S-a umplut Romania de specialisti in comunicare, iata cum reactioneaza ungurii in NYTimes la provocarea momentului

BUDAPEST — IT was mortifying to see refugees hurling themselves on the tracks at a Hungarian railway station — as they did last week when a train they thought was carrying them to Austria was stopped by the police in Hungary to take them to a detention camp. The migrants’ despair was because they didn’t want to be stuck here — in the country where we Hungarians are destined to live our shabby little lives.

I have often felt like throwing myself on the tracks at a country railway station — just thinking about being Hungarian. And many of my compatriots have, out of sheer melancholy, successfully executed this act as a train arrived.

These people walking all the way from Syria, however, are definitely not suicidal. They are hungry for life. Only, they don’t believe they can find that life here.

Eastern Europe is not the all-inclusive luxury hotel that many in the other half of the Continent enjoy; we’re more at the low-budget, self-catering end of the market. But it’s not that bad, either. It provides some aspects of a European lifestyle; sometimes it seems deeply provincial, sometimes quite refined.

Hungary is not explicitly a poor country. But it is a frustrated, and frustrating, place — with its “seen better days” culture, antiquated manias and obsessions, barely functioning bureaucracy, tepid economy and corrupt politicians.

“I play a new game these days,” a friend of mine said. “I watch the news with my back turned to the TV, and just by listening I can tell which party a politician belongs to. If he blames the government for the refugee crisis, he’s from the opposition. If he blames the European Union and its legislation, he must be with the government.”

An easy game to play, no question. My friend is a sensitive woman who has dedicated many years to organizing the lives of senior officials in international charity organizations with offices in Budapest — in the course of which she has witnessed many flaws in the way they operate. And because she’s smart, she also saw that while, economically and culturally, Europe hardly knows what to do with the refugees, some are glad to have them as tools to shape domestic politics.

If you want to find out whether Hungarian people possess any measure of good will toward these poor creatures, go to the Keleti train station and take a look at the mounds of donated goods, distributed by a growing army of volunteers. But if you enjoy studying the various forms of hypocrisy, then browse the Facebook posts of Hungarian intellectuals who parade their own narcissistic love of humanity and their disgust with the government.

Posing as a fully fledged humanitarian is not that difficult. Much harder, these days, is for a politician — especially one who claims to be conservative, patriotic and Christian — to show a compassionate human face and at the same time soothe his worried voters. Compassion is a minimal requirement: Even if you don’t have it by birth, you must learn to fake it.

Admittedly, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban doesn’t even bother faking it. These leaders’ cruel charm has now attracted secret admirers.

You’ll find them in the ruin bars of Budapest. These are an institution that could exist only in this country: pubs set up in abandoned buildings and vacant lots of the city’s old Jewish quarter that trade on a faded Austro-Hungarian glory. After a few drinks, when people drop the mask of political correctness they wear for the rest of the week, they quietly team up to express “how tired” they are of the “dirty mob” around the railway stations and loitering downtown.

“Can’t tell you how fed up I am with Orban,” said one after a fourth beer. “But may God help him build that blasted fence!”

It makes no difference whether one is a border fence enthusiast, or a liberal intellectual nauseated by our prime minister, or a middle-class Budapest resident longing for self-respect and aggrieved at the international news coverage. At heart, we all share a desire to belong to a nation of freedom fighters.

Fighting for freedom and earning moral victory: This is the religion in which we are raised in Hungary, and we have built our whole national identity around it.

Unlike the last two times we thought ourselves world-famous freedom fighters — in 1956, when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian refugees fled the Communist regime to Austria, and in 1989, when thousands of East Germans climbed to Austria via Hungary through those same fences — this time, there is no chance for us to be the good guys again.

The extreme situation has made the European Union’s rules on how to handle immigrants impossible for Hungary to comply with. But combined with our government’s mixture of aggressive self-defense and hidden self-hatred, this has meant that we cannot help but be the bad guys. All we have left is the fun of exchanging roles: hero for villain.

