Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)

1984-01-21 / 1-2. szám

I A bridge between Canada and Hungary A conversation with Theodore J. Arcand, Ambassador of Canada to Hungary. nections? What do you expect from the year 1984? We want to further cooperation. Our interests demand that these connections should last and possess stable elements unexposed to the ups and downs of politics. We should like to know that the offspring of emigrant Hungarians also feel sym­pathy they would become acquaint­ed with, and appreciative of, the situation in Hungary, and that they also promote relations between their adoptive countries and Hungary in their own fields. Considering the generational change, which is hap­pening also among Hungarians in the West, we must pay more atten­tion to the second and third gen­eration of Hungarians. The cultural environment, the language they learn in their new country is the natural medium for people born in those countries. But the interest of Hungarians is that we should help them to preserve the Hungar­ian language, that even those mem­bers of the new generations, who can no longer speak Hungarian should know about the history of our people, appreciating the great works and values of our national heritage. In the interest of these aims, we should like to cooperate better with the Hungarian parishes and congregations, with youth or­ganizations, and also with govern­mental institutions of the countries concerned. For these reasons we want to continue to strengthen the bases of the native language move­ment in the coming year, giving assistance to help Hungarians to learn the language. We have al­ready begun preparations for the next Conference of the Native Lan­guage Movement, and the last ses­sion of the Board of Patrons is a good starting point for that. We would like to launch a new move­ment which will promote exchange visits of related families in Hungary and abroad, formerly a rare prac­tice, but one which furthers the learning of the respective lan­guages. The World Federation will be glad to offer help to such ex­change visits over as wide a field as possible. Having in mind the in­creasing enthusiasm shown for folk dancing and music, we would like to increase our work in the promo­tion of home visits by ensembles from abroad, and in giving assist­ance to the organization of new groups. We also cherish a plan of organizing a Festival of Hungarian Folk Art at the time of the next Conference of the Native Language Movement, with the participation of the best ensembles and soloists. Naturally we want to continue the organization of specialized confer­ences. We want to pay particular attention to literary and artistic relations. The above are only some of our ideas, but they reflect the nature of them all. But only the future will tell, whether these in­tentions will be realized. We live in a divided world. Be that as it may, we wish — together with our friends and partners — to maintain the continuity and strength of the bridge between our­selves and the hundreds of thou­sands of emigrant Hungarians, en­suring contacts and relations be­tween Hungarian families, the masses of the Hungarian people and the Western Hungarians, and let us add, between the World Federation, and every Hungarian of good will. MIKLÓS SZÄNTÖ Theodore J. Arcand has been Canadian Ambassador in Hungary for twelve months now. He rep­resented Canada in many places and in very different situations; prior to coming to Budapest he had been Canada’s ambassador to Leba­non, Syria and Jordan. The focus of interest of the interview was nat­urally, relations between Canada and Hungary, and within that the subject of the Canadian Hungarians. “Canada is a relatively new country — but its multicultural pol­icy is already a well established convention. About one hundred thousand immigrants come to our country every year, and the govern­ment makes serious efforts to create conditions in which each of the ethnic communities can preserve their language and culture. The range of the multicultural pro­gramme extends from regular tele­vision programmes in their native languages to the subsidizing of their press. This, naturally, applies to Canadian Hungarians as well. Ap­proximately one hundred and fifty thousand, Canadians are of Hun­garian origin, including also second generation Hungarians. I should like to stress right at the start that there are big differences indeed between Hungarians, depending on their wave of migration. Mostly farm­ers came to Canada from Hungary in the 1910s and twenties. The most recent wave of migration that of 1956, was of an entirely different kind. It brought a majority of highly skilled urban people. Many of them made good in the most diverse fields. When the World Congress of Medical Practitioners of Hungarian birth was held in 1983, fourteen amongst the partici­pants were Canadians, including a number of specialists of national standing.” Mr. Ambassador, you mentioned earlier the multi-cultural policy of Canada. Does that extend to the teaching of Hungarian in schools? “Our school system differs to a smaller or larger degree in each of the provinces. The teaching of the native language is regulated by each of the provinces to suit their own conditions and ethnic compo­sition. I cannot, therefore, give a uniform answer to this question, for it would be necessary to study the school system of each province sep­arately. But I should like to