Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1987. július-december (41. évfolyam, 26-48. szám)
1987-11-19 / 43. szám
Thursday, November 19. 1987 AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO 11. ÁmÉRÜMt HiindARiAhs Seniors get a view of life in Hungary Coffee shop at a nursing home in Hungary By Julia Barnes E lderhostels, a Boston-based organization, has for decades enabled older Americans to experience or reexperience university life plus vacation for one or two weeks year round. Universities and colleges througout the U.S. and, in an increasing number of foreign countries, have hosted'groups of older students. Participants are offered courses, dormitory housing, sightseeing and access to local cultural events — all at relatively inexpensive rates and without educational prerequisites. This summer, for the first time, an El- derhostel program was offered in a socialist country other than China. Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania cooperated with Kandó University in Budapest to offer two groups of 42 students each two weeks of study and vacation in Hungary. There was a rush to apply. Forty disappointed applicants will have to reapply for the summer of 1988, for which programs in Hungary are already planned. About half of the students in the July 22 to August 13 program, in which I participated, were of Hungarian descent, some of whom came to explore their roots. But all were eager to learn about Hungary today. They sought to dispel media myths. They wanted to know how the economy differed from and resembled that in capitalist and in other socialist countries. They wanted to get to know the people. They wanted really to know more about this small country, which has survived so many vicissitudes and which has given the world scores of talented musicians, artists and writers. Lectures included professors from Karl Marx University, from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, from the Liszt- Ferenc Academy of Music and from the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church. We visited museums and historic sites, such as the first Hungarian capital at Estergom. We sailed on the blue Danube. We attended concerts, heard Aida and witnessed a folklore performance at an outdoor theater on Margäret Island. We soaked in thermal baths. We visited Lake Balaton, the largest fresh water lake in Europe. We began to understand why a country with a 10 million population regularly has 15 million tourists speaking a multitude of languages. Some participants could not resist the many Hungarian rich desserts that topped off each tasty, though spicy, meal. Although not included in this tour’s agenda, meetings with Hungarians at trade unions, day care centers and Pioneer Youth camps were eagerly sought by the visitors. A few labor unions, religious organizations and the teachers have their own i nursing homes, partly supported by public funds. The home we visited is one of three state-owned in the city. It is housed in a stately 250-year-old mansion on the avenue fronting the Buda side of the Danube. Emperor Joseph II built it for a Franciscan order. It later became a hospital. After thorough renovation it was converted in 1957 to its present use. Vancza, after introductory explanations in the sthff dining room, took us to visit one of the residents’ rooms. Like most of the rooms, it was shared by four residents. The first of the residents to greet us led us to the window and pointed to the Parliament building across the Danube on the Pest side, to share her view of what is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Many other residents greeted us warmly. We visited many rooms, richly furnished, no two alike, in the three divisions of the home. One was for ambulatory residents, one for those less well and a third for those needing more care, some of them bedridden. There were hospital facilities for the last group, so that no upsetting transfers to hospitals were needed. We saw recreation and dining rooms. We were shown beautiful handiwork produced by the residents, especially leather flowers and belts. Recreational programs were described, which include visiting musicians and trips into the city. The 110-capacity home is full, with 62 on the waiting list. While they wait, applicants stay temporarily in hospitals or receive home care. Home care is primarily by volunteers, but plans are being made for new state home-care programs. A medical referral is required for admission. There are separate institutions for the mentally ill. Residents pay about half of the cost of their care from their pensions. The state pays the balance. The staff numbers 126: 60 nurses, a social worker, maintenance workers, therapists, a psychiatrist. They all belong to unions. The director is a trained bookkeeper and administrator. There are no restrictions on visiting hours. Residents may be visited at any time! MATEWAN A CINEMATIC IASIS It is a sad truth that U.S. -made films about the U.S.A. working class are few and far between. Even rarer are such films drawn from the rich history of the labor movement. At last, in 1987, there is Matewan, a cinematic oasis in a desert of vast neglect and distortion about American workers and their struggles to unionize. How profoundly refreshing it is to see truth and art united to show poor Americans in concerted effort to end their poverty. Matewan really happened, in the early decades of this century, in the coal fields of West Virginia. The actual town, Matewan, was the scene of some of the bloodiest confrontations between miners and coal field owners over unionization attempts. Stumbling and lurching out of their exploitation, the workers had to cope with backwardness, racism, red-baiting, company terrorism, and government collusion with owners. The workers did, and it's all in the film. But more important, it is cinematography at a high level. It is a story told, a movement portrayed, in the faces of the miners, in the accents and dialects of their speech, in the blackness of the mines below and the sunshine on the hills above. We see the miners and their families come together, break apart, stumble into error and confusion, and climb to heights of compassion, sacrifice, and human understanding. Writer-director John Sayles made Matewan in West Virginia coal country and filled the frames of his work with performers whose ancestors lived the real story Matewan narrates. Sayles himself. has a cameo role as a thunder-and-brimstone fundamentalist preacher warning the miners against Belzebub - "On earth today his name is Bolshevist! Socialist! Communist! Union man!" True to life, there is no conclusion, happy or otherwise, in Matewan. We see part of a process, that led to the information of the United Mine Workers and served as an inspiration for workers across the country. In the sick milieu of Rambo-time, Matewan is a bright star that leaves the viewer proud of America's working people and nearly dizzy with the surprise of seeing them portrayed artfully and truthfully. Mitch Berkowitz
