Budapest sun archive
To discuss sponsorship opportunities click here
When
What
Where
Time
Find a film
|
Please do not let NATO put baseball caps on the heads of Hungarian servicemen. The baseball cap will invite disrespect. In the USA, the home of baseball caps, the only people who wear baseball caps are un-educated, anti-society, rednecks who cannot fit into any social system.
Baseball caps invite disrespect
Please do not let NATO put baseball caps on the heads of Hungarian servicemen. The baseball cap will invite disrespect.
In the USA, the home of baseball caps, the only people who wear baseball caps are un-educated, anti-society, rednecks who cannot fit into any social system.
Please do not let NATO or anyone else degrade the Hungarian men who are serving their country. Do not try to change the Hungarian uniform just to make it look more like the uniform of other NATO countries. Please try to stay as Hungarian as possible within NATO.
Look at the French. They do not use baseball caps, do they?
Changing the color of the uniform might be a good idea. A nice dark blue uniform with a very clean white shirt and the traditional Hungarian hat in a gleaming white color would demand respect. Keep the traditional shape of the Hungarian hat.
I am very happy to see my home-country in NATO, but I very much would like Hungary to remain Hungary.
Zoltán Bandi
Received via email
(Editor?s note: the new baseball caps are being worn by members of Hungary?s national police force, after a decision by the Hungarian authorities, not NATO, to try and project a more "Western" image.)
Progress is being made
Progress is being madeI read with some considerable interest your recent article on the issue of trafficking in human beings and the rating of Hungary (by the United States authorities) of Hungarian efforts to combat this crime.
I should like to advise your readers that the overall numbers of border violators has not changed significantly over the past 18 months.
During 2001 a number of successful operations undertaken by the border guards resulted in an appreciable improvement in the effectiveness of Hungarian authorities to combat border related crime, including Trafficking in Human Beings (THB).
This is based on a study of illegal migration and trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe in 2001 and completed in March of this year. The study, which included 20 other countries in the region, is the fourth annual examination of the issue by my office, which is part of an intergovernmental entity and was created in January of 1999, primarily to support the reduction of transborder border crime in the region, in particular THB.
While a great deal of work remains to be done in this area, I am rather more optimistic about the situation than your article suggests. What I am pessimistic about however is the future commitment by governments in the region and in the context of the Euro-Atlantic alliance to suppress the crimes associated with THB, in the wake of 9/11, as a great deal of the effort and focus of border enforcement is now drawn towards counter terrorism programs, leaving the prevention and suppression of trafficking in people, in particular women and children, in a secondary policy and operational area.
Thomas A Tass
Head of Mission
International Centre for Migration Policy Development
Budapest
Festival gripe
EstHer Vécsey wrote a piece in The Budapest Sun about the "Fiesta in city of Francis" (Issue 25, June 20-26, Style cover).
Esther wrote in her third paragraph, I quote: "The outdoor performances become a play within a play since there are people milling about constantly on the streets leading to the brightly lit square and the windows facing the square are full of people leaning out, getting a free view both of the program and of the street-life below".
What Esther has missed is the fact that the people leaning out of their windows probably have rotten eggs, tomatoes, or other weapons in their hands ready to bombard the performance. We don?t want a free view! If we want to go to the theatre or a concert we have the choice of buying tickets for the performances we want to see. We definitely wouldn?t want to see the same performances over and over again, day after day, for almost a month.
The people who live on Bakáts tér are sick of this annual inconvenience, which is what it is to them (me being one of them).
Every year we have to suffer in the heat and noise every day from the day the whole shebang starts. From the first ring of the door bell telling us to move our vehicles from the square so the stage can be built.
Then we endure the endless rehearsals that go on into the early hours, with irate producers and directors screaming instructions to the performers through a loud speaker.
Not to mention the loud music, the warbling of the opera singers practicing, the bright spotlights and the fact we have to shut our windows and draw the curtains and suffocate with our televisions on the highest volume possible to drown out the nightmare outside.
