Healthcare reorganization is a widely debated topic nowadays in Hungary. The restructuring affects almost the whole whale chain from central funding to Hospital venues and doctor positions. Hungary wants to build a better and less costly public healthcare system and it is a hard and painful process.

This is why I was surprised about a small article I found in a July issue of Webuser magazine. In the “Best new Website” section one of the site’s they write about is called “Treatment in Hungary”. As the Webuser article wrote “Getting medical treatment in Hungary may seem drastic, but it could save you up to 70 per cent on UK costs.”

Now there are at least two reasons why I should not be surprised about this. First of all, I myself also visit a private dental clinic and not a public dental doctor’s office. Their level of proficiency is rather excellent, their knowledge is regularly updated and the clinic is equipped with first-class equipments. Their service really is world-class level. Secondly, the prices are even acceptable to me, meaning it would probably be considered cheap in some Western-European countries.

Probably the same is true for the other medical areas covered by “Treatment in Hungary”. So should I be surprised then again? Private healthcare prospers in Hungary, not the least thanks to the high volume of satisfied foreign visitors. My only remaining question is how this affects the public healthcare system? Is there any positive effect that will be generated or is the current gap going to be even larger? Is this a business opportunity public healthcare could even consider to enter (e.g. using the incoming funds to cross-financing the treatment of Hungarians)? Or is this such a field of operation where public healthcare systems cannot and should not try to move into? Anyhow, they probably won’t for some years, the reorganization keeps those doctors busy who do not lose their jobs. In the meantime, other well trained doctors, assistants and nurses are moving to Western and Northern Europe well they get a much better salary and better working environments.

Disclaimer: I do not have any ownership or financial interest in the operation and business of the Treatment in Hungary website or Websuser magazines . I’m just a simple curious Hungarian citizen, usually treating himself in Hungary, as long as I can afford it

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This blog started differently than it continues to live on. If you are curious of the original intentions please check out the “about this blog” page.

That task was overwhelming to do by myself and for the time being I failed to find volunteer help to continue chasing the initial goals. I still hope I can someday revive the “Hungarian blogoshpere review in English” theme too. So if you would like to volunteer to help with this please contact me.

From now on I will occasionally write about Hungarian contemporary issues that I think are interesting, helpful or informative to write about to an English speaking audience.

If you have any topic you would like to read about, I warmly welcome your suggestions via email or a comment post.

The concept of “outreach” is something very important that come up in the conference. In an oversimplified way outreach is the way of trying to spread the ability to share voices online to places where it is not common yet.

I had this strange notion during the conference that it is very is to go into this work with assumptions that do not consider the evolution of blogoshere. Yes, I think there is a usual evolution of blogoshperes. For example there is a reason why technology and entertainment sites are regularly more popular and linked. And there is a reason why in many places cultural sharing is not the primary roles of blogging in the initial times. But when the blogoshpere gets stronger topics get more diverse.

The other thing is that it is very hard to encourage just by outside examples. Every people thinks that their country is so different that outside models are just hard to be adopted. It might or might not, but the perception is strong that it is.

So my opinion strongly is that for a successful outreach we would need to help in the growth of the local blogoshpere and other forms of online communication. That starts at a different level and topics compared to than what Global Voices mainly is about. There should be e.g. help provided to generally help blogging especially at the technology and entertainment fields. Establish credibility of the word “blog”. And then and only then will the existence of a blogs be their own incentive. So people won’t ask the “why?” questions, but the “how?” questions and that’s a point where outside example will finally get authentic importance. And we’ll see many initiatives that would be considered unimportant by others, but that is not a problem. As there will something interesting for everyone. If you are interested about technology in a country that you will find, but also if you need info on human rights issues in a country you will have access to people’s views on that also.

The other interesting notion is in getting mobile environment more incorporated (as Stuart Henshall at the conference also pointed out) as it would be more accessible and more easily usable at many parts of the World.

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I’m off to India to participate in the Global Voices 2006 Summit. Hope to see old friends and find new ones.

Last year I came back energized and full of great impressions. This time the cultural environment of the summit location (New Delhi) will hopefully also add to the porbably again exciting athmosphere of the event. Can’t wait! And I don’t have to wait too long now

The greatest football player of all times has died. Some would call him one of the best, I call him simple THE best. According to stories form many sources he was also a very good man. His funeral day yesterday (link goes to a BBC picture article) has been declared a national day or mourning. Hungarian and International fans and sportsmen arrived to participate.

