Whats is the national holiday like in Canada? Fireworks, Lame Stage Performances, some teenagers smash some things, but all in all a pretty dull holiday. What is the national holiday like in Hungary?

Rioters smashed cars, injured journalists and fought with police following a demonstration by the Hungarian Self-Defence Movement on Blaha Lujza tér Saturday evening.

Violence erupted after far right activist György Budaházy told the nearly 5,000 people to march to the Palace of Arts, where Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány was to deliver a speech. The crowd of 600-700 that followed him along the Nagykörút toward Üllői út grew violent, throwing Molotov cocktails, stones and firecrackers at police. The uniforms of seven policemen caught fire, as did a photographer’s vest. Two protesters were also accidentally set on fire by petrol bombs, but they were not seriously injured. Police responded with tear gas. The rioters damaged several cars and injured journalists and photographers before calm was restored by 11 p.m. (Source: Politics.hu)

You thought I was over reacting about the far right movements in Europe, didn’t you? Fortunately I had been warned this was going to happen, apparently it happens at every sort of national holiday every year, so I stayed home that night, listening to the yelling and the sirens. That hidden layer of anger and dissatisfaction I’ve mentioned before? It’s not always so hidden. Don’t miss understand me, Budapest is lovely city to visit or to live in, things don’t seem as simple here as they seem to be in Canada.

Every state in the European Union has a long history of war, revolution and development. However, as we all know, those who live it write history. Although it may seem as though Europe has moved into an era of peace and economic development, in truth, there is a hidden, dark layer, in European society, it is called racism and discrimination. After all the death and destruction in the worlds turbulent history, why does Europe continue to struggle with concepts of human rights for all? The answer lies between the lines of the maps of its continent.

Having a union of states in this part of the world is a significant achievement, but this union is more unstable than is understood by the average non-european. The borders of this region have disappeared, reappeared, and shifted in multiple directions at varying times. Therefore, the borders we recognize today are not legitimised by the people living within them. This fundamental conflict in the hearts and minds of many Europeans is causing strife and displeasure that those outside the union do not often see, if at all.

These borders are now being slowly taken away. Globalization, the European Union, and immigration, legal and illegal, are all eroding the concept of separate states. It is important to remember that each of these states has its own history, culture, and economy. The blood of each countries ancestors is all over these borders. This fact haunts its people, in the statues, memorials and museums that fill their cities, and reminds them that they need to protect their lands, as their ancestors did.

At the same time, the people of Europe are still grieving, mourning the death and destruction that has occurred for hundreds of years. They also mourn what they have been left with; borders that cut through their ancestral homelands, splitting ancient mountains, beautiful valleys, even right through some cities, and most importantly, the borders do not take into consideration racial/ethnic distinctions, and often split cultural groups up unnaturally.

There is also an economic factor that must be considered. While Europeans live between the borders set by kings and conquerors, they also earn their bread inside them. They are husbands and wives, sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, all struggling to survive in this world. Central and Eastern Europe is still struggling to pull themselves up from the physical and economic destruction caused by their former rulers. They want their countries to succeed, to flourish, and show the world what they were once and will be once again capable of.

It is therefore not a surprise that Human Rights is such a large and complex issue here in Europe. The continent is making great strides in moving forward, peace and prosperity is on the march, moving eastward, now well into Central Europe and continuing eastward, into the Balkans. Kosovo’s new Constitution shows great promise. Human Rights organizations like the one I am interning at are getting more and more organized, and winning more and more cases in the European Court of Human Rights. I am confident before I grow old I will see a peaceful, prosperous, unified Europe.

