Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2017 (29. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2017-03-24 / 12. szám
Will The Hungarian Government Attempt To Ban Heineken Logo as a “Symbol Of Tyranny”? A proposed bill was introduced into the Hungarian parliament that would amend a current law in order to ban the commercial use of “symbols of tyranny”; these would include the swastika, arrow cross (the Hungarian Fascists’ symbol), Hammer and Sickle, and the Red Star. This last symbol is the most interesting, in the sense that, perhaps not coincidentally, there is in fact a company which has been in conflict with the Hungarian government, and whose logo just happens to have a red star in it: Heineken. Following the lengthy legal battle over copyright issues between ‘Igazi Csíki Sör,’ a small brewery run by members of the Szekler Hungarian minority in the Transylvania region of Romania, and the Netherlands-based beer multinational, several Hungarian government officials, including PMO head János Lázár, called for a boycott of Heineken products. The dispute between the two brewers stems from the ‘Igazi Csiki Sör’ name. ‘Igazi Csíki Sör’ (‘The real beer of Csík’), has a similar name to a Romanian beer owned by Heineken, “Ciuc beer” (”Csik” means “Ciuc” in Romanian language and refers to a small region of Transylvania with massive ethnic Hungarian majority). In January, a Romanian regional court ruled in favor of Heineken against the local Hungarian beer in their age-long legal dispute over the brand copyrights. The Romanian ruling directly contradicts an EU court, which ruled in favor of the Hungarian product and against Heineken on 9th of December 2016. The producer of ‘Igazi Csíki sör” employs about 140 people in Transylvania. The company said the Romanian court’s ruling was an attack against a local company, which is proud of its Hungarian identity, language and symbols. Since the ruling, the company changed its labels, and now sells “Tiltott Igazi Sör” (Banned Real Bear), in a direct dig at the Romanian court ruling. According to the proposed amendment, the commercial use of such “tyrannical” symbols would become a crime punishable by up to two yeárs in prison. The law would go into effect 30 days after passing, but the commercial use of such logos would only become a crime starting on January 1st, 2018. Despite the proposed law and government officials’ calls for a boycott of Heineken, however, the Dutch multinational’s logo does have at least one defender: the virtually non-existent Hungarian Workers’ Party, a successor to the Communist party, that ruled the country under a one-party dictatorship for over 40 years. In a statement, the ‘party’ (which has never had any seats in the parliament since the end of Communism, and which has consistently received less than 1% of the vote since 2002), boldly pronounced its condemnation and defiance of the proposed law and of the ruling Fidesz party. The Workers’ Party wrote that the true target of the law was not Heineken; no, this “beer war” is merely being used by “political powers” as an excuse “to move against those critical of the regime.” One assumes that Workers’ Party members include themselves in this targeted category, hungarytoday.hu Monument Commemorating 1956 Revolution Unveiled in New York The monument commemorating Hungary’s ill-fated 1956 anti- Soviet revolution had been put in place in New York and unveiled on March 15. The abstract composition has been placed next to the full figure statue of 19th century Hungarian reform statesman Lajos Kossuth, erected in Manhattan in 1928. The monument depicts the actual position of the stars on October 23, 1956, the day when the revolution broke out. The stars made of steel lie on a granite base. Advertise your business in the HÍRLAP, widely read by the Hungarian community! Hungarian PM Calls For Rebellion Against ‘Unholy Alliance of Brussels Bureaucrats and Liberal Media’ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has promised continued resistance against the “unholy alliance of Brussels bureaucrats, the liberal world media and insatiable international capitalists” in a landmark speech. Orbán’s speech marked the anniversary of the 1848 rising against the Habsburg Empire, commemorated on 15 March as one of three Hungarian national days. “The revolutions of 1848 broke out because the imperial great powers of the day denied nations the right to transform their systems of government, to weave anew the fabric of their economies, and to open their cultures’ gates to new ideas” he said, drawing parallels between that period and the behaviour of the European Union (EU) in the present day. “European emperors, tsars and kings forged a holy alliance in the interest of European peace. That holy alliance of peace, however, turned into an enemy of national independence, sovereignty and freedom, and became an alliance of hypocrites.” “This story