Global Voices » Hungary

Hungary: “Oligarch” is the New Buzzword of the Hungarian Net

Atlatszo.hu — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:04:41 +0000

József Ángyán, the former Hungarian State Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, started his own fight against corruption. Ángyán resigned in January and since then he has been raising concern [hu] about the shady relations between the government and some Hungarian ‘oligarchs' - Lajos Simicska and Zsolt Nyerges [en], who are often referred to as PM Viktor Orbán's close allies and members of the highly influential business elite.

Mr. Ángyán is now struggling now to draw attention to the inconsistencies in state land lease tenders that show that certain influential people's companies are having more auspicious positions. But it looks like it's a sensitive issue, and he has to face retaliation of the powers others also had tried to call into account.

Prior to Mr. Ángyán's initiatives, journalists from time to time also had a chance to discover that the ‘oligarchs' in Hungary were able to control the media. One of these journalists was Attila Mong, also known for his fight for free media in the country. He published a post on his blog titled You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named [hu], in which he summed up the mentions of Zsolt Nyerges and Lajos Simicska in the mainstream media based upon the data of a Hungarian media monitoring agency. He drew the conclusion that these two persons had become “the Voldemort” of almost every media outlet in Hungary.

Mr. Mong later quit his job at Origo.hu, a Hungarian news site, and joined atlatszo.hu, where he explained [hu] what happened after the You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named post on his blog and a Facebook page he started right after publishing it:

[…] Since I thought it was not right like that, I started a Facebook page at that time to reveal how many people would be interested in [reading] a real, in-depth, bold interview with them. The aim was and still is to lure them out. If they have no problems with public money flowing into their companies then they might not have any problems with journalists posing questions to them and demanding transparency on behalf of the public. The Facebook page I want to meet Lajos and Zsolt became very popular in a couple of hours.

I apologize to those who soon saw that the page was not there anymore.

It turned out I'm not strong enough for that.

I'll share the details one day in my memoirs. […]

Demonstrating how some citizens were disturbed by the opaque ties between the oligarchs and the governing party, stickers with the text “Who is Lajos Simicska?” started popping up in the toilets of random Budapest bars.

Lajos Simicska and Zsolt Nyerges became really popular with the Hungarian netizens, who produced funny pictures and animated GIFs using their old portraits published in dailies. Gergely Karácsony, an MP with the LMP “Politics Can Be Different” Party, used one of the funny pictures with a cat on skis on his blog [hu] (cat on skis is a pun on the name of Mr. Simicska in Hungarian). Mr. Karácsony published the post titled “What makes the state different from a bunch of gangsters?” after Transparency International Hungary's release of the National Integrity Study, which stated that the Hungarian state had been captured by private interest groups. In addition to the former State Secretary's claims, Mr. Karácsony listed the cases when the two influential businessmen might have received remarkable shares through their company which way too often turned out to be the winner in public procurement tenders.

Last Wednesday, Mr. Ángyán had to face quite a sophisticated attack in the battle for justice. Kettős Mérce blog reported [hu] that the Hungarian news agency MTI was referring to a blog in their article about Mr. Ángyán which was created not long before the publication of the text. Kettős Mérce authors shared a screenshot of their Google Search without any result. From 14:20 “till 16:30 no one was able to find the blog on the internet but then it showed up,” wrote Kettős Mérce. HVG.hu news site eventually was able to obtain the link [hu] to the blog from MTI. Napraforgoblog has only one post [hu] about the former State Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development. Napraforgo's post lists some fishy cases in which Mr. Ángyán allegedly was involved. The title of the post is “Whose Mercenary Was Ángyán?”, and so far it has more than three hundred comments. Hungarian netizens were shocked over the strange practices of the newswire and also complained that they lost their trust in the Hungarian media.

Even the Hungarian Parliament started this week with a discussion of the ‘oligarchs'. Mr. Karácsony questioned PM Viktor Orbán about the ties between the influential business elite and the government [video, hu].

Véleményvezér blog reported that the PM's first reply to the question was to change the meaning of the word ‘oligarch' to something meaning a capitalist or a tycoon. Véleményvezér wrote [hu]:

[…] In reality, an ‘oligarch' means a wealthy person who is able to systematically distract the state's politics from serving the public interest to serving his private interests. An oligarch is a tycoon, too, but he has mainly been gaining and maintaining his fortune by sucking the state's resources (hunting for shares), meanwhile, in the case of other tycoons, the main source of income is not the state. […]

Mr. Orbán tried to avoid giving a real answer to Mr. Karácsony. The blogger wrote:

Although the debate ended there in the Parliament, it's hardly possible that the question of the oligarchs would fade away. Viktor Orbán's reply clearly demonstrates that he has no proper answer to the accusations of [having close ties with] the oligarchs.

Video: Mothers Around the World Share Their Different Experiences

Juliana Rincón Parra — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:04:26 +0000

In the International Museum of Women, the current online exhibit is all about mothers. MAMA: Motherhood around the Globe explores the different aspects of motherhood through video interviews to women in Nigeria, Kenya, Afghanistan, USA, Colombia, Hungary, China and Norway.