Top 5 Reasons Budapest Is Better

1. A Long and Colourful History
2. All The Monuments, Church’s, and Buda Castle
3. More Pubs, Clubs, Cafes, and Restaraunts
4. Easy access to the rest of Europe
5. Significantly better Arts & Culture Scene

Top 5 Reasons Vancouver Is Better

1. My Own Long and Colourful History
2. The Pacific Ocean
3. The White Rock “Strip”, Stanley Park, Granville Island
4. Easy access to Canadian & American TV, Movies, etc.
5. Home to my Family and Friends

A friend of mine just returned from India, she has told me stories about how crowded it is there. I can’t imagine how crowded India must be, because I already find Budapest crowded. Going home after work reminds me of High School, the school was so over crowded that the their would be frequent “traffic jams” in the hallways, which forced the administration to remove the lockers from the key arterial hallways so the Students could actually move. I’m sure I am going to be in for a shock when I get back to quiet Surrey. Those readers from my hometown who have not traveled to any metropolises might not believe me that Surrey is quiet, but one day when they visit a major city and have to squish into a subway car for way too long, they will know what I’m talking about.

In Grade 11 I was forced to take part in a “Career Preparation Program”. It was a feeble attempt at assisting the young students of my High School in choosing a profession so that they could begin to form their academic foundation in post-secondary school for the career of their choice. The biggest reason this was a flawed approach was that the process of choosing our careers was made through a computer program. It was like some kind of Sci-Fi movie of a Utopian society gone crazy.

We inputed various information about our hobbies and interests and it magically calculated what career we should begin preparing for. So I filled out the survey and the computer told me I should be a Computer Programmer. I knew this is what it was going to say, and I also knew it wasn’t the answer. Unfortunately I didn’t know at the time what the right answer was.

The whole program lied to us, telling us we had to choose a career, right there and then, if we didn’t it would be a disaster, I would be working at McDonald’s for the rest of my life. They put incredible pressure on us that we had to choose a career, finish High School, and immediately go to University and get an education or our lives would be over.

But what if you don’t know what you want to do? My only choice was to pick a career. So I went against the computer’s answer and decided I would be a Web Designer. I liked Web Design, I wasn’t totally convinced it was what I wanted to do with my life but it was the best idea I could come up with. Unfortunately I finally decided what I wanted to do with three months left in Grade 12 and my graduation.

At this point, in March 2001, I had managed to get chosen to go to New Year as a participant in a Sustainable Development conference at the United Nations. The whole adventure I had there is a very, very, long story, but suffice it to say that apart from almost being arrested by UN Security, I had an overall amazing experience. It allowed me to experience a life in politics, which brought me a passion I had not experienced before then.

However when I made it back home to Vancouver from New York I arrived to a process that had already been started, become a Web Designer. I got through art school with minimal excitement, but luckily for me, when I finished, my parents announced they still had money put away for my schooling and I could return to post-secondary school for education of my choice. I quickly decided to begin an education in Political Science.

My Political Science education has been stimulating and beneficial. And it has brought me to where I am today, hopefully making a contribution to fighting for human rights. I believe the situation of Roma in Europe is the most important Human rights issue in the world today, and I am glad to be a part of it, and hope I continue to contribute to the fight after my internship is over.

Italian political leaders are not generally held in high esteem outside (or indeed inside) their home country. Their handling of the country’s first big race-relations crisis has shown why. Among the adjectives that spring to mind are opportunistic, histrionic, irresponsible and, perhaps at best, insensitive.

The trouble began on October 30th, when Giovanna Reggiani, a 47-year-old Italian naval officer’s wife, was returning home along a deserted lane in northern Rome. She was brutally attacked. Early reports suggested that she had been tortured, raped, robbed and ferociously beaten—though, in fact, she was neither tortured nor raped. But it may be that her assailant set about her savagely after she tried to defend herself from sexual assault.

This was a horrifying crime, from which Ms Reggiani died two days later. The man accused of her killing is Nicolae Mailat, a Romanian Roma (gypsy) who lived in one of a string of shacks in a nearby wood. He denies murdering Ms Reggiani, but admits snatching her bag. Fellow shack-dwellers say that he is mentally disturbed.

None of this carried any weight in the outcry that followed. Mr Mailat is one of hundreds of thousands of Romanians, many of them gypsies, who have flocked to Italy in recent years and now make up its biggest ethnic minority. They have unquestionably brought problems, particularly to Rome, where a disproportionate number live in dreadful conditions under bridges, in copses or in disused buildings. They have made some parts of the city feel distinctly unsafe.