After work people want to go home and relax. The heat is bad enough to cope with as it is, but imagine having to shut all the windows and curtains because the noise is so unbearable. Last year one of my neighbors complained that her ornaments had literally jumped off the shelves because of the vibrations caused by the loudness.
I am sorry if I have gone on a bit, but as you can appreciate, it?s not celebrations for everyone.
Mandy Jane Bohanek
British Pro Consul
Budapest
I?m offended
The contents of the recent movie review of I Am Sam (Issue 25, June 20-26, Style) were extremely and outrageously offensive. It?s sad to see that your paper permits an author to call a man with autism a "retard" and "moron," whether describing a fictional character or not.
The article is so blatantly disrespectful and just downright mean in describing people with disabilities.
People with autism and developmental disabilities have enough intelligence to be hurt by comments such as the ones made in the review. Does the author of the review have enough intelligence to realize that?
Would the author like to meet my two-year-old daughter, who although not autistic does have a developmental disability and explain to her that she shouldn?t have a family because she doesn?t have the "brains required for breeding?"
If you have the audacity to make a comment like that in print you should have no problem explaining your views to an actual person with a disability.
Tricia Nelson
Received via email
Only a game
The author of the article Lucy Mallows replies: I am sorry if I offended any of our readers. The whole point of the review was that it is Hollywood who patronizes and portrays autistic people as "retards" and "morons". My article was a criticism of Hollywood?s treatment of such sensitive issues, not of the people themselves.
What should be done to bring Hungary back to top level football? (Issue 25, June 20-26, Street Talk). What short memories we have. Was it really so long ago that Viktor created the Ministry of Sports for his old roomie and bestest buddy Tom?
Now, what did Tommy say that he was going to do with those billions of forints that Viktor gave him? Wasn?t it something to do with bringing Hungary back to top level football? Yes, so it was.
Viktor also threw billions of forints at the issues of education and health care, by the way. And today, four years later, teachers and nurses still cannot survive on the pitiful salaries they earn. Viktor, Tommy and all their friends, on the other hand, seem to be doing quite well.
What should be done to bring Hungary back to top level football? The answer will be, as always, to throw more money at it and, as always, there will be plenty of new Tommys around.
Maybe you should ask your people on the street how Hungarians can regain control over how their tax dollars are being spent. How many capable well-paid nurses, for example, could they have for one spoiled and outrageously over-paid striker? How many teachers for one world-class coach? How many corrupt officials could they root out in one stinking week if they would just? Sorry. As far as football is concerned, Hungary can follow the crowd and allow itself to be deceived, deluded and raped by the lords of FIFA, or she can strike a bold new path for the rest of the world to follow. She can spend those hard-earned tax dollars on bringing Hungary back to top-level education and healthcare and allow football to return to what it was always meant to be: a game played for sport, pride and fun.
Frank Gralton
Received via email
Lions thanks
This year the All Nations Lions Club of Budapest ran with great success for the third time in a row the Canadian Embassy Garden Party and we raised funds to support children in need.
Representing the Club, I would like to grab this opportunity and warmly thank the sponsors and contributors, without whom this event would have been very difficult to organize.
First of all I would like to thank the Canadian Embassy in Budapest, which for so many years now has been the main sponsor of this event, and particularly the Ambassador Ms Marta Moszczenska for her kindness at being present and opening the evening. Also, a warm thanks to all the numerous guests who rushed to join us in that splendid night.
A very big thanks to all our sponsors; BO Concept, BBJ, Canadian Embassy in Budapest, Calypso, CORA Hypermarkets, Earls, Fortuca Bistro, Giacomelli Sport, Fox Auto Rent, Junia Creazione, Kometa99, Latinum Baskets, Pannonia Golf Club, Parmalat, UHU Villa
Elias Goletsas
President
11.07.2002
|
|