Lusina from Kenya is one of the interviewed mothers for IMOW

Mama to Be is the section on the expectations around motherhood and pregnancy, and how the different women, some not even out of their teens reacted and faced their impending motherhood.

How many women in the world actually have an opportunity to decide if, how, and when to create a family? What are the reasons that women today are choosing – or refusing to choose – motherhood?

In Healthy Mama, Healthy Baby, the stories these women share on their birthing experiences serve to illustrate how different cultures view birthing and health.

Every day, thousands of women worldwide give birth to new human life. While many of these women will have happy and successful deliveries, hundreds will die in childbirth. How do things like geography, income, and age affect your chances of a safe delivery? What is being done to improve upon the world’s maternal mortality rate, and how can you get involved?

In the Featured Voices section, stories were submitted by the audience and six stories were selected by an international jury for the Community Choice Awards. One of them is this excerpt of the hard situation in the Colombian hospital maternity wards by Jorge Caballero for Gusano Films.

In Birth Journal Maternity Excerpt, a mother of six arrives to a checkup and then to deliver a baby. During the checkup, her story comes out through the questions asked by the doctor, and his attitude towards her changes, ending up with a suggestion for a tubal ligation and a curt farewell. During delivery, there isn't even time to move the lone woman to the gurney and into the maternity room, she gives birth on her hospital bed.

One-on-one interviews in Meet the Mamas focus the conversations around the woman and her personal story, for example, it helps contrast the different situations between a teen mother in Liberia, living what she calls in Critical Condition, and a teen mother in the United States, who through family support is able to move on ahead and continue her studies.

This exhibit in the International Museum of Women aims to get more people informed on the state of Women's Maternal Health, on their Get Involved page they suggest different ways in which readers can participate in improving the statistics and raise awareness themselves on these important issues.

Hungary: An Eventful Celebration of the National Holiday

Marietta Le — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:30:47 +0000

Last week, Hungary celebrated the 164th anniversary of the 1848 Revolution. On March 15, 2012, the opposition elected a rapper as the ‘alternative president' - while the prime minister compared the country to a frog jumping out of a pot of hot water at the very last moment - and a group of far-right protesters broke into the office of the International Monetary Fund. On March 16, a techno party was held at Budapest's Heroes' Square. On March 17, new members of the Hungarian National Guard took their oath at the same location.

Before the national holiday of March 15, the Hungarian media devoted some coverage to the news of the Polish and French supporters coming to attend the demonstrations. Véleményvezér blog posted [hu] about this with the title, “March 15: thanks but we don't want to import protesters!”:

[…] It looks like the Hungarian national holiday's commemorations will turn into real international events. Gazeta Polska, a right-wing weekly, reports under the title of “A Long Voyage to Hungary” that several thousands Poles are traveling to Hungary to rally for Viktor Orbán. French left-wing intellectuals have published a public invitation that says it's a cause of conscience to come to Hungary and attend the Milla protest against the ‘nationalist' Fidesz government. […]

Guest representatives of the two nations attended the day's two largest events. The Poles mainly attended the official governmental celebrations and the main event in the afternoon of March 15, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke. The French guests mainly attended the largest opposition demonstration together with the citizen movements.

The latter was organized through the Facebook group ‘One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary‘ (the English mirror page is here), often dubbed as ‘Milla'. Milla started their event also in the afternoon, with a speech by Dopeman, a popular rap musician, who had successfully re-positioned himself from a popular musician to an artist expressing the opinion of a strong citizen opposition by publishing an explicit song partly using the words of the Hungarian anthem [hu].

Starting from the national holiday of October 23, Milla has been running a highly criticized and incoherent contest for the ‘alternative president' position - which Dopeman ended up winning. (They admitted on their blog [hu] that the contest's process was not perfect.)

The rapper cited the many problems of the Hungarian society in his opening speech [hu] on March 15, also quoting his own lyrics about the struggles of living in Hungary. Afterwards representatives of those social groups that have been affected by the current government's politics - students, journalists, members of the civil society organizations, etc. - also spoke.

At the same time, in front of the Hungarian Parliament, PM Orbán compared the Hungarian society's loan-taking to a frog that feels comfortable in a pot of slow-boiling water until it's almost too late.

His criticism of the EU was highlighted by the international media, and here is what Eva Balogh had to say about it on her blog:

[…] As for the current political atmosphere in Europe Orbán lashed out with a few harsh words on that topic. Hungarians understand that “the European Union is not an alliance of saints but they cannot watch with folded arms while some political and intellectual trend forces an unholy alliance on Europe.” […]

By the end of the Milla event, a far-right group ‘Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement‘ (the name refers to the 64 counties that existed before the Treaty of Trianon, a resentful memory in the Hungarian history) rallied at the same place, generating a conflict which was solved by the presence of the police. The youth movement then went to the local office of the International Monetary Fund, where they wanted to hand in a petition to the representatives of the organization, and when they were told they could not do it, they lit firecrackers inside the building. Egyenlítő blog recorded their actions and shared the video on YouTube.