But the reason so many have come is that Italian politicians have encouraged them. The former centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi waived visa restrictions on Romania five years before it joined the European Union in January. The current centre-left government of Romano Prodi chose not to restrict the entry of workers from Romania after it had become a full member. Romanians were initially popular. They speak a Romance language. Most integrate easily.

Despite Italy’s open-arms policy, no steps were taken to provide even temporary shelter for the new arrivals. Part of the blame must fall on Rome’s centre-left mayor, Walter Veltroni. Yet it was he who was chiefly responsible for pushing the government into a panic after Ms Reggiani’s murder.

Mr Veltroni is more than just mayor of Italy’s biggest city. Last month, he was elected head of the new Democratic Party, which combines the two biggest parties on the centre-left. As such, he instantly became heir-apparent to Mr Prodi, and the centre-left’s candidate for the next general election. He thereby makes himself a continuous source of discomfort to Mr Prodi, as he seeks to keep himself in the news. He also offers an appealing alternative to an unpopular and fragile government which smaller coalition parties are repeatedly threatening to bring down.

After Mr Veltroni declared that “neither the police nor the local authorities can cope with the emergency”, the cabinet produced a decree that gave prefects, local representatives of the interior ministry, the power to expel citizens of other EU countries if they had the backing of a judge. A 2004 EU directive legitimised such expulsions in cases where there was a threat to public health or security.

In Brussels, the justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, and his officials seem to have accepted the Italian move (see article). But it is at best debatable whether the expulsions reflect faithfully a directive that, according to the EU’s own summary, was intended for a “ serious and present threat which affects the fundamental interests of the state”.

The most shocking aspect of the decree is that it is aimed so openly at Romanians. The preamble claims that “the proportion of crime committed by foreigners has increased, and those who commit most crime are the Romanians.” This is true only in absolute terms, because Romanians are the most numerous immigrants. As an analysis in La Stampa has shown, the proportion of Romanians reported to, or arrested by, the police in 2006 was lower than in most other foreign groups.

Within 24 hours of the cabinet meeting, 20 people were expelled. A band of thugs beat up and stabbed three Romanians in a Rome suburb. The first of several immigrant encampments were flattened with bulldozers. Since then, the Roma have been the target of vitriolic abuse. Gianfranco Fini, the supposedly reformed leader of the former neo-fascists, accused them of prostituting their womenfolk, approving the kidnapping of children and believing that theft was morally justified.

Continued at: The Economist

Wikipedia defines Roma as “among the best known ethnic groups that appear in literature and folklore, and are often referred to as Gypsies, [both terms] that are sometimes considered pejorative”. This systemic disproval of an ethnic group is based on decades of stigmas, stereotypes, and misinformation.

The Princeton Dictionary defines Roma as “a member of a people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and who traditionally live by seasonal work and fortunetelling”. This definition is racist, factually incorrect, out of date, and out of touch. The Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t have a definition for Roma at all. There needs to be a strong and sustained effort to change the hearts of minds of Europeans for the Romani people to achieve any long term significant improvement in their plight.

An important step in the Roma acquiring the rights and respect they deserve will be to change the meaning of Roma from a word of disrespect to one of admiration for a people with a long and noble heritage and rich cultural traditions. If we can change the definition of Roma to a positive one, maybe we can start to change their political, economical, and social position.

Before coming to Hungary, it wasn’t clear to me whether I would be able to make a positive contribution to Human Rights from an eastern European country, rather than Africa, where the rest of colleagues were sent. Now that I am here, however, I am confident that I am making a contribution to an important situation that requires more attention. The Roma situation doesn’t get much attention in North America, if any, but it should.

