Hungarian Jews and the Holocaust

School Blog 12

            ‘Last Wednesday was the last JSBP field excursion.’ My heart aches as those words ring repeatedly between my ears. I can’t describe how lucky I’ve been to hang with such a great group of people for these last few months. Our weekly trips have aroused my interest and provoked lots of reflection, but more significantly have been a lot of fun. Every field excursion has felt like a time warp for me. For a couple hours every Wednesday I’ve traveled back to grade school on a class trip, walking through museums with a chaperone while simultaneously attempting to trip Alex into an exhibit. It’s been a nostalgic experience that I’ll value forever. I’ll continue to post on the blog as I ponder further into the things I’ve seen over the semester.

Kurk Dorsey, quite a stylish historian

            For our last field trip the team and I visited the Holocaust Museum in Budapest with Kurk, our fearless and handsome leader.

           

           It was a sad Wednesday for the crew. The weather was cold and dreary and our finals were looming around the corner. The examination of the Holocaust’s effect on Hungarian Jews was not the best way to cheer us up.

The Museum was built and funded by the Hungarian government because it wanted to publically address some of the faults the state had committed during World War Two. Hungary was the first nation to pass anti-Semitic legislation. They did so almost twenty years before the outbreak of Nazi Fascism across Europe. The Jewish people have been living in Hungary since the times of the Roman Empire, and the population held a large percentage of positions in the learned professions of the nation. Doctors, lawyers, business owners and schoolteachers were often Jewish. This is in part because of the large emphasis that the Jewish faith places on literacy and education. Tension between the Magyar people and the Jews existed in Hungary long before the Second World War.

Budapest's Jewish Ghetto 

During the war Hungarian Jews were all but completely removed from Magyarorszag. The Jewish population within Hungary prior to the Holocaust was around five percent. After the massacres and mass deportations of the Judaic people their stake in the population sank below one percent. The Nazis and the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party forcibly removed 447,000 Jews from Hungary. Out of the 1.1 million victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp, one in every three was a Magyar of Jewish descent.

Auschwitz 

The exhibits throughout the museum attempted to portray the horror that the Hungarian Jews lived through during the early and mid 1940s. Our guide exposed us to the plight of the Magyar Jew during this disgusting time period, and often did so through the stories of individual's who saw the persecution first hand. The Holocaust is the most horrible thing that I’ve ever learned about extensively, and is honestly a subject that is very hard for me to reflect upon too deeply. As I walked by exhibit after exhibit it was hard to keep anger out of 

my own mind. Seeing people starved into skeletons and left to die in the cold is quite rattling. Hearing about children who were injected with viruses in order to examine how long they would last before infection and death is not something one should ponder all day. 

Children at Auschwitz

At the end of our tour of the museum the guide explained that the point of the exhibit was to expose the dangers of extremist ideologies to Hungarian students. Certain movements that may seem completely innocent at first can turn into the brutal massacre of innocent human beings. Racism is the most evil and stupid form of human thought. The fact that people acted upon these wicked contemplations in such recent history is mind boggling, and is also incredibly depressing.    

The Great Synagogue of Budapest

School Blog 11

            Good day friends and foes, and welcome to this weeks addition of team JSBP’s excursion review. Last Wednesday was an interesting one for my homies and I. We finally got a chance to visit the Great Synagogue of Budapest, which is an enormous and beautiful building that we’ve been walking past almost everyday of the semester. The Jewish population has experienced major hardship in recent history here, and much of their struggle with racism and persecution was directly felt in and around this place of worship.

The Great Synagogue,
a police officer patrols the front entrance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

            The Great Synagogue of Budapest (a city once labeled ‘Judapest’ by intolerant Magyars and Germans because of its large and thriving Jewish population) is the second largest in the world, and the largest place of Judaic reverence in Europe. During the industrial revolution of Hungary much of the Jewish population in Budapest started factories, and many smart Jewish entrepreneurs capitalized on the mechanization of manufacturing. The Jewish faith and the progression of urbanization became synonymous ideas to much of the feudal and agricultural population of Magyars, especially those who lived outside of the city. There was a strong resentment felt by many Hungarians who had resisted change and been left behind by technology and capitalism towards the Jews of their country.

            In the 1920s, Hungary passed some of the first anti-Jewish laws in Europe under their anti-Semitic leader regent Miklos Horthy. In the 1940s, when Nazi Fascism was spreading like wildfire through the continent, Hungary joined the cause and publically implicated Jews as being an inferior race that had caused much of their nation’s hardship.

Horthy with Hitler

            Throughout World War Two the Jewish population of Budapest was forced to suffer the horrifying tragedies of the holocaust. In the city the Nazis appointed the Arrow Cross (the Hungarian Fascist party) to run their operations. The Jewish quarter of the city was located behind the Great Synagogue. It was turned into a Jewish ghetto when the Arrow Cross took over, in which people endured dire living conditions. Starvation was not uncommon, and there was no escape from the freezing temperatures of Hungary’s harsh winter. By the time that the war had officially ended there were around 2,300 dead bodies lying in the streets of the once thriving Jewish quarter, many of which were buried in mass graves next to the synagogue. There are only estimates of how many Jews were shot into the Danube after being taken from their homes by the Arrow Cross officers.