March 16 was still about celebrating the 1848 revolution, but some Budapest youths decided to do it their own way. ‘More Techno To The Parliament‘ is a movement opposed to the current political situation, but is reacting to it by using some key terms of political speech. They hold parties on national holidays where they talk about the ‘techno question' and promote the idea of a 'state techno radio', not missing out the issue of the need for professional speaker systems and a DJ in each village. This time the party was at Budapest's Heroes' Square:

On March 17, also at Heroes' Square, some 130 people took an oath [hu] as new members of a paramilitary group called the Hungarian National Guard. The ‘guardists' have become popular in the past few years in Hungary, but because of their radical activities the core group,the Hungarian Guard, had been banned. Similar groups re-appeared in some villages in northern Hungary (Global Voices posts about this are here and here), threatening the Roma population with their presence.

This video shows the anti-far-right protesters, too, holding posters saying ‘No Garda', ‘No Racism'.

Europe: Will ACTA Treaty Pass After Protests?

Danielle Martineau — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:09:08 +0000

[All links forward to French articles unless stated otherwise.]

As of the end of the month of February 2012, the mobilization efforts of Internet users against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) [en] were still going strong. In fact, they may have begun to bear fruit.

By including infringements against the author's rights in its scope, this international treaty, which addresses intellectual property rights, also affects Internet content.

The ratification debates which were placed on the European Parliament's agenda on February 29, were put on hold in expectation of the opinion of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The issue of the treaty's conformity with European Community law was brought before the court on 22 February by the European Commission.

No ACTA - Strasbourg. Photo by Christophe Kaiser on Flickr, CC-license-BY

Taurillon, the “magazine of young Europeans -France” describes “Europe's about-face on ACTA“:

Si l’avis est négatif, l’ACTA n’a plus aucune chance en Europe. Mais en cas d’avis positif, le recours à la CJUE représente le double avantage de redonner au traité une certaine crédibilité, et de repousser son adoption à une époque suffisamment lointaine pour que la polémique se soit tassée et que l’opinion publique regarde ailleurs.

If the opinion is negative, ACTA no longer stands a chance in Europe. However, if there is a positive opinion, appealing to the ECJ would mean a double advantage by giving the treaty a certain credibility, and also pushing back implementation to a time that is far enough away when public debate has settled down and the public's attention is focused elsewhere.

Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder and spokesperson for la Quadrature du Net urges on the European deputies:

Les eurodéputés doivent résister à la stratégie de la Commission européenne, qui cherche à gagner du temps et à transformer le débat en une simple discussion juridique, et pour cela continuer à travailler au rejet d’ACTA. ACTA vise à imposer une tendance pour une politique globale du droit d’auteur qui est toxique pour l’Internet libre et pour les libertés. Le Parlement européen est le dernier rempart : il doit agir et adopter une position claire et forte, faute de quoi il laissera le champ libre à la Commission pour imposer une répression inacceptable.

The Eurodeputies must resist the European Commission's strategy of attempting to gain time and turning the debate into a simple legal discussion, thereby continuing to work towards ACTA's rejection. ACTA aims to impose a tendency for a global policy of author's rights that is toxic for the free Internet and for freedom. The European Parliament is the last line of defense: it must act and adopt a firm and clear position, otherwise it will leave the field wide open for the commission to impose an unacceptable repression.

For trucbuntu, there is no question of remaining passive while waiting for the Court to adjudicate:

Les citoyens de toute l’Europe peuvent contacter leurs représentants dans les commissions Commerce International (INTA) et Industrie (ITRE), qui se réunissent cette semaine pour discuter d’ACTA, et leur demander de continuer à travailler au sein de leur commission pour le rejet d’ACTA.

Citizens of all of Europe were able to contact their representatives in the International Trade (INTA) and Industry (ITRE) Committees, who met on February 29 to discuss ACTA. Many citizens requested their representatives to reject the proposal.

The website of the European Parliament explains the procedure and the issues of the treaty [en] that are under scrutiny, and has published ‘What you should know about ACTA‘ [en], a page of questions and answers. The ACTA workshop of the European Parliament has been the object of a storify [en] made by the Parliamentary services (link via Global Voices contributor Asteris Masouras [en]).

The organization AVAAZ submitted a petition to the European Parliament on 29 February with 2.4 million signatures against ACTA. The petition is still open:

Nous sommes vraiment proches de la victoire — notre pétition forte de 2,4 millions de signatures a ébranlé les responsables politiques partout en Europe et stoppé les censeurs. La Commission européenne est à présent en position de faiblesse et espère que la Cour de justice donnera son feu vert au traité ACTA en lui soumettant une question juridique très limitée qui recevra certainement une réponse positive.Mais si nous faisons résonner nos voix aujourd'hui, nous pouvons faire en sorte que la Cour examine tous les impacts légaux du traité ACTA et publie un avis qui fera toute la lumière sur cette attaque contre nos droits qu'est ACTA.

We are really close to victory — our petition, with 2.4 million signatures has shaken up those politicians in charge throughout Europe and stopped their censors. The European Commission is currently in a position of weakness and is hoping the Court of justice will green light the ACTA treaty by bringing before the court a very limited legal question, that will without doubt receive a positive response. But if we make our voices heard today, we will be able to get the court to examine all the legal implications of ACTA and publish an opinion that will bring to light the real attack against our rights that is ACTA.

No ACTA - Strasbourg. Photo Christophe Kaiser on Flickr, CC-license-BY

Anti-ACTA parties continue to strengthen their resources. New protests were set for 10 March, and torrentnews gives a list, with this appeal:

La liste n’est pas exhaustive, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour la compléter ;)

si certains se sentent l’âme d’un reporter- photographe en herbe, nous recherchons également des personnes pour faire un petit article photo du déroulement de la manif, rien de bien compliqué, comme fait ici pour Nice, Marseille,Bordeaux et Strasbourg.

The list is not exhaustive, do not hesitate to contact us to complete it ;)

If any individuals see themselves as budding photojournalists we are also looking for people to do a small photo story on how the protest unfolds, nothing too complicated, as it happens in Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.

For details on the elements of the debate, see also these linked articles from the Tribune on February 29, and Myeurop, on March 3. On Global Voices, see the laws SOPA/PIPA that set a precedent in the USA, here [en] and here [en]. Since the beginning of the protests, ACTA seems to have lost a lot of political momentum.

The title of this post is inspired by the end of the article “La liberté sur Internet : le filtrage de la discorde” which was published by the Institute of Research and Legal and Information studies and Communication (I.R.E.D.I.C.). It puts into perspective Internet blocking and debates the adoption of ACTA.

The original article in French was published on March 4. For background on the ACTA proposal, more articles can be found here [en].

Hungary: Tax Administration Investigates Citizen Activists

Marietta Le — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:46:37 +0000

Véleményvezér blog commented [hu] on the news of the most popular citizen movement's activists being checked by the National Tax and Customs Administration, interpreting it as a sign of fear by the ruling party Fidesz: “Two years after [winning] a two-thirds [majority], they're already catching flies, they're chasing civil activists.” The movement being targeted now started from a Facebook page ‘One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary‘ (aka Milla; hu; over 99,000 followers) and organized several rallies against the new media law and the government's politics. On the Hungarian national holiday on March 15, Milla is planning to hold another rally.

Slovakia, Hungary: Shrouded in Smog

Tibor Blazko — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:15:09 +0000

Blogger Ulrika Lejnarová, highlighting air pollution data from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute [sk], wonders [sk] why Slovakia, while often paying attention to the critical conditions in Hungary [en], is doing little to inform its own citizens of the domestic situation adequately, in order to avoid health complications.

Hungary: Another Environmental Catastrophe in the Making

Atlatszo.hu — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:20:13 +0000

Parts of this text were published on Atlatszo.hu.

In October 2010, a toxic spill from a red sludge reservoir in Kolontár caused the greatest environmental disaster in Hungary's recent history. Toxic water and mud flowed through the nearby villages, killing ten and injuring many inhabitants who had not been informed about the danger of getting close to the deluge.

Residents of the town of Devecser, about 150 km west of the capital Budapest, hit by a flood of toxic sludge from an alumina factory were struggling to recover their belongings from the mud. Photo by Y ATTILA "BOGART" P., copyright © Demotix (6/10/10).

Since the production of alumina stopped, some alumina production waste sludge reservoirs in Hungary – similar to those that caused the October 2010 catastrophe – were or are being used for dumping other types of hazardous materials. Hungarian aluminium factories were privatized after 1990 at conveniently low prices. In exchange, the buyers had to take over the reduction of the previous environmental damages.

One of these factories – in Almásfüzitő, a town by the Danube River in north-western Hungary – has long stopped producing alumina. Its waste sludge reservoirs, however, are being used for hazardous waste produced elsewhere.

According to a document published by Atlatszo.hu [.pdf, hu], a staff member of Tatai Környezetvédelmi Zrt. (Tata Environmental Protection cPlc., also known as TKV Zrt.) claimed this 15 years ago, in a university lecture about a technology used in “fixing” one of Hungary’s alumina production waste sludge reservoirs (at Almásfüzitő): “We are replacing an existing risk with another one.”

The lecturer added at the time: “The only way to sort out this area would be to remove the whole lot of 11,000 tons of waste from here.”

The document, which is a transcript of the lecture, proves that with the excuse of “reducing the damages,” these containers get infected with hazardous waste and even heavy metals that are dumped there by specialist companies. The consequences of this are unpredictable, but profits can be huge.

