces of gold…

    • Curious George

      This is the big difference between the left and the right. I know many Hungarian relatives who would never leave Hungary for personal gain, because being a Hungarian and living in Hungary is far more important….
      Bill says: July 11, 2012 at 5:46 pm

      I’m confused – Is this guy from the left or the right, or is he just being ‘Hungarian’? -http://tinyurl.com/7mxs8lb

    • Pete H.

      What do you suggest they do Bill if they can’t find work in Hungary? Setup a lemonade stand?

      THis is not just an issue of “leftist” youth. I have a Fidesz supporting 30yo friend. She is looking for work outside Hungary, because she is tired of working entry level jobs. She is college educated and fluent in English.

      The fact is youth unemployment has grown under Fidesz:

      Hungary

      Youth unemployment:
      27.3%
      Overall unemployment:
      10.9%
      The number of unemployed youth reached 78,300 in January, according to the Central Statistical Office. Hungary’s youth unemployment is up from the 26.3 percent rate in December 2011, and the 26.7 percent in January 2011. The Hungarian government passed a plan that would no longer give benefits to people who are capable of working, and would instead employ them in community service jobs.
      Source: Eurostat

      Read more:-http://www.businessinsider.com/europe-youth-unemployment-2012-3?op=1#ixzz20KvCVOR5

      • Ma Jar

        People are free to leave Hungary and the end of communisim and the open borders – Schengen Agreement – made this possible. Is it good or better for the country? No, but then neither is unemployment good or better. No one likes to starve and most people don’t like to live off the dole, though out of necessity it can become habit forming and ingrained after a while. Poverty is not something to be ashamed of, it is only uncomfortable. A szegenyseg nem szegyen, csak kellemetlen. Useful job creation country wide (not limited to Budapest) is the only solution but this answer is not new nor unique and is hard and complex to achieve for multiple reasons. Hungarians, in general, are industrious and never shied away from work, took the “bull by the horns” and held their own in Hungary as well as abroad. If some did become a tad lazy we can thank forty-four years of nonproductive communisim and nonsensicle retorquere. People schooled in Hungary and intending to leave must repay the Country if it contributed to their schooling. Alas, usually the brightest and best and the bravest leave and this “brain drain” is bad, bad, bad for the native country and is good, good, good for the adopted one. A challenge to all political parties – help the young stay home and also alleviate the plight of the older, retired Hungarians.

      • Cnut

        There is a ridiculous and punitive level of paperwork involved in opening a lemonade stand, and you would have to find people with the right bits of paper to run it.

    • Ronda

      What’s this got to do with left-wingers? Right-wingers have a much more “what’s in it for me mentality”. Anyone who leaves the country does it so they can have a decent life (or some income at all). It’s got nothing to do with politics. Maybe in your family. Not in anyone I know.

    • Vándorló

      The statistics clearly show that a disproportionate number of those on the right are the ones most inclined to feel the need to go to greener pastures: http://nol.hu/belfold/20120611-honvagyuk_van__es_duhosek

      Ironic, no? They complain about foreigners running amok in their land, only to seek to contaminate another country with their unwelcome bile.

    • Cnut

      I’m getting distracted. Bill, what will all these unemployed people do with their shiny new constitution. I’ve heard it tastes better with ketchup.

  • Erik Idler

    Bill,

    Of course if you’re a right-wing meathead, who doesn’t have any education and no foreign language ability, it’s very easy to stay in Hungary and claim the reason is patriotism. Meanwhile, happy to take the unemployment benefits.
    Perhaps I describe your relatives?

    • Leto. مؤدّب

      I am a right-wing meathead, I’ve got some education and I speak some foreign languages. Having spent years abroad, I returned to Hungary, where it’s not easy to live indeed, and I claim the main reason for my return was patriotism. I also claim I’ve got several friends who could tell you the very same thing.
      Finally let me note that you’re a real left-wing a**shole.

