Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1981. január-június (35. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1981-04-30 / 18. szám
AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, April 30. 1981. 2. THE ECONOMIC SIDE OF DETENTE by Joseph Budish From Hungary we have a statement by Foreign Trade Minister Peter Veress that the deficit in trade with the “West”, which reached a cumulative total of $ 1.2 billion by the end of 1978, has now been completely eliminated. Thanks to the efficient management of this thriving socialist economy exports and imports between Hungary and the capitalist countries have been brought into balance. It is particularly interesting to note that this develoment was made possible not only by the traditional agricultural exports but also by the growing exports of the modern chemical and engineering industries. Economically related to this is the announcement by Radio Budapest that the National Bank of Hungary has been extended an eight year loan of $ 150 million by a consortium of banks, most of them Arab, for financing Hungarian exports. The terms are favorable, with repayment of principal not starting until 1986, a recognition by hard-headed bankers of the soundness of Hungarian finances. Another news item that relates to the economic advantage of peaceful detente policies involves Hungary’s small neighbor, Austria, which has consistently followed a level-headed non-belligerent policy toward the socialist countries. A contract has just been signed between Soviet representatives and Voeest-Alpine of Austria for delivery of almost S 1 billion (800.000 tons) of seamless steel pipe to the Soviet Union from the Kindberg factory. This is the type of pipe used to bring gas from the Siberian oil fields to the big urban centers, not poison gas for war purposes but fuel for industry and the home. The economic benefits, including high employment of such a huge order to a small country like Austria are obvious. It seems that such peaceful economic interchange, a key ingredient of detente, rubs our war-promoting administration the wrong way. A story in the Wall Street Journal of April 1 had a headline that read, in part, “Many Europeans Reject U.S. Vision of the World” and one paragraph in the story said “The Europeans call for continued emphasis on strategic arms limitation and other elements of detente while Washington seems to be putting detente on the back burner in favor of an arms buildup.” Nor are the Europeans ready to bow to Washington pressure for a more war-like policy, as recently expressed by Frank Carlucci, Deputy Secretary of Defense. Klaas de Vries, member of the Dutch Parliament, put it in a nutshell when he said “I think Carlucci is misreading Europe if he thinks tough talk is making a great impression.” The peoples of Europe and the world are hungry for peace and peaceful ecomomic development. All the saber-rattling in the world will not change that basic fact. Dear Editor: I would like to donate fifteen dollars to your newspaper campaign. I enjoy reading your paper very much and am delighted with your topics. It keeps us well informed. Keep up the good work and your fight for mankind. A devoted reader: John Bodar Osoyoos, B.C. Canada HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION IN USA I wish it was easier to learn Hungarian This is something we must address ourselves to. An illustration of what the extent of the problem is was brought home to me recently when I saw two ad< for summer language study; look at the offerings. Yale University: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese,Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese,;Latin, Old Norse, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbo- Croatian,, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Yiddish, Yoru- ba. New York University: Arabic, Chinese, Czech Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Ladino, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh, Yiddish. There is a total of 37 languages offered between the two schools, yet no Hungarian. Languages like Ladino, Old Norse, Icelandic, etc. are taught, but no Hungarian! Why? And what can be done about it? (The programs I know of which teach Hungarian in the summer months - when many people would be able to find extra time to study - are either in Hungary, hence costly, or are at obscure schools with unverifiable reputations.) Of course, if one is a resident of the New York City area, the opportunities for studying /and speaking/ the language are wider, but where does that leave those of us who do not live in the N.Y. metropolitan region? R, Király Let us learn Hungarian ( TRAVELING by TRAIN UTAZÁS VONATON | You have to pay extra as Kiegészítőt kell fizetnie, your ticket is not palid mert a jegy nem ér- for an express train, vényes gyorsvonatra. Have I got on the wrong Rossz vonatra szálltam? train? Is this the right train Ez a vonat megy (am I right) for . . .? ... felé? What station is this? Melyik állomás ez? How long do we slop here Meddig állunk itt [at...]