Olajos, a Hungarian blogger, wrote in a 2010 post [hu] that, according to documentation on hazardous waste, even in 2000 alumina production generated 14.45 percent of the industrial dioxin and furan:

[…] What is dioxin? Those who've been following the Ukrainian politics in the past few years have heard of it, since [Victor Yushchenko, one of the presidential candidates in the 2004 election] was poisoned with dioxin at the time.

The full name of dioxin is Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). This compound doesn't exist in nature, it is a by-product of human, industrial activity, it disrupts the immune system and causes cancer, and has a DNA-damaging potential. The long and short of it: this is an insidious poison and it can't deplete from the body. Factories release into the environment by-products containing dioxin. In Hungary, dioxin got out from a waste reservoir in Garé, a place which also turned into a symbol of environmental damage.

Less has been heard about furan, this compound didn't get as famous as its companion, but the environment can be polluted with this by-product as well, deriving from the alumina production. […]

By the end of 2011, Greenpeace started a campaign in Hungary drawing attention to the reservoir in Almásfüzítő. Pacsker of Greenr blog shared a Greenpeace video titled “A Street of Cancer Patients in Almásfüzítő” [hu] and commented on it [hu]:

There must be a very serious case for ELTE University's Cooperative Research Center for Environmental Sciences (CRCES) to be talking in a Greenpeace video. The case of Almásfüzítő is like that.

Judit Molnár [the young woman talking in the video] is 24 years old and she has gone through two neoplasia diseases, her sister has 19 malignant lumps in her body.

1.5 meter deep it's already oil that is flowing in the soil.

Red sludge is bagatelle compared to other materials poured into the reservoir.

The frogs are red [because of the liquid leaking from the reservoir].

The reservoir leaks in many places. The low tide [of the Danube right next to the reservoir] has proved this perfectly. The whole Budapest is drinking these industrial poisons and carcinogenic by-products!

And, in addition to this, the Tata Environmental Protection (SIC!) cPlc. is able to call this simply “composting”… Man, how can you compost inorganic waste?!

This is pouring hazardous waste into a reservoir leaking like a sponge. In Germany and Austria it is forbidden to mix different types of hazardous waste and to deposit them together. [Meanwhile] we are intentionally creating an environmental powder keg…

Since the publication of the transcript of the 1996 lecture, TKV Zrt. has contacted atlatszo.hu to claim – among other things – that the documents mentioned above had been manipulated and that the red sludge reservoirs at Almásfüzitő are not at all dangerous to the environment. Yet, a study [hu, with a summary in English] published in 2004 by the Geographical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences supports the facts stated in the document published by Atlatszo.hu.

Hungary: Goodbye, Malév!

Marietta Le — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:10:19 +0000

Malév, Hungary's state airline since 1946, ceased operation on February 3, 2012, due to bankruptcy. According to news reports [hu], even the airline's employees were informed about the shutdown just an hour or so in advance. Some passengers learned the news when they tried to check in at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport.

Hungarian citizens were shocked by the news, because even though the national carrier’s bad financial situation was well-known, Malév's rescue plans were being negotiated during the past few weeks. Many claimed the cause of the company's ill fate was bad financial management. In January, even the 2007-2010 state financial aid to the airline was deemed illegal by the European Commission. Eventually, business partners lost their trust in the company, and this tipped the balance on Friday when Dublin and Tel Aviv airports refused to give take-off permissions to Malév flights.

A Malév commercial, music composed by Gábor Presser

According to A REPÜLÉS Szakmai blog (THE AVIATION Professional blog) [hu], the last Malév flight landed in Budapest on Friday at 08:46 UTC (09:46 AM in Hungary), arriving from Helsinki. The words that the pilot said to the air traffic controllers have been shared by Hungarian netizens on many sound- and video-sharing sites:

Pilot: On behalf of the last Malév flight’s crew, we would like to thank you for the good, several-decade-long cooperation. See you.
Air Traffic Controller: We also thank you and wish you a good rest, I hope we will meet.
Pilot: Hope so, under some different name.

According to AIRportal.hu [hu], on Friday evening 14 Malév planes were returned to their lessor ILFC at an airport in Ireland. (See here for Malcolm Nason's photos of the Malév planes at Shannon Airport in Ireland.)

