Re: futurlab hungary
Title: Re:futurlab hungary dear zeljko, patrice et al, sorry for the late reaction, and another sorry for the lots of urls, but the illiberal reality produces every day something new and depressing: Orban's dirty little trick: Conflating pedophilia with homosexuality https://kafkadesk.org/2021/06/13/orbans-dirty-little-trick-conflating-pedophilia-with-homosexuality/ Hungary Adopts Child Sex Abuse Law That Also Targets L.G.B.T. Community https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/world/europe/hungary-child-sex-lgbtq.html and concerning the Fudan university a brave act: the mayor of Budapest names streets at planned Chinese university after Uyghurs, Hong Kong https://www.reuters.com/world/china/budapest-names-streets-planned-chinese-university-after-uyghurs-hong-kong-2021-06-02/ + Orbán: government will appoint people with "national worldview" to lead Hungarian universities https://insighthungary.444.hu/2021/05/06/orban-government-will-appoint-people-with-national-worldview-to-lead-hungarian-universities https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/orban-seen-entrenching-right-wing-dominance-through-hungarian-university-reform-2021-04-26/ Hungary Transfers 11 Universities to Foundations Led by Orban Allies. The transfer, accompanied by billions of euros in state assets, will enable the prime minister and his supporters to exert long-term influence. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/world/europe/hungary-universities-orban.html?referringSource=articleShare "They have essentially seized every major institution in society"-Hungary's university takeover https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2021/04/30/they-have-essentially-seized-every-major-institution-in-society-hungarys-university-takeover Orbán has begun taking steps to preserve his power https://telex.hu/english/2021/05/04/orban-has-begun-taking-steps-to-preserve-his-power # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Re: futurlab hungary
Hi Janos It seems there is lots of bad news coming from Budapest these days but I wonder which part of this is worse... I am wild guessing mostly for Chinese students? It is a public university with good reputation from what it seems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fudan_University hence it is strange that it goes abroad to do a campus... via Hungarian government and local tax payers? Would it be private and paid or free and subsidised? Sorry if this sounds strange to ask about this but I am curious on what is the essential difference to other similar historic and contemporary efforts. Best - Z. Blace # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
futurlab hungary
Title: futurlab hungary Hungary's parliament passed legislation on Tuesday setting up foundations to take over the running of universities and cultural institutions in a move critics say extends the ideological imprint of the ruling right-wing government. Orban's Fidesz party, which has a two-thirds majority in parliament, voted for the legislation on Tuesday. His government will appoint boards of trustees to run the foundations, which will control substantial real estate assets and benefit from billions of euros worth of EU funds, while also having considerable influence over universities' everyday life https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/27/europe/hungary-orban-university-reform-intl/index.html + The Hungarian government is planning to build a Budapest campus of the Chinese Fudan University with Chinese contractors, financed by a ¤1.25 billion loan from China, it emerged this month. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/hungary-to-build-budapest-campus-of-chinese-university-with-chinese-loan/ # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Poland and Hungary Use Coronavirus to Punish Opposition
BRUSSELS - Authoritarian-minded leaders around the world have used the coronavirus emergency to consolidate power. In Europe, the governments of Poland and Hungary have done that and more. They have managed to turn the crisis into a windfall and punish their political opponents, too. In a hasty effort to show that it was doing something to help during the virus crisis, the European Union repurposed 37 billion euros - about $40 billion - in structural aid funds, designed to help newer and poorer members, for virus aid. The result: Hungary and Poland each got considerably more money than virus-ravaged Italy or Spain. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/world/europe/poland-hungary-coronavirus.html # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Frida and Billy in Hungary
