Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1988. január-június (42. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1988-05-26 / 21. szám
Thursday, May 26. 1988. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 11. Staying competitive Hungary had a successful tourist year in 1987. Interest in this country is growing in the socialist and western countries. Last year brought 16% more visitors from abroad than 1986: 19 million, of whom 6 million were from the West. The sector's foreign exchange earnings grew faster still. This year the aim remains to keep tourism competitive internationally and to raise the earnings even more. A wider range of programmes is being offered and the standards of the facilities are being improved. A new investment programme to improve hotels and other tourist facilities has been drawn up, and foreign capital will also be involved. The introduction of value-added tax in Hungary on January 1 has not left the travel trade unaffected. The VAT rate for tourist services is 15%, which raises prices. However, the travel agencies and hotel companies are not passing the full increase on to their patrons. In fact 1988 convertible-currency prices have hardly risen at all, thanks to the favourable exchange rate. The aim in any case is to balance higher cost by higher quality. The introduction of VAT is aimed at improving the operation and output of the entire economy. By associating prices more closely with inputs, it becomes easier to assess the performance of the economy and make the right decisions. In the longer term, we expect the new taxation system to bring the unit costs in tourism closer to the international average. Visitors from abroad can reclaim in forints the VAT paid on purchases worth over Ft 25,000 that they personally export. This is expected to encourage the purchase of fine and applied art objects and a variety of consumer durables. Tourists go particularly for Herend and Zsolnay porcelain and antiques. Most consumer goods bear a VAT rate of 25%, but they are still relatively inexpensive by international standards. The booking of travel agencies and hotel companies for 1988 are promising and the new tax system is not expected to curb the travel sector's growth. Hungarian prices are still competitive, and that makes Hungary an attractive destination. Dr. Janos Kovács Deputy General Director Hungarian Tourist Board Hungarian memorial A memorial plaza dedicated to 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust will be built in the hearth of Budapest as part of a joint effort by the Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture and the Hungarian government. A special section will be devoted to the memory of Raoul Wallenberg and other heroes who risked their lives to save Jews. The memorial will also include a tree-like sculpture in the shape of an inverted menorah. Each leaf will be engraved with the name and town of origin of each victim. Groundbreaking is set for July 3. (SZEPTEMBER VEGEN) AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER The flowers are still abloom in the garden The poplars still greening in their stately rows But behold in the distance a wintery world Up there in the hills where it already snows. Summer's still ablaze in the depth of my heart And all of Creation agleam in its glare But look at my head for frost's early labor: The gray strands invading my dark brown hair. The flowers must wither, life is on the run Come, Beloved, come into these arms agape You, who today are so blissfully with me Tomorrow, who knows, may pray at my wake. Oh tell me, if I were the first to depart Will you spread a shroud amid tears on my frame And will come a day when the love of a youth Persuades you for him to abandon my name? If someday you discard your mourning veil Hoist it for a flag on my burial mound I shall then proceed from the world of the deep And haul it back into the dark gray ground To dry my tears for you who so easily Could forget your troth along with your man And the bandage with it the wounds of a heart Which will love you forever even there and then. Sándor Petőfi Translated from the Hungarian By Eugene Bard Last year 250 Hungarian students started their studies at various universities of the socialist countries. They were selected from 700 applicants. Most of them studied in the Soviet Union. The 130 students first took part in a language as well as a professional preparatory course. Similarly, a great number of students applied for the universities of the German Democratic Republic. College student loans: With high school graduation just • one month away, seniors should investigate the various loan and grant programs that can help them cover the high cost of college education. Despite Reagan administration attacks on education, there are still programs that can help to reduce tuition costs. Federal grants for students attending college or technical school include Pell grants of up to $2,100 a year and Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants up to $4,000 a year. Perkins Loans and Guaranteed Student Loans are also available based on need. A free booklet, "The Student Guide - Five Federal Financial Aid Programs" (Item 588R), is available from the U.S. Dept, of Education. Write to F.M. James, Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO 81009. A PROPHESY ON ISRAEL Our esteemed reader, Mr. Henry Wilton, who In the seventies published a very influential anti-war periodical in the Los Angeles Area titled "Grass Roots Forum", submitted the following analysis about the Israeli situation. It was written 14 years ago but many of its conclusions seem prophetic today. The great calamity in the history of the Jews wfiS the fact that the Israeli State had to be achieved in armed struggle with the Arabs. That calamity was never really understood by the Jewish leaders. Small minds rejoiced. They thought a war had been won; but not so. Only a battle won. It is ironic that a people that had shown so much brilliance, in so many fields, on a world scale, could not muster leadership with a realistic comprehension of historical events, with the capacity of evaluating relative strength beyond the hour of the judgment, of anticipating human reaction, and, above all else, the capacity to see the world in the one and only way in which it can be understood, in a way in which events can even be anticipated - in motion. The Israeli leaders saw the world as standing still. They will prevail over the Arabs in armed struggle, and then the Arabs will stay still, beaten, they thought. They did prevail over the Arabs in armed struggle - and then they demanded that the Arabs stay beaten. The Arabs would not stay beaten. r To compound all their previous grievous mistakes, the Israeli leaders began to present themselves as the Near Eastern outpost of Western Civilization, the very "Western Civilization" that kept the Arabs in Imperial bondage. It is almost inconceivable that those leaders did not feel the determined antagonism such talk would inevitably evoke among the Arabs. It could only be explained that the Jewish leaders felt that - perhaps by some heavenly power - the Arabs were condemned to remain forever what they then were. The detailed circumstances of those periods are not important at this moment. The Israelis beat the Arabs again, in a blitzkrieg that time, and took much land and booty. At-the time, the Jewish leaders were positive that at that time the war had been won, for they had shown the Arabs that they could have gone even further. Surely the Arabs must know what is good for them, they thought. If the Israeli leaders could not see reality before the victories, how could we expect them to have seen realitv after the victories. They have carried on like maniacs; they became obsessed with a sense of invincibility. There were no people on earth in that period, perhaps the Germans, who were more arrogant than the Israeli leaders. There are many of us who feel very strongly that the conduct of the Israeli leaders have hurt the Jewish cause deeply, for a period unforeseeable at this moment, To be continued U/atch