Csaba Demeter, a pilot who was among those flying the planes back, shared his story on Facebook [hu]:

[…] Around midnight we arrived to EINN [airport code for Shannon Airport, Ireland], landed one after another and rolled nicely, to salute in this way the past period. We stopped one after another, on rolling-roads, on parking spaces, we stopped them, unpacked and turned off the lights, our planes were in the darkness. It was an awful feeling, WE HAD TO LEAVE THEM THERE. We were hoping for a call [saying] COME HOME WITH THE PLANES this was just a dream or a bad joke. But nothing like that came. THEY STAYED THERE. All of them. :-( […]

People shared their thoughts on the sad fate of the national carrier. Csaba’s memories on Fékszárny blog [hu] tell the best what Malév meant for the citizens of this small Central European country:

I flew a lot with them, I have many good and many bad experiences as well. I wouldn’t tell about those because there is nothing special among them. Why I very much loved to fly with Malév and it always enjoyed priority in contrast to the others is that they were OURS. After being away from home for a long time they were the first signs of coming home. The mentioned white-blue painting with the Hungarian tricolor, the greeting at the door and the Hungarian newspapers. I usually spent 2-3 weeks abroad and not in cities and comfortable hotels, but in deserts and other great places. So coming home was always a big joy and its first messenger was the crew of the Malév flight. After a long, stressful trip even my eyes filled with tears when landing at the Ferihegy [airport]. It was a very bad [feeling] to look at the pictures and read the news on the internet. Let’s hope not all is lost, it would be good to see the red-white-green planes again.

Csaba

According to Véleményvezér blog [hu], the national carrier “got into the perfect storm” of Hungary's economic dynamics:

[…] Malév got into the perfect storm from this perspective: it should have survived almost a decade of economic stagnation and almost a decade of mismanagement; whilst the two phenomena amplified each other. It did not survive and this is yet another nail in the coffin of our dreams and illusions about the leading position of Budapest and Hungary in the region.

Until a new Hungarian carrier is founded, Origo news site reports [hu] the pilots of the “Malév Hungarian Airlines Virtual” will keep on “flying” with the Malév call signs.

Thumbnail and featured image show Malév airplane, by Flickr user hugovk (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Danica Radisic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:22 +0000

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow.

Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12).

Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas.

In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday:

27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages.

Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things.

Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region.

Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area.

Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region.

The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels:

- via SMS to +387644218661
- via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje
- via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net
- or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page

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Hungary: “We Voted For Orbán, Not For Goldman Sachs”

Marietta Le — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:33:55 +0000

Last Saturday, after several protests organized by citizen movements and opposition forces against the politics of the ruling Fidesz-KDNP government, Hungarians supporting those in power decided to express their opinion at a rally called Peace March.

According to the Hungarian Interior Ministry's report [hu], some 400,000 people expressed their support for the government at the peaceful - and cheerful - event.

‘We are the Hungarian people and we stand for Orbán's government!'. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Those who thought Fidesz-KDNP had lost the trust of the Hungarian citizens, drawing the consequence from the extensive foreign media coverage of the opposition protests in Budapest, were challenged this time by the fact that the government elected in 2010 with a two-thirds majority still enjoyed the support of many. Fidelitas, a youth group derived from Fidesz, shared some 360-degree panoramic photos of the march.

The protesters marched from Heroes' Square to Kossuth Square by the Parliament, where brief speeches were delivered. The main organizers of the event were Zsolt Bayer, author of opinion pieces at the conservative daily Magyar Hírlap, Gábor Széles, a wealthy Hungarian entrepreneur and owner of Magyar Hírlap, and András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Magyar Demokrata [hu], also a Hungarian conservative daily.

The right-leaning blog Mandiner has been very critical of the government recently, and, at first, their blogger, Dobray, who visited the Peace March, also had some doubts regarding the event [hu]:

[…] Compared to what I had anticipated, the march came off even better: the mass of 400,000 (probably fewer than that, the protest maths [competition of whose protest had more attendees] was started by Bencsik at Kossuth Square when he said, referring to a television report, that they were 1 million, which was evidently an unreal figure) walked the distance, and, as no other options were listed on the program, no lame events happened. The puritan minimalism goes hand in hand with a portion of boredom well known from the first, eventless left-wing rallies. But it's hard to pick at that. And that there were some groups with Arpad's striped flags [a symbol of the far right] was not a big deal, we are used to that, they don't do any trouble. We will worry about some Arpad stripes protesters in a mass of a couple of hundred thousands if the left wing expels from their community the comrades parading in the USSR and Che t-shirts. […]

The fact that describes the complex situation in Hungary best is that the government's supporters oppose the talks and future agreements on the bailout from the EU and the IMF, while the opposition is in favor of reaching the agreements as soon as possible, in order to strengthen Hungary's volatile economy.

Pro-government protesters criticized EU/ECB/IMF for pressure on the government to take more bailout loans. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Many protesters arrived from outside the capital. The blog of the city of Ócsa wrote [hu] about why they considered it important to participate in the march:

People set off from almost every settlement of the country to express their solidarity with the government elected with the two-thirds majority, with its leader Viktor Orbán and with everyone who has been attacked in the past days. The marchers stand up for the sovereignity of Hungary and stick to the achievements of democracy, they can't stand that foreign politicians, businessmen, banks are willing to administer their lives. […]

Véleményvezér pointed out [hu] that most of the protesters were elderly:

[…] it was very striking that most of the marchers were aged 50 or older. They are the ones whose private pension savings were not taken away, almost none of them has a foreign currency loan, and the government specifically tried to support them, through measures like the one-time 8-percent pension makeup or by implementing the institution of securing employment for older persons. […]

