Magyar Református Egyház

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Due to the global recession unemployment insurance systems are swamped across the Western World. In the United States, as of 2009 over a third of state unemployment systems were estimated to have run out of money and were borrowing to fulfill their obligations.

Hungary, too, faces many issues regarding unemployment and the government has proposed a reform of the unemployment system that leaves a significant number Hungarians abroad asking  “Are we having Forced Labor Battalions now?”

Here are representative comments, please see the full article here.

This morning I stared at the front page of Népszava, not quite believing my eyes. Hungary, it seems, is introducing its own draconian version of “from welfare to workfare.” After 90 days of unemployment insurance, all assistance will come to a screeching halt. If the unemployed person can’t find a job during those 90 days, he will have to enroll in public works programs which might be anywhere in the country and work on some large public projects, like building football stadiums or dams and cleaning sewers. The work will be done under police supervision. According to reports, the average person will work only half time for less money than the minimum wage. If a person must spend more than six hours a day travelling in order to reach his workplace, he can stay in one of the trailers that will be set up at the site.

….

I couldn’t quite believe that the government could introduce something that so closely resembles forced labor camps or forced labor battalions of Jews and other undesirables in World War II. So, I waited for a government response denying all this as a vicious lie of the liberals, socialists, communists, take your pick. But silence all day long. Then at 3:30 p.m. Pintér announced at a press conference that “we don’t want to keep the workers under surveillance. …We are talking about instruction, direction, organization. Placing 300,000 people into work projects is a complicated affair that needs exactly the skills policemen have.” So, this is all true.

News of the plan became available when it was learned retired police officers were being reactivated for duty in connection with this project.Under existing Hungarian law, the program cannot be implemented because it violates minimum wage levels and this fact raises other concerns.

Some members of the Hungarian community abroad who generally applaud the government’s commitments to human life expressed in the new constitution wonder aloud if this proposal is consistent with that stated value.

25th Weekly Media Review of Hungarian Communities Abroad
Heti nemzetpolitikai összefoglaló (25.hét)

Topics:

1. Hungarian-Slovenian Committee on Minorities
2. Heightened responses to Romanian proposed changes
3. Minorities’ Act
4. Slovakia – Presidential veto on the Act on Use of Minority Languages
5. Radi?ová – Orbán meeting
6. Serbia stands by Slovakia
7. Szvoboda News

25th weekly media review of hungarian communities abroad
View more documents from Reformatus.us.

24th Weekly Media Review of Hungarian Communities Abroad Heti nemzetpolitikai összefoglaló (24.hét)

If your church is participating in the Global Day of Prayer this Pentecost, here is the “Prayer for the World” to join with Christians worldwide on Pentecost.

23rd weekly media review of hungarian communities abroad:

-Trianon anniversary – Day of National Cohesion
-Centre and Research Institution
-The Government is committed to the cause of national minorities in Hungary
-Keep calm and carry on
-Electronic census closed
-Collective minority rights at no circumstance
-Diplomatic Note for Hungary
-Kiev: dual citizenship does not constitute a problem’
-Conference on scientific cooperation
-Hungarian Identity conference in Canada

22nd Weekly Media Review For Hungarian Communities Abroad

This page contains a link to an Adobe Acrobat file (pdf) that helps Reformed Churches find the right psalm for either important days in the Church Year or to sing in conjuntion with the Lord’s Days of the Heidelberg Catechism: Click the 2nd link on the page for  Liturgical Helps.

Tomorrow for Ascension Day (Áldozócsütörtök)  the resource suggests up to 16 Psalms including, as you’d suspect, Psalms 8, 110, and many others.

While the writing is in Dutch, the necessary English has been penciled in!

Enough Psalms are suggested for each Lord’s Day that a congregation that knew it’s Psalter well could sing nothing but psalms for the morning and afternoon services if they wished!

Hungarian Evangelical Reformed Church in Bethlehem, PA faced tens of thousands of dollars worth of repair… far beyond the operating budget of the 33 member congregation.

Their pastor, Rev. Ron Hari, responded by doing what he knew best – baking Hungarian strudel. A group from the church helps him and they create 75 to 150 strudels per week selling for $13 apiece to pay their way.

The response has been overwhelming… so much so that backorders are being logged months ahead, sometimes with unhappy customers who are tired of waiting for their product!

You can see the story here, here and here as well.

