The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1983-10-01 / 10. szám

LE QUOTIDIEN, PARIS: (May 2, 1983)

CEAUSESCU SELLS THE CHILDREN!

Ceausescu of Rumania offers new export goods to France: newborn babies. This new business venture started in 1980, when several advertisements showed up in Western — mostly French — newspapers, offering blonde and blue-eyed children for adoption. According the advertisements, 180 km north of Bucharest, in the town of Stalina, there is an excellent institution for abandoned children under the age of three, supervised by pediatrist Dr. Borisov. Up till 1981 the formalities of this “gold-mine” were taken care by the Rumanian “legal community” for 500 dollars per case. The adoption cost in France was

40,000 franks.

Today the government’s “baby-production” enterprise is moving ahead smoothly, according to the Le Quotidien, following a well designed blue-print. Dr. Borisov comes to France in person to examine the applicants. The formalities are taken care by a Rumanian lawyer residing in Paris, by the name of Paul Dumitri. The adoptive parents must commit themselves to visit Rumania at least twice. They have to use the Rumanian air-line Tarom and spend at least one week in Rumania. One such trip costs per person 9,000 Franks.

This new business venture serves three important purposes: saves the expense of raising the orphans, helps to get rid of future trouble makers and brings in cold cash.

☆ ☆

FACTS AND FIGURES

(Reprinted from the book “Documented Facts and Figures on Transylvania”, Danubian Press, 1978).

CULTURE

As an itegral part of the Hungarian Kingdom. Transylvania was drawn into the Western Christian Culture Circle at the beginning of the eleventh century. The architecture of old Transylvanian cities, such as Nagyvárad/Oradea; Kolozsvár/ Cluj-Napoca; Brassó/Brasov or Dés/Dej bear witness to this fact.

Besides a few scattered ruins of Roman fortifications, destroyed by the retreating Roman legions in 271 A.D., no sign of any kind would indicate a trace of an older established culture preceding the arrival of the Hungarians. Not even the legends, folk tales, ballads or folk songs of any one of the cohabiting ethnic groups suggest anything of this kind, except

the oldest Hungarian (Székely) legends which date back to the time of Attila and the empire of the Huns.

If we examine the folk art, which is the most tell-tale expression of early influences, we find that the embroideries and achitecture of the Transylvanian Germans relates to the embroideries and architecture of those districts of Germany where these settlers came from in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the same way, the folk art of the Transylvanian Rumanians is identical with those Moldavia and Wallachia, and they clearly show the Slavic influences, the Bulgarian, Greek, and even the Albanian motifs, picked up by the migrating Vlach herdsmen on their way from the Albanian border to their present location. On the other hand, the famous art creations of the Transylvanian Hungarians, like those of Kalotaszeg, Csik, Háromszék, Udvarhely carry a basic similarity with those of other parts of Hungary, and clearly relate back to ancient Turinian (Scythian) motifs.

Due to the close relations of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom with the West, talented Transylvanians found their ways to the early Universities of Europe as early as the 12th and 13th centuries. The very first student whose name became officially registered at the University of Oxford in 1193, was Miklós of Hungary, son of Kende, nobleman of Transylvania. During the 15th century there were three famous Hungarian doctors on the faculty of the University of Bologna, and one of them, Peter Paul Apáti of Torda, later founded the “Free Collegium of the Noble Sciences”, established in his hometown, Torda, then moved to Kolozsvár (today Cluj) by King Mathias. After the two Hungarian Universities were established, Pécs in 1367, and Buda in 1389, many Transylvanians sent their sons there, some of whom, after returning home, founded on by one the “Collegiums” of High Learning in Nagyenyed, Gyulafehérvár, Kolozsvár, Nagyvárad, Brassó, Arad, Zilah and Marosvásárhely.

Due to the ecclesiastical domination of Rome as in other Western empires, the official language of science and administration in the Hungarian Kingdom was Latin. Therefore it was only in 1527 that the first book was printed in the Hungarian language in Kolozsvár. In 1598 there were already 24 printing establishments in Transylvania, publishing by that date 382 books, of which 368 were in the Hungarian language.

There were 18 Transylvanian Hungarians enrolled at the Wittenberg University in the year of 1586. Many Transylvanian Hunaarians were teaching at famous Western Universities, while several famous Western scientists, such as Martin Opitz, John A1 stead, Henry Bisterfeld and Isaac Basire taught in Transylvanian colleges during the 16th and 17th centuries.

VI

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY