Another Betrayal

 

 

My family and I left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution on November 8th, 1956. Hungary was the very first Soviet satellite state to fight back, and the entire revolution was remarkable for that reason alone. Hungarians were the only ones with the courage to do so.   

We lived in Szenttgothard on the Austrian border. During the revolution of 1956, it was easy for us to leave. The border was open, and we just walked across. My brother, who was fourteen then, carried me, and my father carried several suitcases. My mother and grandmother carried down quilts and pillows.  I remember wearing woollen shorts and always being cold.  My father, an engineer, was forced to shovel gravel for work as he was at loggerheads with one of the members of the communist party. 

Others all over Hungary also fled, fleeing communist oppression.  For many, it was an arduous journey because they feared the borders closing again quickly and were terrified the border guards might begin shooting.  Several hundred thousand left the country during those terrifying couple of weeks.  They became important citizens of other nations, such as Canada, the United States, and Australia. In many cases, they were the cream of the crop of Hungarian society, scientists, doctors, and entrepreneurs who went on to achieve greatness abroad.  Most fled oppression and the constraints of the communist dictatorship, which they could not tolerate.  They wanted freedom. 

We left Hungary and came to Canada, but we brought Hungary with us.  We have brought our language, culture, and consciousness, and we will always be Hungarians in our hearts.  But we are also now Canadians and proud of the incredible freedoms we now enjoy.  We are forever indebted to Canada.  

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 failed.  Thousands of Russian soldiers, many from Mongolia, poured into Budapest, and The freedom fighters in Budapest, young men and women, and children were later tortured and killed by the Kadar communist regime.  Three weeks of freedom ended abruptly.  The cries from Radio Hungary to the free world for help were not heeded.  Soldiers patrolled the borders again, and Hungary went into darkness for another thirty-five years. 

The young freedom fighters, whose bodies piled up each day at the Janos hospital, remained silent as their parents came to see their dead children and wept at their feet. 

Today, Hungarian politicians such as Balasz Orban, an advisor to the fascist mafia government of Victor Orban (no relation), say the young freedom fighters died in vain.  They should not have rebelled but put down their weapons in defeat, surrendering to oppression with joy and willingness.  They say the same about the Ukrainian people whom Russia invaded.  The Hungarian government thinks it is acceptable for Russia to invade its neighbour. 

Of course, the Hungarian government is now a proxy for Russia, supporting all things Russian.  The prime minister is a Russian informant and a Trojan horse within NATO and the European Union.  As we contemplate today’s Hungary, the freedom fighters of 56 are raising their fists from out of their graves.  One of Hungary’s most courageous initiatives, ingrained in the nation's consciousness, is simply folly according to the current Hungarian government.  Victor Orban and his friends have no right to speak of freedom.  They care nothing for the Hungarian people save for stealing their dignity, pride and wealth to enrich themselves and their families. 

Shame on them. 

 

 

 

Is Hungary Bailing out Trump?

Orban with Graffiti.  Gabor Gasztonyi 2019.  

Hungarian Prime minister Victor Orban is flying to Donald Trump’s private residence in Mara Lago Florida next week.  Presumably, he will travel on a military jet, immune from border and customs regulations.  Trump has recently been fined over 500 million dollars in fines over illegal activities in New York state.  To file an appeal,  Trump must put 110 per cent of the fine in trust to the court.  Trump suggested he post a 100 million dollar bond instead.   This was denied by the judge involved.  He seems unlikely to have the funds to cover his appeal and will likely have to sell assets in New York or elsewhere.  He might also declare bankruptcy. 

As a former president of the United States, the fact that he is in so much financial jeopardy puts him in a state of security risk for the nation.  Having a friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin, which he has demonstrated in the past, calling him very intelligent and at one point praising his invasion of Ukraine, he is now a compromised target.  Recently, he said he would encourage Russia to invade NATO countries which do not pay their fair share in defence spending. 

Victor Orban, a close friend of Putin who acts as Putin’s Trojan Horse in Europe and operates Hungary as if it were a Mafia state, just as his friend Putin does in Russia, is possibly an intermediary in this compromise.  Putin, a former KGB agent, understands only force, violence and clandestine operations.  The most extraordinary clandestine operation in history would be to have Donald Trump secretly under the command of Russia.  If this were so, the United States would not support Ukraine in its war with Russia under the Trump administration.  He has admitted to this and presumably many of the sanctions against Russia would be removed.  Putin would be a clear winner, allowing him to move forward and seize all of Ukraine, which he believes is historically Russia itself, and encircle it within his Mafia regime.  Putin’s goal is to recover the complete territory of the old USSR and somehow assemble a new Russian Empire.  He likens himself to Peter the Great and wishes this legacy for himself.  He will stoop at nothing to attain that end. 

