I'm looking for someone in Hungary to correspond with. I lived in Buda for
a year and will return there in September. I need to brush up on my
Hungarian. I live in Boston and am a graduate student, finishing my MBA.
E-mail me at 

>
>         Not just international pressures--internal ones as well. What do you
> think they could build your socialist paradise--from the indebtedness?
>
>         Eva Balogh


Well, so far the capitalist paradise is not coming along very
well:

(HVG 873/17/february:)

"A Vilagbank nemregiben elkeszult, a magyarorszagi szegenyseget
felterkepezo tanulmanya az 1989-1993 kozotti idoszak valtozasait
elemezve megerositi azikat a hazai vizsgalatokat, amelyek
szerint az utobbi evekben a tarsadalom szeles retegei kerultek
a mindenkori szegenysegi juszob ala, vagy annak kozelebe.
"Ha a szegenysegi kuszobot a minimalis nyugdij masfelszeresenel
huzzuk meg, azt latjuk, hogy 1993-ban a lakossag egyharmad es
ket-otod kozotti resze volt szegeny, mig 1989-ben meg kevesebb,
mint 5 szazalaka" ".

(Briefly the Worldbank analysis says, that if the poverty
line is drawn at the 150% of the minimum pension, than
in 1993 1/3 to 2/5 of the population was poor, while in
1989 only 5%)

I would add, that the trend doesn't show any change, even
though there were modest improvements in the growth
figures.

You can say, that it needs more time, and with the
help of all those financial advisers from the
West things will change eventually.  In US
this system has been going for a long time,
with the market and competition etc.  There are
more and more very poor people - and not happy dodgers
in the US, and the trend is not changing.
Why should we copy that system?

Eva Durant

Doug
Re driving in Hungary.
I have done it a number of times.  There is no problem with American
driver's liscenses.  I have often taken International DI's and they have
never been useful, but for the first time it is worth getting one.
Most large rental companies rent in Budapest.  Costs are usually lower if
you pay in the US first, but it is worth checking out all options.
Do not rent a Russian car!  They are terrible and very hard to drive.
Western or Hungarian cars are fine.  Because of car thefts, many companies
have restrictions about where you can take the car outside of Hungary.
There is a premium for picking up a car at the airport.
Budapest is very difficult to drive in.  The streets are crowded and not
well marked for the novice visitor.  You really need to know where you are
going.  Parking is also very difficult.  Public transportation is very
good in town.  The subways are great and the Trams are also very good.
For just 'in town' I use public transport most of the time now.
Have all of your papers with you at all times!  The Hungarian police often
have 'sweeps' for stollen cars.  This means they will stop you for no
reason and ask for your papers.  Make sure you have them, especially if
you can't speak Hungarian!

The problem, dear Eva, is that despite high taxes, Hungarians insist on
spending more than they have!  I agree that taxes are too high, but then
social spending has to come down as well.  Hungarians seem to want
extensive social support and yet not pay for it.
You might argue that current social support services are inefficient and
therefore not really 'extensive' (as anyone who has gone to a Hungarian
hospital can attest), but then the govt. has to stop paying for wasted
resources.  As I understand it, the govt. is not willing to cut back on
social support and thus the quandry of taxes vs services.

If anyone is planning to write to the Hague Court using Bela Liptak's
letter below as a model, you might consider cutting his references to
"both sluices [=locks?] are broken" and "one was not designed to handle
ice."  As happens almost every winter, the Danube traffic was at a
standstill only because of deep ice, which now [21 February] has been
broken up by warmer weather and two Slovak icebreakers in the area.  The
decisions to close traffic for ice danger (and to reopen) are
international decisions by commonly accepted safety standards, without
reference to dam construction.

The other matter is disputed, i.e. the question whether the Hungarian
side of the Danube is drying up because Gabcikovo was built, or because
Nagymaros was not built (or indeed because of Austrian construction in
the 1960s).  Also it is less a matter of "oxygen" and the "lung [?] of
the river" than of the hydraulics of the Danube.

Fair and reasonable letters are admirable even if one disagrees with
their content.  Others are out of place.

Norma Rudinsky  
---------------------------------

On Sat, 17 Feb 1996, Bela Liptak wrote:

> Dear Colleague,
>
> After five weeks in Slovakia, Hungary and Holland, I have returned with a
> number of plans.
>
> The first (attached) is written to the Judges of the International Court of
> Justice about the Danube. I would be grateful, if you too would write similar
> letters, not only to the president of the court, but  also to some of the
> judges, particularly the ones, who represent your country of residence.
>
> I have been assured by Mr. Arthur Th. Witteveen, the secretary of the court,
> that all personal letters that are addressed to the judges in The Hague, will
> be forwarded to them. If you prefer the fax to regular mail, you can fax your
> letter to: nnn-nn-nnnn-928. The use of E-Mail is not recommended.
>
> In the coming days, I will also ask you to help in other projects, I just did
> not want to overload you with several tasks at once.
>
> I do thank you in advance for taking the time to make sure that justice will
> be delivered on the Danube. Please realize that your letters DID contribute
> to Carl Bildt's visit to Slovakia and the hundreds of letters we have sent to
> Richard Hoolbroke DID contribute to his decision to visit Romania. The same
> thing is true about the Danube. Please do write!
>
> With best personal regards: Bela Liptak
>
> PS: It will take a few days for me before I can read my personal E-mail.
>
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> The Honorable Mohammed Bedjaoui
> President of the International Court of Justice
> Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ Den Haag
> The Netherlands
>                                                        February ??, 1996
>
> Your Honor,
>
> For the first time in history, your Court will decide on an environmental
> lawsuit, which effects all mankind. In ruling on the future of the Danube,
> your challenge is much more than to interpret a construction contract or to
> resolve a conflict between the self-interests of two nations.
>       It is up to you and your fellow judges, to make a precedent, by giving
> full weight to the interests of mankind. It is up to you to rule, that
> rivers, forests and oceans are not the sole properties of nations, that
> nations do not have the right to destroy unique ecosystems, which have
> survived since the last Ice Age.
>       The ecosystem of the Szigetkvz is dying due to the tragic drop in
> ground-water levels. This region, which was the oxygen supply of the Danube,
> has been destroyed, the lung of the river has been cut out. At this very
> moment, shipping on the Danube is at a standstill because both sluices are
> broken. In one, the crown gate has been miss-designed, while the other was
> not designed to handle ice. The whole structure is leaking and a major
> accident is waiting to happen. The conditions have become so unbearable that
> two thirds of the populations of Dobrohost, Vojka and Bodiky have already
> fled from the region.
>       For the above reasons, we respectfully ask the Court to allow the
> representatives of the allied environmental organizations to act as a third
> party representing the interests of mankind and to consider the Compromise
> Plan (attachment), as a possible blueprint for the resolution of this case.
>
> Respectfully yours,
>
>
>
> your name, address, organization, if any
>
> cc: The Honorable Vice-President Stephen M. Schwebel of the United States of
> America, The Honorable Judges: Shigeru Oda of Japan, Gilbert Guillaume of
> France, Mohamed Shahabuddeen of Guyana, Christopher G. Weeramantry of Sri
> Lanka, Raymond Ranjeva of Madagascar, Giza Herczegh of Hungary, Shi Jiuyong
> of China, Carl-August Fleischhauer of Germany, Abdul G. Koroma of Sierra
> Leone, Vladlen S. Vereshchetin of the Russian Federation, Luigi Ferrari Bravo
> of Italy and Rosalyn Higgins of the United Kingdom, The Honorable Registrar:
> Eduardo Valencia-Ospina of Columbia.
>

In article >,
   "Amos J. Danube" > wrote:
Joe Szalai wrote:

(I wish Hungarian-Americans would set a good example for Hungarians who are
using this list to improve their English language skills, by using the
correct English spelling of words.  In English, "program" is spelled
"programme", "color" is spelled "colour", etc..)


Dear Joe and ignorant people who think like him,
   I hate to break it to you, but not all English folks spell things the same.
In North America, we speak quite a different language than the British. If you
have a problem with our English, you can keep your opinions to yourself,
because we are not British and we decided that we didn't want to be, several
hundred years ago. Our language is not wrong. Millions of people use it
everyday and noone has any problem understanding what the others are saying.
In fact, to people in North America, British English is very strange. Our
languages are so different that it's difficult for us to understand them
sometimes. Sorry, we are not as stupid as you think. And if you care to look,
both spellings are found in Webster's English Dictionary.

                                     Varga Istvan