Hungarian Evangelical Reformed Church
635 High Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018-4046
(610) 866-6313

RELATED: Send your strudel order by email

The following media summary was provided by the official Secretariat for Hungarian Communities Abroad.

Tenders published for organizations of Hungarians living abroad

The deputy state secretary for Hungarian communities abroad Zsuzsanna Répás announced on Friday that the Bethlen Gábor Fund published the open tenders for Hungarian culture and education. Organizations of Hungarians living abroad may apply for HUF1,2 billion (roughly €4 615 380). During the last month, the Fund has carried through calling for tenders in an amount of nearly HUF7 billion (€26 923 000). Répás said that new principles featured the new subvention policy that meant a comprehensive and transparent criteria system worked out by the Hungarian Standing Conference.Organizations of greater national interest and with a wider background are expected not to apply for these open tenders, since they will likely receive normative support based on the established criteria. Member organizations of the Standing Conference are entitled to propose institutions and organizations for the normative support. The Borderless!program managed by the Apáczai Csere Public Foundation was announced on 30 April. Within this program, HUF500 million (€19 230) is available for two components. The government wishes to provide study excursions for seventh grade elementary school students. Within the other component, the co-operation of technical colleges is facilitated and promoted by creating twin relations. The deadlines are rather tight in all tenders, for the Borderless! program they are: 3 June for the first component and, 17 June for the second one. The desired aim of the government is to enable students to experience the
lives and birthplaces of Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin at least once during their studies.

3-day Jamboree in Debrecen

The youth organization of the Christian-democratic People’s Party (IKSZ) held a 3-day jamboree in Debrecen in the topic of policy for Hungarians living abroad. The youth president Bence Stágel underlined the uniqueness of this initiative in its institutionalized Hungarian-Hungarian relation-building goal. The South-Slovak Via Nova, the youth organization of the Cultural Alliance of Hungarians in Transcarpathia, the Hungarian Youth Conference and the Hungarian Youth Council from Transylvania and the Fidelitas (Fidesz Youth Organization) attended the meeting, where they were encouraged to voice their interest and ideas toward the Hungarian government. Among the invited guests, deputy state secretary for Hungarian communities abroad Zsuzsanna Répás recalled the words of the late prime minister József Antall, who wished to be a prime minister of 15 million Hungarians in soul. Répás referred to the Status Law, the simplified naturalization and the autonomy aspirations in the Carpathian Basin. Whereas, Vajdaság/Vojvodina has the means of cultural autonomy, “Slovakia is still trapped in the policy of the former nationalist government” – said Répás.

Martonyi-Baconschi Duo

Foreign minister Teodor Baconschi was on an official visit to Budapest last Thursday at the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart János Martonyi. During the visit, Baconschi was set to meet president Pál Schmitt and deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén. Talks were
to focus on ways of developing Romanian-Hungarian cooperation in the context of the two countries’ strategic partnership, but also on matters of mutual interest on the European, regional and international agenda. Baconschi told reporters that the adoption of the Minority Act was part of the primary goals of the current coalition. The minister referred to the debate over the teaching of History and Geography in minority languages and argued that “they act upon European values”. Romania is eminent in aspirations that wish to enable multilingual education – said Baconschi. Contrary to this, the Chamber of Deputies tacitly adopted a proposal sponsored by Deputy Mircia Giurgiu (independent), removing the provisions from the Education Law on the obligation to teach History and Geography in national minorities’ languages in elementary and secondary education. The initiative was tacitly adopted because the deadline set for the debate and the final vote (1 May 2011) had been missed. The Education Committee proposed the rejection of the draft law and the government had no position in the matter. The Chamber of Deputies is the first chamber discussing the bill, the Senate has the last say. Social-democratic senators
pre-voted for the mother-tongue based education in the special committee, so the chance is given for objecting the draft. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) is threatening with split of the coalition, if things turn bad in this regard.