Hungarian Jews in the Budapest Ghetto,
wearing the yellow Star of David for Fascist identification purposes

            The only reason that the Great Synagogue still stands in the center of Budapest is because of its two massive towers. Due to the fact that the synagogue was constructed so well, and its towers rose up so high, the Nazis chose to use the building as a radio communications headquarter, rather than to destroy it. The survival of the beautiful building is hard to believe, but perhaps more hard to believe is the fact that many Hungarian Jews still live, work, and worship in the area after such horrible atrocities were committed upon them.

Packed House

The numbers of how many Jews that were killed during the holocaust are absolutely staggering. The acts of terror that the Jewish people went through because of their ethnicity and beliefs are even more horrifying. But the beauty that has come out of such maniacal violence is that Judaism and the Jewish people are still here, even after what they and their ancestors have gone through. The man that had given us a tour of the magnificent symbol of Jewish endurance was a young Hungarian Jew himself. He still lives in the city where many of his relatives have been hated for no reason in the past, and yet he wore no anger in his expression, nor spoke a word of resentment. The sins of the holocaust did not destroy the Great Synagogue of Budapest, and did not wipe out its worshipers. I have a feeling that nothing ever could, and that both the synagogue and its people will still be in Budapest as long as time allows.                    

Parliament Funkadelic

School blog 10

            It was a significant Wednesday for team JSBP. Over the past three months there has been a nonstop buzz of chatter and inquiry concerning when we'd finally be able to get all funkadelic in the Parliament building.

Magyar's make good Goulash and rad buildings

It would be impossible to visit Budapest and not stare with awe at the Hungarian Government’s headquarters. The buildings pointed towers and intricate pillars act as massive exclamation pints along the side of the Danube. The golden detail throughout every corner and crevasse give light to the imperial and intimidating history of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. One of our teachers says that the Parliament was built with such extreme effort because of the Magyars desire to bring the capital of the Habsburg Empire from Vienna to Budapest. Another claims that the Hungarians have always felt insignificant in Europe, and have attempted to compensate for this feeling through their huge and over the top architectural feats.

   

            Upon entering Parliament it was quite clear that the interior of the colossal legislative center was going to exhibit the same feeling of fascination and disbelief that the outside does. There’s a story to be told about every detailed inch of the building. The meticulous stained glass windows had been removed and hidden in the basement during World War Two. The paintings and symbols that cover every corner and wall represent different aspects of Hungary. Its fifteen hundred year history is portrayed on the ceilings. The main dome of the building is 96 meters high, representing the fact that Arpad founded Hungary in 896. The symbols of various Kings from the country’s royal past are subtly portrayed in the edgings of rooms. The Royal Crown of Saint Stephen, which is arguably over one thousand years old, sits in the middle room of the building, between its two legislative halves. At the top of the crown there is a tilted cross. Legend states that because of the amount of turmoil that the crown has gone through (traveling from place to place to be kept from invaders, being buried after wars, etc.) and because of the various hands the crown has been passed between, the cross became skewed.

Holy Crown of St. Stephen, Founder of the Kingdom of Hungary

             We were also lucky enough to sit in on the Wednesday session of Parliament. The Hungarian legislature has over three hundred members (perhaps too many for such a lightly populated country), of which only about twenty were present. And to be honest the twenty who were there didn’t seem like they wanted to be. As various speakers took the floor most of the public officers sat indifferently, surfing the web and talking on their cell phones. It was interesting to see government in action, even though not much action was taking place. People often complain about how slow moving democratic governments like this are at getting anything done. It wasn’t to hard to understand why action is so slow to arise after seeing this particular Hungarian Parliament session.

 

Parliament Funkadelic- One Nation Under Groove

            Yet, in any regard the Parliament building was truly epic and beautiful. I can’t quite capture its brilliance in words, but I’d absolutely say that it was a pretty funkadelic spot. 

                   

US Spending for Social Change

School Blog 9

            
            For this weeks adventure the JSBP crew and I visited the International Law Enforcement Academy, located on the Buda side of the river. And while I very rarely enjoy any interaction with a bunch of cops, this place was pretty cool. ILEA is an organization that is run by the US Government, with the help of Hungarian law enforcement, to teach and, with any luck, establish a more western rule of law and way of thinking in the emerging countries of the former eastern European Soviet bloc.

ILEA's cafeteria was filled with coffee, doughnuts, and silly cartoons

The International Law Enforcement Academy is funded through US taxpayer money, with the goal of promoting positive relationships between the US and these emerging countries, as well as supporting the relationships between the law enforcement officers of these countries. While many Americans would have walked onto this campus in the middle of Hungary and wondered why the heck they were paying for its existence, ILEA has proven itself a very worthwhile endeavor through its promotion of a safer and more amiable eastern Europe. But perhaps more importantly, the academy has quite brazenly attempted to foster an open sense of understanding between ethnicities that have extremely deep seeded hatred for one another.

ILEA is run by various officials from every sector of the American and Hungarian justice systems (ie the Department of the Interior, the FBI, the CIA, etc.). These men and women run five programs a year, and in each session they instruct a number of law enforcement officers from three different emerging countries. In an attempt to create a more unified central eastern Europe, ILEA officials in both Budapest and Washington pick three countries that have historical tensions with one another. Some of these combinations have been extremely volatile (in one case a man murdered another with an axe, and let me say the murder may have been justifiable.. the Turkish government still refuses to admit that they massacred over one and a half million Armenian’s less than a century ago), while most sessions have caused close friendships across nationalistic and cultural boundaries.