sounds familiar,” he emphasised. “In the past year the nations have rebelled once again. They have rebelled against the hypocritical alliance of Brussels bureaucrats, the global liberal media and international capital, with its insatiable appetite. First the British rebelled, then the Americans - and there is more to come this year.” The Fidesz leader warned that Hungary would have to “fight bravely” against the EU in order to preserve its independence, particularly with respect to immigration control. “We must stop Brussels: we must protect our borders; we must prevent the resettlement of migrants; we must make the networks that receive their funding from abroad transparent; we must keep the right to regulate taxes, wages and household utility charges here at home.” Orbán stressed, for now at least, he believes “the energy released by rebellion [can be kept] within constitutional boundaries”, but the “the masks of hypocrisy in Brussels must be removed” before true reform can begin. “Perhaps neither the past nor the future of the Hungarian nation matters to Brussels and international capital - but they matter to us,” he said. “Our rebellion against debt slavery has welded our hearts together. Our struggle for economic independence has welded our hearts together. And our hearts have been welded together by the battle in which we beat back the mass population movement which is besieging Europe, and in which we stayed the hand of Brussels as it reached to open the gates from within.” breitbart.com Stats Office: Average Gross Wage In Hungary Rose By Annual 10 Percent In January The average gross wage in Hungary rose by an annual 10 percent to 273,822 forints (EUR 886) in January, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Monday. Net wages grew at the same place as gross wages, also climbing by 10 percent to 182,100 forints. KSH noted that wages have been boosted by a higher minimum wage as well as pay increases for social services and healthcare workers and state employees in the cultural sector. Excluding the 189,800 Hungarians in public work programmes, the average gross wage rose by 9.8 percent to 288,152 forints, while net wages also increased by 9.8 percent to 191,620 forints. Fulltime public workers earned gross 80,094 forints on average during the month, 1.1 percent more than in the same period a year earlier. Calculating with January twelve-month CPI of 2.3 percent, real wages were up by 7.5 percent. Commenting on the data, Economy Minister Mihály Varga said that net wages have been growing continuously for more than four years. The government has concluded the wage talks it was involved in and Varga believes that wages in the public sector are about to grow at the same pace as the overall increase in January. Wages in the private sector could rise at a slightly slower pace, he added. Gergely Suppan of Takarékbank said wages could grow by 10 percent this year and real wage growth could reach 7.6 percent. Wage growth from 2013 to the end of 2017 could total 28.3 percent, hungarytoday.hu Hans W. Eberhard Receives Commendation from the County of Los Angeles Hans Eberhard presentation (I-r) Eric Eberhard, Consul General Neumann, Mrs. Eric Eberhard, Hans Eberhard, Dr. Frank de Balogh, Dennis Fredricks, Robert Roth, Petra Schuermann, and Alexander Hast. Mr Eberhard attended many of the Sajtonap Festivals at Alpine village where he conveyed the greetings of the German American community. Dr. Dennis Fredricks represented the Hungarian American community at the presentation. On Friday, March 10, in a small ceremony attended by family and friends, LA County Commissioner Dr. Frank de Balogh presented Hans W. Eberhard with a Commendation from the County of Los Angeles for 50 years of Distinguished Leadership and Service to the German-American community of Southern California. Mr. Eberhard, Chairman of the German heritage organization Tricentennial Foundation, is the author of the book “The History of the German Americans in Early Los Angeles City and County: Before the Railroads and Freeways.” He dedicated the book to the preservation of German American Heritage and to educate all Americans about the many contributions German immigrants made in helping to build America. He was also instrumental in initiating the legislation to establish a national German American Day celebrated since 1987 on October 6. With his support of the bill from first draft to final ratification, Americans now have a better understanding of the achievements of German-Americans. The holdiday, marks October 6, the day on which the “German Mayflower,” carrying 13 German families from Krefeld (located near Düsseldorf, west of the Rhine), landed in Philadelphia in 1683, setting off the first large-scale German immigration to America, and commemorates the diverse contributions German immigrants and their descendants have made to American culture and society. germany.info Március 24,2017
