Csáó, MSZP!

Hungarians bid adieu to the Socialists, who essentially drove the country into the ground over the last eight years. That said, no one knows yet how far into Middle Earth Hungary will be after the next eight years under Fidesz-Jobbik. Még lattjük!

Mi lesz?

It is 2 am, and the polls were supposed to close seven hours ago. The OVB (Orszagos Valasztasi Bizottsag) 'decided' to keep 'certain' polling stations 'open' past the closing time. However, it hasn't exactly been made clear which ones, nor has it been announced exactly why. Someone mumbled something about staying open for 'those voting outside of their normal polling places.' Something is rotten in the state of...

Send us your poor, your elderly...as long as they are registered voters

In American political circles, soccer moms, security moms, and hockey moms are the desired demografics. In Hungarian political circles, pensioners are the holy grail of politicians.

'Pensioners,' a combination of retirees and workers on permanent disability (there are a lot more of the latter than you would assume...), are similar to American Senior Citizens in their high voter participation habits and loyal allegiance to one party. For the last twenty years, or since the fall of Communism, their allegiance has remained with the Socialist Party (MSzP). The same politicians who were mid-level party bosses under Communism are now in charge of the Socialist Party, and they have been in power for the last six years.

The last six years have not been kind on the Hungarian populace. The Socialists ran the budding free market economy into the ground, and then lied about it. A $27 billion bailout was required, but still, the Socialists were kept in office. At this point, with Hungarian arch-rival Slovakia already on the Euro, Hungarians are starting to wake-up and realize that they are no longer the poster child for post-Communist states.

Hence, the Socialists, as I mentioned previously, are about to completely lose power. The one thing that could prevent this? A massive turnout of pensioners voting in favor of the Socialists. And how to ensure this happens? Thinly veiled threats, like the one above. A picture of a traditional sheepskin cap representing a male pensioner and a scarf for a female pensioner with the headline "We will guarantee the safety of the monthly pensioner's check." It continues

The world economic crisis drastically reduced state revenues. So that the pensioner's monthly check does not come into danger, the New Socialist government has assured the check has a solid base. We introduced a new premium on January 1st, which has increased monthly checks an average of 4.1%, and we will continue to make cost of living corrections to the program, too. The political left will not allow the needy elderly's subsistence to come into danger, even in times of crisis.

And if you vote for the other side, good riddance and good luck.

The Hungarian Election is rapidly approaching. Though the Fidesz Party is expected to easily win - perhaps even with a two thirds super-majority - the campaign period up to the election will nonetheless be a bloodbath. Hungarians will shed their apathetic masks just long enough to sling sh*t at each other for two months (sorry to swear, but there is no better description).

As with any campaign, massive amounts of money is spent on advertisements. The first of these started appearing after the holiday season. MSzP (the Magyar Szocialista Párt), the party currently in power, has been running a series of baseball-card-style ads in which they show a portrait style photo of a politician (or two, or three), their name, and the party emblem all in front of a red, white and green striped background (the flag of Hungary - essentially an Italian flag turned horizontal). The design is quite simple and makes no mention of any platform or role the politician on display might hold, not even the word 'szocialista' is written out.

I took the above photograph a few weeks ago, after a few days of snow had left a quiet blanket over the city. It was still early in the election season (Hungary does not have a long, drawn out, eighteen month marathon but a quick, bloody six week battle), but Hungarians were still making sure their opinion was seen, and not heard. You may notice that the faces in the billboard above are pocked with snowballs.

Today I returned to the scene on my way to work (actually, I return almost every weekday). The snow has melted, but bright yellow paint was left in its place. Along the mens' chests, someone had spray-painted "HÁZA ÁRULÓK" - 'national traitors,' or more literally 'traitors of their own home.' By the time I walked home, the political advertisement was gone, an advert for Aldi's weekly special on chicken meat in its place.

The Székely Gate to Heaven

According to the EU, the UN, and the Treaty of Trianon, Debrecen sits less than thirty kilometres from the Hungarian-Romanian border. According to most Hungarians, Romania doesn't start for at least another 800 kilometres. The region in question, Transylvania, has been disputed for several hundred years. I do not dare dip my toe into the pool of Hungarian revisionism, so to sum up, Transylvania has a mixed population of Hungarians, Romanians, Saxon Germans, and Roma. The proportions of each population ebb and flow as time marches on. Today, the Romanians are numerically the majority.

Believe whatever you want to believe about Transylvania: the culture of the region remains inherently unique. One facet of the region's folk architecture is the Székely Kapu, or the Székely Gate. The Székely are a group believed to have been sent to the outer eastern reaches of the Transylvanian Carpathian mountains to guard the border. According to Hungarians, they were guarding the border of Hungary. However, until the Ausgleich of 1867, Transylvania was a separate principality - a separate entity from the rest of Hungary. Hungarians also like to claim the Székely as 'true Hungarians,' it the more likely version of events is that they were a Turkic tribe 'Magyarized' in the Middle Ages. I do not profess to be a Historian, so I will end my explanation here.