A pro-government newspaper has criticized a hugely popular exhibition of her work at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest for "promoting communism". In a July 14 article entitled "This is the way communism is promoted using state money", the Kahlo exhibition was listed in the right-wing newspaper Magyar Idok along with some other galleries, artists and exhibitions. "You won't believe it but Trotsky has emerged in Budapest again, this time from Frida Kahlo's bed," the newspaper wrote, referring to her affair with Leon Trotsky, a key figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, during his later exile in Mexico. Trotsky was assassinated in 1940. In June, Magyar Idok also published an article by a guest commentator who accused the musical Billy Elliot in the Hungarian State Opera of spreading homosexual propaganda among its young audience. Billy Elliot has been on the program for two years, with over 100,000 viewers so far. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-orban-culture/communist-frida-kahlo-swept-up-in-debate-on-cultural-change-in-hungary-idUSKBN1KT174 # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
banning gender studies in Hungary
Title: banning gender studies in Hungary BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's government will stop financing gender studies university courses, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Tuesday, marking one of the first concrete steps in a cultural shift signaled last month. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-government-education/hungary-to-stop-financing-gender-studies-courses-pm-aide-idUSKBN1KZ1M0 The Orbán regime introduced legislation to shut down accredited gender studies programs offered by universities in Hungary. Academics now have 24 hours to respond to the government's plan. The ban will primarily impact students at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (ELTE)-the only institution in Hungary, other than Central European University, to offer gender studies at the graduate level, and the only one to provide this program in Hungarian. http://hungarianfreepress.com/2018/08/10/gender-studies-programs-to-be-banned-in-hungary/ + An article published by Hungarian pro-government magazine Figyelo, entitled, "Immigration, homosexual rights and gender science - these topics occupy the researchers of the Academy", claims that the research topics of the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are politically suspicious, and that the government should have a "greater insight" into the Academy's work. https://sciencebusiness.net/news/orban-allies-target-hungarian-social-scientists-battle-academy-sciences https://sciencebusiness.net/news/hungary-should-withdraw-law-targeting-autonomy-academy-sciences-say-european-academies Diminishing autonomy of Hungarian science academy worries scientists https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/diminishing-autonomy-of-hungarian-science-academy-worries-scientists/3009327.article # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Re: on Hungary
Title: Re:on Hungary Hungarian journalists admit role in forging anti-migrant 'atmosphere of fear' Employees of state TV network describe how channels pumped out pro-government messaging ahead of Victor Orbán's election victory this week /.../ The journalists believe the anti-migrant messages often come directly from the government. People who work on stories directly involving Orbán receive a list of keywords to use. "Sometimes the editor will come into the office on the phone and dictate a whole story to us, word for word. We do not know who is on the other end of the phone," said one. /.../ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/13/hungary-journalists-state-tv-network-migrants-viktor-orban-government # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Hungary is withdrawing its ambassador from the Netherlands
Hungary is withdrawing its ambassador from the Netherlands after outgoing Dutch ambassador gave critical interview about Hungarian gov. https://thehungaryjournal.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/hungary-recalls-its-ambassador-from-the-netherlands/ https://twitter.com/LuiningMichiel?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor bonus: Moscow spooks return to Hungary, raising NATO hackles http://www.politico.eu/article/moscow-spooks-return-to-hungary-raising-nato-hackles/ # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Evento cancelado: E-ticket, Hungary - seg 24 jul 2017 16:30 - 17:30 (BRT) (nettim...@kein.org)
BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Google Inc//Google Calendar 70.9054//EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:CANCEL BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20170724T193000Z DTEND:20170724T203000Z DTSTAMP:20170724T210832Z ORGANIZER;CN=Lucia Leao:mailto:lucl...@gmail.com UID:vmsoic9j5lr6g84mlk8m9hv...@google.com ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;CN=Lucia Leao;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:lucl...@gmail.com ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;CN=ne ttim...@kein.org;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:nettim...@kein.org ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;CN=sj @c3.hu;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:s...@c3.hu CREATED:20170724T193008Z DESCRIPTION:A teenager discovered that the brand new website of the public transit authority in Budapest would allow you to edit the price you paid fo r your tickets\, so that purchasers could give themselves massive discounts on their travel\, and when he told the authority about it\, they had him a rrested and issued a press-release boasting about it.\nhttps://www.bleeping computer.com/news/security/45-000-facebook-users-leave-one-star-ratings-aft er-hackers-unjust-arrest/\n\nEin 18-jähriger Schüler aus Ungarn hat eine Sc hwachstelle im E-Ticketing-System der Nahverkehrsbetriebe in der ungarische n Hauptstadt Budapest gefunden und wurde kurz nach Meldung der Probleme an das Unternehmen festgenommen. Das System wird von T-Systems Magyar betriebe n. Das Unternehmen gehört zum ungarischen Telekommunikationsanbieter Magyar Telekom (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom).\nhttps://www.heise.de/newstick er/meldung/18-Jaehriger-meldet-Fehler-in-Budapester-E-Ticketing-System-und- wird-festgenommen-3781914.html\n\n# distributed via : no c... LAST-MODIFIED:20170724T210832Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:1 STATUS:CANCELLED SUMMARY: E-ticket\, Hungary TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR invite.ics Description: application/ics # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
E-ticket, Hungary
A teenager discovered that the brand new website of the public transit authority in Budapest would allow you to edit the price you paid for your tickets, so that purchasers could give themselves massive discounts on their travel, and when he told the authority about it, they had him arrested and issued a press-release boasting about it. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/45-000-facebook-users-leave-one-star-ratings-after-hackers-unjust-arrest/ Ein 18-jähriger Schüler aus Ungarn hat eine Schwachstelle im E-Ticketing-System der Nahverkehrsbetriebe in der ungarischen Hauptstadt Budapest gefunden und wurde kurz nach Meldung der Probleme an das Unternehmen festgenommen. Das System wird von T-Systems Magyar betrieben. Das Unternehmen gehört zum ungarischen Telekommunikationsanbieter Magyar Telekom (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom). https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/18-Jaehriger-meldet-Fehler-in-Budapester-E-Ticketing-System-und-wird-festgenommen-3781914.html # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Re: Hungary: new NGO law passed
On 06/18/2017 04:05 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote: We speak rather arrogantly in the West, treating Liberalism as unassailably good, yet the superficiality of our MSM driven discourse rarely acknowledges that the desire for a conservative community is not only a natural and acceptable desire, and widespread across the world, but does not mean that those who express such desires are bigots, and most fundamentally, the hypocritical ignoring of the facts that "global homogeneity" is the opposite of "preserving diversity", that if you don't stand for something, you fall for anything. This is a complicated issue, among others because a lot of the people on this list are Leftists of some kind, not liberals in any sense of the word. Most people on the Left do not treat liberalism as an unassailable good. Instead we decry the many negative effects of free trade and free movement of capital (the two things which define economic liberalism), while supporting the free movement of people because we value solidarity and human rights. We think that free trade and transnational finance tend to destroy the social and political systems of smaller countries, and that is one of the reasons we feel solidarity with those trying to find a safer and healthier home. I think you are right to insist that the desire for a tightly controlled border (if that is in fact what you mean by a "conservative community") does not automatically make those who desire it into bigots. There are quite serious conservative theories of democracy holding that only those with a long-term stake in a given polity can be counted on to assume the responsibilities of citizenship (the French historians Francois Furet and Pierre Rosanvallon come to mind). People on the Left would do well to debate these theories more deeply, to see how *we* think democracy operates under conditions of high-volume immigration from countries destablized by war, climate change and the economic sabotage of so-called free trade. If we would debate more among ourselves, then we could try to raise the level of the debates with true conservatives, which are now at an all-time low level. One conclusion from such a reflection is that it is urgent for rich countries to manage their economies both for the support of all their citizens (something which is not presently being done in the US where I live) and in such a way as to strengthen neighboring economies (something the US is not doing with regards to Mexico, nor the rest of Latin America). Great inequalities both within and between countries raise serious threats to democracy, because they create powerful resentments, We are experiencing those threats at present, all across the developed world. Not only the poorer countries and their increasingly desperate populations are responsible for these threats. Those classes of people who concentrate wealth are also responsible. It's pretty important to see that those extremely wealthy millionaire and billionaire classes are not conservatives. They are liberals in that they favor free trade, free movement investment across borders, and they're just plain capitalists in that they favor cheap labor, whether because the labor is undocumented or because it's the labor of citizens stripped of all their former rights and collective bargaining agency. How can conservatives support these oligarchs who rig the game in their favor, whatever side of the political spectrum they claim to be on? The end of your paragraph includes a bit of its own arrogance, and if you're addressing me or my likes, then I would respectfully take issue with that. I do stand for something and I do not fall for anything. The world we live in is not one of global homogeneity, not from my viewpoint. It is one of tremendous cultural richness, full of warm humanity and the chance to get outside one's own skin. Life is good when one can experience and at least partially share the desires and even the fate of others who speak different languages and dream different dreams. The homogenizing and standardizing forces come from large-scale capitalist enterprises that only benefit a thin slice of the population. You may not accept my view of the good life, but if we can debate about the relation between democracy and corporate capitalism, about the proper role of borders and of citizenship, and about the questions of equality and inequality, then we can get a lot further than if we trade rhetorical barbs and arrows while leaving our own preconceived notions intact. Democratic societies around the world are clearly at an impasse, and polarization is creating the conditions for war, both civil and international. Will that bring the good life? I don't see any reason to think so. We need some new ideas and that means taking the risk of shedding some old ones. best, Brian Holmes # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural
Re: Hungary: new NGO law passed
On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 12:05:49AM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote: > - the ultimate sanctity of NGO's that have no transparency about > their funding, nor their intentions, and notwithstanding their > actions which may well be directly opposed to the interests of the > majority in a given country - e.g. the conservative "we don't want > unlimited refugees from countries where no real vetting can occur" > that is just recently begun to be prosecuted by the UN, e.g.: Ah, found the link I was looking for: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-14/eu-sues-poland-hungary-and-czech-republic-refusing-accept-refugees # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Re: Hungary: new NGO law passed
On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 08:56:46PM +0200, János Sugár wrote: > The Hungarian Parliament passed a new law on non-governmental > organizations today, which is widely thought to attack civil > society in Hungary and has been criticized by the European > Commission. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) said it will > apply civil disobedience. Your plug does not mention the rather public (but only for those following the Hungarian debate) stoush between Orban and George Soros. George Soros is widely thought to attack civil society in Hungary and many other countries around the world via the NGO's in the respective countries that he financies through his Open Societies Foundation (may not be exact name sorry). We in the West are well trained in "shouting down" any action which "does not match Western values" which we are well indoctrinated in - "democracy" (for some would say strange values of 'democracy') - open societies (for those who still believe in "democracy" and the endless march of internationalism) - the ultimate sanctity of NGO's that have no transparency about their funding, nor their intentions, and notwithstanding their actions which may well be directly opposed to the interests of the majority in a given country - e.g. the conservative "we don't want unlimited refugees from countries where no real vetting can occur" that is just recently begun to be prosecuted by the UN, e.g.: http://www.barenakedislam.com/2017/06/09/do-it-european-union-threatens-legal-action-against-eastern-european-countries-that-refuse-to-take-in-tens-of-thousands-of-african-muslim-male-invaders-posing-as-refugees/ http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/817289/poland-fight-eu-penalty-european-commission-refusing-refugees-migrant-crisis http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260392/muslim-madness-merkel-daniel-greenfield How's the European Unity working for ya anyway?: http://journal-neo.org/2017/06/04/europe-of-two-speeds-implies-there-s-inferior-members-within-the-union/ We speak rather arrogantly in the West, treating Liberalism as unassailably good, yet the superficiality of our MSM driven discourse rarely acknowledges that the desire for a conservative community is not only a natural and acceptable desire, and widespread across the world, but does not mean that those who express such desires are bigots, and most fundamentally, the hypocritical ignoring of the facts that "global homogeneity" is the opposite of "preserving diversity", that if you don't stand for something, you fall for anything. For too often, a thread, a position, a "certainty" is presented with no heed whatsoever to genuine and real concerns to the contrary. Such gets tiresome. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
Hungary: new NGO law passed
The Hungarian Parliament passed a new law on non-governmental organizations today, which is widely thought to attack civil society in Hungary and has been criticized by the European Commission. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) said it will apply civil disobedience. The approved law requires groups receiving more than 24,000 euros annually ($26,000) in overseas funding to register as "foreign-supported" and disclose their foreign donors, or face closure. The legislation resembles a law passed in Russia in 2012, which requires NGOs receiving foreign funding to register as "foreign agents." https://bbj.hu/politics/ngo-law-passed-tasz-plans-civil-disobedience_134218 In Anti-Soros Feud, Hungary Adopts Rules on Foreign-Financed Groups https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/europe/hungary-law-ngo-soros.html Hungary: NGO law a vicious and calculated assault on civil society https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/hungary-ngo-law-a-vicious-and-calculated-assault-on-civil-society/ # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
The crushing of independent press in Hungary
Hungary's Left-Wing Paper Suspended Days After Breaking News http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/08/world/europe/ap-eu-hungary-media.html?_r=0 Protests in Hungary at closure of main leftwing opposition newspaper https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/09/protests-in-hungary-at-closure-of-main-leftwing-opposition-newspaper Newspaper Closes in Hungary, and Hungarians See Government's Hand http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/world/europe/hungary-newspaper-nepszabadsag.html The crushing of independent press in Hungary https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/hidv-gi-b-attila-alexandra-barcea/hungary-shock-tactics-against-press-freedoms ps the ex journalists of _népszabadság_ will edit the next edition of the budapest street paper: Protestaktion: Obdachlose Redaktion gestaltet Sonderausgabe der Budapester Obdachlosenzeitung http://derstandard.at/245897281/Nepszabadsag-Redakteure-wollen-weiter-unangenehm-sein .. The latest attacks on journalists and news organizations by corrupt populists are contributing to a global rollback of fundamental rights. http://fpif.org/stop-the-presses/ # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
nettime The Economist on Hungary: Curse like an oligarch
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21642647-countrys-biggest-media-mogul-turns-against-viktor-orban-no-uncertain-terms-how-cuss Curse like an oligarch The country's biggest media mogul turns against Viktor Orban, in no uncertain terms Feb 9th 2015 HUNGARIANS possess a rich vocabulary of swear words and curses, many involving imaginative connections between relatives, their bodily orifices and farmyard animals. But even by local standards, the invective that Hungary's most powerful businessman has unleashed over the past few days towards his country's prime minister is exceptional. In an interview on Friday with index.hu, a news website, Lajos Simicska, a former university roommate of Viktor Orban (pictured) and one of his closest allies for the past thirty years, called the prime minister a _geci_, one of the worst insults in the Magyar lexicon. The literal translation of _geci_ is sperm, but even that English term fails to convey the Hungarian word's connotations of disdain. Beyond the colourful language, the spat is the most serious break yet in Mr Orban's governing Fidesz party, which despite winning a two-thirds majority of the seats in the most recent elections has begun to show signs of strain. Until recently Mr Simicska was one of the most reclusive businessmen in Hungary. He was once Fidesz's financial mastermind, and served as head of the Hungarian Tax Authority under the first Fidesz government in the late 1990s. Kozgep, his massive holding company, has profited handsomely from government contracts. Mr Simicska's interests include construction, energy and the media. The Sopranos-esque flavour of business in these circles comes across in an obscenity-laden interview Mr Simicska gave last week to Hir24, a news website (translation here). (So you can end up dead at the end of this conflict? the interviewer asks. Of course, the oligarch replies. They kill me, shoot me or I fall under a car.) The immediate trigger for his fury was the government's statement that it plans to introduce a flat 5% tax on advertising. The new tax would replace an earlier advertising tax featuring progressive rates depending on the media organisation's income, which the government was forced to withdraw after opposition from the European Commission. The progressive tax was sharply criticised by RTL Klub, a private television channel owned by Luxembourg-based RTL, which claimed it was aimed at forcing foreign-based outlets that had been critical of Fidesz to leave Hungary. The prospect of a flat 5% tax rate infuriated Mr Simicska, but the editors who run his media outlets failed to follow the new course. Immediately after Mr Simicska said he was declaring war on Fidesz, a slate of senior executives from media organisations he controls -- including Magyar Nemzet, a conservative newspaper, L??nch??d Radio and H??r television -- resigned. The split between Mr Simicska and Mr Orban is rooted in the question of whether business or politics will have primacy in the Fidesz-dominated political order, according to Akos Balogh of Mandiner.hu, an independent conservative blog. The Fidesz leadership has long worried that Mr Simicska was becoming too powerful, and began limiting his influence on government over a year ago, removing his allies from key positions in administration and state-owned companies. The process accelerated after the 2014 election, when Fidesz won a two-thirds majority for the second time in a row, Mr Balogh says. Simicska was the dominant oligarch of the 2010-2014 term and now it's over. Orban does not want to depend on any single business group. Unsurprisingly, the row between the former allies has delighted the Hungarian political opposition. Their euphoria will probably be short-lived. The government has maintained an icy silence in response to Mr Simicska's outbursts, and by Monday morning, the oligarch appeared to be backtracking. A story in Magyar Nemzet claimed Mr Simicska had been criticising the politics of the prime minister and his advisers, not Mr Orban himself. However grammatically implausible, such denials may signal that the political waters are calming. If Hungary's opposition expects to gain traction against Fidesz, it will probably need better ideas and leadership, rather than hoping for another foul-mouthed outburst from Mr Simicksa. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime CSIS on Hungary
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): /.../ In the case of Hungary, many of these trends have toxically blended to produce an increasingly authoritarian regime. Over the last decade, Hungary has maintained strong economic and political ties with Russia. Russia is Hungary's largest trading partner outside the European Union, and the country remains 80 percent reliant on Russian energy. As Russia's grasp on Hungary's economy has tightened, nationalist and xenophobic groups-such as the neo-fascist Jobbik party-have also risen to prominence, further undermining the country's Western, liberal orientation. Moreover, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has articulated a significant shift in national direction and policy orientation, declaring in July that Hungary must strive to build an illiberal new state based on national foundations as evidenced by legislative motions to restrict free speech (including an oppressive advertising tax), centralize authority (Hungary's new constitution has been amended five times), and erode the independence of the judiciary. Noting that the geopolitical wind is blowing from the East, Orban has credited Moscow for these latest Russian-styled Hungarian reforms. These illiberal trends have been accompanied by distinctly pro-Russian foreign policies in Budapest. Orban has consistently derided the EU's sanctions against Russia, and Hungary abruptly discontinued its sale of excess gas supplies to Ukraine after a visit from the CEO of Gazprom this fall. Hungary received a 10 billion euro loan from Russia for a new nuclear power plant facility, increasing Hungary's energy dependence on Russian technology and financial support. Negative developments in Hungary and its neighbors threaten to derail wider European efforts to restrain Russian recidivism. Although the 21st-century East-West confrontation does not bear the ideological vestiges of the Cold War, there is a clear ideological component. This contestation is between liberal versus illiberal, transparency and good governance versus corruption and managed democracy. The unqualified success of Central Europe's transformation from Communism to liberal democracies and market economies is not immutable, and we should not trick ourselves into believing it is so. /.../ http://csis.org/files/publication/141110_Cohen_GlobalForecast2015_Web.pdf + http://www.thelocal.de/20141124/putin-euro-influence-strategy-targets-afd http://www.cato.org/people/andrei-illarionov # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: nettime meanwhile in Hungary
Janos that is an awful lot of detailed information on the electoral system changes practices in HUngary in these two simple links. The details - necessary as they are - swallow up an outsider without enough focus on the Magyar Dystopia of the 21st century. Did I miss your own comment on all this? Or would you be able to formulate it with this detailed information just as a reference? I do have odd memories of the political landscape of Hungary in the mid eighties of last century and the dismay of seeing people I licked at that time drifting into ultra-right/nationalistic directions (Inconnu group among others). In a way all those numbers and the concept of a super majority made me think back to a book of Miklos Haraztsy Opposition = 0,1 pour-cent. Extraits du samizdat hongrois présentés par Miklós Haraszti. Traduit du Hongrois et préf. par Georges Aranyossy (Edition du Seuil 1979). I have it at home. Remember meeting him in Budpaest and being introduced to the circle of dissidents around Krasó György by Haraszti. Krasso having house-arrest at that time. Now the cynical opposition 0,1 % in the title of that book seems to come into view of what is a parliamentary democracy (however manipulative it's functioning, and politics without manipulation do not exist). Orbán and the Fidesz party have been watched over in their cradle by Haraszti Miklos and looking around I spotted an article by Haraszti The real Viktor Orbán published in OpenDemocracy in 200, where he hails the elections of that year that did send Orbán back to a role of opposition and wonder (also) how the actual state of affairs is seen by him. As for the Hungarian diaspora of 1956 and their part in the recent voting... that seems logic when one looks into the forces that were revolting against party communist rule in 1956. One sees there a whole spectre of ideologies and practices under the banner of freedom (as there was a common enemy to be fought), with several rooting in a not so far away reactionary past of the Horthy regime. In the year 2005/2006 I did a study of many of the Hungarian exile communities and it was often hard to stomach their racist and ultra nationalist viewpoints. Is it not so that in Hungary the process of coming to grip with its own past has been neglected? The simplifications as expressed in the representation of history as in the House of Terror are an expression of the dichotomy of freedom versus communist repression... It suffices to reas some documents on the 'white terror' of the Horthy regime already published in the twenties of last century and his actual rehabiliation, to know what is to be done. Tjebbe van Tijen = On 13 Jun 2014, at 12:11, Janos Sugar wrote: Hungary and the End of Politics Kim Lane Scheppele ... Tjebbe van Tijen Imaginary Museum Projects dramatising historical information http://imaginarymuseum.org web-blog: The Limping Messenger http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/ Flickr: Swift News Tableaus by Tjebbe van Tijen http://www.flickr.com/photos/7141213@N04/ # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime Hungary in focus
http://www.eurozine.com/comp/focalpoints/hungary2013.html Hungary in focus In recent years, Hungary has been a constant concern for anyone interested in European politics and Eurozine has published extensively on different aspects of the Hungarian situation. Ahead of the Hungarian elections in 2014, we have collected some of those articles dealing with both recent developments and broader issues relating to Hungarian politics, history and culture. This collection of texts puts into perspective how, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Hungary's democratic reforms were held up as an example to the states of central eastern Europe. Twenty years later, the political process suffered a sudden reversal following the election in 2010 of the Fidesz government under Viktor Orbán. Now the dismantling of Hungary's political and constitutional system continues. However, the focus also includes a series of responses to serious unrest on the streets of Budapest in September 2006 after the then Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted to downplaying the scale of the national debt in the run-up to elections earlier the same year. Gábor Attila Tóth: Power instead of law As the Fidesz government dismantles Hungary's political and constitutional system, Gábor Attila Tóth considers the influence of international institutions and the efficacy of domestic, democratic resources far from exhausted. On the contrary, the role played by both will likely be decisive. [ more ] Robert Hodonyi, Helga Trüpel: Together against Orbán: Hungary's new opposition Amid international concern over government reforms that endanger democracy in Hungary, Hodonyi and Trüpel discover a political renaissance in Hungarian civil society. Ahead of elections in spring 2014, this may well be an antidote to the EU's political half-heartedness. [ more ] Gábor Halmai: Towards an illiberal democracy Hungary's new constitution contradicts European standards on numerous counts: it sets in stone government policy; it is biased towards ethnic Hungarians; and it undermines the independence of regulatory institutions including the constitutional court and media. [ more ] György Dalos, Miklós Haraszti, György Konrád, László Rajk The decline of democracy -- the rise of dictatorship In a New Year's appeal, thirteen intellectuals and public figures who opposed Hungary's communist regime in the 1970s outline their concerns about Hungary's new constitution and call on Europe to help halt a slide towards a new dictatorship. [ more ] Miklós Haraszti: Notes on Hungary's media law package Hungary's media law could lead to a depoliticization of the media the likes of which exists in Russia and other post-Soviet democracies, writes the former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. The alterations to the law will do little to this halt this tendency. [ more ] etc. etc. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