Please check the Ferenc Puskás Wikipedia page for biographical info, I would only like to quote a few Hungarian blog entries, about the loss of Puskás:

On the blog of the fanclub of a Hungarian soccer team “Isti-Lóri” writes:
“…He was a giant amount the greatest. He has gained a name to himself, his family and his country. Puskás Öcsi showed an example. Love soccer! “Soccer is life itself” this is the message he sends to the young generations.”
(Henrik’s note: Öcsi is the nickname of Ferenc Puskás, it means little brother in Hungarian)

“Duplavé” offers us a surprising, but wonderful semblance. He is comparing the greatness of the Beatles and the similar greatness of the so called “Golden Team” of Hungary (other names commonly used are The Magical Magyars, The Magnificent Magyars, The Mighty Magyars), in which Puskás was a key player. “I think I’m writing about the two greatest teams of all time. A strange parallel indeed. But there are lots of common points.” He further elaborates this idea in several paragraphs on how talent for entertaining will make both of these teams and also Puskás Ferenc himself unforgettable forever.

Finally here is a two and a half minute video you might want to watch.

Rest in Peace Mr Puskás. You’ll name will not be forgotten.

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This time you are in for a treat

I have come across two English language blogs that are although very different in many ways I found both very well worth of noting. They address very different point of views of Hungary, one is written by a Hungarian, the other is not and so on you will see.

The first one is ran by Edward Hugh and called Hungarian Economy Watch. Hugh left a marvelous and insightful comment recently on Hungarian Accent. He is a macroeconomist and it is great to know that people like him take the time to care! Thank you Hugh!

I myself wrote a lot in my the previous posts about the scandals and burning questions of Hungary. BUT Hungary is NOT only about scandals, problems and painful things! I love my country, I love to live here. Budapest is a great metropolitan city, there are sooo many things happening in culture and business that it is just to be here and near .
If you have friends who visited Hungary they can and will confirm this .
If not, here is another English language blog source for you, called Budapest Hungary. Its about what to see, where to go and what to do here. Not sure where to go for your next vacation? Check it out and you will know Hungary is the place to visit. And if you coma and want to meet me just drop me an email .

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Yes, it has been a while since my last entry. There are reasons for that, which once more I’m not going to share with you. But I do appologize for the pause in my blog and I do thank all of You who have wrote to me in email about this . It feels good to know that there are people out there who care about whether I’m writing somethings or not. At certain times I just need this reinsurance .

In the next entry I’ll share two interesting new English language sources about Hungary which I hope you will find useful and also this week I’m planning to add a usual Henrik-stlye entry as well .

If you ever read my blog you know I always limited the expression of my own opinion and was try to show what Hungarian bloggers are writing about. This (hopefully once time) I’m going to make an exception.

I want to write about four topics: the violence, the lies, the media and the path ahead.

Most of the protests were not as violent as some of the most covered incidents (e.g. the siege of the Hungarian State TV) would imply. One of the largest dailies in Hungary recently had an article that organized criminal activities are behind the continuous violent activities. The first day events might have been spontaneous (or not?), but the upcoming are events are organized and there seem to be little clue about how is the “puppet master” behind all of this. Some seem to recognize the fanatic and bounder fans of certain soccer team and one of the assumptions is that they just seek trouble. I don’t not and for the time being I don’t care whichever theory is true. Why? I think violent actions have to be put to a halt! They are undermining every effort of peaceful protestors. As a matter of fact this could also be the reason for it, I can’t know. So based on pure speculation any side can be behind the violent actions and I have a doubt we will ever know the truth about it. Anyhow these should be stopped.

The Prime Minister in his incriminated May speech had a remark about the upcoming economical restrictions:
“There are going to be protest. It is allowed to protest in front of the Parliament. Sooner or later they will get tired of it and go home.”
Eventually and sadly he is going to be right, but in a slightly different context. I bet that the protestors’ persistence of not giving up is also at least partially powered by these sentences. They want to show that they do not give up. It is almost ironic to see how differently the two major political sides see the reason of the protests. Left wing tries to focus on the restrictions and how inevitable these are, as if this would be the main reason. If that would be the case, people would have been on the streets months ago. Right wing tries to shape our vision to see a country-wide consensus of impeaching of the government which is again a strong shift. The country is divided again and I think one of the most disgusting and worst sins of politics is when they try to force conflicts on citizens just to get a necessary amount of voter support. This is so lame and so unfortunately and tragically typical of the Hungarian political landscape in the past two decades (or it might even date back much-much longer…).