No matter where they came from or what their blood line is, the Székely gates are a beautiful example of folk architecture. In 1920, after the Treaty of Trianon ceded Transylvania to Romania, many Hungarians left the region as refugees. For many, the destination of choice was Debrecen: a market town near to the new border. In addition, several faculties of the university in Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca, were transferred into the university at Debrecen. As refugees, they brought only their most important possessions - often-times including their gates. Hence, Debrecen has quite a few of these old gates built into 1920s-era homes. I walk past two daily: the one pictured is a block over, and a second is right below my living room window. Unfortunately, the second gate's ancient cultural origins are somewhat occluded by modern Hungarian cultural norms: affixed to the Székely Kapu below my window is a neon sign for the "Erotika Barlang" - "Erotic Cave."

And on the way home...

Returning from Budapest this weekend, I was surprised - if not frightened - by the police presence on and around my train. As I climbed aboard, two armed Budapest policemen followed me, and proceeded to check or lightly search the entire length of the train. It wasn't clear what they were looking for, or if they were looking for anything at all. As they worked, ten to fifteen other cops stood alongside the train car armed and dressed in full riot gear. In these situations, I try to normally take my social cues from the Hungarians around me: if the nénis (old ladies, literally "aunties") are whispering wildly or if the old men stand up and puff their chests, it is generally a good idea to get anxious. But no one on the train looked too worried - so I tried to forget about it and continue puffing away at my book. After all, several of the policemen were puffing away at the Hungarian hobby of choice, Marlboro Lights.

About half way through the three hour ride, I got up to stretch my legs. As I walked to the end of the car, I noticed three men (all in the nascent beer belly stage) wearing black cargo shorts,

boots, and black t-shirts - with the Árpád zászló across the chest.

A quick note: The Árpád zászló (the Arpad flag) was the flag of the first Hungarian dynasty, the Árpád dynasty. Though the dynasty only lasted about three centuries, the flag is in use today as a small part of the

Hungarian state seal. According to the state, the four silver stripes represent the "four rivers of Hungary - the Duna, the Tisza, the Dráva, and the Sáva." No official explanation is given for the four red ones between them...

The Árpád flag was also used by the Arrow Cross Party in the 1940s - Hungary's equivalent of the Nazis. Though is disappeared after World War II, it has returned to popularity in recent years as a symbol of the right-wing, which is increasingly synonymous in Hungary with the ultra-nationalists.

The Magyar Garda, a nascent 'militia' of formed by ultra-nationalists to "defend a physically, spiritually and intellectualy defenceless Hungary," is perhaps the most fervent user of the Árpád flag. Their goal has also been summed up as keeping "Hungary for the Hungarians," and they act as the uniformed arm of the rising political party Jobbik (which loosely translates to "Better"). They have been swearing in new members at induction ceremonies around Hungary (often in places of historical and cultural significance) for the past two years, though they were recently outlawed by the Supreme Court on July 2, 2009. Technically, since the group's prohibition by the court, they are no longer allowed to congregate or wear the uniform in public. However, their activities have continued (albeit on private property), and often involves the donning of the official uniform: black combat pants, black boots, white shirt, and a black vest with an Árpád-style shield on the left chest and back.

This brings us back to the three men on the train: wearing all black with the Arpad flag t-shirt. While an uncommon t-shirt design (for that matter, it is very popular on all types of consumer products: bumper stickers, pins, necklace and bracelet charms, bandannas, coffee mugs, etc...the direct Hungarian equivalent of the Stars and Bars), it is uncommon to see three men all wearing the same one at the same time. Was this what the police were looking for?

When we arrived in Debrecen three hours later, I hopped off the train and to my surprise came face-to-face with another Hungarian policemen: except this one was completely covered in Teflon (even his steel-toed boots had their own covers) armor with a bullet-proof motorcycle-style helmet. He too was holding a rather large gun, and had a truncheon attached to his leg armor. He had brought his friends, too: about twenty-five of them, spaced every two meters along the side of the train. They looked like a row of transformers (woo hoo early nineties toy shout-out!). I walked through the ranks, and proceeded on my way home, unstopped, though saw more cops, cop cars, and army vans in the parking lot.

I still am unsure if the police presence was actually linked to the three men in pseudo-Magyar Garda uniform. As I mentioned above, it is truly a common symbol in contemporary Hungary, for better or for worse (probably worse). Nonetheless, as I was out on my evening run/jog/walk/crawl, I noticed the stadium and bars filled for a soccer match. Apparently, it was the Ferencvaros (also known as "Fradi," a Budapest team) versus Debrecen game. Though I don't know exactly where the Venn diagram of soccer hooligans and ultra-nationalists meets, it is a safe bet there is quite a bit of overlap.

