Magyar News, 2004. szeptember-2005. augusztus (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2005-06-01 / 10. szám

Anything you touch, or see, or try to figure out, just doesn’t seem to make sense. We could start with the whole world, or just the corporate world, political systems, America, European Union, and for us the most important, Hungary.

In the European Union the Hungarians are sitting together with powers that crippled our country. In the Trianon Treaty Hungary was chopped up, 75% of the land and 66% of the population was given to neighboring countries. Why? Because each of the powerful European countries were afraid that Hungary might join with one of the “other” power, and that could be trouble. Now within the Union the same powers are dictating what the Hungarians should do. Sorry, this is about the Hungarians within the present borders, but on the other hand they don’t give a dam about the injustice that the Hungarians outside the borders are exposed to. We don’t see concern for the Hungarian minorities who are discriminated against, who are beaten up by organized hulligans. Somehow at the Union they don’t notice it, or the do not want to notice when these countries with Hungarian minorities are considered becoming members of the Union.

Maybe none of these things matter anyhow. Ferenc Glatz, from the Hungarian Scientific Academy made a very simple statement. He said Hungary lost applying for the membership in the Union. The reason is that the new political system produced more deficit than was acceptable. The Eurostat figured that the Hungarian government submitted the wrong numbers, and the deficit is much higher. With this they also cheated the Hungarian people.

The Hungarian representatives at the European Parliament took stand against giving autonomy to the Hungarians in Transylvania. Do they deserve a thankyou?

Now going to some numbers. Since the change in political structure the Nation’s wealth was reduced to a tenth of the original. The unemployment during the Medgyessy and the Gyurcsány government came to 47, 000, among the younger generation one out of four can’t find work.

In December the number of work permits for foreigners was 53,200, besides from the European Union countries 10,000 came who do not need work-permit. It is

interesting to look at'the list: Romania 35,200; Ukrain 8,800; Montenegro 1080; China 900; Mongolia 660; Germany 700; Japan 700; Slovakia 9,800; Poland 400. I’m trying to catch my breath.

Let us try the Workers Union. The government is withholding their 152 Billion Forint fund. Pocketing the interest over a Billion a year.

Then they have the funny remarks. László Kövér referring to booing the Prime Minister in Debrecen remarked that the government was put to shame, but to understand what shame is, one has to have a sense of shame. He also said that there is not one area in Hungary where things are moving normally.

I came across an article dealing with the earnings of the government members. Prime Minister Gyurcsany has a salary of 700 Forint. He doesn’t take the trouble to pick it up. This goes to charity, every year a different one. The stumbling block is that he earns over 100 million Forint. His financial status seems to be the same, he has his residence - that is his wife’s - in Pápa, and in his savings account about one million, the same every year. This time he spent 10 million on his wife’s house!!!, also purchased her an automobile. We know a few things. In 2003 Gyurcsany earned 81 million. According to his press secretary, László Boglár, Gyurcsany spent most of this money supporting his luxurious way of living. Most of this money came from the Altus Befektetési Rt. owned fully by him, also with two others he was in partnership respectfully 4, and 8%.

You may want a short list on the earnings by other government members, not including their salary. Minister of Foreign Affairs made 80 million. Youth and family Minister over 18 million. Environmental Minister 36 million, Minister of Justice 14 million, Health minister 8.7 million. Towards the bottom the numbers get smaller.

In one of his speeches the Prime minister said: “If there is anybody who knows poverty, that’s me. I saw how my mother and sister worked in the factory, working a lot for little pay, but when they raised the minimal wage, everything collapsed and now there isn’t a factory in Pápa.” Gyurcsány didn’t have to make a big deal out of it, he just married a rich girl, Klara Dobrev. The brain behind this richness is

Piroska, Klara’s mother. Well where did she put her hands on such a wealth. She was the daughter of Antal Apró. Apró was a construction worker who got involved in the Workers Union in 1929 , became member of the Communist Party, and starting in 1946, held the office in the Central Political Committee, also the Workers Union, and stepped up to Deputy Prime Minister of the Communist Government.

Now Piroska is on the Board of several companies and banks. Her late husband, a Bulgarian, Peter Dubrev is a questionable person investigated in France. He also was partner in a company in Sophia, Bulgaria, and Piroska is still director of it.

Well my head is spinning. I still can’t forget what Gyurcsany said. He mentioned it that many people call his government the government made up by millionaires and billionaire. He said that there is nothing wrong with that because persons who proved to be successful in life should be leading the country. Sounds good, specially for the devil.

Right after the war, when everybody was working on getting the country back on its feet, I met Antal Apró. We were trying to stop the ongoing corruption that was taking food, firewood and other things in an unreasonable amount of the county. Suddenly Antal Apro showed up. He was dressed as any working man, nothing fancy, and if I remember he came on a train, not in a fancy car. He talked about how the peasants are going to get land, then about the factory workers who should receive better wages and other benefits. Did that change? People say that he probably became the most brutal among all the Communist leaders.

To get back to national problems; what we see is that pleasing or obeying the European Union has some holes in it. On the other side, with our help, the Hungarian minorities don’t get the attention they need. There is an other side, Russia and the Ukrain. That might be a reasonable market. But, and the but is what counts. We burned our hands for four centuries. This is an other thing we should learn about. Probably our ex-communist government wouldn’t mind it.

There are too many things that can not be understood, questionable is the lack of peoples bravery to stand up. We should keep our eyes open. Joseph F. Balogh

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