July 14, 2005 - Volume XIII, Issue 28
Well done that scribe!
CONGRATULATIONS to The Budapest Sun for bringing a top-class analytical discussion to the public. What a pity that the author of your excellent opinion piece (Moving On, new europe, June 30, 2005) had to remain anonymous, especially for such an important and oft-maligned issue as an organization that brings peace and prosperity, all the more obvious in the light of recent international terrorism in New York, Madrid and now tragically in London. I would light to shake the scribe's hand. The article excellently proved how the European Union, despite its given flaws, has been hugely successful in promoting economics, peace, cooperation, and much else positive, between formerly warring and very opposing nations. Why else would so many countries and individuals want to become members?
Life goes on. And up. The EU can be pragmatic too, even humoristically, however unintentional.
An example: as part of consumer protection (essentially an international affair in a borderless Europe) the EU by necessity classifies foods. The humble carrot is legally defined by the EU as a fruit, allowing its continued use in a traditional Portuguese recipe (Council Directive 2001/113/EC of 20 December 2001).
I never had carrot jam, but it sounds good, and I never feared for my traditional "pint" as EU scare-mongers in British tabloid press would have it. Peace goes with prosperity. Prosperity comes a lot from trade. We have a lot to thank the EU for.
Peter Culleton
Budapest
Language
January 12 2006
I WOULD like to explain why, in my opinion, my fellow native English speakers are so reluctant to speak a foreign language (Alea iacta est, New Europe, Dec 22).
If you stand at the Erzsébet tér (main) bus station, it is so obvious that Budapest is the center of Europe, but if you stand at Heathrow Airport, it feels that London is the center of the world.
For historic and technological reasons English has become the dominant universal language. Consequently there is a little incentive for most English people to learn a foreign language.
Furthermore, which language should we learn? French is the most obvious choice, but many schools in England now teach Spanish since it is more of a holiday destination. Business people on the other hand need to learn whichever language they most need in their dealings.
For my part, I am very annoyed that my Hungarian is limited, even though I was born in Budapest and my mother was Magyar. My excuse is that I was brought to England when I was only three years old (after the Second World War).
In spite of my desire to improve my Hungarian, when I am visiting relatives in Budapest I find myself speaking English to those who know the language because I think it is more important to them to be fluent in English than for me to be completely bi-lingual.
George Lec-Delisle
St Margarwts at Cliffe, Kent, UK
Popular resistance?
March 14, 2007 08:00 am |Regarding the page one photo and story in last week's (March 8) issue of The Budapest Sun, a standing ovation for the Greenpeace activists - from five countries - who dangled over the Danube recently to dramatize the need for swift and effective government action against Global Climate Change (GLOCCH). Hungary, even now, is starting to suffer the consequences of it.
Two thumbs up to Judith Láng for her needling interview with the boy mayor of Budapest District II, also concerning urgent environmental issues (Concrete plans to save District II).
Dare we hope that these bold strokes by Láng and Greenpeace/Hungary are signs of a long-overdue awakening of popular resistance to the depredations of a corporate elite who can't see a forest for all the board-feet of profit it might accrue by cutting it down?
One thumb up to Anonymous, the writer of new europe, who offers valuable insight into the governance of the EU - this time regarding the struggle for control over energy and utility resources - but declines once again to pull back the curtain on the swarming anthill of corporate lobbyists in Brussels. That, more and more, is where the power is, and Anonymous has a moral obligation to expose it.
Nick Ricci, Budapest
November 30, 2006
Doormat
Kudos to Robin Marshall for his profile in last week’s The Budapest Sun of April Foley, the new US Ambassador to Hungary.
It?s not his fault that Hungary has thus been short-sheeted once again in the caliber of diplomats dispatched to Budapest from the George Bush White House.
Ambassador Foley's previous job experience ? as an executive at PepsiCo and the US Export-Import Bank ? would seem to qualify her above all for the task of hastening Hungary?s transformation from a sovereign state to a globalized doormat for the Wall Street titans who are buying the world and amassing profits at the expense of just about everyone else.
Kudos likewise to new europe, whose column last week was among his more lucid. His closing sentence tellingly opens with a reference to a desperate need for economic reform? in Hungary.
This is the mantra of the globalizing titans above mentioned, and new europe’s bailiwick.The EU may increasingly be seen as a mighty hammer in the hands of those titans.
Ergo, new europe would serve us well by devoting a column to the growing power of the corporate lobby at the EU compound in Brussels. It’s alarming, and it needs to be exposed.
Nick Ricci, Budapest