The Turks actions were an original inspiration for Hitler, and sparked his fascination with ethnic extermination

I found it interesting that the hierarchy of ILEA was not shy to admit that social understanding had been one of their central goals, even perhaps a more chief focus than the literal teaching of law enforcement strategies. The widespeard effects of the former Soviet Union weren’t only economic and political, but were also very cultural. Many countries and communities that could have flourished into more liberal and tolerant ones have been forced to stagnate socially. One example that Thomas E. Stocking (the Deputy Director of ILEA) shared with us was that in many of these countries the style of thought is that “a wife unbeaten is like a house unkept”. 

Wife beating is still a norm in many eastern european countries

Social backwardness has been promoted through the closed Soviet system rather than corrected by it. Changing social norms and fostering understanding can only take place in a culture that allows an open and free exchange of ideas. If programs like ILEA can use US money to change the way that cops in these countries feel about wife beating, racism, or freedom of speech, than perhaps their cultural norms will start to evolve. It was nice to finally hear a positive way that the US is spending money abroad, rather than the usual tales of our militant and coercive foreign policy.

Keep it keeping homies,

And use that vote to promote progress.

Love,

Mama’s Boy   

Has the World Ended Yet?

Who knows if China will let its currency float, Or if Greeks will cause the EU to fail... 

All that seems clear now is I better enjoy my home-made cookies before they're outsourced... or fed to me via Ipad

Europe's a Mess

School Blog 8

Last Wednesday my fellow JSBP gang members and I got the pleasure of having a discussion with Andras Baneth. Baneth is a Hungarian that has spent such an enormous amount of time working within the EU that he literally wrote the book on the subject.

The Book

I couldn’t have asked for a more ideal time to meet with such an European Union expert. The current turmoil that is taking place throughout Europe (and the rest of the world) due to the Euro zone’s financial condition has owned newspaper headlines for quite some time now, and won’t be disappearing from the public discourse anytime soon. It’s quite palpable to everyone that the alliance of the twenty-seven sovereign European nations is on the brink of extinction. The wide array of cultural, linguistic, and most notably economic differences between the countries of the EU has begun to chip away at the great ‘European integration’ that many had hoped would solve much of the continents problems.

Greek Protests

Baneth and many of his colleagues had believed that the EU would put an end to the possibility of any future wars in Europe, and it was clearly established to bind countries like France and Germany, who throughout their long and storied histories have never quite cared for one another. The way that Baneth talked about the current and future problems that the Union is facing was gloomy and somewhat pessimistic, but certainly understandable. He voiced the opinion of many Europeans in his inquiring over whether or not the Union will last. It would certainly be a major tragedy if it were to fail. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel even made the statement (which Baneth agreed with) that Europe will break out into war if the Union were to fall apart.  

Angela Merkel, Powerful Lady

Baneth described the EU as being somewhere between an international organization and the united stated of Europe. Much of the rationale behind the EU was to combine the small markets of European nations into one large market more capable of competing in the cutthroat world of globalization. A major part of the problem that the EU has however, is that even though they have established a currency in their member states and have the power to determine much of the trade and immigration policies within the Euro zone, they have no ability to tax the individual citizens in any country. They also have no control over the financial policies of any member state, which means they can’t determine the public benefits or the retirement age in a nation like Greece. Thus the problem has arisen that some countries in the EU (such as Germany) have done a much better job of controlling their national debt and producing high numbers in terms of Gross Domestic Product, while countries like Greece and Ireland have done just the opposite.

The result is that German taxpayers are being forced to bail out Greek citizens. These types of improprieties could be reduced if the EU had more control (as if it were a federal government, ie the US of Europe) and could take away some of the member states fiscal autonomy.

GDP by country

Unfortunately, as this problem undergoes more public scrutiny, and as Europeans become more impatient with the Euro, countries are much less likely to sacrifice power to the advisors of the European Union. Baneth, and many other well-informed thinkers alike, is not overly confident that the EU will last into the distant future. This pessimism makes me sad, but is certainly understandable. I think that a more unified Europe would be an impressive accomplishment for nations that have constantly fought with one another in the past. I also sense that the more the average citizens of Europe become aware of the shortcomings the EU’s current establishment however, the less likely they will be to concede their own national independence for the good of the continent.        

Geneva Isn't For Hoodrats

            Upon my return from team JSBP’s quick trip to Geneva I have to conclude that Switzerland is no place for a hoodrat like me. The roads sparkled with diamonds and every windowsill displayed thousand dollar watches. The people spoke with a smooth and melodic French accent and wore only the finest of suits. The businessmen took every stride with an air of financial knowledge. The Gyros were four to five times as expensive as in Budapest, and the convenient stores stopped selling beer at nine (in Hungary I’m almost certain they lower liquor prices as the night progresses towards morning).

