This Father’s Day and the Euro 2016 games, in which Hungary made a historic soccer comeback, beating Austria and achieving a tie with Iceland, brought back some memories for Montreal-based poet Endre Farkas of his own father, and of his days in a World War II labour camp… Father’s Day, June 19, 2016 My son is watching Eurocup soccer 2016. […]
Máté Kocsis, Mayor of Budapest’s 8th District and the ruling Fidesz party’s president in the Hungarian capital, launched another homophobic tirade, after a court ruled that a liberal politician’s suggestion that the Fidesz politician was gay did not qualify as defamation. In 2015, we covered the conflict between Klára Ungár and Máté Kocsis, and the Fidesz mayor’s hysterical reaction to […]
We have not often published obituaries in the past, but as a Hungarian news site based in Canada, we are certainly interested in remembering Hungarian Canadians and Canadians with close ties to Hungary, especially when they have lived such a colourful life, as did Jean Tatay (1926-2016). Jean Rabone Tatay (nee Hawthorn and formerly Gawn) August 12, 1926 – June […]
Before Coca Cola was introduced to Hungarian consumers in 1968, and prior to Pepsi’s 1970 debut in socialist Hungary, the young and the old alike drank and presumably enjoyed an orange soda called Bambi. Earlier today, being in Budapest, I decided to stop by one of my favourite retro-themed cafés–Ibolya Presszó, located in Ferenciek tere–and give Bambi a try, alongside […]
The Hungarian Socialist Party (Magyar Szocialista Párt – MSZP) is at a juncture in its history. After June 25th, the newly minted MSZP president will play a critical role in deciding whether or not the party will join forces once again with other smaller, left-centre parties in 2018, in an effort to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Fidesz. Two […]
This week, Homa Hoodfar, my professor emeritus colleague at Concordia University (Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.) was arrested by the notorious Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and denied the protection that all members of the United Nations, who are signatories of the 1947 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the government of Iran, have sworn to uphold. My colleague […]
I am travelling to Budapest later this month and I’m scheduled to give two public talks in Hungarian, to very different audiences, yet on interrelated topics. Both events are open to the public and all are welcome! On Saturday, June 18th at 2:00 PM in Budapest’s Köztársaság tér, or Republic Square (now formally re-named II. János Pál pápa tér, after […]
Júlia Mira Lévai is a liberal journalist and author, who was a regular contributor to the now folded Galamus Csoport online news site. On Monday, she wrote a column for the hvg.hu news magazine, in which she referred to recent comments by Tibor Navracsics, a Fidesz politician and currently the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, as a “bombshell.” Mr. […]
Recently Hungary introduced a new holiday – National Cohesion Day to commemorate the “dire consequences” of the Trianon Peace Treaty, signed on June 4, 1920, following Austro-Hungary’s defeat in World War I. The Treaty was the result of The Peace Conference in Paris where Allied Powers negotiated the peace terms with the defeated Central Powers. Today historians agree that the […]
The contrast between two Transylvanian towns — Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) and Marosvásárhely (Târgu-Mureș) could not be greater. Multicultural Kolozsvár, now that it has completely shaken off the rather dark years of ultranationalist mayor Gheorghe Funar (1992-2004), is truly unique in the region. Its city centre is bustling with students, dotted with every variety of cafés, pubs and restaurants, it attracts large […]