      • Anonymous

        Leto,
        Good on you for returning.
        But you can not tie the young down for selfishness. They have to look for their own future. If the country couldn’t provide for it, should they just waste their talents?

        Besides leaving the country doesn’t mean that they’re not loyal!

        • Leto. مؤدّب

          Leaving the country for good does mean they are not loyal.

        • Curious George

          @Leto – that’s rubbish. You can’t measure loyalty!

          • Leto. مؤدّب

            Surely you can.

          • Curious George

            @Leto – Only Commies and Fascists claim to measure loyalty. Surprisingly, you fit in well with both groups, which probably means, you’re an opportunist.

          • Leto. مؤدّب

            Monkey, you’re becoming more and more idiotic by the day.

  • Anonymous

    Rózsa Hoffmann

    you just want the young to be your slaves and you and your kind reap the fruit of their labour?

    No thanks!

  • ThE_WoRd

    it is obvious that all of you are blind to the benefits of this regime … cheap porn. Because so many young nubile Magyar lanyok are out of work, they have been forced to hit the bricks or take to the casting couches in order to make ends meat.

  • Bowen

    How utterly bizarre.

    So, the message is: hey kids, forget about a decent salary and a career! But don’t be sad, have a good laugh at those taxpaying suckers, without whom, we couldn’t pay millions of forints to print out and send you your deluxe copy of the Basic Law of Hungary!! A Basic Law which nobody voted for in 2010! Hahaha!!!

    What a joke this country is.

  • Viking

    Leto. مؤدّب says:
    July 12, 2012 at 6:29 am

    Leaving the country for good does mean they are not loyal
    —

    OMG I am not a Loyal Swede!
    And ‘ricsi’ is not a Loyal Brit!
    A ‘vándorló’ is not a Loyal Irish!

    Only ‘leto’ is a Loyal Hungarian…

  • Anonymous

    Leto,
    \Leaving the country for good does mean they are not loyal\

    Well, that might just be ; however, it is their choice to make. You can’t jump to the conclusion that they are disloyal, who are we to judge?

    It is not always black and white.

    • Leto. مؤدّب

      Why couldn’t I jump to the conclusion?

      • Oops I did it again

        Feel free to jump to all the conclusions you like, because you are a prize idiot anyway.

        • Leto. مؤدّب

          Blah, postcommie bastard.

      • Pete H.

        Because you are unaware of their specific personal situation. My grandparents never returned because they had retired when the transition occurred and they had a large group of Hungarian fiends in the US they did not want to leave. My mother never went back because she married an Irish-American. Both my mother and grandparents maintained a very strong connection to their homeland and culture.

        • Leto. مؤدّب

          I cannot recall I directed my remark at you or I evaluated your particular situation.
          My remark doesn’t apply to those who had to flee actual persecution (Communist or Nazi) or their descendants.
          My remark applied to those who emigrate from today’s Hungary for good. That’s disloyalty.
          Spending some years abroad is definitely a different issue. I did that and I won’t exclude the possibility I’ll do that again some time. However I’ll never leave Hungary for good. That’s loyalty.

          • Curious George

            So, a Hungarian who marries a foreigner while working abroad, has a family, and lives there is disloyal?
            That’s the kind of commie mentality that we always knew was deep within you, Leto Elvtars.

          • Pete H.

            What if you die during your next absence? That would be so sad since you’d depart as a traitor.

            And again this remark of mine “Because you are unaware of their specific personal situation.” applies the to the present also.

          • Leto. مؤدّب

            Yeah, that would be so sad indeed. Though let me assure you I’ve got relatives who’d make sure my remains would return.

          • Curious George

            “…let me assure you I’ve got relatives who’d make sure my remains would return.”
            Leto. مؤدّب says: July 14, 2012 at 5:41 am

            Ah yes, trash collectors. :)

    • Pete H.

      „Az ország átlépte a határt, ezért mi is átlépjük”

      Since Orban has declared that Hungary extends beyonds its borders, how can leaving be disloyal.

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