Lorincs Mezaros, the wealthiest man in Hungary, was originally a gas fitter and a childhood friend of Victor Orbans's.  All construction contracts in Hungary filter through his companies.  These contracts are primarily awarded without proper bidding, and much of the final work completed is of a shoddy nature with inflated pricing and riddled with corruption.  The Mezaros companies are a mechanism to steal money from the country and put it in the hands of Victor Orban and his friends and family.  The European Union considers Hungary one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.  Mezaros also owns a bank, MBH, which he obtained last year through a series of secret and clandestine manoeuvres.  Perhaps he can lend or give Donald Trump the money to post as a bond and allow him to launch his appeal.  Is there a possible direct link to Putin himself in this potentially bizarre arrangement?  Is Orban simply acting as a messenger under diplomatic guise.  We probably will never know.  But we should be cognizant of the possibilities.  Nothing should surprise us in an increasingly Mafia world. 

Sadly, the new political model for the world in our new century is not democracy but Mafia-based regimes.   Countries like Russia, Iran, China, Hungary, North Korea, and, to some extent, India are moving to this bizarre criminal structure.  It is very difficult for democratic countries to engage with other countries that rely on criminal models for their existence.  They only understand violence and power. They have no understanding of justice. 

We wonder if there are Russian gold bars on Orban’s Military aircraft when it lands in Florida. 

I would not be surprised. 

 

 

Hungary: A Small Population in a Larger World.

As one learns more about Hungarians and Hungary, I often wonder why the country continues to elect a dictator, Victor Orban, and his government to power.  It is not an easy question, and many of the answers include his control of the media and his unwavering connection to the people of the countryside of Hungary, who, despite the highest inflation in Europe and rampant poverty, continue to support him.

The Orban family and the friends of the government have enriched themselves lavishly even as many Hungarians have been unable to heat their homes in the winter and buy food at reasonable prices.  The gasoline prices are some of the highest in Europe, teachers and nurses are the most underpaid in the EU and highway tolls have nearly doubled in the past year.  The government has befriended the criminal regime of Vladimir Putin, recently signing new gas purchase deals and further enhancing an atomic energy project. Many of the large government agencies, including the gas utility MVM, are state-owned or, more correctly, partially state-owned, with friends of the government taking large stakes in almost all regulated entities with consistent cash flow.  The heating gas prices in Hungary are some of the highest in Europe,

Teaches Protesting at the October 23rd Demonstration in Budapest 2023. 

 
Even though the Orban government has repeatedly said that the supply deal with Russia is the cheapest possible.  It is a state modelled under the rules and ethics of a Mafia organisation.  The history of Hungary does tend to explain many of these anomalies.

Hungary has had a complicated history going back to the Turkish invasion of the 1600s.  Having fought on the German side in WWI and again in WWII, Hungary lost much of its land and now occupies only one-third of the original Kingdom of Hungary.  After WWII Hungary fell into the hands of communism and has always remained suspicious and skeptical of the Western Powers.  The revolution of 1956 was thwarted quickly by the Russians, and although Hungary called for help from the West, no one came and answered the call.  Hungarians were left alone and suffered the brutal recriminations and revenge of the Russian-installed puppet government.  

I would argue that as a result of the historical suffering, the Hungarian people are in a state of post-traumatic stress syndrome or PTSD, a condition perfect for the creation of a dictator and the inability of the population to rid themselves of such a dictatorship.  The government propaganda machine is unbelievably efficient, having taken over all media by friends of the state.  Much of this is modelled under the Russian propaganda system, where almost all the lies of the state are believed.  In fact, I spoke with one gentleman, not uneducated, who firmly believed that the United States created the Ukrainian war in order to make money by selling arms.  

Man watching Teachers Demonstration. 

Many of these lies are believed and made into mythological truths that reinforce the idea that the aggressive government currently in power is the only one that can maintain stability and a national identity.  Coupled with an inherent suspicion of the West by a tiny population whose language and way of life are under threat, it is comforting for many to support the nationalism promulgated by the current government.  When Orban reels against the EU and the United States, many people here feel good about that rebellious tendency and its nationalist quality.  

The Frankfurt school Sociologist, Bruno Bettleheim, after WWII, came up with the concept of Identification with the Aggressor or the idea that those that are subjugated soon learn to copy the behaviour of those aggressive to them as a form of survival.  Much of that is evident in today's Hungary.

Hungary: The Politics of Lies

 

On the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, October 23^rd 2021, the Hungarian government of Victor Orban decided to have a so-called Peace March in downtown Budapest on the prominent corner of Andrassy and Bajci-Zillinsky streets.  As I walked along Andrassy, one of the main streets of Budapest and a Unesco heritage site.  Buses parked on both sides of the road to Heroes square, several kilometres away.  The buses brought supporters, primarily elderly from neighbouring cities and perhaps even from distant parts of the country, to support the ruling dictator Victor Orban in the peace rally.  Although the buses were mainly empty, a handful of elderly pensioners in each bus quietly sitting in their seats, who came along primarily for the day's excursion and the few thousand forints the government put in their pockets to show up.  Many of them did not leave the bus. 

