Magyar Hírek, 1985 (38. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1985-10-26 / 22. szám
CHRONICLE The memory of André Kertész One of the greatest artists of the world is dead. Andre Kertész, the Hungarian photograph, living in New York died at an age of 91. His photo, shown here has the title „At the Danube". It was made in 1916. A folk troupe in Ontario The London (Ontario) Hungarian Folk Troupe members, a young generation in Canada who strive to preserve and practice their dance heritage, became well known in the last three years since they first performed all over Ontario and at the Toronto Pontozos. In June of 1984 they performed at the Hungarian Dance Festival in the New York— New Jersey area. They were the youngest dancers there but earned great distinction as one of the finest Hungarian folk dancing ensembles. The London (Ontario) Hungarian Folk Troupe participates in many local London functions and celebrations, for example at the Kodály— Bartók concert at the University of Western Ontario. The dances were choreographed by Canadian—Hungarian dance teachers: Kálmán Dreisziger, Monika Szele and János Szabó; and supplemented by professionals from Hungary: Péter Lavai and Zoltán Zsurafszky. The Members of the London (Ontario) Hungarian Folk Troupe are students of the London Canadian— Hungarian Heritage school. They are learning about Hungary and further developing their knowledge of the Hungarian language. Since the group is self-supporting all members and their parents worked hard to raise money to fund the costs and the trip to Hungary. True not all are able to go to Hungary but everyone helped organize benefit dances and dinners and held cheese, chocolate and cake sales and worked at car washes. A Profitable Students’ Cooperative The cooperative of the students of the Veszprém University of Chemistry established by students and a few young teachers closed its third successful year. Sales of the 56 member cooperative reached 5.5 million forint in 1984, showing a profit of over one million forints. The bulk of the sales came from work done week ends at the industrial plant of Nitrokémia, which produced a surplus production of chemicals in demand at the factory, and earned 2-3,000 forint extra income for the young people. Under a licence bought from the Creative Youth Union the students' cooperative began to manufacture a chemical called Aquatest used to ascertaining the hardness, the alkaline and acid content of water used in boilers. They are planning the manufacture of a new product now, also under licence. “Plumbex” will be used to assess the lead content of pottery. International convention of geneticists Budapest was the venue of the 18th International Symposium of the European Association of Human Genetics. The principal subject of the meeting held at the Semmelweis University of Medical Sciences was the medical usefulness of modern genetechnology. These new discoveries make possible the precise diagnosis of genetic disorders, something that was not possible before. Outstanding experts came to Budapest from Britain, the Scandinavian countries, the United States of America. Japan, France and West Germany; Czechoslovak and GDR geneticists also took part in the conference. As a token of international appreciation of the work of Hungarian geneticists the symposion was held for the first time in a socialist country. The scientists gathered here from many parts of the world inspected the kindergarten adjoining the Budapest training college for teachers of handicapped children and spoke with appreciation of the experiments Hungarians have been conducting in the therapeutic training of children in early infancy. Three thousand unique pieces of ‘Hungarica’ The Apponvi collection of 15.000 printed items published in foreign countries from the 15th to the 18th century in connection with Hungary, has been housed in a separate room in the new home of the National Széchényi Library in the former Royal Palace in Buda. The unique collection was established by-Count Sándor Apponyi and became the property of the Széchényi library sixty years ago in 1925. Count Apponyi never ceased collecting books from early youth through sixty-five years. He was in contact with the most important antiquarian booksellers of Europe, and sparing neither money nor effort he acquired many items believed to exist todav as single copies only. Publications— mostly only of a few pages—about battles with Turks and about the sieges of fortresses were particularly frequent. More than twenty broadsheets and engravings in the collection are about the fall of Szigetvár. Their source value is inestimable. About three thousand Hungarica are in the Apponyi collection and nowhere else. The collection is used mainly by scholars. The most beautiful items in the collection of engravings have appeared, in numerous books; there is hardly any publication on Hungarian history that did not use one or another engraving of the Apponyi collection among the town-scapes and battle scenes used as illustrations. Forty thousand applicants— room for sixteen thousand at the universities and colleges The Ministry of Education reported that 39,355 applications were received for full-time university and college places; but only 16,500 full-time first-year places are available. There are 2,500 more applicants this year than in 1984; capacities have increased by one thousand. The figures tell us much about the interests and intentionts of young people. At the arts faculty of the Budapest Eötvös Loránd University, for instance, there are 5.5 applications for every place and three applicants for every vacancy at the arts faculties of the Szeged and Debrecen universities. Interest is much more moderate in technical subjects. In some departments the number of applicants barely exceeds the number of vacancies. The metallurgy and metal faculty of the Miskolc heavy industry university reported the smallest number of applicants. There is a fantastic interest in theatrical courses: a total of 3,453 people applied for enrolment at the Academy of Theatre and Film Art, thirty times as many as can be accommodated. Applicants are selected on the basis of a points system, which considers the results of their matriculation exams as well as of an oral and written university entry examination. A Hungarian enterprise won the “Africa Prize’’ The Enterprise for the Architectural Design of Public Buildings, Budapest, won the international Africa Prize this year. The prize is awarded by the monthly “African Trade Review’- to companies that excel in trade with African countries and play a part in the development of African countries. The winning Hungarian enterprise has been operating in Africa for twenty years. It has already won the Africa Prize once before for the design of an Algiers sports stadium with a capacity of 70.000. As a result they received a commission to design another sports stadium in Kano in Nigeria. Successful completion brought them the prize for the second time. 30
