Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2002 (14. évfolyam, 4-45. szám)
2002-05-17 / 20. szám
AMERICAN Hungarian Journaí MEDITATIONS by Dr. Bela Bonis Pastor (562) 430-0876 First Hungarian Reformed Church, Hawthorne It is hard for us to realize - and our children simply cannot imagine - that mothers used to make so many things at home which are now made outside the home: bread and butter and cheese and ice cream, jams and jellies, canned fruits and vegetables, and even clothing, bedding and curtains. And the canning season was a family affair. But meanwhile, istn’t it interesting that all these things we now buy in the store are so widely advertised as "homemade", "just like grandmother’s." Merchants and manufacturers are doing their best to recapture it for us, or at least to make us think so. But, of course, in those old days even mothers were made at home. Today we can make mothers at school. We have a dignified academic term for it: Home Economics. This includes cooking, baking, sewing, cleaning, and everything else in the domestic line, as well as interior decorating, gardening, house designing and good table manners. One can’t help asking whether this is compensatory, the school trying to make up for the failures of the home. On Mothers’ Day 2002 my question is rather a spiritual quality that can be communicated only by mothers themselves, and only in the home. It is an intimate relationship of love and faith. What St. Paul tries to express in Titus 2:4,5 and what Psalm 128 also emphasises is that the young women must learn from their own mothers to be housekeepers who love their home. But that is precisely our problem, isn’t it? We ara beginning to wonder whether the modern home is the kind of place where mothers can really be made, not because so many chores have been eliminated, but because so many mothers apparently don’t know how to make mothers any more. Proverbs 14:1 says: "Every wi§e woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands." it is hard work for a mother to build a home, and to keep it. And in many ways it is a very thankless task because the rest of us don’t appreciate what it involves. And it is an endless task - as the old proverb puts it: "man may work from sun to sun but woman’s work is never done." If you have a mother like that, thank God for her loving you, too - and don’t forget to" thank her, while you still have her. L.A. Times Less Critical About Hungarian Status Law •“Hungary lost nearly two-thirds of its territory in the post-World War I breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the desire to regain land helped draw it to the side of Nazi Germany in World War II. Now, for the first time in more than five decades, this country is again trying to do something about its dismemberment. A law that took effect January 1 aims to keep alive a sense of greater nationhood among nearly 3 million ethnic Hungarians in six neighboring countries. Those who apply for special identification cards can receive educational, medical and employment benefits while visiting Hungary - including three-month work permits once a year - and subsidies for Hungarian-language education at home. The measure seems innocuous to its supporters. But by seeking to preserve a Hungarian identity for people living in other nations, the so-called Status Law has triggered protests in Slovakia and Romania, which fear Hungarian expansionism.” The above is part of a long article by David Holley in the main section of the L.A. Times, Friday May 10*. The author examines the plight of Hungarians living in foreign countries not by choice, but as a result of international treaties that today are considered mistaken and wrongful but beyond repair. Most people in their right mind, both within and outside the borders of Hungary, agree that the revision of borders is not a possibility. What is at stake is the right to preserve national identity, traditions, and education in the native language. “Although some ethnic Hungarians dream that the borders might someday be changed, few seriously believe that can happen any time soon. So the controversy over the law is most of all a fight over assimilation and counter-assimilation. Many citizens of Slovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia are descended from Hungarians who did not move from their own country but rather saw borders redrawn around them. Should these people give up their ethnic identity in favor of their country of citizenship? Or should they remain, generation after generation, Hungarians in a foreign land?” The author took the trouble to interview people who believe the new Status Law could repair some of the damage history has inflicted on them. 28-year-old Kinga Valent’s story is a good example. She is an ethnic Hungarian living in the southern Slovakian town of Samorin. “We didn't come here,” she said. “If you go to America, you know you are immigrating. If you immigrate somewhere, it's your decision. But my grandfather was bom here, and my father was bom here, and all my family was bom here. It's not my decision. It is a decision pushed on me: It hurts if you are in Bratislava and people say, 'Shut up, yoü stupid Hungarian! Speak Slovak!'” Valent said that she expects her baby boy to grow up as a Hungarian but that it all depends on language. “If he has the opportunity to study in his mother tongue, he'll feel Hungarian,” she said. “If he doesn't, he won't.” Still, she has no desire to see the border revised. “I think no one who is mentally OK would think of changing the border, because it would mean war, something like what happened in Yugoslavia,” she said. “It is unthinkable. I haven't heard of anybody who thinks this is a solution.” The government in Budapest, Hungary's