'We voted for Orbán and not for Goldman Sachs'. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Dobray hints at the rumours about paid protesters and organized travel to the rally location, the accusations raised by opposition members:

[…] So now we are even, now really each and everyone has brought politics to the street. And it's funny that at any sort of protest the actual side opposing the protesters tries every method to discredit the other's event; and tries to find those whose travel has been paid for, who were paid to come and who were cheated, etc. Everyone is generous when it's about their protest, but if it's about the other's, they turn petty and suspicious. The neighbour's lawn is always wilted. I also would be happy if the Peace March didn't get listed among the ultimate arguments of Fidesz government allowing them to knock down all the opposing opinions. […]

Zoltán Ruzsbaczky of Mos Maiorum blog published a guest post [hu] on Konzervatórium blog, noting that the huge number of the pro-government supporters may signify the arrival of a new stage of democracy in Hungary, with a lot of people daring to stand up for their opinion:

[…] Of course, this needs a government that applies this trust and successfully navigates the tempestuous sea of international politics and with its economic policy it sets Hungary on the track of growth. Besides this, one can't get by those masses who still oppose the politics of the government. We will learn only later what the long-term effects [of this march] will be, [and whether there will be any].

Hungary: Culture Purge Proceeds

Vilhelm Konnander — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:02:14 +0000

Hungarian Watch reports how yet another figurehead of Hungarian culture, György Szabó, has been ousted by authorities as director of the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, making him yet another in an increasing row of deposed cultural representatives.

Hungary: Right-Wing Pro-Government Demonstrations

Vilhelm Konnander — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:46:39 +0000

The Contrarian Hungarian reports that three right-wing demonstrations in support of the Hungarian government have taken place only this weekend, in protest against increased international pressure on Hungary for its defunct economy and political turmoil.

Video Highlights: Activism, Freedom of Speech, Identity and Culture

Juliana Rincón Parra — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:57:18 +0000

This section aims to showcase interesting and recent posts in Global Voices that show the many ways in which videos are helping people tell stories all around the world. You can follow the activity by regions in our YouTube channel or by clicking on the regional header links.

Middle East North Africa:

Yemen: The Amazing Life March Arrives in Sanaa
From Yemen we have the amazing story of the historic 264km Life March, which is the longest since Mahatma Gandhi's 390km long Salt March in 1930. During the Life March, villages and towns came together to give food and drink to the thousands of people who marched for four days straight through winding mountain passes protesting the immunity that outgoing President Saleh asked for himself and his aides and family for the killing of protesters in the Yemen uprisings.

However, the march didn't seem to sway the newly formed cabinet members who approved the bill: it will now go on to parliament for it to become a law.
Yemen: Saleh Gets Away With Murder…He Gets Immunity

It is those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the rest of Yemen to live a life of freedom and democracy, whom Yemenis feel they must never be forgotten nor should their blood go in vain.

This next video is a silent remembrance for those who died during the peaceful uprising:

Some online activists are also promoting an online campaign against a stimulating herb chewed by many Yemeni men and women for hours on end, sometimes daily. The campaign is for a day without using the leafy green plant, Qat:
Yemen: January 12, a Day Without Qat

As blogger @Afrahnasser, proposed on Twitter:

An average citizen in Yemen wastes 8 hrs in searching money for qat, another 8 hrs in chewing qat & the rest 8 hrs in sleeping @NoonArabia

The idea of the campaign is to turn those hours spent on qat into active endeavors which build up Yemen.

Sub-Saharan Africa:

Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges
Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson crossed from Somalia to Ethiopia illegally which caused the Ethiopian authorities to detain and put them on trial for supporting terrorist activities and crossing illegally into the territory, although the defense claims that they were performing their duty as journalists to report both sides of the conflict. This next video was used as evidence during the trial, where the journalists are seen planning their journey as journalists

Western Europe:

Spain: Fighting for the Right to a Home

Families who got into debt to buy a home and ended without jobs or income to pay for them are being helped by an organization aiming to stop families from being evicted and to give them temporary homes in foreclosed and empty houses when they aren't able to stop the banks. The video on this post shows their success in avoiding an eviction and keeping a man and his 13 year old son off the streets.

Eastern and Central Europe:

Hungary: Memories of Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp
Growing up Roma in Europe can make children feel stigmatized and rejected by their peers, causing them to hide their origins and feel ashamed of their heritage. The Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp aimed to give Roma youth a chance to discover their roots by learning the language, history and cuisine of the Roma people.

East Asia:

Hong Kong: Protest Against Luxury Brand to Defend Local Identity
A luxury brand which doesn't allow for photographs to be taken of its store is not news, but when they stated that the rule only applied for local residents of Hong Kong and not tourists from Mainland China, the people of Hong Kong made their anger known through a flashmob outside the store.

