Hungary Today recently published an interesting interview with Pál Demény, a demographer who is researching population trends. The 85-year-old Demény left Hungary in 1956, lived in the US and now has decided to retire to Budapest. (Read here.) He was born in Nyíregyháza, went to university in Budapest and in 1961 received a PhD in Economics from Princeton. Demény has […]
Northern California is slowly rebuilding after last November’s deadly wildfires and according to experts it could take years to recover. The fires destroyed 9,000 structures and killed about 50 people. The fire hit the picturesque wine region of California where several dozen wineries were damaged or destroyed. I was relieved to learn that the oldest winery of the area, the […]
In the last few years Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary has talked about how Europe is being overrun by people from Asia and Africa and of the importance of “ethnic homogeneity.” Mr. Orbán says that Hungary is for Hungarians; the country doesn’t need foreigners or immigrants. According to him “Christianity is Europe’s last hope” and Hungary is the bastion […]
Hungary’s Roma minority has doubled in size over 25 years, according to a study conducted by researchers at Debrecen University for an academic journal entitled Területi Statisztika. What makes this study truly compelling is its unique methodology. Numbers compiled during the national census routinely underestimate the size of Hungary’s Roma community–the country’s largest minority group–as respondents often choose not to […]
For the first time since 1980, Hungary has won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, thanks to the performance of a four-man team in short track speed skating in Gangneung, South Korea. The team set an Olympic record of 6 minutes 31.971 seconds in the men’s 5,000 metre relay and its members included Viktor Knoch and Csaba Burján, as well as […]
The film director, Quentin Tarantino is in trouble. He is accused of negligence by actress Uma Thurman, who says that he bullied her into driving an unsafe car that crashed in the set of Bill Kill. She also says that he spit in her face and choked her with a chain. It is also alleged that he tried to strangle […]
Hungarian State Opera director Szilveszter Ókovács thinks that George Gershwin’s all-black cast requirement today is racist. Porgy and Bess was first staged on Broadway in 1935; the music was composed by George Gershwin and the libretto was written by his brother Ira Gershwin in collaboration with DuBose Heyward, who wrote the original story. The authors prescribed an all-black cast for […]
On 22 January 1823 the great poet Ferenc Kölcsey completed the text of the Hungarian National Anthem. Since 1989 this date is celebrated as the National Day of Hungarian Culture and the history of the National Anthem is an example of the country’s diversity. The official music for the anthem was composed by Ferenc Erkel as part of a competition […]
Inner city Budapest, specifically the area that during World War II served as the Budapest ghetto for as many as 70,000 Hungarian Jews, is today party central for scores of British men on stag weekends and other western European millennials who take discount flights to the Hungarian capital, in search of a cheap getaway. The area attracts some 150,000 to […]
Hungarians often wish each other a peaceful Christmas (“békés Karácsonyt”) and in a country with a tragic history that is still within living memory, this is an apt greeting. This is especially true if we recognize that there can only be true peace where there is justice or, more precisely, in societies that strive to be just towards those who […]