men­tion, and emphasise that the Hun­garian chair at the University of Toronto, headed by Professor György Bisztray, an important lo­cation for the teaching of and re­search into the Hungarian language in Canada, was established, and is able to carry on, thanks to the self­­sacrificing efforts of Canadian Hun­garians and with the support of the Multicultural Directorate.” The assistance of the Multicul­tural Directorate given to the ethnic groups, made possible the publica­tion of a book “Struggle and Hope”, containing a number of contribu­tions on the history of Canadian PHOTO:FERENC NOVOTTA Hungarians. We should be glad to see the continuation of this research in Hungary, with the help of Hun­garian libraries and archives, since the source for the pre-history of the Canadian Hungarians are here... “I think our ideas regarding this matter are completely consistent with those of the World Federation of Hungarians. The history of Ca­nadian Hungarians is an integral part of the history of Canada as such. I am convinced that if there are scholars in Canada intending to carry on such research — and I am certain that there are — the Canada Council wiil assist them to delve deep into the Hungarian sources. But there are, surely, also Hungarian scholarships for those, who would like to study the Hun­garian diaspora in Canada. I should also like to mention current cooperation in some other fields of scholarship. At the initia­tive of Professor Péter Hidas of Montreal, Hungarian laws made since the 11th century have been processed and will be published in English as the fruit of Canadian, Hungarian and U. S. cooperation. When we recently prepared the list of people to be invited to the celebration of our national day, the 1st of July, I noted with pleasant surprise that no less than 23 Hun­garian economists worked for long­er or shorter periods at Canadian universities in the course of the past few years. At the same time, The Budapest Karl Marx University of Economics has regularly acted as host to Canadian economists, and both cauntries have hosted interesting and useful economic round tables. The Canadian anthologies edited by Professor Béla Köpeczi, which were published recently in Hun­garian have certainly aroused in­terest in Canadian literature. I hope the time, when there will be a chair of Canadian literature in one of the Hungarian universities, perhaps in Debrecen, is not too far of. An an­thology of Hungarian short stories lias been recently published in Cana­da as well. You will certainly be interested to hear, that the World Federation of Hungarians and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce want to organize another world congress in 1985 for Hungarian economists. “I am sure Canadian participa­tion will be highly significant, since the number of Hungarians who fill important roles in the economic life of our country is, as I men­tioned, far from small. When, a few months ago, a delegation of six 011 and gas experts went to Hun­gary from Alberta to negotiate the transfer of Canadian technologies, four of the members of the delegation were Hungarians. Another gen­tleman of Hungarian birth, Mr. Joe Sefel, also operates in Al­berta. After successes in the oil and natural gas business, he ex­tended his activities also to other fields; among other things, he fi­nanced that interesting event of the 1983 summer season of Hungarian music, the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand conducted by another Hungarian, who lives and works in Canada, Árpád Joó. Canadian—Hungarian economic re­lations are developing encouragingly even in the present difficult world conditions. A Canadian delegation led by our Minister of External Trade. Mr. Gerald Regan, visited Hungary in 1983; during the same year Canada invited and hosted two Hungarian economic delegations. Some of the results of the mutual efforts are that one of the elements of the Paks power station was supplied by Canadian industry, and that Ikarus articulated buses will very likely operate in Toronto and Vancouver in the near future. The results are thus appreciable, but I am con­vinced that Canadian—Hungarian trade could still be expanded. Ca­nadian experts of Hungarian birth may fill a very important role in this work since, after all, everything hinges on human re­lations in every field of life. This is one of the reasons, why I consider the fact extremely im­portant that some fifteen thousand Canadians visit Hungary each year, and that more than five thousand Hungarians go to Canada to visit relations, or on some other busi­ness, and that contacts between Canada and Hungary are growing in musical life as well as in the fine arts, the cinema and games, that contacts are also maintained at the level of the Churches. For instance 12 Hungarian churchmen took part in 1983 in the Sixth Meeting of the World Council of Churches held in Vancouver. You Hungarians say that national minorities may fill the role of bridges between neighbouring countries. Hungarian society is an open one. and this helps the realiza­tion of our multicultural concept. The one hundred and fifty thousand Hungarians also form a bridge be­tween Canada and Hungary. We are serving not only our own coun­try but also the world, if we work in the interests of mutual under­standing and the development of relations in the present tense and difficult times.” ZOLTÁN HALÁSZ 61 I \

Next

/
  • Layout
  • Zoom
  • Rotation
Thumbnails
Contents