The march took place during the height of Covid deaths in Hungary, and once I was in the crowd, I began to feel uneasy as many people were maskless, and it felt as if people were closing in on me.  I tried to get near the front of the line near Oban's podium.  The police guiding the crowd asked me to stop at Andrassy and move behind and further through into a crowded viewing area. I persevered and started taking photographs of the people.  There were few young people there. They were mostly elderly and carrying placards implying the dictator was a god.  The young people bearing slogans and placards were unsure of what they were there for as they came for the bus ride and enough money to buy a few beers in their pockets. 

To live in Hungary is to live in a nation of rules and confusing bureaucracy.  If you do not pay a parking ticket, many of which are fake, the fine doubles each month.  The country operates on various levels of corruption, both municipally and federally.  The prime minister and chief oligarch is Victor Orban himself.  He has feasted on the Hungarian people for over twelve years and enriched himself through his friends and family, who find ways of extorting funds through government contracts.  The press and media are all owned and controlled by Orban, and his cronies and the justice system are rigged to favour the government, not allowing prosecution for the government's crimes.  Hungary is modelled after Putin's Russia.  Orban is Putin's only friend in Europe, and now with the war in Ukraine, Putin and Orban are shunned and isolated. 

 

During the speech, Orban spoke of his nemesis George Soros, the Jewish philanthropist and humanitarian who is a continual object of hatred in the propaganda ministry of Victor Orban.  He referred to Mr Soros as the big bad wolf who came into the village and ate people's grandmothers.  The crowd cheered, and Orban gained energy during the speech.  He threatened the European Union, and it appeared as the enemy, as the Union planned to stop regional payments to  Hungary unless they established freedom of the press and a responsible judiciary. 

I believe Hungarians are terrified of Democracy.  They feel comfortable ruled by dictators and knowingly accept the corrupt nature of absolute control.  Perhaps it is a result of two lost world wars and over fifty years of communism.  Over one hundred years of trauma, the Hungarian people have fallen back on themselves and lost faith in almost everything.  They blindly accept the continual propaganda and lies, much like a traumatized person who agrees with the constant abuse of a spouse, parent, teacher, or prison guard.   They tend to soften and cling to themes of lost glory and nationalism, which resonates in the speeches of dictators.  The distant memories of lost glory comfort their minds, whereas their mental imprisonment's irrationality is forgotten. The thousands of people eventually walked back to their buses for the ride home into their villages, again feeling proud of a nation long lost. 

 Photographs copyright Gabor Gasztonyi 2021

Orban's Hungary: The Crusifixtion of the Elderly

            Gabor Gasztonyi Photo 2021.

The right-wing government in Hungary, led by its leader Victor Orban is a Mafia state, as noted by the Hungarian sociologist Balint Magyar.   The Hungarian government's entire organisation is best understood when compared to a Mafia family controlled by a god-father, Victor Orban.  Power, privilege and control of all state resources are in the hands of a few loyal politicians, oligarchs and friends whose sole purpose is self-enrichment and the continuation of that enrichment.  The Hungarian constitution was rewritten several times by Orban, and today, even if they lose an election, the new government is hamstrung unless they have a two-thirds majority.  The entire legal system, the financial system, is staffed with members of the mafia family, resulting in complete domination in all aspects of civilian life.  The state of Hungary is worse than the darkest days of communism. Sadly the state controls all media, television and political advertising, with members of the mafia family emulating the propaganda of 1930's Germany under Goebbels.  Although some might say this is an exaggeration, I submit it is not far off the mark.  The impact of this regime is evident in the lives of the poor and in those unable to speak.  Often in the mafia state, the poor and helpless are objects of ridicule and little importance as they are not sources of wealth for the privileged.

Last week I was sitting at a café in the sixth district on a day when all the garbage cans were assembled on the corner, ready for pickup.  A well dressed older woman walking with a cane and a shopping bag opened each garbage can, looking inside for leftover food or beverage containers.  She was not a street person or homeless, but I am sure she lived in one of the nearby apartments.  Often pensioners are unable to heat their homes or pay for repairs to heating equipment and often unable to buy enough food. 

The other day on Terez Korut, I noticed an elderly lady on a street bench grasping a bag of buns and some toilet paper rolls.  She had taken them from the grocery store without paying.  The police arrived, and she said she was ill and wanted to go to a hospital.  The officers called an ambulance.  I am sure the officers felt as sad as I was and were trying to help.  How can we not look after the poor and the hungry in a country that is part of NATO, part of the EU and part of the modern world?