? [...-ben]? Get off at the next stop. Szálljon le a kővetkező állomáson 1 Have 1 time to get out Van időm, hogy ki- for a few moments? szálljak egy pár percre? [kocsi?l Where is the dining-car? Merre van az étkező-/ Is there a rcstaurani-ccw Van ezen a vonaton on this train? étkezőkocsi? Do we have to get tickets Meg kell váltani előre for lunch [dinner]? az ebédjegyet [a vacsorajegyet]? AMERIKAI • V MAGYAR SZq USPS 023-980 ISSN 9194-7990 Published weekly, exc. last 2 weeks in July and 1st week in August by Hungarian Word, Inc. 130 E 16 St. New York, N.Y. 10003. Ent. as 2nd Class Matter, Dec. 31.1952 under the Act of March. 21.1879, at the P.O. of New York, N.Y. Szerkeszti a Szerkesztő Bizottság Előfizetési árak New Yorkban, az Egyesült Államokban egy evre $ 15.- félévre $ 8.- Kanadaban es minden más külföldi országban egy évre S 18.- felevre $ 10.Postnjastert Send address changes to Hungarian Word, Inc. 130 E 16 St. New York, N:Y. 10003. m DEMOCRACY’S DIALECTIC The Future of Equality PHILIP GREEN T he election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States, following the installation of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of Britain, confirmed that further advances in the direction of social and political equality are not on the immediate agenda in most advanced capitalist nations today. How can they be in the sauve-qui-peut atmosphere of inflation and the productivity crisis afflicting contemporary capitalism? In such a climate, and particularly in a nation with the individualist political traditions and fragmented political institutions of the United States, the idea of collective action for improvement and self-government languishes. In times of crisis, too, the so-called inefficiency of public enterprise (as though any collective enterprise were ever un- wasteful) comes to the fore of public consciousness, for the simple reason that we are unable to vent our anger effectively on more fundamental sources of the crisis. The ineptitude of conventional liberalism, real enough in recent years, becomes greatly inflated in the public eye (with a good bit of help from its opponents). Ironically, the tighter the stranglehold of “private” enterprise on our lives (and in few places is it tighter than in the United States), the more the public sector and public agencies must bear the burden of public unhappiness—not because they are less responsive than private enterprises but because they comprise the only social sector that is responsive to any extent at all. Moreover, in a time of persistent economic crisis scapegoating becomes a routine activity. The average citizen gets the message that nothing effective can be done to redistribute power and wealth from the top, leaving the middle classes to pay for costly social changes. Thus the idea of redistributive public agency becomes associated in the minds of many with preferential aid to minorities. That is true most especially in the United States, where racial differences are a visible source of constant, harassing tension, and where a respected intellectual clique has come to prominence on the basis of, among other things, its insistence on “blaming the victims” for the costs we all pay for the persistence of racial inequality. All that having been said, it would be a disastrous error for liberals or radicals to fall to the notion, vigorously propagated on the right, that “the people” don’t really want more equality, that the search for more equality is nothing more than a dream of disenchanted intellectuals and that elite conservative intellectuals with upper-middle-class incomes are somehow the true spokesmen of “the real majority.” For we have been through such times before, and historically the necessary outcome of such periods is neither clear nor given. Indeed, if we are about to take a decisive “right” turn in social policy, it will be for the first time. In the past century and a half the advance of capitalism has everywhere deepened the social division of labor and thus inequality on the one hand, inspiring and broadening the search for more equality on the other. Because what is seems at any given moment to be what is necessary, “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas,” as Marx wrote. But although the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas, they are not the only ideas. Furthermore, the ideas- by which a ruling class justifies itself to society as a whole somehow must also seem to speak to the needs of society as a whole, if the ruling class is to be allowed to continue its rule. In short, the ideas oj^rn epoch always contain their own contradictions. ' Hungary will export more Ikarus buses this year; at the same time, she will import more automobiles from the Soviet Union. The 400 million rubel contract calls for the Hungarian export of over 6.000 Ikarus buses and spare parts worth 100 million rubels, and the export of 48.500 cars by the Soviet Autoexport.
