Magyar Hírek, 1988 (41. évfolyam, 1-22. szám)
1988-05-06 / 9. szám
Children were the subject of a number of articles in our previous issue. One discussed statistical data relating to the number of births, another analysed the situation of mothers and children from many aspects. László Garami confronted two points of view in his article: that of the demographer, who comments on the facts from the point of view of population trends and that of a mother, who stopped working a year ago to be able to devote all her time to the care of her child. András Klinger, Head of the Department of Vital Statistics in the Central Statistical Office said that 210-220 children should be born to each one hundred families to ensure the replacement of the population, but in fact no more than 17(M80 are bom. Consequently Hungary has had a deficit in this respect since the sixties. Nevertheless, since the early eighties the prime reason of the population decline has been the high death rate, and not the decline in the number of births. Were the death rate as low in Hungary as in neighbouring Austria then a population growth could be expected. The other subject of the article, the mother, in essence confirms what the statistician observed, her second child was bom in the fifteenth year of her marriage, a full decade after her first-born daughter. The reason for the long gap was professional pressure—she was working on her doctoral dissertation—and the smallness of their home, which they exchanged for a larger one only recently. In the meantime a new system of child care allowance had been introduced. Now mothers can stay at home for two years past their maternity leave receiving 75 per cent of the wages earned earlier. Indeed, she is entitled to have one more year of leave and receive the ordinary child care allowance, which is usually less than what she received in the first two years. The young mother with her first-born daughter Nobody suggests, naturally, that the problems are solved. Éva Árokszállási’s moving report on children living in state institutions documents some of the problems. For many years now the number of children in state care—for which the blame lies mostly with the parents—has been around thirty thousand, but the number of children living in insecure conditions is several times higher. Unfortunately the situation has been aggravated also by organizational errors: the National Council for the Protection of Children and Young People was disbanded in 1962 and childcare was entrusted to the local councils in consequence of which the running of children’s institute could not be coordinated and a building programme proceded without a general plan. The capacity of these institutes increased by only 3000 places between 1960 and 1980 while the number of the state wards increased by ten thousand. Improvement is expected from some new measures, such as family protection centres, the setting up of an official network of foster-parents, raising the allowance paid for each foster-child, and easing the procedure of adoption. Another article deals with the Battonya children’s village. Joseph von Ferenczy, the Hungarian-born Munich press-magnate donated the initial capital to build this village, then the Hermann Gmeiner Foundation made another contribution. The village was built by 1986 and since then children and their foster-parents have moved in. The article is about the youngest of the families there, which moved in only six weeks before. It consists of a young woman teacher and four children. The children happen to be brothers and sisters who had earlier been housed in different institutions a long way from each other. Now they are at last together in the children’s village and live in a normal family community. The village is not yet fully occupied. Ultimately some 80-100 children will live there in family communities similar to the one described. Further children’s villages will be opened in the near future at Kecskemét and Százhalombatta. Close-up from Australia An estimated fifty thousand people of Hungarian birth live on the fifth continent, which is only about 0.3 per cent of the sixteen million strong population of the country, yet the presence of Hungarians seems much greater that that particularly in Sydney, writes György Halász. György Halász visited several Hungarian associations and communities. (According to the Guide of Ethnic Community Organizations published in 1987 a total of 74 Hun-The St. George Budapest Soccer Club garian associations and clubs are registered in Australia.) The Melbourne congregation of the Independent Hungarian Reformed Church helps new arrivals and maintains a home for the elderly. The club of St George, a Sydney suburb, runs a football team, a 3,000 capacity football ground and it organizes regular meetings and functions. Of the 7,600 members of the Hakoah club some 2,500-3,000 are Hungarians. That club was founded in 1938 by Austrian Jewish sports enthusiasts. The Hungarian Historic Society arranges lectures on various periods and events of the Hungarian history, and publishes the journal Magyar Mull. In Adelaide two Hungarian associations exist with opposing political views. György Halász names a number of Hungarians, who have achieved success in Australia with hard work. Selections from the story of Sir Peter Abeles are given in English on these pages. Hungarian culture abroad In the Hungarian part of this issue András Lukácsy comments on the fact that works of the Hungarian culture are increasingly penetrating foreign countries. Their echo is still not what is expected, but this is partly the result of our linguistic isolation partly the consequence of—as Lukácsy puts it — “still insufficient self-propaganda”. He mentions Hungarian fine arts as an example of the latter, which is still insufficiently known. No more than one or two Hungarian painting can be seen in the great museums of the world (and even fewer statues), even thought many works of Hungarian artists can claim a place amongst the best of the world on the grounds of their aesthetic value. There are, however, real achievements also. The Hungarian score is best in the field of musicwrites Lukácsy—, thanks first of all to the fame of Liszt, Bartók and Kodály, but the works of contemporary Hungarian composers—Ligeti, Sándor Veress, Kurtág—are also known and performed all over the world, while Hungarian singers, pianists, violinists are always welcome in the concert halls. A few works of the “Hungarian school” of film art hallmarked with the names of Miklós Jancsó and István Szabó reaped success all over the world. The linguistic isolation handicaps the most the spread of Hungarian literature. Various translation programmes, such as those of the PEN Club, the Writers’ Federation and the publishers offering anthologies, endeavour to gradually break through this. Cultural life and finances “How much money would be necessary to support cultural activities in Hungary?” Antal Stark, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Culture, was asked, after having offered the information that about 15 1/2 thousand million forints are allocated from various state funds to the support of cultural activities, other than education, from theatres to filmmaking and from book-publishing to libraries, and that this money is far from enough. “We would be in trouble if we had to answer this question concretely—Antal Stark said, adding that in fact, a new system of financing must be worked out. State support for culture will be restricted to those activities which affect basic cultural needs. All other facets of cultural life should become self-financing by their public or maintained by some method of sponsorship. “The fact itself that the state continues to support a certain selection of cultural activities implies a kind of censorship”—István Balázs, the interviewer asked. “Such a danger really would exist if the authorities defined which activity received state support and which did not,”— Antal Stark answered—“this is why I suggest that the distribution of state support should be decided upon by autonomous bodies—artists’ associations and the like. It must be assured of course, that these bodies should not be biased themselves.” As a consequence of the diminishing state support for what is really valuable the cultural market is overran by thrash, according to many notable critics—István Balázs added. “An economic constraint of profitability undeniably exists”—Antal Stark answered, adding that the unsufficient cultural standards of the masses are the reason why there is such a mass demand for thrash. A change for the better can be hoped for only from a more efficient system of education. zoltán HALÁSZ 29