On the other side there is an aspect the Prime Minster desperately tries to move attention away. In his speech he clearly admits that his government under his first term and during the elections was lying . Under normal circumstances if a country leader admits in a recorded “testimony” (even if it was only a close-audience party speech) that he won the elections by lies this should be the Watergate case of Hungary. So it seems for some reason these are not normal times. And yes, probably these are not normal times. What shook me even more are two words I heard this week in the news about the recent meeting of the Prime Minister and the Ambassadors delegated to Hungary. The spokeswoman in the radio interview was referring to one of the PM’s statements, when he was assuring the Ambassadors that he wants a Hungary of “less lies” . I might be wrong, but for me this does not mean a Hungary without lies. Less lies means we will continue to lie, just … ehm… less. And this interpretation really troubles me. I don’t know if there is any proper way to ensure accountability of politicians and to give responsibility in what they are doing. It would be a sad and disturbing statement that in our democracy accountability and responsibility do not exists. So I guess the only logical conclusion can be that at top levels there is none who would have interest in building such a control mechanism and that the will and well being of people (i.e. seen and considered only as voters) is only important until they vote and then for four years we do not care.

The other interesting thing is the media response and I want to concentrate on one channel: the Hungarian State TV. For years now, they are struggling to get higher viewer ratings. And then finally came a once-in-a-century opportunity: the protestors go there to present their petition. This was such a rare occasion of grabbing the attention of gigantic portion of the viewers. I mean isn’t one of the most important competitive edge of a media source at this level is “you heard it first hear”. Even if they do not allow one of the protestors to read it, one of the anchors could do it. What bad would have happened if they would have read the petition? It has been widely presented by other channels in a short time. And the country did not exploded because of a short petition. If contra-protestors bring their contra-petition lets read that too. Party neutrality is NOT declining access to public attention, but to give the opportunity to all sides to respond. And this mediated conversion would have happened live, “only on” that TV channel. The short-sighted leadership of TV channel foolishly has missed to grab onto this opportunity. And they paid a terrible price: the siege and all the damage in the people, building and in valuable historical archives. An avoidable price in conclusion of an incompetent leadership decision … again.

So what’s ahead? The quick economic actions are required. There is no doubt. There are no other quick-win opportunities that to turn to tax increases and benefit restrictions. I just hope that when they planned the program they also had growth in mind in mid-term. To set out a fire we should not sacrifice THE future, but as we cannot undo past what we can do is to sacrifice part of present FOR THE future.
I think new elections would not help either. The actions to somewhat balance the budget deficit are urgent and unavoidable and new elections could possibly endanger and definitely delay that. I think resignation of the Prime Minister would also not solve too many things as I do not see any viable alternative figure in the government who could manage to do the reforms, not a single one. What I would like to see is probably trivial throughout this entry. I would like to see peace returned to Hungary. I would like to see the governmental intentions clearly for bettering the Hungarian economy. I would like to see a highly accountable country leadership structure, where they accept and face responsibilities. And I would like every politician to please STOP LYING… for at least 5 minutes please. I know I’m such and idealist.

Tags:
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Not long after I started this blog I wrote that it is not easy to chose topics which could be really interesting to an outsider about Hungary. These past weeks have proven me wrong. And I think I’m not very happy about it. First an intro of what is happening and then a few reactions from Hungarian blogs.

This time (two days ago) it started with a leaked speech recorded back to May at a party forum. The Prime Minister was speaking. And although there are a few way you can read some of his statements there was clear enough sentences about how much they lied to the public in the past 4 years, also that they cannot be proud of anything from their previous governmental period except that they were able to win again with lies.
The style of the speech (i.e. usage of swear words) is also disturbing to hear from a Prime Minister.

Instant political reactions are naturally very different on the two major sides.
The Prime Minister tries to point to the fact that at least finally someone “bravely” stepped forward and is promising to work to solve the economic problems via strict and honest actions.
The opposition party leader (who have just spoken live on TV in an interview about this affair) of course focuses attention much more on the responsibilities of the past 4 years. Also claims that honesty is questionable as the confessions were not addressed to the nation, but only to a close party group.

The question has been raise instantly about who might have leaked the tape. Whether it is a provocation of the opposition party before the upcoming (in two weeks) municipal elections. Or is the Socialist party brave enough to use this as a method to drive attention away from the very strong and painful taxation and other actions that were taken.

But that is not all and probably not the most important aspect. Thousands moved to the Parliament to protest against the Prime Minister (requesting resignation) and somehow yesterday things got out of hand, when a smaller group of protestors move to the building of the Hungarian State TV. They wanted their petition to be read on live TV. (The petition was demands for the resignation of the Prime Minister, the rethinking of the economic restriction program, the impeachment of the government, immediate new elections.)

But officials denied their request. Police forces were unable to handle the situation and the “siege” was successful. Outsides cars burnt, inside the building and equipment are damaged.

If some of you are surprised about the fact that why they wanted to get into especially in the building of the state TV, this is an iconic factor dating back to the revolutions of 1956. Ironically enough, even the state TV used this factor a few months ago in its marketing campaign: “if there would be a revolution which TV station would You want to take over?”. I’m sure this was not the answer they were hoping to get.

