Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1989. január-június (43. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1989-03-02 / 9. szám
Thursday, March 2. 1989. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO 11. Hungarian Radio Hungarian Radio maintained contact with radio stations in 60 countries and with 13 international organizations in 1984. Cooperation with the socialist countries is handled on the basis of bilateral agreements and in the framework of OIRT, the international radio and television organization. Hungarian Radio is exploring various forms for strengthening mutually advantageous relations with the capitalist countries of Europe, too. It would like to present a great many values of European culture to its listeners and to acquaint listeners abroad with some of the masterpieces of Hungarian literature, art and music. The literary programmes of Hungarian Radio devote several thousand minutes annually to the presentations of outstanding works written in other countries. They attach special importance to the popularization of countries whose languages are not widely spoken. Very successful are the bilingual literary evenings recently held with the radio stations of Czechoslovakia, Finland, Holland, Yugoslavia, the German Democratic Republic, Romania and the Soviet Union. "World Theatre" is a series which consists of the radio adaptations of 133 plays representing the best pieces of the world's dramatic literature and presenting in this way an outline of drama history, also John Auden, Samuel Beckett, Saul Bellow, Ingmar Bergman, Heinrich Boll, Albert Camus, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Eugene Ionesco, Franc Xaver Kroetz, Miroslav Krleza, Slavomir Mrozek, Harold Pinter, and from outside Europe Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa and Sudji Tera- yama are the authors of some of the works heard over Hungarian Radio. The programmes of "Youth Radio" and "Children's Radio" often transmit reports made abroad. Recently an environment protection report from Austria and an education feature from Sweden were a big success. Finland contributed widely praised magazine-type programmes and Denmark offered its "Legoland". A full- hour conversation with György Cziffra, transmitted from his Paris home and illustrated with musical inserts, was a recent hit. In the framework of its exchange programme Hungarian Radio sends to partners abroad 70,000 minutes of music and 25,000 minutes of prose programmes annually. European radios take over for actual transmission about 75 percent of the Hungarian music sent out. The Hungarian works presented at the International Tribune of Composers in Paris are included in the programme of from 15 to 20 radio stations each year. Hungarian radio plays are also claiming increasing popularity abroad, with 30 to 35 of them heard by listeners of foreign radio stations. In the recent past a West German radio station beamed a political magazine programme live from Hungary. Plans have progressed for "Radio Danubius" to begin transmissions next year. Following an agreement between the Austrian Broadcasting Company and Hungarian Radio, the station will cater to Germanspeaking tourists in Hungary. "The fat hogs have been turned loose in the creek, and they are fouling the economic waters for us.” Jim Hightower is the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. A former editor of the Texas Observer and a frequent contributor to other publications, one of his recent articles asked "Why Is Money Like Manure? You’ve Got To Spread it Around. ” There is no true prosperity in our country when you have 14 million Americans earning less than $4 an hour. Eight million of these work for the minimum wage — $6,900 a year for full-time work. What that boils down to is $580 a month, and who can make it on that? You've got to pay at least $350 a month for rent. You're going to pay $70 utility bills, and buy $200 worth of food. That puts you up to $620 already, way beyond your budget just for the basics, and we have not begun to talk about child care, transportation, school supplies, not to mention Christmas. What about your kid's birthday? Vacation? Forget that! And please don't get sick. Fifty million Americans do not have health care. This skimpy, bare-subsistence life is not prosperity. This is not anything for us to be taking pride in. We've got to fight back. Frederick Douglass said about 100 years ago that "If there is no stuggle, there is no progress." Power, as we know, concedes nothing without a demand. The election may be over, but our struggle must continue no matter who occupies the White House or the houses of Congress. As that fellow from Louisiana, Huey Long, used to say, "If you want some ham, you've got to go into the smokehouse." Let's go into the smokehouse, and get some of that sweet ham for the people, for a change. Inflation "Tell me, Mrs. Szabó, have you bought the new car yet?" "No. We were saving up for it, but then we checked how much we've saved in six months, and decided to go to the movies instead." DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS Gorbachev in a recent exchange with Soviet citizens in Kiev spoke about two nuclear reactors under construction at Kerch, in the Crimean peninsula, 400 miles south of Kiev. The $1.7 billion project has drawn angry protests at the site. Since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, 70 miles north of Kiev, in April 1986, work on five nuclear plants has been halted. One operating station, in Armenia, has been ordered closed. A Visit to Chernobyl According to the Moscow radio, Mr. Gorbachev will visit Chernobyl during his current tour. It will be his first trip to the site of the nuclear disaster that left at least 31 dead and forced the evacuation of 135,000 people. The Soviet leader told the crowd that the Kremlin would await a report from a group of American nuclear experts who have been commissioned to study plans for the Crimean project, and would convert the plant to a training installation if the experts concluded that the project was unsafe. HERE IN THE UNITED STATES UNTIL LAST FALL, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WAS BUILDING FIVE NUCLEAR BOMBS A DAY, in factories that leaked deadly radiation into the air and water. The plants became so dangerous they had to be shut down. Now the Bush administration wants to re-open them. THESE ARE THE PLANTS Exotic new bombs are designed at the Livermore Labs near San Francisco, California, Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Los Alamos National Lab, also in New Mexico. THE DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS: Radiation from reactors is released into the atmosphere and into the surrounding communities. Uranium gas is enriched for nuclear fuel at the Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Complex in Piketon, Ohio and Peducah, Kentucky. DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS: Hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing by-product of the enrichment process, is released into the atmosphere. Poisonous solvents contaminate the ground water. The assembled warheads are exploded and tested at the Nevada Test Site near Las Vegas. DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS: according to the New York Times, 75 miles of land at the site is thoroughly contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive debris. Parts for the highly sophisticated missiles and bombers are made in virtually every community in the nation. Once the warheads are fitted onto the delivery system, Armageddon moves one step closer. DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS: Many communities such as Staten Island, New York, are forced to act as deployment sites for these radioactive deadly weapons. We must stop this countdown to Doomsday.
