One of the treasured Hungaricums of my birth country is a special Tokaj wine called aszú, a sweet, topaz-colored wine. Aszú means “dried”, and the complex winemaking process uses botrytised (“nobly” rotten) grapes. This unique, special quality wine is cherished by millions all over the world, but I must confess, I never liked it. It is a bit too heavy, […]
President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500 Washington, DC October 10, 2014 Dear President Obama: As Founders and Spokespersons of the Canadian civil rights organization, – The Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter – we would like to take this opportunity to thank and to congratulate you and those in your Administration (in particular, Victoria Nuland, […]
András Schiffer, leader of Politics Can Be Different (LMP), a small green party, which just barely passed the 5% hurdle needed for representation in Parliament during national elections in April, berated the more prominent left-centre opposition parties and added that a decent opposition result in Sunday’s municipal vote was critical, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is to be ousted from […]
Members of the European Pariament have determined that Tibor Navracsics, Hungary’s previous foreign affairs minister and earlier the country’s justice minister, is not fit to serve as the European Union’s commissioner for culture and education. Mr. Navracsics was the first candidate to be rejected during the current round of hearings. BBC News noted that this was a major slap in […]
“There’s a country (namely, Hungary), which ever since the late 19th century has had a habit of ridding itself of entire sections of its population. If the targeted groups don’t realize what’s going on quickly enough and if they don’t flee, then their homeland may end up murdering them”–thus begins Örkény Theatre’s summary of its newest play, entitled “This Land […]
A new organization has been announced to support and promote Hungarian culture in Canada. The Extra Hungariam Foundation (yes, Hungariam) plans to create a foundation “of significant financial proportion” which will provide perpetual funding to support Hungarian cultural activities in Canada. “Extra Hungariam non est vita,” in Latin, means “there is no life outside Hungary.” (You may find the foundation’s […]
The Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter (CHDC) was present at a roundtable discussion hosted by Carleton University’s Centre for European Studies, in Ottawa. The roundtable, held on September 29th, 2014, explored avenues of international cooperation among Visegrád 4 countries. Considering the Orbán government’s overt move away from western-style liberal democracy and nearly constant international controversy, the Charter’s three spokespersons present at the event — […]
Tibor Szanyi, currently a Member of the European Parliament and one of the most prominent politicians in the Hungarian Socialist Party, reportedly entertained a group of far right-wing bikers in Brussels this summer. The story is so bizarre, that one would be inclined to think that it was made up by a talented political satirist. Mr. Szanyi, after all, is […]
Budapest’s National Theatre (Nemzeti Színház) is marking the hundredth anniversary of the First World War I with a play based on a largely unknown piece written by Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952). The early twentieth century author is a household name in Hungary, thanks in large part to his coming-of-age novel, The Paul Street Boys (1907), which is essentially canonical young adult […]
The Canadian War Museum, in partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation, is opening an exhibit on the internment of Eastern Europeans, including Hungarians, from 1914 to 1920. This represented Canada’s first national internment operations, which resulted in the creation of 24 internment camps, most in remote locations, and the internment of over 8,000 Europeans from the lands of the Austro-Hungarian […]