            However, even though Geneva wasn’t exactly my cup of tea as a city, the academic experience that I was fortunate enough to encounter was extremely enlightening. Team JSBP was lucky enough to get invited into the United Nation Environmental Programme’s headquarters in Switzerland. There we sat in a private room and asked questions of four esteemed members of UNEP, which is a very important organization in the grand scheme of international environmental policy and advocacy.

            The first speaker of the conference was Angela Cropper, who is the Special Advisor to the Executive Director of UNEP’s coming Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. Cropper was a fascinating individual. She fielded questions rather than strictly lecturing, and was so succinct and well spoken in regards to her answers that it seemed as though she had nearly too much knowledge on the topic of global environmental policy. Perhaps one of her most interesting sermons addressed the issue of the United Nations and their effectiveness in convincing various national governments to adopt their environmental policies. I felt as though she was very honest in her response, and did not shy away from the fact that in many ways UNEP has been somewhat inefficient in actually getting their policies to transform into authentic action. However, she also made me feel hopeful for the future. The fact that a woman like her holds the reins when it comes to communicating with the various foreign ministers of the world makes me think that winning their hearts and minds in regard to instilling positive environmental policy is inevitable.

           

                                                         Cropper has a way with words

            We also had the chance to speak with Barbara Ruis, who is a legal advisor for UNEP. At one point she mentioned that she felt bad for being as frequent of a flyer as her job required her to be. I had never considered the fact that it may be somewhat selfish to fly constantly, due to the amount of environmental damage that every takeoff and landing produces. I had never considered the idea that maybe every person should have a limit on how many times she or he flies throughout a lifetime.

            After visiting UNEP team JSBP moved on to the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There we sat through a presentation on the main functions of the UN Refugee Agency, with a special focus on the current Iraqi refugee situation. It’s interesting to think about the fact that as a country we invaded Iraq without the consent of the United Nations, and yet one of their most successful organizations has been in charge of cleaning up much of our mess. The amount of human displacement in Iraq has been astounding since the US began using military force in the region in the early 2000s. Many citizens of the country have been forced to flee their homes in search of a safer environment, or have moved from their villages due to their complete destruction. The UNHCR has put forth an astonishing amount of effort in this region. They have provided safe drinking water, food, and a place to stay for the people that the US has had a hand in dislodging. As an American, I have to admit that I felt a little ashamed and embarrassed during this presentation. The Iraq war has truly done permanent damage to the American image abroad, and it’s hard to blame members of the international population for not being overly receptive to US citizens.

It also must have been hard for the residents of Geneva to enjoy the hoodrat presence that some of the JSBPers and I brought to their clean and quiet streets.  

Keep it keepin people,

And I’ll keep hooding,

Love,

Mama’s Boy               

Dr. Attila Nyikos and the EU

School Blog 7

What’s been happening people? Anything going wrong in the real world these days?

Last Wednesday the JSBP crew and I got a chance to hear about some of the things that are going right in the world, which was a nice change of pace from the gloomy tales of Hungarian history that our ears are so often subject to.  We were lucky enough to hear a lecture from Dr. Attila Nyikos, who is the head of Hungary’s National Disaster Management International Relations department. He is a very important figure in the stratosphere of Hungarian government, and it was quite easy to come to that conclusion from his presence in the room.

Experts Pexterts

He plays the lead role in what he described as Hungary’s version of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in place in case of crisis in the US motherland). As a citizen of any nation it’s really easy to take for granted the idea that the government will always be there for you whenever the proverbial shit hits the fan. If a tsunami rips through Hampton I truly do feel like FEMA has got my back, and is prepared to help me in case of any such emergency. However, the logistical preparations and manpower that is required for any such operation is massive, and there needs to be an organized group of talented people in charge for any relief project to go smoothly.

            Dr. Nyikos is the luminous figure behind Hungary’s disaster management organization, and earlier this year he spent six months as the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Affairs president as well. This means that from his office in Geneva, Nyikos led the disaster management departments (the FEMAs) for every one of the twenty-seven European Union member nations. Nyikos and his team of EU statesmen were in charge of the preparations for relief in case any serious emergencies were to occur throughout Europe. They were also in the leadership position if any such civil adversities transpired, such as the Hungarian red sludge accident or the evacuation of EU citizens who were left homeless refugees in northern Africa due to Muammar Gaddafi’s terrorism in Libya.

Member Nations

Nyikos was an interesting character, and his recent work from within the European Union was extremely impressive to say the least. The European Union is a very polarizing organization. Most European’s feel an incredibly strong tie to their home country, and are not completely sold on the idea of a single European voice. When asked about the issue, Nyikos stated that the “EU is not perfect, but it’s the best we have”. However, after hearing him talk about the time he spent working within the EU my opinion is that it is truly a positive step for all European nationalities.

Nyikos and his teammates within the civil protection organization were often from different nations and spoke different mother tongues, yet they worked together as a unit towards common goals. I think that this is the most prominent feature of the European Union. Enhanced communication between Europeans of different nationalities is crucial for the continued peace and prosperity of this region. After hundreds of years of animosity and fighting between many of these diverse peoples it is time for mutual understanding to become solidified. Oftentimes when you actually have the chance of conversing with someone in person, that person (or persons) becomes very hard to blindly hate.

So word up European Union, keep up the communication and you’ll end up on the right side of history.