Prince Charles: Romania’s best export product is Transylvania

The Prince of Wales, on a private visit to Transylvania, visited the St. John Church in the village of Csíkdelne/Delnita in Hargita County, dating from the 13th century. The heir to the throne, whose great grandfather’s cousin Marie married the crown prince of Romania and went on to rule the country with her husband after WWI, visited villages in the Transylvanian region several times in the last ten years. HRH expressed many times his link to Transylvania. In 2008, he said that “Transylvania is in my blood”. He bought several properties in a 12th-century Saxon village, 250km north of Bucharest. Prince Charles had an unofficial meeting, at his home in Zalánpatak/Valea Zalanului, with the local authorities in Kovászna, voicing his interest in local traditions and products, as well as in genuine German (Saxon) villages. On this occasion, the local officials presented the Prince of Wales with a bottle painted by disabled children, a mirror decorated with traditional Saxon motifs and a book on Kovászna County. “The fact that the heir to the British throne bought a house in Zalánpatak sends an important message to the world. It is an important message for Zalánpatak, as well as for Kovászna County and the Szeklers’ Land,” – stated the head of the Kovászna County Council Tamás Sándor. The heir to the British Crown is also involved in several ecological farming projects. Prince Charles called for the protection of Transylvania’s cultural and natural heritage during an interview broadcast late Wednesday by Romanian national TV channel: “There is still much more to do in Transylvania and throughout Romania with its rich multi-ethnic heritage to ensure that these unique cultural and natural treasures are not lost”. He added that “if these places do disappear, it would not only be a tragedy for the people of Transylvania, but a loss for the whole of humanity and a terrible indictment of a world that has truly lost its soul”. An ardent protector of the region’s Saxon villages for many years, he also praised the “intimate” link between their residents and the landscape “in the way they farm the land and build houses, tell their stories and conduct their seasonal activities”.

SNS-proposed Resolution against Hungary voted down

The wording of a resolution proposed by a group of Slovak National Party (SNS) MPs on the activities of the Hungarian government and parliament vis-a-vis Slovakia does not correspond to the current state of bilateral relations, said the Slovak government on Wednesday, voting down the declaration. At the same time, the declaration does not correspond to Slovakia’s efforts aimed at leading a standard dialogue between two neighbouring countries that are also both members of the EU and NATO, noted the Slovak cabinet. The SNS MPs in the declaration protested against what they described as a series of anti-Slovak activities carried out by the Hungarian government and the adoption of extraterritorial legislation by Budapest. The MPs also vocally protested against repeated inappropriate statements by Hungarian officials aimed against Slovakia, rejected historical revisionism and called for international post-war treaties and the Fundamental Treaty on Good Neighbourly and Friendly Relations between Slovakia and Hungary to be observed. “The Slovak government has succeeded in restoring official top-level communications [with Hungary] thanks to which it is possible to express our attitudes openly, including on issues in which our opinions differ” – said the foreign affairs ministry in response to the text. “We view expressing irritable and emotional statements as a disservice in terms of Slovakia’s national and state interests” – added the ministry.

Memorial erection at Csurog

A memorial erection was held at Csurog/?urug for the honour of those hundreds of Hungarians who were innocently executed in the autumn of 1944. This is the seventeenth erection in the past, because unknown perpetrators break the crosses and the marble plaques each year. Relatives, representatives of the Hungarian parties in Vojvodina, civil organizations, representatives of the Hungarian parliament, the Hungarian Consulate General in Szabadka/Subotica, and the 1944-1945 Vajdaság/Vojvodina Martyrdom Foundation attended the ceremony. The deputy secretary for Hungarian communities abroad Zsuzsanna Répás said that the Hungarian victims of Vajdaság are the victims of the whole Hungarian nation.

The Serbian police men will learn Hungarian

Serbia and Hungary applied for an EU cross-border co-operation tender, which supports the training of the police. The Police Academy at Kamanc/Sremska Kamenica received €151 000, while the secondary police school in Szeged received €121 000 for this purpose. Each partner will organize language courses for the police: the Serb police men will learn Hungarian, and the Hungarians will learn Serbian.

Dual benchmark in dual citizenship

Harassment of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia may ascribed to the Ukrainian civil secret service, said foreign state secretary Zsolt Németh after the closed meeting of the parliamentary National Cohesion Committee. According to Németh, the incidents violate not only Ukrainian laws but also international law. The foreign state secretary is to travel to Kiev in May claiming explanations for the interrogation of assumed applicants of Hungarian citizenship. He expressed his hope for positive change as after the Hungarian position in the issue was made public by deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén no further claims came in. According to opposition MP of the Ukrainian parliament Gennagyij Moszkal, dual citizenship is already an existing reality in Ukraine and therefore there is no point in forbidding dual citizenship. Indeed, he admitted that the Ukrainian embassy of the Republic of Moldova issued about 7000 Ukrainian citizenships for persons living in Moldova between 2007 and 2011. Despite this, no one supposed that Ukraine would wage military action against Moldova in the defence of Ukrainian citizens.