Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1989. július-december (43. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1989-07-20 / 29. szám
Thursday, July 20. 1989. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 11. WORLD FEDBWnON OF HUNGAHANS: 50 YEARS "The globe is large, the Hungarian nation is small, and although among the minor nations, there is no place on the globe where we would not be able to meeet our fellow Hungarians" was how the Secretary of the Paris MutualAssistance Hungarian Association began his report at the end of 1909, submitted to the "Honoured Assembly". A sad background is implied behind these words: hundreds of thousands of the poor-mostly peasants - had decided to emigrate from Hungary at the turn of the century to try to acquire land and a better livelihood somewhere else. Although they mainly headed for the New World, the United States and Canada, nevertheless some reached every part of the world; today if we look at a map of the Hungarian diaspora, we see an even more multicoloured picture. Of the one and a half million or so Hungarians in the West, most live in the United States (there are more than 700.000 of those who are of Hungarian origin on both parents sides, but there are many more people who declare themselves to be of Hungarian origin). The second largest receiving country was Canada, There are about 220.000 Hungarians in Western Europe, and the Hungarian diaspora is considerable in Latin America, Australia and Israel. Hungarian emigration did not occur simply at the turn of the century. For economic or political reasons thousands emigrated between the two world wars, in 1945 and in the years that followed, and again in 1956. The Hungarians - like other groups living abroad - set up parishes, built churches and clubs, and organised boy scout troops. The Hungarian associations set up in 1846 in Paris and in the same year in Berlin, are the oldest still operating Hungarian associations in the Western world. The Hungarian association in Graz and the William Penn Association in the USA can also boast of a past of more than 100 years. These long-reputed Western Hungarian Associations were also invited to the 50th anniversary celebration of the World Federation of Hungarians, which has its headquarters in Budapest, held in the autumn of 1988. The World Federation was set up in 1938,with the following still valid aim: "To support all activities which are intended to develop the Hungarian language and culture among Hungarians living abroad to foster cohesion, strengthen relations between Hungarians in the old country and abroad, and to keep an eye on the life and the results achieved by Hungarians abroad." The history of the World Federation has been rather eventful during its fifty years of life. First the war years, then the cold war and Stalinism, which affected our country, prevented the establishment of close ties with Hungarians living in the West. The past twenty years have brought about a major upswing, with among other things, the organisation of the mother- tongue conferences - this year the 6th will be held in Kecskemét - where the participants discussed how to retain the Hungarian language and culture in an alien linguistic milieu. The Hungarian Forum was initiated by the World Federation: this invites Hungarian members of various professions to the meetings. These are extraordinary meetings: the participants come from several dozens of countries, but their common language is Hungarian. Hungarian economists, engineers, physicians, agrarian specialists and musicians have so far held meetings in Budapest. In 1938 the World Federation of Hungarians was exclusively set up to unite the Hungarians living in the West. Recently it started to establish contact with the significant Hungarian minorities living in the countries that neighbour Hungary. The jubilee session was also attended by the representatives of the Hungarians living in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. István Balázs After several years of preparatory work, a new Hungarian National Atlas is being published this year. The previously published Atlas contained 1960 figures. The new Atlas showing the situation of twenty years later will present the housing, public utilities and commercial supply of the settlements of Hungary, the geographical distribution of industry, figures concerning agriculture and photos taken of the Carpathian Basin from satellites. The explanatory text written in Hungarian will be accompanied by a full English translation. "We didn't get the pay raise- why work,"- Senator Robert Dole (R. Kansas) on the slow pace of the 101st Congress, BRINGING AUTO INSURANCE RATES DOWN Five national consumer groups have started a campaign for sweeping reforms that could reduce auto insurance rates by as much as $ 23 billion a year - or up to 277 dollars for each insured household. "During the past three years, auto insurance rates have risen at more than four times the rate of inflation, with even larger increases in some states," said Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen. "This industry clearly charges too much." The Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the National Insurance Consumer Organization, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and Public Citizen have joined forces to press the reform program in state legislatures and in Congress. The campaign for reforms has been spurred by a recent California Supreme Court ruling that upholds the main provisions of a sweeping insurance reform initiative approved by the state's voters last November. The groups are pushing for reforms that will reduce insurer waste and inefficiency, reduce accidents, cut down on fraud and theft, and set up independent consumer advocacy groups to regulate the insurance industry and make rates competitive. Reforms are already being advanced in such states as New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. National reforms will focus on repeal or revision of a 1945 law that exempts the insurance industry from anti-trust laws. "If it is illegal for every other industry to divide markets, fix prices, and tie the sale of one product to the sale of another, it also should be illegal for competing insurers," said Linda Lipsen of Consumers Union. "Banks have closed more workplaces than we ever imagined closing with our strikes."-Louis Loberge, president, Quebec Federation of Labor. "Dan Quayle doesn't know about cities. He doesn't know who lives there, ghettos, traffic, race, crime, housing, all that stuff. But we'll teach him."- Stuart K. Spencer, who directed Vice President Quayle's campaign. "What a waste it is to lose one's mind- or not to have a mind. How true that is."- Vice President Dan Quayle, garbling the slogan of the United Negro College Fund. ''You've go» a lot of nerve calling me a poor credit rislcl Your bank fu*t go» taken over by »be F.D.I.C."