Love,

Mama’s Boy  

Dr. Lajos Korona

School Blog number 6

            Last Wednesday the JSBP crew and I got the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Lajos Korona, a highly esteemed lawyer in Budapest’s metropolitan public prosecutor’s office. Korona was a really nice guy, and was rocking a pretty sweet suit if I must say so myself. He gave us some excellent insights on the Hungarian legal system, crime trends in Budapest, as well as his job as a public prosecutor in particular.

The branch of the public prosecutor’s office that Lajos works for is in charge of the supervision of police investigations. Korona spends almost no time working in the courtroom, but his job is extremely important nonetheless. It can be argued that the most significant aspect of any successful criminal lawsuit lies within the police’s investigation of the specific occurrences of the case. Without the proper police work (ie. evidence collection, witness questioning) it is impossible to decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. Korona is in charge of overseeing the procedures of an investigation with the goal of making sure that there have been no illegalities committed by the state in its attempt to convict a criminal. Korona’s work is paramount to the success and transparency of any democratic legal process. He and his colleagues are involved in keeping the police accountable for their work, and assuring that they maintain honesty in their attempts to solve a crime. Without this key checkpoint in the Hungarian legal system there would be room for fraudulent investigative behavior, such as tampering with evidence or improperly investigating witnesses.

            Dr. Korona pointed out that there are very rarely any problems in the investigative work done by the rendorseg in Budapest. This could very well be due to the fact that his department is constantly overlooking each officer’s work to make sure that he or she is acting in a professional and honest manner throughout every criminal investigation. The many filters that are in place throughout Hungary’s criminal investigation process have been paramount in creating a fair and well-balanced legal system for all Magyars.

            Korona then went on to discuss the types of crime that are prevalent in modern day Budapest. He said that his department deals mostly with criminal investigations involving drug crimes, homicide, and high stakes property crime. Budapest is contaminated with these three categories of criminal activity, much like most major cities throughout the world. One form of crime that Korona discussed that I was not as familiar with, however, was human trafficking. In many cases, Hungarian women will be smuggled to various countries in Western Europe to become prostitutes. These girls are delivered to their future pimps though middlemen who participate in human trafficking for a living. Unfortunately, most of the Hungarian women who are delivered to places like the Netherlands and Sweden to be sold as prostitutes are doing so according to their own will, which makes this type of crime very hard to stop.

Women sold and bought

            A crime of this nature is shocking to me. The fact that many Hungarian women are willing to sell themselves in order to get to Western Europe is a truly scary thought. It is also a somewhat sad reflection of the desperate times that a large population of lower class Hungarians find themselves buried in. It was interesting to hear the perspective of someone who works within the Hungarian legal on such an issue. Korona seemed very sad about such a form of criminal behavior, but quite clearly affirmed that there wasn’t much to be done about it.
Some problems are too complex to be solved within the simple confines of a legal system. 

Keep it keeping my homies,

Love,

Mama’s Boy                 

Oktoberfest

Home Sweet Munich Night 1 

8:30 am

Table Friends

Tough Times

Hungarian Riot Rendorseg

Howdy y’all,

Sorry for the infrequent posts, I promise to put some Oktoberfest pictures up and provide some insightful comments about Munich by the end of this weekend. This post is for class, so please skip it if you’re not interested in the Hungarian riot police.

            Last Wednesdays on the team JSBP trip we visited the Hungarian riot police headquarters. We took a quick train ride a few stops past Keleti station and hopped off in front of the music venue that George Michael just played (our Hungarian friend Ildiko loves his smooth tunes). We entered a strange complex on a side street surrounded by massive walls topped with barbed wire and billboard signs. I must admit this was the first time I had ever seen a police station that took advantage of selling advertising space at the top of their building.

           

Yo Quite Badgering Me (get it, it's a badge)

Upon entering the headquarters we were greeted by countless uniformed cops, all of whom seemed very young and well put together. We later learned during a presentation about the station that much of Hungary’s future police force comes here for a yearlong internship after they graduate from school. Over the course of this year they train under some of the country’s best and brightest officers, many of whom work for this important branch of Hungarian law enforcement.

            Hungary’s riot police act more like a national police force than any normal US city or state SWAT team. They are often the first to be called in to action whenever there is any sort of problem within the country's borders. If there is a terrorist threat, the riot police are first to arrive on the scene. If there is an important member of the Hungarian government traveling amongst the public, the riot police provide the security. If there is a volatile situation in any county of Hungary, such as a bomb scare or a demonstration gone wrong, the riot police will be in charge of bringing the situation to grips.

            It was pretty cool to get an inside look at such a young country’s national police force. The riot police have been highly criticized here over the past few years. During 2006 there was a political up rise amongst the citizens of Hungary due to which the police were forced to react to with violence. Many felt as though their response was much too hostile. They used rubber bullets against Hungarian protesters in ways that many Europeans found to be unethical, and many Magyars were severely injured.

Hungarian Football (only one team gets helmets)

           The way that a police organization handles unruly citizens is an art that must be acquired over time. Police brutality is not isolated to Hungary and has been present throughout much of our own history (just ask Rodney King). The men and women of the Hungarian riot police seemed as though they had learned very much throughout their short span of existence, and I’m sure they will continue to find the right methods to ethically and effectively provide justice to the citizens of Hungary. They no longer use rubber bullets, which is definitely a step in the right direction (however, they did seem to be very fond of their ak-47 tear gas launchers).

