Tag: Hungary
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 Sunday and happy World Book and Copyright Day! Isn’t this a great occasion for some Sunday reading? I hope you can take some time for that. This has been a busy and interesting week with winter returning to Central Europe (that may or may not be blamed on climate change), ongoing protests in Hungary and elsewhere and of course today’s elections in France. Now let’s do some reading! Referendum Results Risk Further Polarization in Turkey Last week’s referendum is the latest sign that Turkey is moving towards a dangerous direction. ‘Terrorism’ at the World Court: Ukraine v Russia as…
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 April, Everybody! There is wonderful spring weather in Hungary these days, I hope you are also somewhere enjoying spring. There was also wonderful spring weather in London during the short time I have spent there this week, the highlight of which I already shared in a previous post. It was my first time there since the Brexit referendum (las time I visited just a week before that), so I was curious whether anything has changed. I have to say I haven’t noticed anything. The media of course was full of Brexit reports on March 29, but other than that,…
Happy Spring, Everybody! This week was yet another sad reminder of the times we live in now. I am leaving for London just this coming week for a short trip (more on this later), and what happened on Westminster Bridge made me think about a lot of things. It is easy to say that we are not going to be frightened (we are not!), but harder not to think I could have been there on the bridge at that very moment. Or not to think whether it is just statistics, like there are so many people in a city like…
Happy Sunday and happy Halloween, everybody! We are having a long weekend in Hungary, unfortunately filled with work for me. I can’t believe how quickly we are approaching the end of 2016. There are a lot of exciting things this coming November holds for us though, like the Marrakesh Climate Change Conference (to be preceded by the entry into force of the Paris Agreement), an historic presidential election in the US, the return of Gilmore Girls on Netflix, to list just a few. Here’s your reading for today. This will not be the end of “The Jungle” One of the…
Happy Sunday, all! This year is the 60th annivesary of a hopeful revolution that started on the streets of Budapest in the fall of 1956 but resulted in brutal repulse and more than 40 more years under Russian oppression. Around this time every year we remember the bravery of those Hungarian people who risked their lives for freedom. There were commemorations held around the world this week for the occasion. And a lot of other news, of course. Let’s see some of them. Truly Winning the Battle of Mosul The battle of Mosul was kind of the news of the week….
Happy Sunday, everybody! Today, there is a referendum held in Hungary, where Hungarians are asked to answer with yes or no to the following question. “Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary without the approval of Parliament?” Well,first of all, the EU can do that now, whether citizens of member states want it or not, simply based on the EU Treaty. So a “No” answer doesn’t make any sense. A “Yes” answer doesn’t make sense either, no-one really “wants” this, not even the EU, although the quotas are off the table…
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…
