On Friday, July 21 the British Academy announced sixty six of the “world’s leading minds” as new Fellows of the Academy. George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management; Founder and Chairman, Open Society Foundations is a new Honorary Fellow. The announcement noted that Fellows of the British Academy represent the very best of humanities and they contribute to research of social […]
I visit Budapest every year and enjoy my stay there although the Hungarian way of doing business bothers me. Here’s a story about the US Swim Team that illustrates how business is done in Budapest. (Read details here in Hungarian.) Small corruption was always part of life in Hungary. In the old days when I bought produce at the market, I knew when […]
Sometimes in Canada we have a tendency to see ourselves as exceptional when it comes to our model of multiculturalism and diversity. Yet societies throughout the world have found ways to handle diversity for centuries. In late June, I spent a week travelling along the Black Sea Coast, visiting Romania and Bulgaria. I was fortunate to have a private guide […]
One of the hallmarks of the Orbán regime is the systemic and blatant nature of corruption involving key Fidesz political leaders, their oligarchs and the party’s media empire. In this context, one can only imagine how frustrating and infuriating it must be for someone like Zsolt Császy, the victim of a show trial, to have to serve a prison sentence […]
Hungary is spending $1.7 million (463 million forints) to help restore Christian churches in Lebanon, according to government records. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has instructed the Minister of the National Economy to transfer this amount, as the Hungarian government aims to help Lebanon’s Christian minority continue living in their own country and also wants to play a role in preserving […]
Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, has told his diplomats to charm influential decision makers everywhere, and use every opportunity to convince the world that his image is distorted in the Western media. At home Mr. Orbán is winning far-right voters with revved up racist, anti-Muslin and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Overseas he is advertising a moderate image, as a politician who has […]
According to the results of the latest Republikon poll, this time exploring party preferences among Budapest residents, if it were just up to the Hungarian capital’s voters, Hungary would have a left-centre or liberal government following the spring 2018 elections. Fully 35% of all Budapest residents indicated that they prefer a new left-centre government, while 27% would rather see Prime […]
Viktor Orbán thinks that Muslim immigrants are a threat to Europe because they are unable “to integrate into Western societies.” He has said that Muslim immigration is “the Trojan horse of terrorism” and has issued a stark warning that Western civilization and “Christian identity” is in danger. Hungary won’t let in Muslim immigrants at all. *** I heard the shocking […]
Zsolt Bayer, the prominent publicist, the co-founder of the ruling Fidesz party and close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced that Hungary must exit the European Union. He went further, calling the EU “a scalding pigsty.” Mr. Bayer was speaking to the local television station of the northeastern town of Miskolc, where he said: “If the EU continues along […]
As an American of Hungarian origin I hope that the USA Swim team will succeed in Budapest at the upcoming 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships. The competition will start this weekend and lasts two weeks. I also wish good luck to the Hungarian team. To be honest I would have been happier if Hungarian-born Katinka Hosszú would compete in US […]