Tear Inducing

But seriously kids, let's not start any riots in Hungary.

Keep it keepin and I’ll be back with more this weekend,

Love,

Mama’s Boy         

Terror Haza

            I was out at a bar a few nights back and I ended up having a drink with a young Hungarian named Attila. It seemed to me as if he had consumed quite a bit of alcohol throughout the day, as his mannerisms wailed emphatically throughout the room and his face poured with innumerable drops of sweat. Regardless of his blood alcohol content however, Attila was a pretty smart dude. He was an economics graduate student at Corvinus in the middle of his master’s thesis (which I think was entitled ‘why Russia sucks’) and had quite a bit to say about the world and its current state of affairs (at least it seemed like he had quite a bit to say at the time).

            

            We spoke about the Forint (the Magyar’s national currency) and why it was so incredibly low compared to the US Dollar and the Euro. He attempted to describe how throughout the Soviet Union’s 45-year occupation of Hungary the communist government had consistently borrowed money from other European banks in Hungary’s name. They did this because the their state-planned and -run economy thing didn’t really work out too well (hence the Union’s collapse). Attila said that Hungary was paying off its Soviet induced debts now, and would continue to be doing so for the foreseeable future. Not only is the barely 20-year-old Hungarian nation learning how to survive in the rapidly globalizing free market economy, but she is also paying off the debts of a government that brutally massacred her sons, daughters and political leaders. Attila didn’t seem bitter while he spoke of the hard times he and his fellow Hungarian’s are currently living through, or the ones that they will inevitably be forced to deal with in the future, but I certainly would’ve understood if he had been.

Later in the week I visited a place called the “Terror House” with the rest of team JSBP.

Andrassy ut 60

 The museum is located about four minutes from my apartment, on a bustling main street in downtown Budapest called Andrassy. Both the Nazis and the Soviets chose this same Neo-Renaissance apartment building as the headquarters for their political actions.

 In 1944 the Nazi’s took control of Budapest. The Hungarian Nazis were referred to as the “Arrow Cross”. During their time in this building, which they called the “House of Loyalty”, they tortured and murdered countless Hungarian Jews and disposed of their bodies into the Danube River.

Arrow Cross (Hungarian Nazis)

 In 1945 the Soviet Union took control of Budapest after the Allies defeated the Nazis. They chose to turn the fascist “House of Loyalty” into their own State Security Authority (AVH). Through this headquarters the communist leaders of Moscow terrorized the Hungarian people; brutally wiping out all political, ethnic, and philosophical opposition using torturous means in the basement of the Andrassy boulevard apartment building. The Soviet officers captured many of Budapest’s most esteemed minds and ruthlessly interrogated them until death, or rather chose to hang them in the corner room of their cellar prison cell. They also used this headquarters to spy on the Magyars, thus determining which one’s would be sent to their forced labor camps in Siberia (the Gulag).

It’s hard to believe that to this very day Hungarians continue to suffer from the Soviet rule, even if only indirectly. I was amazed that Attila wasn’t more emphatic in demanding some sort of compensation from the Russians. “We are a small country,” he said, “no one in the world cares about Hungary”.

Maybe the Red Scare was a little bit more justified than I thought.

Keep it keeping fools,

I’ll keep messing up abroad,

Love,

Mama’s Boy

          

               

Gypsy Punk

Parkesy boy (as I call him from time to time, due to his youthful charm and Backstreet Boy-esque good looks) and I went on a very eventful trip to Vienna this weekend. The ancient Austrian city seemed too clean and beautiful to be real. It was almost utopian with its imperial architecture and overly friendly people. But this is a subject to be discussed on a later date.

On the railjet ride from Keleti Station in Budapest to Austria I had a very interesting encounter. A very smelly man hopped on the train at one of the beaten up old stations in the outskirts of Hungary. He was a pretty interesting sight on the expensive train full of well-dressed passengers and expensive cups of coffee (the Euro really hurt my pocketbook). The man scurried through the cabin and sat in the seat directly across the aisle from me. With a jittery smile he asked me if I spoke English. I replied, “yes” hesitantly. The guy reeked of booze and it couldn’t have been past 9 am. I liked his style.

We went on to have a long conversation. He spoke very good English and was a genuinely nice and friendly dude. I helped him ride across the Austrian border by giving him alerts whenever a train employee was walking down the aisle. He would quickly flee to the bathroom and hide until the riff-raff had passed.

The man explained to me that he was a Romanian on the move to France. He didn’t have the money to ride the train so he hopped it at remote stops until the conductor’s assistants would kick him off. The guy had his whole life in his bag and was making his yearly migration to Paris, where he claimed he had a job lined up. We talked for quite some time until he got off at one of the first stops in Austria. “I just had to make it through Hungary”, he told me. He said that Hungarians hated his people, where as the Austrians and Swiss treated him well.