Latin America:

Chile: Wildfire in Torres del Paine Shocks Netizens
The wildfire in one of Chile's top touristic spots, National Park Torres del Paine had netizens blogging and tweeting about the fire, both as experienced by those inside the park at the time of the evacuation and recorded it on video as well as from concerned people following the news and updates.

Central America: LibreBus Project Presents its Documentary
The documentary follows the activists who climbed on board a bus driving through 5 different Central American countries to spread the message of free software, the defense of freedom of speech and content sharing.

Colombia: Salsa Song Criticizes Bus Rapid Transport System
Public transportation makes it easier for people to get from one location to another without having to use their own vehicle, however, when that public transportation system is overcrowded, it can become a torture instead of a relief. The salsa song (with translated captions here) shows what it is like for people to use the popular Transmilenio System in the capital city of Bogota.

Hungary: President Accused of Plagiarism

Marietta Le — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:45:18 +0000

Vastagbőr blog collected [hu] some internet memes about the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, the newest of which appeared after hvg.hu news site published an article titled ‘Serious Suspicion of Plagiarism in Pál Schmitt's Ph.D. Dissertation‘ [hu]. According to hvg.hu, the President had allegedly plagiarized his dissertation ('Analysis of the Modern Olympic Games Program') from the text of a Bulgarian sports expert Nikolai Georgiev. The Presidential Office claims [hu] that Schmitt and Georgiev knew each other well personally, collaborated and used the same sources.

Hungary: “Hey Europe, Sorry About My Prime Minister”

Marietta Le — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:34:17 +0000

Hungary is ‘enjoying' an extensive foreign media coverage of the financial and political crisis in the country. Many well-known mainstream media outlets, such as the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times or Al Jazeera have reported on the January 2, 2012, protests against the new constitution, which came into effect on January 1. Hungarian citizens, too, are constantly using blogs and social media to express their criticism of the government's measures and share the news of the country's volatile economy.

Although the rallies are growing more and more frequent, we confine this coverage to the protest that took place last Monday 2 January, presenting some Hungarian citizens' views on the event.

The purpose of the January 2 rally was to speak up against the new constitution designed by the governing Fidesz and KDNP parties. To celebrate the constitution, the government organized a high-profile event at the Hungarian State Opera. The rally against it took place right outside the Opera.

Non-governmental organizations, civil movements and some opposition parties allied for the time of the protest to demonstrate that opposing the government's politics results in joint forces. The organizers wanted to avoid the influence of party politics on the event, and therefore only the representatives of civil movements and trade unions were the speakers.

A screenshot of the New York Times

Still, the presence of political parties raised doubts in many. Tracey framed this in an article [hu] on LMV community portal and stated he/she wouldn't attend the protest:

[…] My first thought: is democracy in danger? I think it is not.

The current government has buried only one interpretation of democracy, it was the parliamentary democracy, but this was made possible by the previous governing parties since they discredited democracy, its institutions and like in a banana republic they used power to gain profit. The whole political elite of the past 20 years of transition is responsible for what Fidesz is doing, irrespective of [political] colours, so talking about a democratic opposition, ‘offering [the parties in opposition] comradeship', for the civil movements it's simply a dangerous self-delusion–except for if they want to give some party a leg up. […]

After the protest, Kékpóni drew a different conclusion on Kettős Mérce (Double Standard) [hu]:

Though there were many things I disagreed with concerning the event, I still attended the protest held on Jan. 2, whose message is summarized in the slogan “Still, There Will Be a Republic of Hungary.” I felt that the fight for democracy and association are keywords I can support with the feeling of ease. […]

According to the calculations of Fideszfigyelő blog (Fidesz monitor) [hu] some 32,000 or 50,000 people attended the protest. There were conflicts between the majority and the extreme-right protesters, who were also allowed to hold a 'small counter-rally' at the same place (as you can see on this YouTube video). Kettős Mérce reported [hu] that two activists of LMP (Politics Can Be Different party) were beaten by the extremists, one of them was searched by the police.

All in all, KA_Steve, one of the speakers, was happy with the outcome [hu]:

[…] I don't know how to put it but it was somehow uplifiting to see that self-satisfied politicians drunk with power are not able to organize an undisturbed celebration of themselves, even if they like it or not, they are obliged to celebrate the illusion of the System of National Cooperation, moving behind the four lines of police cordon, facing the citizens who are expressing their dissatisfaction loudly. […]

According to some rumours, high profile guests of the constitution's celebration had to use an escape route under the Opera to leave the building, journalists of index.hu news site interviewed [hu] the guests leaving through the Opera's back doors.

Kékpóni says the protests are just the tip of the iceberg:

[…] I am frankly happy for the shaping of a new Hungarian resistance, but I feel that the protest and anger focus only on the government measures, while what's being neglected is the fact that the system we are living in has not just got into crisis, this is just a more and more threatening consequence. Democracy will not end because of Orbán, it will end because we have not created it yet and we have not experienced yet the recognition that we have to do something for the creation–if we recognized it, there wouldn't be an Orbán system! […]