“Terrible, this situation with the migrants,” said my mother over the phone. “What do you think, darling?”

By which she means: “What should I, a retired small-town elementary school teacher, think of all this? You tell me, my big girl living in the capital.”

My mother knows what a refugee is. Twenty years ago, during the Balkan conflict, my family lived near Hungary’s southern border, close to recently abandoned Soviet barracks that were set up as a refugee camp for ethnic Hungarians fleeing the war. Eventually, all the residents either moved to the West or resettled in Hungary, and the camp shut down.

These days, like others in Hungary and Eastern Europe, my mother needs to revise her notions of migration, Europe and Europeans. And she could use my advice.

I won’t frighten her by telling her that I don’t always know what to think.

Noemi Szecsi, a writer and translator, is the author of the novel “The Finno-Ugrian Vampire.”

Dupa reactia cititorilor ne dam seama cat de persuasiv a fost mesajul

Julia Grant Los Angeles, Ca.
I am an American of Hungarian descent who has visited Budapest three different times over the last twenty years. I know my Hungarian grandmother and my Hungarian aunts, if they were still alive, would have been at Keleti, donating supplies and time.
What I find interesting here in America, is that all my friends were horrified at the situation in Hungary, but last year, were filled with contempt towards the Guatemalan children riding the rails to the U.S. for asylum.



farago nyc
Dear Noemi --

Please understand that I say this with love and sadness: your essay, while lovely and poignant, insults both those, like me, who have Hungarian roots and spend months each year in Hungary, as well as those, like you who grew out of socialism into adulthood in post-1990 Hungary. I say this without for a moment challenging your critique of the current government's bluster and self-aggrandizement, or your accurate capturing of the low self esteem of your generation.

Hungarian friends tell me that their feelings about their country are an embarrassed response to their early years in socialist schools, where they were taught that, in essence, the world revolved around Hungary, only to discover post-1990 that most of the world had no idea where Hungary was.

My Hungarian friends all believe that we do things better here in NYC. But you know, if you look, that NYC is 4 times larger than Budapest and has 1/3 the number of full-time symphony orchestras. That it will take NYC the same number of years (9, with luck) to build a metro line that goes 2km and has 2 new stations, as it did to build Metro 4, with 10 stations, under the Danube, roughly 4 times as long.

When I was growing up, the conductors of the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago symphonies were born in Budapest; the prime movers in nuclear physics were Hungarians ... and much more.

Budapest, even today, is a far richer place than its residents know or believe.

john


Cornflower Rhys Washington, DC
I have found it interesting how much contumely has been hurled at Hungary for not wanting refugees when the refugees themselves have been quite clear about the fact that they are not looking for refuge there. They want to go to Germany. Even Austria isn't good enough. They're not stopping until they get to Munich.


jpduffy3 New York, NY
Regardless of the accuracy, or lack thereof, of the views expressed about Hungary, the article makes clear that economic benefit is a major motivation for the current migration. The migrants do not want to stay in Hungary. They want to go to a more prosperous part of Europe.


Marie Nebraska
Isn't it wonderful to pick on Hungary over how "those people" are treating their immigrants? It certainly takes the spotlight off the fact that our country was supposedly founded on Christian values, yet we can't seem to pass a day without The Donald making news telling his supporters (of which there are many!) how he'd deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. Hungary wants to build a wall, but Trump not only wants to build a wall, but proposes the Mexicans crossing into our country (both legally and illegally) pay for it. I suggest we not be too condescending as we evaluate our Hungarian brethren...we're not so very different.


Micky USA
None of this justifies a Hungarian journalist tripping and beating a man with a child or detaining refugees in detention camps with German Shepard guard dogs pointed at them. Poverty is no excuse for cruelty.