            This man was a member of an ethnic group that most people call Gypsies. They are widely dispersed throughout central Europe, and are often extremely disliked, especially here in Hungary. The common stereotype is that they are homeless and roam from place to place, and they often live in an unassimilated manner, on the outskirts of society. I had heard a lot about Gypsies since living here in Hungary. The local people seem to strongly dislike them, and the current government blames them for many of the countries issues (very much like illegally immigrating Mexicans in the US). A teacher of ours stated that the current Hungarian president ran for office promising to rid Hungary of their pest problem (ie. get rid of the Gypsies).

            It was very cool to hang with one of these people for a while after hearing so much about them. I personally had a great interaction with this particular Roma. I got along with him pretty well, and we had some interesting conversation. I wished him luck on his journey, and I hope he makes it to France soon.

            Anyway, on the next field trip for class we took a two-hour train ride to Eger, Hungary, to visit a local Hungarian prison there. The town was beautiful. The prison wasn’t exactly as pleasant. However, I don’t think there are many prisons that I would be too eager to walk through. They’re certainly not the most uplifting of places.

            We got a chance to take a tour of the prison, and were led by its governor. He was a very young person to be so high up in command at such a large prison, but within minutes after meeting him it was easy to understand why. Not only was he a very intelligent character, but he also truly seemed to care about the inmates of his prison.

            Eger is a pretty ancient village located in the Hungary’s wine country. The governor told us that the people of Eger were not always very pleased to have the prison in the middle of their town. The walls of the jail were intimidating and impenetrable, with massive barbwire linings to keep the prisoners in and the locals out.

The governor had started a program that was changing peoples’ minds about the inmates. He, along with the other guards, would take well-behaved prisoners out of their cells and into the town for community service projects. They had built playgrounds, cleaned roads and rivers, and had generally improved their relationship with the local community. The program had also helped each convict take steps to reintegrate into society, and improve their personal feelings of self-esteem.
What I drew from this trip was that the reason the prison warden had experienced so much success with both his inmates and the local community was because he was empathetic and open-minded. When he spoke of the convicts I could tell he cared for them and didn’t see them as animals, as many other people in his position may have. He had sympathy for the prison’s bleak atmosphere and overcrowding. He even expressed genuine feelings of hope that the convicts were capable of improving their lives following their prison sentence.

          
            It may be important for the general populace of Hungarians, along with their government, to try and have a more open-minded perspective when thinking of the Gypsies. Not every culture is the same. I’ve seen first hand how different two seemingly similar places like Hungary and the US can be. I’m not sure if Gypsies can truly be blamed for the problems that this country is experiencing in its youthful, post-Soviet capitalist economy. It’s easy to see the negatives with certain groups of underrepresented, poor people, such as Mexican immigrants or traveling Gypsies. But there are good and bad people of every ethnicity, and some Gypsies are pretty rad.

So leave your minds open for business fools!

And I’ll keep messing up abroad,

Love,

Mamas Boy   

Man that's a wicked Pisser Pissoir

Wien, Austria

Fif

Know your rights fools

Dr. Peter Hack

One of the perks of the JSBP program is that I’m required to write a blog post every week about the Wednesday lectures that we get to attend together as a group. There’s nothing I enjoy more than getting to sit down for a couple of hours and listen to an esteemed figure talk about the Hungarian legal system.

I’m just kidding around of course! I truly am lucky to be exposed to another country and some of its most prominent political leaders. Last Wednesday JSBP went to Corvinus and were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Peter Hack speak. Hack was on the Hungarian Parliament for more than a decade, and is an extremely accomplished law professor. He was a truly and entertaining and interesting speaker who managed to transfer quite a bit of information into my tiny brain during his quick lecture.

The Hungarian legal system is much different from our own. Hack was very honest about the European model of law, and made some succinct points about its advantages and disadvantages. Our own legal system is very much dependent on the events that take place while court is in session. Lawyers argue with one another in an attempt to win over the favorable opinions of a fully layperson jury. The Judge often acts as a mediator and master or courtly affairs. In the European (and specifically Hungarian) system, Judges, along with lawyers and police officers, rely mostly upon the pretrial investigation to determine whether a suspect is innocent or guilty. There very often are no laypeople involved in the process in any way shape or form.

The positives to eliminating the layperson jury from the trial process and having much of the decision-making power within the confines of the Judge’s mind are numerous. Oftentimes trials go by faster and more efficiently. Lawyers are likely to be more interested in finding the objective truth of the case, rather than simply being inclined towards winning for their client. The factor of jury bias is also eliminated from the process (e.g. the OJ trial- even though lets be honest, how many white men have been let off for murder in America’s history?)

The danger to the European system, in which Judges get to make the verdicts rather than juries, are that so called “objective” judges have the potential to be too powerful and jaded. Hack stated that he had a problem with the fact that young lawyers in Hungary never have to work outside of the court system before they become judges. A limited view of everyday people and a narrow perspective into the big picture of society outside of the legal system can lead to extremely cynical decision makers.

My takeaway- Don’t get arrested in Hungary fools.

Love,

Mama’s Boy   

Pannonia Allstars Ska Orchestra

Foolish Fools

Kid's just Pretty

St Stephens

How's your portfolio?

