Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1986. január-június (40. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-05-08 / 19. szám
12. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, May 8. 1986. A day in the life of Gabriella Kakucsi "I visit a number of branches during the day" She is the president of the "Fehérakác" (White Acacia) Agricultural Cooperative in the town of Dabas. She has been working in the co-op since December 1965 and quite early in her career there, she became the chief accountant and later in 1974 she was elected president of the agricultural cooperative, a job she's held ever since. In addition to her qualification as an accountant, she is now studying for a degree in economics. She is divorced, and has brought up her son alone. *• The following are excerpts from an interview she gave The Hungarian Trade Unions News. * Our cooperative is a large one; we have a total area of close to 11,000 hectares with a labour force of three thousand people. Our total production value exceeds one billion forints. In -spite of the relatively unfavourable natural conditions in this region, we rank among the top 15 to 20 out of the thousand or so agricultural cooperatives of Hungary. Although most of our lands has a sandy, saline soil, still due to a geographical advantage-Budapest being so close to us - most of our income derives from crops as it is our duty to contribute to the food supply for the capital city. We have a considerable stock of dairy cattle and a milk processing plant, which has an annual output of 20 million litres of milk, most of wich also goes to Budapest. I married too young, so I also got divorced as a young woman. I raised my son alone and I always made sure that I had enough time for family life. Family for me means not only my son, but also his daughter, my two-year-old granddaughter and also my 92-year-old grandmother who is still very close to me. I have almost daily contact with my mother, and my sister and brother who all helped me a lot in the difficult days of my life. My son is still a very good companion although we were often compelled to exchange only written messages because of my many duties. It is a fact that I usually spend my leisure time too with the problems of my job. But I think it's quite natural that if you like your profession, your job, you do not restrict yourself only to the compulsory eight hours of a working day. I am expected to be familiar with the professional lit— eratur and I am also a regular reader of the bulletin dealing with the legal regulations. If you want to find satisfaction Following are excerpts from the draft of a pastoral letter drawn up by a panel of Bishops of the United Methodist Church: We have prayerfully and penitently reflected on the continuing buildup of nuclear arsenals by some of the nations. We have become increasingly aware of the devastation that such weapons can inflict on planet Earth. We have watched and agonized over the increase in hostile rhetoric and hate among nations. We have seen the threat of a nuclear confrontation increasing in our world. We have said a clear and unconditioned 'no' to nuclear war and to any use of nuclear weapons. We have concluded that nuclear deterrence is a position which cannot receive the church's blessing. We have stated our complete lack of confidence in proposed "defenses" against nuclear attack and are convinced that the enormous cost of developing such defenses is one more witness to the obvious fact that the arms race is a social justice issue, not only a war and peace issue. The nuclear crisis is not primarily a matter of technology: it is a crisis of human community. We encourage independent U.S. and Soviet initiatives to foster a political climate conducive to negotiations. We urge a renewed commitment to building the institutional foundations of common security, economic justice, human rights, and environmental conservation. And we make appeal for peace research, studies and training at all levels of education. Following are excerpts from the accompanying "foundation document": We write in defense of Creation. We do so because the Creation itself is under attack. Air and water, trees and fruits and flowers, birds and fish and cattle, all children and youth, women and men live under the darkening shadows of a threatening nuclear winter. We call the United Methodist Church to more faithful witness and action in the face of this worsening nuclear crisis. It is a crisis that threatens to assault not only the whole human family but planet Earth itself, even while the arms race itself cruelly destroys millions of lives in conventional wars, repressive violence and massive poverty. ■> The powers of government are not only legitimate expressions of the Creation's natural order and of political community: they are necessary constraints upon human sinfulness. When governments themselves become destroyers of community and threats to the Creation, when they usurp the sovereignty which belongs to God alone, they are rightly subject to protest and resistance. in your work, you must be fully committed to it. There is nothing unusual in my spend- in 13 to 14 hours in the cooperative every day. Most people who work-in agriculture spend more than the regular 8 hours with work. It doesn't always mean hard manual work, I take real pleasure in inspecting the fields and crops or visiting the newborn calves... I am fond of music and literature. TRADITION OF JUST WAR The just-war tradition, originating with Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries, set forth seven principles concerning the morality of going to war and the conduct of warfare. Three of those principles are especially tested by nuclear warfare and have helped us form our own judgments. We are convinced that no actual use of nuclear weapons offers any reasonable hope of success in achieving a just peace. We believe that the principle of discrimination (requiring the immunity of noncombatants from direct attack) is bound to be horribly violated in any likely use of nuclear weapons, not only because of the widespread effects of blast, fire, radioactive fallout and environmental damage but because we seriously doubt that any resort to nuclear weapons by major powers can result in a strictly controlled or "limited nuclear war." We cannot imagine that the norm of proportionality can be meaningfully honored in a nuclear war, since such a war could not be waged with any realistic expectation of doing more good than harm. DETERRENCE AND IDOLATRY Nuclear deterrence has too long been reverenced as the idol of national security. In its most idolatrous forms it has blinded its proponents to the many-sided requirements of genuine security. There can be no unilateral security in the nuclear age. Security requires economic strength and stability, environmental and public health, educational quality, social well-being, public confidence, global cooperation. The ideology of deterrence must not receive the churches' blessing, even as a temporary warrant for holding on to nuclear weapons. The lingering possession of such weapons for a strictly limited time requires a very different justification: an ethic of reciprocity as nuclear-weapon states act together, in agreed stages, to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Such an ethic is shaped by a realistic vision of common security and the escalation of mutual trust rather than mutual terror. Justice is offended by the double standard under which some nations presume nuclear weapons for themselves while denying them to others. Justice is outraged in the undending vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons by the superpowers in violation of Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Justice is abused in the overwhelming power of nuclear-weapon states to threaten the selfdetermination, security and very life of nonaligned and nonbelligerent nations. Justice is forsaken in the squandering of wealth in the arms race while a holocaust of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and violent death is destroying the world's poorest peoples. Justice is defiled by the superpowers' implication in conventional arms races and proxy wars in the third world, causing much present suffering and threatening escalation into a nuclear war. Excerpts From Pastoral Plan