Stan Nadel Salzburg Austria
The Orban government has behaved terribly, but let's be clear about what actually happened. The Hungarian government let a few thousand refugees boar trains for Germany via Austria and then Austrian Chancellor Faymann denounced the Hungarians on TV for not enforcing the Dublin rules requiring asylum seekers to apply for asylum in their 1st EU arrival country. It was then that Orban stopped letting the refugees go on to Austria and we saw the consequences around the Budapest RR station and when refugees were forced off a train just outside Budapest to be sent to a camp. Then Faymann denounced the Hungarians for being inhumane--total hypocrisy.



Amanda New York
Every single one of the migrants crossing Hungary now, first crossed Greece, a country that is much wealthier than Hungary. Not one of them wants to stay in Hungary. Many of the Syrians were wealthier than most Hungarians before the Syrian civil war. And many of the migrants are Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Central Asian, and are not fleeing a war of any kind.

In a logical world, such people could migrate to Europe, but would not have access to European welfare benefits. But we do not live in a logical world. The Hungarians have valid reasons to fear a huge flow of needy people, given the financial stresses on Hungary as a country and what it could do to the EU as a whole


Guy in KC Missouri
One wonders why the Times chooses to only publish aggressively critical pieces regarding Hungary, and never any columns from the opposite point of view. On this issue the Times has dropped all pretense of neutrality and now demands that all nations forget they have sovereignty and borders and not only allow an invasion of millions of foreigners, but provide them with a state-subsidized good life. And anyone who doesn't accept this new liberal media-imposed paradigm? Well, they obviously reflect some deep-seated character flaw of Hungarians.



smford Alabama
I appreciate the writer's nuanced presentation of the inner turmoil of the people of Hungary, who are being overwhelmed by a flood of asylum-seekers from an alien, historically hostile culture. But Ms. Szechsi would better understand the objections of her more conservative countrymen if she, and other columnists would quit presenting history as if it started in their lifetimes or, taking the long-view, in 1917.

For more than 1,000 years, Christian Europe (defined culturally more than in religious terms) lived under the threat of Islamic conquest. But in Hungary, it was a reality, not just a threat. As I recall from long-ago studies in European history, Hungary was not freed from Ottoman rule until the middle of the 17th century. The Ottoman conquerers were ruthless in their attempts to destroy Western influences, convert Christian churches to mosques and drive out or kill the "infidels" from the conquered country.

Europe today is faced with a massive tide of refugees as Islamic fundamentalists are trying to purify the Middle East and North Africa on their terms, adding to an already sizable flow of economic migrants from those regions. After being taught for centuries to fear invaders from an alien culture, any people is going to look upon a migrant wave as an invasion by other means. It is too early to tell if such views are right or wrong.


John Hartford
The behavior of Hungary has been reprehensible during this crisis and it's not the first time despite the author's attempt to portray Hungarians as victims. In fact they have something of a history of it as anyone familiar with the history of central Europe knows. During the era of the Austro-Hungarian empire they had a notorious reputation for the oppression of minorities and constantly behaved in a selfish manner towards the Hapsburg Monarchy which for all its faults was a relatively benign institution and force for stability as events after it's disappearance demonstrated. Move forward to the 20's/30's and after Germany it was the most anti Semitic country in Europe and cheerfully shipped off it's entire Jewish population in 1944. Orban is just the latest rather thuggish occupant of power in Hungary and although their appear to have been some individual acts of generosity the majority appear to support his hard line approach.



mobocracy minneapolis
It doesn't seem hard to understand why Hungary acts less than charitable. They've had maybe two decades to go from Soviet satellite to Western, market-oriented democracy and like all of them it's occasionally been two steps forward, one step back in the process. The net result isn't the success story of Germany's 70 year resurrection, fueled by postwar booms, Marshall Plan aid and the side benefit of NATO spending, but something a little more tenuous and hardscrabble, with the memory of Soviet era economics still part of much of the population's collective memory.

