William Penn Life, 1986 (21. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1986-09-01 / 5. szám

Page 6, September-October 1986, William Penn Life Chernobyl------­Asked about the possible dangers im­plicit in the news about Chernobyl, Mrs. Stalzer laughed. “Look,” she said, “at home you stand a better chance of getting hit by a car. My feel­ing is, ‘How long can you hold your breath?’” decided to come again.” The market place But it was not information from hotel guests alone that I was looking for, so the following morning I visited the huge Dimitrou Teri Vasarcsarnok, an enormous former warehouse now used as one of Budapest’s covered markets. Here I found a great number of stands offering the greatest variety of fruits and vegetables. Some of these stands were operated by independent merchants, others by members of cooperative farms. There were great piles of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, radishes as well as gleaming peaches and apricots. And the reactions of these merchants and farmers? “Of course, we were scared,” said one. “Everybody was. But then there was the check-up of ‘control’ and the recommendations — wash the lettuce and the leafy vegetables. But everyone washes these anyway. And then everything went back to normal.” Tibor and Angela Varga, behind their piles of spices: “We saw that the sale of let­tuce went down right away. And everyone was washing everything. But then we went back to normal. “Did we have to destroy our crop? Not a thing! Here are the plants I put down last fall — look! Everyone is buy­ing. Just the same as usual.” In the 14th district I next visited the huge out­door market of Bonyak Teri Piaz, in the 14th District. This is far away from Central Budapest, a market fre­quented by natives rather than by visitors and tourists. Most of the merchants here were independent farmers with property just on the outskirts of Budapest. The traditional “babushka” —■ the headdress of peasant ladies — was very much on display. Again huge mounds of radishes, lettuce, tomatoes and pink-skinned potatoes. And great “flats” of peaches and apricots. And again, with a lot of giggling and laughing — as though my questions were naive — the statements that after the initial shock of the news of the nuclear disaster, all quickly went back to normal. Around the country But all this was in the capital itself. What about other smaller cities and towns nearer to the borders? In all I visited the follow­ing places: Esztergom, Visegrad, Szentendre, Pecs, Mohács, S(klos, Siofok, Veszprém, Tihany, Vilany and Paks. All along the highways there were enormous fields of gorgeous sunflowers, prized for the oil of their seeds; wheatfields with the reaping being done two or three weeks earlier than usual because of the unusually fine weather. Just outside of the town of Paks, site of Hungary’s own nuclear plant, I stopped to talk with some combine operators, taking a break from their work. They grinned. “Sure we heard about that trouble. But they said that the radiation was very low. They checked the fields, the soil and the crops. They said that the wind and the moun­tains, our Carpathians, kept the worst stuff away.” “Look,” one of the men bent down and took up a handful of the soil, “this soil looks good, it smells good, and it grows good. We’re having our harvest early because of the good weather. I don’t think there will be any trouble.” At Esztergom, reputed bir­thplace of King Saint Stephen, I spoke with a group of Austrian tourists. Mrs. Hilda R. and her daughter Inga of Vienna: “When we heard that we were importing Hungarian fruits and vegetables into our country — and we had been told not to eat our own produce — we thought, ‘How bad can it be?’ So we came here. And, besides, everything is so cheap!” At Szentendre, a pretty ar­tist’s town, filled with shops and restaurants, it was hard to find an uncrowded place to eat. The menus were always filled with fresh vegetables, salads, and fish from Lake Balaton. And everyone ate heartily. Siofok on the lake Siofok, on the southern side of Lake Balaton, is one of the largest, most popular camping and watering places of the region. Each year tourists by the thousands come to vacation. According to Stephen Móczár, Deputy Director of Siotour, there were some 25 cancellations of reserva­tions directly attributable to news of the Chernobyl disaster. Of course, it is entirely likely that many more of the cancellations were the result of the disaster, but by July 7, 1986, the total number of visitors had grown to equal that of last year at the same time. This amounts to some 50.000 reservations at the hotels, camping sites and private houses, and nearly 100.000 daily visitors. Driving through the jamm­ed streets and the packed camping areas, I could see that whatever might have kept people away certainly was not doing so at this time. Mr. Móczár informed me that for three weeks after the incident at Chernobyl, daily reports were sent out to travel agents throughout the world; official measurements of radiation were made three or four times weekly. The official story Returning to Budapest after rather extensive trips through the countryside, I spoke with two gentlemen of a slightly more official nature. They were Dr. Sándor Deme, Department Head, Health Physics Department of the Central Research In­stitute for Physics, and Dr. COOK BOOK HUNGARIAN SPECIALTIES and OTHER FAVORITES Net Proceeds for the benefit of the William Penn Ass'n Scholarship Foundation DONATION $4.20 FOR 1 COPY Send Check or Money Order WILLIAM PENN SCHOLARSHIP FUND P.O. Box 438 New Brunswick, N.J. 08903 Stephen Feher, Head of the Health Physics Department of the same Institute. I was informed that im­mediately upon learning of the incident at Chernobyl — which knowledge came through a television an­nouncement of the Scan­dinavian report of the in­crease of radiation — there was the initiation of automatic radiation measurements with hourly printouts and special measurements of surface (iodine) radiation. Information was provided regularly to all foreign em­bassies as well as to the IAA and the WHO. The Hungarian measurements registered less than 10% of the WHO tolerance. It was reported that the radiation readings in Austria were more than 40 times higher than those in Hungary. Perhaps the best summa­tion of all the opinions I heard was presented in the words of Professor and Mrs. Frank Stalzer. Prof. Stalzer, associate professor of Music at Arizona State University, who had just performed as a solo oboist in Salzburg, in­dicated that he and his wife felt that a visit to Hungary, From Page 1 especially since they were so close, was an absolute must. When I asked them about the possible dangers im­plicit in the news about Chernobyl, Mrs. Stalzer laughed. “Look,” she said, “at home you stand a better chance of getting hit by a car or knocked down by a cyclist. In addition, my feel­ing is, ‘How long can you hold your breath?”’ After meeting and speak­ing with a great number of people, both Hungarian and visitors, I concluded that there certainly was a knowledge of the disaster at Chernobyl, and a realization that nuclear plants do repre­sent a source of ultimate danger: these people were neither fools nor ignorant of the world around them. But their feeling was that Hungary was indeed one place where the dangers seemed absolutely minimal and the risks, therefore, slight or non-existent. (Roger B. Goodman is the associate executive editor of the Hungarian Heritage Review. This article was reprinted with permission from that publication.) A Note-worthy Gift WPA Centennial Pen & Pencil Sets for Only $5.00 The set includes a sleek, attractive ball-point pen with the society’s name and anniversary dates inscribed in gold lettering on the side, plus a matching lead pencil. Now, each time you write a letter to a friend, you will be holding a momento of our Association’s 100th birthday. CENTENNIAL PEN & PENCIL SET ORDER FORM I Please send me: No. of sets_____x $5.00= $ ______ NAME:_________________________________ STREET:________________________________ CITY/STATE:___________________________ ZIP CODE:______________________________ Mail to: Pen & Pencil Set Offer, William Penn Association, 709 Brighton Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15233 I Check payable to: William Penn Association L________________________________________________________________________________________

Next

/
  • Layout
  • Zoom
  • Rotation
Thumbnails
Contents