I am going to use your favorite source of information and mine, Wikipedia, to help me explain the issue;

The Romani people are an ethnic group living in many communities all over the world. The Roma are among the best known ethnic groups that appear in literature and folklore, and are often referred to as Gypsies. The Roma are still thought of as wandering nomads in the popular imagination, despite the fact that today the vast majority live in permanent housing. This widely dispersed ethnic group lives across the world not only near their historic heartland in Southern and Eastern Europe. Worldwide there is an estimated population of at least 15 million Roma. The official number of Romani people is disputed in many countries. Because many Roma often refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination, unofficial estimates are undertaken in efforts to reveal their true numbers.

The Roma — who have often been stereotyped as thieves, tramps, con men and fortune tellers — have been subject to various forms of discrimination throughout history. Due in part to their past semi-nomadic lifestyle and differences in language and culture, there has been a great deal of mutual distrust between the Roma and the more settled indigenous inhabitants of the areas to which the Roma migrated.

Antizigan discrimination has continued in the 2000s, particularly in the Balkans, in areas such as Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. Roma are often confined to low-class ghettos, are subject to discrimination in jobs and schools, and are often subject to police brutality. In Bulgaria, professor Ognian Saparev has written articles stating that ‘Gypsies’ should be confined to ghettoes because they do not assimilate, are culturally inclined towards theft, have no desire to work, and use their minority status to ‘blackmail’ the majority. This was a reaction to the murder of his colleague professor Stanimir Kaloyanov who was beaten to death by a Roma group while he was celebrating his son’s prom in Sofia in May 2005.

In the Czech Republic the majority of the Czech people do not want to have Roma as neighbors (almost 90%, more than any other group) seeing them as thieves and social parasites. In spite of long waiting time for a child adoption, Romani children from orphanages are almost never adopted by Czech couples. After the fall of communist party from power in 1989 the jobs traditionally employing Roma either disappeared or were taken over by workers from Ukraine and the stereotypes about Roma further reduced their employability.[citation needed]

As of 2006, many Roma who had previously lived in Kosovo lived in displaced refugee communities in Montenegro and Serbia. Those who remain often fear attacks from ethnic Albanians who see them as “Serb Collaborators”. In February, 2007, three Romani women in Slovakia received compensation after suing a hospital for sterilizing them while they were underage and without their consent. While the sterilizations occurred in 1999 and 2002, and the women had been repeatedly appealing to prosecutors since then, they were up until this time ignored.

The European Center for Antiziganism Research officially filed a complaint against Sacha Cohen — who plays Borat in the mockumentary film [of the same name] — for inciting violence and violating Germany’s anti-discrimination laws. One part of the satirical film, which supposedly portrays Borat’s impoverished native village, actually shows a Romani village in Romania. In character, Borat has referred to himself as a former “gypsy catcher,” and he has made a reference to “running over Gypsies with a Hummer”.

After actually meeting Romani people, I’ve come to realize that the Borat joke that the ECAR referred to wouldn’t have been accepted if he had made reference to running over a women, a gay person, or a black person. The stereotype and prosecution of Romani people needs to stop, this is 21st century, not the 15th century, and this behavior should not be accepted any more. These are real people with real problems that shouldn’t be ignored.

Hungary is at a pivotal point in its long and colorful history. The country is cleaning up after an economically and physically damaging period. The evidence of this damage is clear everywhere I go and in all the local news I read. The country - like any other - wants to be a world leader, but for Hungary to do that it must rebuild itself. The buildings all over Budapest are a good metaphor for the country as a whole; most of the city is showing its age, many are dirty, with graffiti and most are falling apart, if an earthquake were to strike Budapest, 90% of the city would crumble. There are signs of change however, buildings are being renovated - others are being torn down with new ones immediately being built in their place. The capitalist economy is thriving here, the biggest mall in the country opened a couple days ago, with so many people trying to get in - some customers got trapped in the rotating doors in the melee. Its clear Hungary wants to catch up to its western counter parts, but it might be trying to do too much too fast. The countries economy is being stretched to its limit, the government is struggling to keep up the pace of its policies and services to its citizens. The growing pains will pass in time, and eventually Hungary will join the western world, politically and economically.