If you judge Hungary's actions by the most optimistic, and dewey eyed outlook -- a skilled, worldly group of entrepeneurial refugees merely escaping a ravaging civil war who will quickly assimilate into the local culture and provide a boost to the economy -- Hungary's treatment seems nearly cruel and barbarous.

But if you temper that with a little more reality and recent history -- desperately poor, paraochial people whose motivation is more economic than political, more likely to self-segregate than integrate for religious and cultural reasons, as has been the more typical experience elsewhere in Europe, and likely to best be a break-even economic benefit if not a continual drag on the welfare system - then Hungary's reaction to the tidal wave of refugees seems more understandable.


P. Hedgie formerly California
Why are the former Soviet-bloc countries of Europe afraid of having refugees resettled with them? Noemi Szecsi attempts an explanation about Hungary, but does not look at the bigger picture.

When she writes "Hungary is not explicitly a poor country," she comes near to hitting the mark. Ordinary people in these countries feel they have been pulling themselves up by their bootstraps for 25 years. They work extremely hard but prices and rents keep rising, so one is treading in place. Those already on a pension have been left in dismal poverty. Health care now requires fees for some procedures and higher education now demands tuition. VAT in the Czech Republic is a basic 21% on almost everything, except that food is taxed at 15%. The E.U. mandates a minimum VAT of 15%. When socialism fell, few knew this was the reality of capitalism.

Couple this anxiety about finances with anxiety about the terrorism seen in France, Denmark, England, and the United States, the constant news about the atrocities of ISIS, and photos of the fights among different migrant groups en route through Europe, and one can understand these countries' reluctance. The U. S. has been bowing out for the same reasons.

Most refugees interviewed are planning to bring their families, and their relatives' families. 5,000 refugees can mean 16 times that many want to join them, plus thousands of new families. This is the reality.

None of the leaders are talking about these realities in the host countries.



Jett Rink lafayette, la
Tweak a sentence here, substitute a name there, and you're left with an article which pretty much describes Americans and their politics too.

"especially one who claims to be conservative, patriotic and Christian — to show a compassionate human face and at the same time soothe his worried voters. Compassion is a minimal requirement: Even if you don’t have it by birth, you must learn to fake it."

Fences, walls, all the known ways used to convince voters that they can elect officials who will keep those "others" out. Compassionate conservatives, indeed.



Doina Mount Pleasant, MI
I have a question: if indeed Germany wants - or said it can - take in about half a million refugees, give or take, why not send busses along the way from Greece- Macedonia -Serbia- Hungary and buss them all safely to Germany? In fact, why not send a few ships directly to Turkey? What is the point of this endless cycle of migrants paying traffickers and then hiking dangerously hundreds of miles to finally be received with flowers at the Austrian or German borders? If that is the end result anyway, why not skip all the intermediary steps - and the middlemen - and give Greece and Macedonia and Hungary a break?


Debora Gilson Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
I have lived in Hungary. In general, the Hungarians see themselves as poor relations to countries like Germany and France. Many of the upper middle class people I spoke to, though they love their country, cannot see why anyone would chose to live in Hungary over Western European countries. They go to Vienna, Paris and Copenhagen. They see clean streets, repaired buildings and fewer enclaves of homeless living in the city parks and in front of schools (our school had it's very own homeless man, whom we ignored).

Self-hating? Have you been to Hungary GSq? Have you walked to streets of Budapest? Have you talked with the people that live there? I think if you had you would understand that this is not self-hate, it is the sense that there is less here than in some other European countries.

Yes, there is much corruption. Proof? It is apparent by the words and actions.


Ray London
I don't think that the Hungarians were uncharitable...They are a small country with less resources trying to do the right thing: Proper immigration checks. The jury is still out as to whether after letting so many people in without proper checking, some terrorists have gotten through to set off bombs at a later date. What I don't know is if the EU offered Hungary assistance in processing the refugees and if so whether Hungary accepted it or not.