capital, insists that it also has no interest in changing borders. But building a stronger Hungarian cultural area in Central Europe is a different matter. During discussion of the law on a radio program, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said “a Hungarian-speaking region ... is now forming, which will gather economic strength.” Such comments galvanize fearful critics, with the backlash most intense in Slovakia. “This law has no place in a civilized Europe and belongs to the Middle Ages,” Anna Malikova, leader of the right-wing Slovak National Party, declared in her nation's parliament. Peter Medgyessy, poised to become Hungary's next prime minister after leading a center-left coalition to victory in recent parliamentary elections, said the incoming Socialist-led government will back the new law. “We want to promote the development of Hungarian cultural life, the operation of Hungarian universities and libraries, the operation of Hungarian-language television and newspapers and the protection of Hungarian traditions in neighboring countries,” he said. The article goes on to discuss some of the developments after Hungary’s neighbors complained of the Status Law. ’’The law drew sharp criticism at first in Romania. But the government there reached agreement with Hungary in December to allow all Romanians, regardless of ethnicity, to be eligible for the threemonth Hungarian work permits. That agreement in turn triggered some opposition to the law within Hungary, because of fears that Romanian workers might take jobs from locals. Hungarian CSARDAS Ball a Great Success at the Biltmore What promises to be a welcome social event for the Hungarian community of Los Angeles in the years to come, the CSARDAS Ball at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s Emerald Room last Saturday night was a great success. At a time when major local Hungarian cultural events have become a rare commodity, Julius Jancso, owner of the Csardas Hungarian Restaurant in Hollywood, decided to continue the tradition of the annual ball started by Maria Fenyes, who passed away last year, and it seems to be a good idea. At least the sponsors and the artists who provided the program and the guests who happily dined and danced till the wee hours of the momig, thought so. More about the ball in our next issue! S.J. The law has not become a significant issue in other countries it covers. The Hungarian minority is small in Croatia and Slovenia, and the governments in Ukraine and Yugoslavia are preoccupied with more serious problems. The measure exempts Hungary's seventh neighbor, Austria, where ethnic Hungarians are wealthier and less numerous. Ethnic Hungarians in countries that do not border Hungary are not covered.” When it comes to discussing István Csurka, leader of the farright Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP), most mainstream politicians shrug him off as a “loose cannon”. However, they say that Csurka’s talk of changing borders provides ammunition for anti-Hungarian nationalists in neighboring countries. “Extreme nationalist parties are always allies. They hate each other, but they help each other,” said Zoltán Szabó, a member of parliament and an official in the Hungarian Socialist Party. The law has prompted unreasonable fears within Hungary as well as among its neighbors, Szabó said, adding that as countries of the region join the European Union - a major goal of both Slovakia and Hungary - borders will become insignificant. The article concludes with yet another story of people who haven’t moved, yet borders moved around them. “Kovács, a Dunajska Streda resident, hopes that the countries’ entry into the EU might someday put his hometown back in Hungary, where it was before World War I and during World War II. ‘When I was bom, I was a Czechoslovak citizen,’ explained Kovács, whose life story reflects the history of the 90% ethnic Hungarian town. ‘Then, in two years’ time, I was a Hungarian citizen. In 1945,1 was a Czechoslovak citizen again, and in 1993 I became a Slovak citizen. But I always lived here.’ Because most younger Hungarians do not share his dream of a greater Hungary, even the desire for an expanded Hungary will disappear as years go by, predicted Tamas Fricz, director of the Budapest-based 21 st Century Institute for Political Science.” It may be true that entry into the European Union will make borders seem less significant, but the same is not true of national identity. People have this strange habit of clinging to their mother tongue, their culture, their literature, their art, and the artifacts that represent it. When an ethnic group has its language attacked and its schools and universities taken away, that’s an attack against their very roots. Hungarians in Transylvania especially suffered and continue to suffer in this respect. The international community at large is probably still unaware of Funar’s antics and the legacy of the Iron Guard in Romania. Or have they just forgotten? The other day I saw a 1958 movie on TCM, called “Carve Her Name With Pride". The story is about the heroic fight British secret agents put up against the Nazis, risking - and sometimes losing — their lives. The heroine was from Central Europe, possibly Hungarian, but even more interesting was the male character. On a secret mission inside a German war factory, he posed as a Romanian officer of the Iron Guard. Political correctness was not an issue at the time. I can’t even begin to describe how accurately the actor portrayed and ridiculed the vain and effeminate ways of the Romanians, and the world view of that particular organization. It seems that they knew then... but why did the world forget? SUSAN JANCSO AMERIKAI ■■■■ Ajagyar Ifrrlap y||