Get Alex Home 

St. Stephen, Right Hand of Hungary

Saint Stephen founded the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000. He brought Catholicism (western christianity) and the concept of the Holy Crown to the Magyars.
Saint Stephen's Basilica is one of the gnarliest and most well known buildings in Budapest. It houses the mummified right hand of Saint Stephen.
The massive Basilica steps also happen to be a popular spot for local Hungarians to go out and have a drink on a nice summer night. When asked why Hungarians like to go have a beer at this sacred location a local college kid stated, "because we don't really care about any of that stuff" and gave a lighthearted laugh.
Word up Hungary.
Out with the Old and in with the New.
Love,
Mamas Boy    

Words

I’m a 20-year-old Mama’s boy from New Hampshire and this is my blog about studying abroad in Budapest, and being Hungary.

It's been about eight days since my arrival here in the city and I'm finally starting to get the hang of this crazy place. This is my first European experience, it's my first urban experience, and it also happens to be the first time I've lived more than thirty minutes away from Darrylin (my lovely mother). There's been a bunch of European meanies out here yelling at me in their various assortments of strange languages, and my mom isn't here to tell them to ‘piss off’, so it's been a little startling to say the least.

Even though I've made quite a few central Europeans angry and have consistently been scared and embarrassed and everything in between, these eight or so days have been the most interesting of my life. It seems as though there's a little more to the world than I thought. It's even safe to say my former worldview may have been a little narrow and even somewhat small-minded. 

I had always heard rumors that many Europeans aren’t quite as fond of Americans as we may be of ourselves. However, it has been shocking to me to experience this sentiment firsthand. As a white male living in the northeastern part of the United States who has spent most of his adolescent years playing football, going to college, and partying with hotties (well, let’s make pretend on that last one) life has been fairly easy. I’ve been able to resist the idea of a world outside of my own upper-middle class suburban one for quite some time now. Being in Budapest has opened my eyes to the concept of being a little lower on the proverbial totem pole than what I’m used to.

As soon as I stepped foot off of the plane in Germany to catch my connecting flight to Budapest I was greeted by a few Lufthansa employees that were less than impressed by my Wailers shirt and American accent. Upon reaching Budapest the local Magyars weren’t the fastest to smile or lend a hand with directions to put it delicately. At first I reacted with internal horror at the general attitude of Europeans towards my presence (that of an over coddled and privileged young American cry baby). But as my time in Budapest has gone on and my experience has grown deeper I’m beginning to see things a little differently.

Hungarians haven’t exactly had it as easy as I have, and they haven’t quite experience the same spoiling as someone that grew up in the states. They also haven’t been protected inside the same easygoing and lighthearted bubble that I’ve had the great fortune to grow up within. Magyars have seen hard times. It was only about twenty years ago that the last of the Soviet ‘terrorists’ (as a young Hungarian girl referred to them as) left the city of Budapest. Most of the adults and elderly that I interact with on a daily basis have had the misfortune of living under the control of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin within their lifetime. It’s quite easy to see why not all Europeans are willing to go out of their way to help someone like me (someone who, unlike most Europeans, can only speak one language, at times even speaks that one poorly, and has never had to face any real adversity or misfortune).

I met an tremendously intelligent young man who was working in a store in Budapest the other day. He spoke impeccable English and couldn’t have been any older than 25. He had spent a year living in Colorado and said that he could make more money working for one year in the US than he could working twice as many hours for four years in Budapest. He felt as though there was no room to improve ones quality of life in Hungary, while in America with a little effort and wit the sky was the limit. He has been trying to get a visa ever since he left to go back to the US for good.

Young Europeans have been some of the nicest and smartest people that I’ve ever met. They have an incredible passion for learning. They love to discuss travel, culture, language and world politics, while most of my American conversations have regarded sports, girls, and general illegal or close to illegal shenanigans. One culture is not better than the other. But there are differences over here in Europe. People divide themselves and fight over things that aren’t as simple as baseball teams or home states. There is a history that is much, much older, and at times has been very cruel and hard to believe. But it’s important that as Americans we understand what our strengths are and express them to the world around us, rather than constantly exposing our weaknesses. Perhaps the best way for us to do this is to take more of an interest in the world around us, rather than ignoring it altogether. My week here has truly opened my eyes to many things. Hopefully I can express some of these things through this blog, but it is probably best for you (whoever you are) to come and experience them for yourself. The world is massive, multifaceted and is made up of lots of different kinds of people with many different stories to tell (so many so that my head is literally spinning after a week of being here).

Even a dummy like myself who has been stuck inside of a comfortable microcosm for years can come here and win some people over. All it takes is a week of struggling and a few awful attempts at Hungarian “hello”, “please” and “thank you”.

As a group we (Team JSBP UNH- lets lock it up) visited the US embassy and had a talk with one of our political consulates here in Hungary, Jay Truesdale. Jay’s main point seemed to be that as Americans we are telling our story the wrong way to Europe. We are a truly good and empathetic nation made up of kind people (not just dummy’s that only speak English). We need to take a step towards winning back the hearts and minds of our world neighbors. It’s time for us to move towards reclaiming our image as ambassadors of freedom and open mindedness. Much of that can come simply by taking an interest in the world around us. There are countries outside of the US, and they’re made up of some pretty interesting people. We can even learn a thing or two from them. Some of these people have seen some real stuff and deserve to be listened to - I’m just starting to figure that out for the first time.

Keep it keepin in the States and I’ll keep messing up Abroad.

Love,

Mama’s Boy