I was watching the live TV coverage of the siege and I have to say I agree with those who say that only a small minority of the mass have turned to violent actions. Many have stayed far away from trouble. I have heard opinions that this small minority of violent protestors were part of a political provocation riding the wave of the people’s anger because of the aforementioned Prime Minister speech.

what do some of the bloggers write about in this situation?

En1 writes that if the Prime Minster were a responsible leader, he would step forward and announce his resignation, because for this matter he is the only responsible.

Korbely’s opinion is that these violent mob actions should not be confused with a revolution. Instead these are illegitimate actions for any cause and are much similar to a violent soccer-fan-war than a revolution.

Toros writes that the Rector of one of the largest Universities of Hungary (ELTE, Eötvös Loránd Science University) declared today an extraordinary Rector “holiday” for protective reasons because of a “planned event of an unidentified non-university organization”.

There are opinions about the media coverage also, especially about an opposition-party-close news TV called HirTV.

Kond is worried about freedom of press. Because HirTV has been banned from the covering. Especially as CNN and BBC has also used their previous coverage about the siege, so they should be treated with respect in protection of freedom of press.

On the other side Bakura writes that the siege coverage of HirTV was in his opinion disgusting as the coverage were cheering for the mob.

Today the 5 parties of the Hungarian Parliament have singed a common statement of disproval of violent protests. Still as I write these lines according to news there are more people on the streets and police forces are on a much higher readiness state. God help us to get over this crises soon, without any further extension of violence.

Tags:
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Hungary
Prime Minister
Impeachment

This Thursday (August, 31st) marks the second International Blog Day. Rebecca MacKinnon at the Global Voices site invites bloggers “to help people understand you and your region’s blogosphere better”. I think the Global Voices Project is a fascinating example of people from all around the World cooperating for a common goal. But most of them (us) are doing this with different motivation. So I’m very much looking forward to the see the feedbacks Rebecca’s questions will get.

I would also like take my own little part in this great event by answering the questions in the aforementioned GV Post. I’m not sure if these are particularly interesting to anyone else as I’m blogging from a relatively peaceful and small country. But as you will see from some of my answers, wondering about the importance of a post is mostly unnecessary and irrelevant . I found it interesting even just for myself to answer the below questions and realize ideas I haven’t consciously though of before.

I found that people outside Hungary sometimes have very strange picture of my country. I wanted to give a chance to authentic Hungarian voices (everyday common people who are bloggers) to gain a higher visibility through my humble translations. And via these voices to give a chance to interested visitors to see what the opinion of Hungarians is about various issues.

What do you blog about mainly?

It was very hard for me to choose topics in the beginning, because I wanted to identify issues that could be most interesting to visitors. I had to realize that I should not be (and can’t be) the one to decide what is interesting or not. If I find any topic where I think there should probably be blog entries about I go out and try to find these and edit them into a post to show different perspectives. This is why you can find entries on my site from politics to cross-cultural stories or even sports.

What motivates you to keep blogging even if (like most bloggers) you’re not paid much for it?

Huhh.. though question . I think I’m interested in the things I’m writing about and I don’t consider the time wasted even if it takes long (with the collection and translation) and even if I would be the only one to read the final published version. I think one of the strongest driving force for continuous blogging can originate from the fact whether you would write the stories even if you would know that none would ever read them. Looking at the gigantic number of blogs I’m pretty sure that there are many entries that are hardly ever read. If you accept this fact and can live with it, you won’t have problem keeping the pace. And occasionally you will receive some spotlight, but that will mostly always be out of your own control.

Is your audience mainly inside your own country or around the world?

As I see from the statistics my audience is generally from outside Hungary. This probably reflects my blog’s language (I do not post my entries in Hungarian, just English) as well as my initial reason of targeting entries mainly at the “outside World”.

What is the relationship between blogs in your country or region and the mainstream media?

Similarly (as far as I see) to most countries, MSM players do consider blogs too much. It is unfortunately mainly perceived just as a form of online personal life-journal, although many blogs are obviously much more than that.

When you blog, how would you describe what you write? Is it part of a conversation? Is it ranting?
Is it a daily diary? Is it journalism? Is it some or all of these things at different times? Does the definition matter?

I don’t know how to classify my entires. And I don’t think the definition really matters as long as the message goes through.

Have blogs started to have an impact on politics in your country? Have they started to influence what stories get covered in your country’s media? We’d love to know some examples.

Not too much that I know of. I wish they would. I think the only blog that received really high media visibility was the blog of the Hungarian Prime Minister. And I think that is not the kind of example you are looking for here . I anyone know a story I missed please leave a comment to this post .

I encourage everyone to visit the Global Voices site later this week when they publish the aggregated responses as I think we will see very interesting and various style replies to the above questions.

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