Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-06-27 / 13. szám
ABOUT THIS ISSUE AND THE PREVIOUS ONE Nagymaros. The number of camping sites are also increasing Vasarely — Victor Vásárhelyi — discussed his ideas about the city of the future in an interview of the previous issue. There is a uniform international style all the way from Chicago to London to Tokyo — he said — and people find the monotonous high rise housing estates unbearable. Vasarely intends to use the Foundation Centra he established in Aix-en-Provence to Rhow the world how these — as he says— “deadly boring edifices could be beautified.” He should like to burn colours onto aluminium and steel and use coloured concrete in building. There are 798 sketches, drawings, plans in the showcases of the Foundation Centre, some still, some moving: all the visitors have to do is to sit down amongst them to see the colourful dormitory suburbs, the eyepleasing residential blocks of great cities dreamed up by Vasarely. The ninth festival The ninth festival of the Hungarian associations in Britain was staged in Middlesborough this year, still remembering the first staged by the Kossuth Club of Manchester. The Teesside Hungarian Association played the role of host this time. The festival was attended by the chairman of the Council of the Country of Cleveland as well as the Mayors of Middlesborough and neighbouring towns; Dr. Mátyás Domokos, the London Ambassador of the Hungarian People’s Republic, and the members of Hungarian associations. Not only the associations of Bradford and Manchester sent strong teams of performers with their supporters, but many others took part in the festival from more distant places, such as Luton, Croydon, and other towns as well. The programme lasted more than three hours. The Teesside Association Moments of music in Middlesborough called its programme “Dawn 1848” the Kossuth Club of Manchester and District went onto the stage with a bouquet entitled “The life and dances of 19th century highwaymen”. The title of the programme presented by the Bradford Hungarian Cultural Society was “Regölés and dance”. The numbers presented by the guests from Croydon were linked together by a Budapest-style compére, spiced with snappy jokes and witty points to the delight of the audience. Folksongs, poems, monologues, anecdotes followed one-another. A chamber orchestra played, a dance group danced, a pianist and even a zither-player showed what they could do. The programme was heterogenous in genre as well as in standards, yet this was precisely what united the people there, whatever their age, occupation or religion to work together for a common objective: to preserve Hungarian ways and to implant them in the next generation. Cultural Centre at Újpest The report that presents the life and activity of a cultural centre which opened its doors about a year ago in the fourth district of Budapest — that is in Újpest — actually contains nothing sensational, since many kindred institutions function in Budapest and all over the country. Indeed, similar endeavours are frequent in many cities, providing a framework for leisure activities, and various adult education facilities. It is precisely this workaday character that makes the Újpest cultural centre interesting: showing how they endeavour to carry out their cultural aims and solve their financial problems. Starting whith the latter: a journalist found that the cultural centre was obliged to cover more than half of its expenditure from its own receipts, since the civic budget contributes only the other half. The receipts come from the most varied sources: workers’ training and re-training courses, to which enterprises needing skilled laboiu’ contribute rather herily; rent of shop premises in the building, where books, toys, and children’s clothing are sold; admission charges to various cultural events and entertainments, such as dances, disco-nights, sewing courses and computer or language courses. The charges are moderate but it still helps to bring in the money. Needless to say ensuring the financial basis for the operation of the cultural centre is only a means to make sure that it can do its job, that is serve the interests of the whole community. For instance, study circles are available for the 12,000 general school pupils in the district (aged 6 to 14). They ran spend part of the school holidays in summer camps organized and established by the centre, where they learn to ride horses, take part in sporting events and quizzes, all for a moderate charge. The programmes that are part of the basie activities of the institution, such as the concerts and theatrical performances, are subsidised, that is the centre provides half or even twothirds of the real costs. Participation in the various art groups is free, and members of the pensioners’ club are not charged admission. As the director stressed: Újpest is one of the workers’ district of Budapest. They must pay particular attention to the social policy aspects. Almost 17 million visitors The holiday season is on in earnest, but the assessment of last year’s results is still proceeding, and so does the survey of fut tire prospects, prompted by the recently held convention of the International Hotel Federation in Budapest. As Éva Árokszállási’s article in the Hungarian section of our journal tells, almost 17 million (more precisely 16,646,000) visitors from abroad came to Hungary in 1986, 1.52 million more than in the previous year. Of non-socialist citizens Austrians came in the largest number (nearly 2.5 million), but the number of Italian, French and Scandinavian visitors also grew. Fewer people travelled to Europe from the United States last year generally for various reasons (Chernobyl, the falling exchange rate of the dollar, fear of terrorism) but the balance-sheet of the Hungarian tourist trade was still favourable. The number of Hungar:ans going abroad also increased: a total of 6,280,000 Hungarians went, which included 16 per cent more tourists to capitalist countries than in the previous year. What does the tourist trade expect in the future? The discussions at the convention of the International Hotel Federation indicated that tourism was growing all over the world, and a doubling of numbers of tourists is expected by the year 2,000. Hungary also endeavours to participate in the growth. Although the economic situation does not make much further hotels building probable in the near future, there are still unexploited gaps in the market for instance health and convention tourism. The relatively low Hungarian prices contribute to the attractions offered to tourists, and the quality of services as well as the variety of programmes offered will also be improved to ensure continuous progress. ZOLTÁN HALÁSZ 29