NMF Brussels
As a fellow Hungarian, I share some of these sentiments. On the one hand it feels bad to see Hungary making front-page news everywhere as Europe's black sheep in the refugee crisis knowing that the situation is more complex. The complexity of the EU rules, the ambivalent messages from Germany, the tireless work of the many civil volunteers, who built up a system of support for the people crossing the country gets much less press.

On the other, it is infuriating to see the Hungarian government play into the worst instincts of Hungarians for domestic political gain and even escalating the situation to feed the hysteria. It could set up more organized places for them while they wait for registration, but then who would see the trash and dirt left behind by the refugees. God forbid, people would stop talking about the "migrants" and start reading about again corruption and incompetence... It is all a cynical political game.


JettDad Atlanta, GA
Noemi, You are a true Hungarian! Cute, articulate, and depressive. I can't wait to read your books.
I do disagree with one point. I realize it is a complicated issue, but I think the Hungarians can look good in the crisis by helping the migrants to Germany rather than hindering them. (Having grown up in the US I know how southern border fences are a complete failure.) What the Orban government should do is arrange for buses to take migrants from Seged to Austria. Charging a nominal fee to cover the cost of the buses. While waiting in Seged the migrants can spend their money. The first stop for a break would be Kecskemét where migrants could buy refreshments. Then the buses can stop in Budapest for a few hours for a break and give people the opportunity to buy souvenirs. Then a stop in Györ for refreshments and souvenirs. Finally, delivering them to the Austrian border, safe, sound, and with wallets that are a bit lighter than when they left. The Hungarians would then look like great humanitarians! Köves


Chris Cedar Falls, Iowa
It's interesting how readers define these people -- refugees, immigrants, invaders. I appreciate that Ms. Szesci mentions the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian refugees (a nicer word than invaders) in 1956. They were welcomed with open arms in the West. Hungary should remember their kind treatment by the world back then as they have others in crisis pass through their borders today. We are all one war away from being in the same situation.


profwatson california and Louisana
Israel needs to step up and take its share of refugees and migrants. America gives Israel billions of dollars a year, hence we have a say.


Rose Brabant
It is difficult for Hungary to cope with the masses of refugees. But the callousness of Orban and his ilk is embarrassing- to say the least. For a country who, 50 years ago in the same situation. 200 000 +/- Hungarians fleeing opression. They also walked en masse across borders and were welcomed first in Austria and then elsewhere. Many made contributions to the country which took them in and were an asset.

I am embarrassed that a country which was such a beneficiary of the good will of others can turn into a right wing monster, Orban not being the worst of the lot. They have become a stain on the EU flag.


Eva Boston
Noemi Szecsi points out that Hungarians are raised with the belief that you must be willing to fight for freedom. And that is the reason why so many Hungarians (and other Eastern Europeans) are not welcoming the migrants and refugees.

Eastern Europeans had to fight for their freedoms and democracy, and they expect people from the Middle East and Africa to do the same -- and not just come uninvited to their countries where the natives sacrificed so much to achieve their freedom and democracy.

It is one thing to help refugee women and children on a temporary basis to survive a war, and then help them resettle, and a different thing altogether to welcome young and middle-age males who are choosing to escape from their countries, instead of fighting for a better future in their ancestral land.

Also, I believe that European nations have a right to protect their cultural, social and religious identities. If they accept hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees and migrants, they are setting themselves up for a full invasion of millions of them down the road.


Maureen New York
Hungary is not the "bad guy" here. Merkel did not consult with her fellow EU partners about this. Her unilateral actions will preclude cooperation from fellow EU members. Aside from this issue, Germany is one of the few Eurooean nations that has a budget surplus. Most other countries cannot take in a large number of people who will need to be supported by the public for an extended period.


David Pittsburgh, PAKu
I visited Budapest and Vienna for Xmas 2004/New Years' 2005. The cities were like polar opposites -- taking the van to the hotel in Budapest felt like we were driving in 1945. And aesthetically, I loved it. I also thought it meant character, though quickly understood though that this was a poor country having left the Soviet bloc only thirteen years prior. The water was heavily chlorinated, most things were inexpensive due to the devaluation of the forint (even modest tips at restaurants were accepted with much appreciation).