Relevant Links:

Der Speigel Article on Magyar Garda Founding Ceremony in 2007 (in English)

Politics.hu Article on Supreme Court Ban and Subsequent Appeals (in English)

“The State Department spokesman described the meeting as 'frank and candid,' the diplomatic vocabulary for 'brutal.'”

- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga (Page 120)

I have just finished reading a fantastic book, and I feel the need to scream from the mountain-tops to tell everyone to read it. Therefore, prepare your ears for some serious yodeling from the vicinity of Hungary until you go pick-up and read Boutros Boutros-Ghali's Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga. I picked this book up from the bargain book box on the porch of the House of Our Own bookstore a few days before I left. As I was in need of cheap books to read on the plane/train/horse-cart that did not need to be returned to a Penn library, the $2 price tag seemed appropriate for a used hard-cover book that most likely last saw use as some grad student's doorstop. However, when I finally, albeit reluctantly, started to read it, I felt like I had immediately made a new friend in Boutros. I even kept saying in my head, “Maybe I will go spend a little time with Boutros; see what he has to say”...in the next couple chapters. Did I mention I was a diplomacy dork?

My two favorite distinguishing features of the book were the enlightening descriptions of Madeline Albright - “Albright rolled her eyes and made a face, repeating what had become her standard expression of frustration with me” - and the incredible portrayal of just how destructive Great Power politics were to the Yugoslavian peace processes between 1991 and 1996. Although I recently took a class of Great Power politics and the Balkans, I had not come to realize how closely linked the more personal aspect of diplomacy – specifically its failure – was to the actual length of the 1990s Balkan War. Heretofore I believed that the three year length of the initial Serbia-Croatia-Bosnia war was linked to the internal players: Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić, Franjo Tudjman, Alija Izetbegovic, and the like. However, Boutros-Ghali portrays continued combat past 1992 as a symptom of the George H.W. Bush – Bill Clinton political hand-off. Clinton and his newly appointed Department of State were loathe to support the Vance-Owen plan, which had been created only a few months earlier by Bush's State Department. Nonetheless, it still represented the best chance at peace – both at the time, and over the entire three year period.

“Worse [than rejected the Vance-Owen plan], the chances of peace being thrown away, as Clinton and [Warren] Christopher, using strong language, attacked the Vance-Owen plan as appeasement of the Serbs. They were wrong. The plan delineated a ten-province structure that would reflect all groups fairly, reconstituting Bosnia as a multiethnic and progressively demilitarized state. It would have blocked the Serb goal of creating a 'Greater Serbia.'” (Page 69)

The idea of the 'Greater Serbia' was espoused first in Ilije Garašanin's Načertanije, a mid-nineteenth century document written to solidify the idea of a Serbian nationality and identity in the face of the Ottoman Empire. It was pretty much forgotten for much of the twentieth century until the late 1980s, when Slobodan Milošević dredged from the annals of national memory. At the time, the Federal Yugoslavian state was waning in the decade after Tito's death. Milošević used the ideas inherent in the document to awaken the Serbian nationality that lay dormant underneath the 'Yugoslavian.' It worked: he became President of Serbia, and the Serbian nationality was so awake and alert it attempted to conquer the rest of Yugoslavia to create the 'Greater Serbia' mentioned above. The wavering of the Americans only helped the Serbians in the long run:

"Asked to explain what the United States intended [in lieu of the Vance-Owen plan], former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger said he thought the United States wanted to reduce the 43 percent of the territory that the Vance-Owen plan gave the Serbs. It would take two and a half more years of bloody war and war crimes before the United States, at Dayton, would give the Serbs 49 percent.” (Page 71)

Boutros-Ghali portrays the Clinton administration as inconsistent, unprofessional, and difficult to deal with in nearly all aspects of foreign affairs. While this might be rather severe, he makes a pretty good case. It is also not altogether too surprising, considering Clinton was elected solely on a domestic issues platform. It's the economy, stupid!

Another fantastic quotation from the book:

“Air power is an unusually seductive form of military strength because, like modern courtship, it appears to offer gratification without commitment.” (American military expert Elliott Cohen, as quoted by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Page 142)

And, to end, a short story on the hazards of multi-linguistics:

“Our conversation was conducted in French...After we hung up, Fulci [Italian Ambassador to United Nations at the time], at a noon press conference, declared that I had 'suspended' my candidacy. In French and also in English the word means a provisional hiatus, or interruption. But the American media immediately took it to mean that I had dropped out or removed my name from consideration...commentary indicated that I had withdrawn entirely...I disagreed. But the damage was done.” (Page 324)

Unfortunately, this story is rather apropos in my life, considering a recent specific personal/professional problem caused by a hole in the language barrier. I feel your pain, Boutros. The damage was done. I can only hope that I too will be 'unvanquished.'