Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)

1984-07-21 / 14-15. szám

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

By the time these lines go into print, the inevitable annual Book Week — the 55th this time — will be over in Budapest and the other towns of the country, the speeches customary on these occasions will have been delivered the writers will have completed the joyful work of signing their books in streets and bookstalls squares, and the many hundreds of thousands of books published for the occasion will have begun their quiet road to popularity.

I should not like to bedazzle our readers with statistical data, on the contrary, I do not hesitate to state right now that books have to compete against the increasingly powerful influence of television and other mass media in Hungary as well. Neither do I say that all of the books published nowadays are good, or that readers and critics appreciate every good one according to its merits. But I think I can say without exaggeration that the richness of the 1984 Book Week is evidence of an effervescence of intellectual life which constitutes a definite step forward even compared to the not negligeable achievements of earlier years.

Having started to write about our’ cultural life, I should not leave unmentioned the latest success, and further plans of the Hungarian cinema. The Hungarian section of this paper has already reported on Márta Mészáros’s motion picture, Napló gyermekeimnek (Diary for my children): the reserve prize of the Cannes festival was given to a beautiful and touching work that throws light on the abuse of office and sufferings of the early fifties through the story of a young girl. Since then another, also promising picture has been completed: István Szabó the Oscar Prize winning director of Mephisto, finished his new film, Colonel Redl, set in the times that led up to the Great War. The last scenes were shot in Vienna and the picture again stars Klaus Maria Brandauer. Imre Gyöngyössy and Barna Kabay are filming in Spain: they are making a movie based on Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma. The new film by András Kovács, the Red Countess is based on the memoirs of Katinka Andrássy, the widow of Count Mihály Károlyi, the President of the 1918 Hungarian Republic. The old lady acted as adviser.

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Several articles in the Hungarian section of this issue deal with everyday matters such as market gardening and chicken farming. I should not, however, like to belittle their importance: partly because Hungarian agriculture in theory and practice, has produced great achievements in the past which countries further advanced in other fields, are also glad to adopt and profit by. It should not be forgotten that the plentiful food which is now assured

to every citizen of Hungary in spite all of the problems, is based on such efforts and achievements, and naturally also on the fact that state and cooperative farms, cooperating with household plots mutually supplement and assist each other in producing for markets at home and abroad, contributing considerably, to the foreign trade balance.

We publish a discussion on an “imaginary stroll” through the future National Theatre building in Hungarian, and a slightly shorter version in English, with Miklós Hofer, the architect of the project as guide. I should like to mention in this respect that the designs and a model of the new theatre building will be« exhibited in the Budapest Exhibition Halls to enable the public to form an opinion and express possible criticism. Naturally, opinions of fellow Hungarians, wherever they live, are also invited, and the present article and its illustration may provide a basis for that. Letters on this subject should be addressed to the editor, who will pass on remarks to the architect.

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Readers of the English supplement very likely noticed that the introduction to the previous issue was the work of my colleague, Péter János Sós, since the writer of these lines was in Australia at the time. From the moment the jumbo plane of Qantas Airways carrying me touched down on the tarmac in Sydney, I met countless Hungarians on the fifth continent. “Old Australians”, who arrived in their new country on the eve of the Second World War, like the noted journalist, Emery Bares, who is still — well past three score and ten — the foreign policy commentator of the weekly Bulletin, others, who arrived after the war, who (and this is the opinion of dinkum Aussies, not only of myself) have greatly contributed to the economic development of Australia. Among them Professor György Szekeres, the noted mathematician, or Sir Peter Abeles, who has been one of the important motors of the progress of the Australian economy right to this day. I met many members of the ’56 generation, who — paradoxically — convinced the Australians of the culture and educational standards of socialist Hungary.

I will publish a detailed account in the coming issues, but allow me to mention just one piece of information I heard in Sydney: the number of Hungarians going back to visit the old country has increased three-fold in a few years, so, when the Qantas airliner displaying the “flying kangaroo” soared into the air with me in Melbourne, it made me think that: really, Hungary is not all that far from Australia.

ZOLTÁN HALASZ

NATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING THE RIGHT OF EVERY CHILD

An interview with H. E. Vidar Hellners, the Ambassador to Hungary of the Kingdom of Sweden

Vidar Hellners has been the Swedish Ambassador in Budapest since 1981. Before that he was ambassador in Nigeria and Ghana, and minister at the Swedish Embassy in Rome. In the course of his career he has also been en poste in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Poland and Great Britain.

“Mr. Ambassador, what is the proportion of Hungarians amongst immigrants in Sweden?”

“550.000 people domiciled in Sweden were born abroad. The great majority are, naturally, fellow Scandinavians, most of them from Finland. Territorial mobility within Scandinavia is aided by a joint labour market. It is true that the turns the world economy has taken lately do not favour migration. The proportion of Hungarians is pretty small, fewer than 3 percent. 11.807 to be precise, according to a 1981 survey.”

“How have Hungarians adjusted to Swedish conditions? Can one say that they have made it socially?"

“Most of the Hungarians came in 1956 and 1957. At the time immigration was a mere trickle. The flood came later. As a result the Hungarians soon found jobs and, generally, they did all right. The proportion of professional people is pretty high: doctors, engineers and scientists. It also helped that unlike some of the others the Hungarians did not form ghettos but soon scattered, geographically and socially.

Let me mention a few who distinguished themselves in Sweden. György Klein, for instance, a professor of medicine who — I am told — received a high academic award at last year’s medical congress organized by the World Federation of Hungarians. Many successful Hungarian artists live in Sweden, Endre Nemes, the painter, for instance, but I could also mention János Sólyom, the pianist, or Gusztáv Krajc, the designer.”

“Swedish policy gives plenty of scope to immigrants who wish to nurse their native language or culture. There are facilities, even for the second generation, to learn their parents’ language. Naturally this costs money and much effort. Could you say something about the practical measures in the service of policy? Are you satisfied with the results?”

“Our basic principle is equal access to social services. In our interpretation it is part of this that every child who has turned five should learn Swedish at school and — if his parents were born abroad — their native language as well. A special committee within the Ministry of Education deals with the home language instruction of immigrant children. Things are easy

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