Budapest has a museum called the House of Terror. It is internationally funded and documented life under both the Nazis and the Communists. There were many one-page tracts telling us about the sordid history that Hungary suffered under throughout 1937-1991, as well as many videos and displays. The building it's housed in is a former political prison. People were, in fact, crying there. I would imagine many lost loved ones.

The irony then is that Victor Orban, right wing populist, was elected a few years later. I understand he slashed welfare spending and somebody I talked to who went there more recently noted a lot of beggars on the streets. There is well documented persecution of minorities since he was election. Although Budapest might not be a more cosmopolitan's idea of a tourist destination, I have an affinity for Central Europe's history, character and the more down-to-earth people there, and certainly they are losing tourism now.


Lad Fort Worth
Rather ironic attitudes/behavior; there are more Hungarians living outside of Hungary than within....Surely many of them left for some of the same reasons the present refugees: freedom from persecution and/or economic advantages. And surely they appreciated the welcoming attitude on the part of Austrians (as the their initial destination) and many other nations where they re-settled. Seems though they have forgotten all that!


Sage Santa Cruz, California
Orban is correct about this much: the refugees are a European problem, not a Hungarian problem. His playing political football with them has, however, unnecessarily made them a major current issue in Hungary too. At some point, the willingness of Germany to take in large masses of refugees will reach a limit, so it is hardly a sustainable arrangement long term, but the great drama in Hungary in recent weeks has been mainly the result of a series of clumsy, counterproductive and cynical political stunts. The refugees want to go to Germany, and Germany has been ready to accept them. To avoid the chaos and mass deprivation that occurred, the Hungarian authorities needed to do little more than let their trains run from Budapest to Austria, instead of playing a drawn-out game of political shenanigans and making their country look inhumane.


Liz North Carolina
I am a first generation Hungarian-American, my family came here as refugees. We came to America in 1956, during one of the many uprisings. My grandparents walked across Hungary into Austria, just as the present day Syrians are doing. My mother was born in an Austrian refugee camp, one week later, she came to America. We had a sponsor family, and several thousand Hungarians were welcomed during the same time, with open American arms, as political asylum seekers. I could talk at great length about my experiences growing up around the old Magyar mindset of racial intolerance. America has been good to my family, though. In 1957, TIME magazine honored the Hungarian Freedom Fighter as the "Man of the Year". I doubt any refugee of Arab decent will ever be able to claim the same.


California Man West Coast
It seems that most of the liberal commenters in here love to excoriate the successful countries in Europe. They won't be happy until England, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia are burdened with millions of refugees taxing their economies and their cultures.

France is a great example of what happens if you allow these people in. Economy in tatters, crime rates way up and terrorism also on the rise. Charlie Hebdo is just one result.

Is that OK with you, Northeastern liberal?


William Park LA
Having spent a considerable amount of time in Budapest, I can attest to the melancholy nature of many Hungarians. There's is a quiet, intelligent, cultured society that is resentful of cumbersome government bureaucracy, increasing infringement on civil liberties, and the higher wages and living standards enjoyed by the Western countries not trapped behind the Iron Curtain for decades. While Budapest is a gorgeous city teeming with international visitors, it is underappreciated by many residents, who assume life is better in places such as London, Berlin, Paris and New York. There is a growng antagonism, fostered by the right wing government, toward immigrants and refugees, who are viewed as an added strain to an economy that is doing OK, but still only provides a comparitively low monthy average income for the majority of residents.


Jack Oregon/Budapest
Having lived in Hungary I know a little about the economy and the average worker. They are not highly paid - average wage is around $500 per month.
Most refugees will pass through but some will stay and become competition for the rest of the country. Being an Oregonian I know that not everyone that set out on the Oregon trail made it here.