Baltimore-i Értesítő - Amerikai Magyar Értesítő, 1980 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1980-01-01 / 1. szám
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Another tale of two cities Budapest's Parliament building By R. Norman Matheny, stafl photographer by the Danube River By Joseph G. Harrison It is not often that important political lessons and great personal pleasure can be achieved at the same time. An exception to this is provided by a visit to the twin cities of Vienna and Budapest. While a visit to each is highly enjoyable; the practical political lesson to be learned from such a visit is startling and revealing. Thirty-four years ago, in the summer of 1945, this writer spent considerable time in each of these cities. Both had suffered terrible damage during the war; both were exhausted economically; each was under foreign military occupation, and the population of each was confused, apprehensive of the future. Thus, although the physical destruction of Budapest was somewhat more severe, each city was in roughly the same physical, economic, and psychological situation. Each had nowhere to go but up. So, perhaps nowhere on the face of the earth can one see more clearly, measure more accurately, and judge more fairly the difference which opting for opposing political and economical systems can make. Austrian Vienna chose the free enterprise of the West. Hungarian Budapest (against its own will and at the dictation of the Soviet Union) was forced to choose communism. Early this fall Í returned to each city. In both the weather was warm and sunny ; their mutual river, the Danube, flowed as graciously as ever; in each the food was as superbly delicious as ever it was before the war; in them the feeling of a thousand years of history still surrounded one. Yet, despite this and despite the fact that these two cities, one«» joint capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, formerly were rivals in elegance, joy of living, and inner self-esteem, the contrast today is immediate and overwhelming. perb baroque buildings have been either steam-cleaned or repainted; the throngs on the street are fashionably dressed (many in the seminational costume oi loden jackets and Tyrolean skirts); there is little or no evidence of real poverty, and, above all, everywhere there is good humor and laughter. On every side one instantly senses enormous and continuing progress. The world may be slowly learning that material success is not the be-all and end-all of existence. But when a political and economic philosophy such as Marxism not only openly vaunts itself as materialistic but also claims that it can best achieve material success, then it is fair to judge the achievements of that system on that basis. And on that very basis, Budapest strikes one as being several decades behind Vienna. There does not appear to be a single criterion on which the achievements of Marxist Budapest can match those of free enterprise (a justifiable term despite the mild socialistic tenor of the present city and national governments) Vienna. Other than for a few special, historic areas the general impression in Budapest is one of drabness. Dress is predominantly proletarian without, thereby, being any more efficient or adapted t6 daily needs. Shops, other than those selling (for hard currency only) superb peasant ware (for which Marxism can take no credit) contain goods of little variety and little quality. To say this is not to say that, so far as one can judge, life in Budapest is either unduly hard or bad. After all, the communist government of Hungary rules with perhaps the lightest hand of any in Eastern Europe and Hungary is one of the continent’s richest agricultural nations. Yet the impression, yea the evidence, is inescapable that there is a mental heaviness, an economic sluggishness, an overriding stultifying sense of a burdensome governmental presence, and a lack of popular response to official dictates which yearly widen the achievement gap between Budapest and Vienna. In many ways Vienna is today the most elegant, the gayest, and perhaps the most outwardly successful city in all Europe The shops are the equal of Paris; the fashions (so my wife tells me) have outstripped those of Italy; the streets are virtually immaculate; hundreds upon hundreds of the city’s suJoseph G. Harrison, formerly managing editor of The Christian Science Monitor, is happily retired on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
