Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1985. január-június (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1985-03-28 / 13. szám

Thursday, March 28. 1985.

9.

RABA-CITY

Wiews About the Future of Hungary

Győr is a city of sportsmen. It's traditionally known too as the “town of four rivers", while others dub it Rába City after the well-known engineering works there. But if you stop off at this halfway house between Budapest and Vienna, your impression will be of a Baroque Győr. Unless you've time for an evening out. For as all modern ballet fans know, Győr is the home of a ballet corps that's won fame all over Europe.

Sports Győr

Rába Vasas ETO, Győr's famous sports club, was set up in 1904. The green-and- white colours of Rába ETO have been worn by competitors in 23 sports. Some sports have come and gone, but others have brought nationwide and even worldwide fame to the city of Gyor. At present Rába ETO has nine departments: athletics, association football, gymnastics, handball, kayak- canoe, rowing, swimming, tennis and weightlifting. In them are 1,300 competitors trained by 69 coaches, 18 of them full-time, helping keep up the standards and achievements.

During the club's 80-odd years, a place in tlte forefront has always gone to the soccer players. The present spectacular modern 20.000 capacity stadium was opened in 1977. The team first made it into the First Division in 1937, although they didn't do too well for some time. However, since 1946 they have only been out of the top division for three seasons. In 1963, they won the league title, in 1965, 1966 and 1967 captured the Hungarian People's Republic Cup, and played against renowned rivals in the Cupwinners' Cup, the European Champions' Cup and the UEFA Cup. Many Rába ETO players have been capped.

Since autumn 1983, Raba ETO's football players have had something else to be proud of: they won the Pro Urbe Prize. In fact this is a rarity: usually a town presents the prize to individuals or communities who have done a lot to improve the town or for its reputation.

Engineering Győr

The Hungarian Railway Carriage and Machine Works - Rába of Gyor - is no less famous. In Hungarian business circles it is mentioned as a "succes factory", with plenty of justification. In fact even in the present recession- hit world, Raba's sought out . the opportunities and ridden the storm; its products remain in demand in Hungary and abroad.

The proffesionals put Raba fifth or sixth in the world as a volume chassis producer. The credit is due to the 20,000 workforce, particularly managing director Ede Horvath.

Horvath's father worked here too, retiring as a technician at the age of 73. Ede Horvath started with Raba at 13, as an apprentice turner. In the 1950s he became an outstanding worker of national fame and his output was honoured with the highest distinctions. He was 27 in 1951, when he was appointed director of the machine-tool factory. Then he became managing director of Rába as a whole. He cannot play cards or chess, he doesn't drink and he doesn't smoke. His hobbies are the factory and driving. Everything he does he does seriously. Western business associates say he's the true managerial type. His colleagues know him as tireless, and according to some, fanatical. His secretaries work shifts to keep up with him. He can be found in the factory from dawn to late at night, not just in his office but on the shop floor, seeing for himself that all goes well.

Baroque Győr

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Gyor people are proud of Horvath and proud of Raba. Each and every one of the 127,999 inhabitants are local patriots, fond of their town. Gy&r has been around a long time. Its first name dates back to 200 BC given by the Celts: Arrabona, which means settlement on the river Raba. An importent fortress was built by the Romans on what is now Káptalan Hill. Later a civilian town developed round it. But it started to develop as a mercantile town in the 18th century. Since the last century it has been a centre of education too, and engineering and textile industries have gradually developed.

The worthy relics of the Age of Baroque are visited by hundreds of thousand of tourists a year: principally those from western Europe, who stop off on the way from Vienna to Budapest or Balaton, along the Ml motorway.

Ballet Győr

You can't miss it. Gyor Theatre is a modern, conspicious building in Széchényi ter opened at the end of the 1970s. The external decoration is the work of op-artist, Victor Vasarely, and the frescoes inside were done by Endre Szász. The Gyor Ballet Corps has found its home here. Iván Marko was invited to direct the corps, having spent seven years from 1972 as a solo dancer with the great Brussels company of Maurice Bejárt. Success was immediate.

The Corps first production, Orff's "beloved by the Sun" in 1979 won Markb and his dancers national and then world fame. t

The keenest-eyed critics who come to Gyor have given them ecstatic reviews. The choreographies of Iván Markó have toured a large part of the world. Audiences in Vienna, Milan, Venice, Rome, Corfu, Moscow and Paris have cheered the Gyor dancers to the echo, and so naturally have ballet fans in Budapest, for instance at the Budapest Spring Festivals. Here is a quote from Die Presse, the quality Vienna daily: "As Bejárt once was in Brussels, Marko has been the magician in Gyor."

Denes Gyapay

Hungarian pianist Annie Fischer, now on a US tour, gave a warmly acclaimed concert in New York. When she had finished her programme of Mozart, Brahms and Debussy pieces, the audience in the concert hall of the Metropolitan Museum, gave her a standing ovation.

The question was asked at the beginning of the fifth postwar decade what various people think about the future of Hungary. Answers were given by a number of important public personalities:

Gyula Kállai, President of the National Council of the Patriotic People's Front:

"As to the future? I still think it is encouraging and will be beautiful. The foundations are firm and the walls strong. E- ventually the roof will be mounted on top. True, we have plenty of touble and problems. There are among them negative phenomena many of wich need not accompany our development. The time has come to compose ourselves and find a way out even from the difficult situation of the present. The next - 13th - Congress of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party should promote this. I am convinced that socialist building work will produce great - in fact historic - results in the future, too.

Bishop Károly Tóth of the Hungarian Reformed Church: "The spirit of mutual respect and the tolerance with wich Hungarians of various world outlooks view each other are a great achievement. It is also a welcome fact that we were able to get along without any significant relapse at a time of world economic crisis.lt is a great achievement that the unity of the nation, is a manifest reality. This includes the relationship, the cooperation, between the churches and the Hungarian socialist state. This is not only good, but in fact fruitful and promising also for the future. Part of this cooperation is the Protestant- Marxist dialogue which seeks for the possibilities of working together on ever higher levels in matters of ethics. The Protestant churches, including the Hungarian Reformed Church, are turning with ever greater attention toward the burning issues of Hungarian society today, such as the demographic issue, the problems of alcoholism and numerous difficult questions as regards the crisis in the family, the education of youth, and labour discipline and the need for greater respect for property. These are areas where the problems can be solved only within the framework of the people's unity, the unity of the nation, with ioint efforts. As to our erood wishes for the nation, we join Attila Jozsef+ in his prayer to God:

"Give humanity to all persons,

A sense of nationhood to the people!"

Ferenc Tokéi, the philosopher, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: "Hungary's future depends on whether we manage to continue our reform policy in such a way as to make possible the development of socialism. The kind of reform is needed that renders socialism, indeed an all-social cause and not only the business of the state, which gives momentum to the socialist self-organization of society, and promotes the development of new, socialist communities. As this type of reform of present-day socialism is inevitable in every socialist country if further development is to be ensured, sooner or later it will also promote the cause of integration, championed by our countries. Hungary's place in the world can change to still greater advantage in the decades to come only in concert with her neighbouring and more distant socialist partners."

+Attila József /1905-1937/ was one of the truly great Hungarian poets.

AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO