Tag: Budapest
Happy Sunday! FINA World Championships are coming to a close today in Budapest, and I was able to witness some great moments there. Check out my Instagram for pics of the swimming competitions and waterpolo matches I attended. The cost of building and organizing the whole thing might have been high, I doubt it compares to what Hungary gained on it, but all I can say is nothing compares to the vibe of cheering your team on a world event, just ten minutes walk from your home (the serious sunburn nice tan I developed during a midday openair waterpolo match is…
So, I attended the Budapest Pride March this Saturday. This was my first Pride experience ever, although many people I respect take part each year, it just never occured to me before that I should be there too. I am just not the marcher or demonstrator type in general, but then there were many issues lately that converted many non-marchers, I guess. I know quite a few gay people, some I even call friends, so tolerance and acceptance had never been a question for me. Not even before I left my small hometown, where homosexuality is still a taboo, something…
This Monday I attended a special event in Budapest organized by the Hungarian publisher of Loretta Napoleoni’s latest book “Merchants of Men: How Jihadists and ISIS Turned Kidnapping and Refugee Trafficking into a Multi-Billion Dollar Business”, that just came out in Hungarian. Loretta Napoleoni talked about the essence of the book which is the evolution of the financing of terrorist organizations. After 9.11 ransom paid by foreign governments for their kidnapped citizens became the most important source of funding for terrorist organizations throughout most the Arab world. It involved kidnapping of tourists, journalists and aid workers in countries like Libya (where…
Happy Easter, Everybody! I hope you are having a peaceful and relaxing holiday weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not. As you might have heard, President János Áder signed the legislation making Central European University’s operations in Hungary impossible into law this week. Demonstrations in Hungary keep going on, now the aim is to get MPs to refer the law to revision to the Constitutional Court (and the whole regime to leave, while we’re at it). The demonstrators are mostly university students, protesting peacefully against this irrational, outrageous and outright stupid act of the government. Meanwhile, on Easter Monday, there will…
Happy Sunday! Destpite the very eventful week in world affairs, I would start again with something I (and many others) believe is an international issue, being an attack against democracy. You might have heard the law undercutting Central European University in Hungary has been adopted in spite of wide international protests. The protests continue, now the aim is to get President Áder not to sign the legislation. You can sign the petition clicking here. I am not sure whether any of this helps, but please do sign if you haven’t already and share with others! Now, let’s get to all…
Happy Sunday and happy summer everybody! After half a week of vacation at lake Balaton, a wonderful Plácido Domingo concert in Budapest, half a week of staycation in Nagykálló including some old school meteor shower watching, I will be back to work tomorrow. Let’s see what else happened this week. Russia’s Lawful Land Grab This comes on the week when Ukraine claims Russia is arranging military moves on their borders again. Can a New Peacekeeping Force Stabilize South Sudan? UN peacekeeping has a bad reputation these days. In theory I do think it can do wonders, but in practice it…
Happy weekend everybody, and happy labor day weekend to all my US readers, who – according to Google Analytics – make up the third largest crowd among my overall readership. BTW, I am still in the process of figuring out why the first place goes to Russia, but then, shoutout to my Russian readers too, anyway! I have never thought I would ever be writing these words, but seriously, I wish my country wouldn’t be on international news that much! Even the daily news roll of my favorite global affairs blog came out one day with the title “Seriously, Hungary?”. And…
I was actually planning this feature for quite some time now, I just wish I could launch it with some less difficult topic. The idea is that I take an article I read and write the first five sentences that come to mind about the issue it covers. Meaning I don’t just write about that particular article, but mainly my opinion and whatever else comes to mind. Now about this first topic, it was very hard to do just that. Because I struggled to stop at five sentences, and because just yesterday I got criticized for being silent about this…
Migrants Cross Austria Border From Hungary Thousands of migrants who have been bottled up in Hungary, demanding passage to the West, will be allowed into Austria and Germany, the Austrian chancellor said late Friday. Early Saturday, the first buses carrying them arrived at the Hungary-Austria border. Hungary is bound to apply the EU rules of registering migrants crossing the Schengen border, as long as they are not registered, they have to be considered illegals, which makes passing through thoroughly difficult. Hungarian actions in the past few days were irrational at best, it seemed like the government was keen on making…
It’s been a long time since the last time when I could not manage to post anything between two Sunday Smacks, sorry about that. Amazingly enough, although I have even failed to mark yesterday’s International Mother Language Day, this post of mine from two years ago got very popular yesterday. Thanks to everybody for still keeping it in circulation! Now let’s see a couple of interesting posts from not so far back. The Budapest Memorandum and Beyond: Have the Western Parties Breached a Legal Obligation? The Ukrainian crisis looks even more troublesome when international treaty interpretation comes into play. The…
