Budapest, HUNGARY — Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a packed hall in the capital Hungary is proud of its Christian heritage and will do all in its power to defend its Christian identity.

“We are proud that our king Saint Stephen built the Hungarian State on solid ground and made our country a part of Christian Europe one thousand years ago,” Mr. Orbán said, citing Hungary’s constitution. “We recognise the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood.”

The prime minister said “Saint Stephen, our first Christian king, was an enlightened monarch, a visionary who wrote a guide for his son Emeric called ‘Admonitions’ that we Hungarians read as a personal message to each of us, both as a nation and as individuals, and it has been a source of our strength and flourishing.”

Along with urging him to preserve the Christian faith, the Admonitions also contained precious counsel for good citizenship and good government, Mr. Orbán noted.

“Be merciful to all who are suffering violence, keeping always in your heart the example of the Lord who said: I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” Mr. Orbán recited. “Be patient with everyone, not only with the powerful, but also with the weak.”

“Finally, be strong lest prosperity lift you up too much or adversity cast you down. Be humble in this life, that God may raise you up in the next,” he quoted.

In his speech, broken up periodically by enthusiastic applause, the leaderr echoed words written by Pope John Paul II in the year 2000 to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Hungary as a Christian nation.

“When St Stephen wrote his Admonitions for his son Emeric, was he speaking only to him?” the Polish pope asked. “Did he not write his Admonitions for all future generations of Hungarians, for all the heirs of his crown?”

“Your holy king, dear brothers and sisters of the Hungarian nation, left you as an inheritance not only the royal crown,” he said. “He left you the spiritual testament, a heritage of fundamental and indestructible values: the true house built upon the rock.”

In Tuesday’s address, Mr. Orbán said that despite its small size, Hungary has an important mission to play in the world.

“Hungarians make up only 0.02 percent of the world’s population, so how much difference can it make? Is it worth it?” Mr. Orbán asked.

He then proceeded to invoke the historical example of the 12 apostles, who changed the world by their Christian witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

“Standing up for our persecuted brothers and sisters engenders courage in ourselves and others,” the prime minister continued. “When we raised Aid to Persecuted Christians to the level of a government ministry, who would have known how it would grow and influence others?”

Mr. Orbán also shared some sobering facts about the extent of the real-world drama of Christian persecution.

“Four out of 5 people persecuted for their faith are Christians and some 245 million Christians around the globe suffer extreme persecution,” Orbán noted, along with scores of vandalized churches and numerous deaths.

“And yet Europe remains silent again and again!” he said. “European politicians seem paralyzed and unable to do anything, insisting that it is all a matter of generic ‘human rights.’”

“But Christian persecution is not just a humanitarian issue,” Orbán insisted. “It is not just violence against individual persons or groups but an organized attack on an entire culture, including here in Europe.”

This attack takes many forms, some overt and some more subtle, he said, which includes “population exchange through mass migration, stigmatization, mockery, and the muzzle of political correctness.”

The prime minister also criticized Western Europe’s indiscriminate acceptance of mass migration as a time bomb for the future.

“Western Europe has already provided dozens of militants to the Islamic State,” he noted, “and uncontrolled immigration has produced a radical change in the demographics of the population.”

The only solution, he suggested, is for Europe to rediscover its Christian roots, its Christian identity.

(Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. / Breitbart)

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The Law on Language still remains in focus – a statement by Ildikó Orosz on the investigation of the Venice Commission

Last September, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new law on education, which not only makes it difficult, but also impossible, for minority schools to teach in their national languages. According to the law, Hungarian educational institutions should gradually switch to Ukrainian-language teaching from the 5th grade onwards. This is also in contradiction with Ukraine’s constitution and international commitments.

As it is known, a delegation of the Venice Commission was again investigating the law at the end of October in Kiev, and is expected to issue a resolution on the adopted language law by December. At the same time, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasil Bodnar told the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya that Kiev will not abolish the 2017 Law on Education or the law on the functioning of Ukrainian as a state language, but is ready for an equal dialogue and an agreement with Hungary.

Ildikó Orosz, the rector of the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute and the president of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Pedagogical Association spoke to us on the aforementioned statement and the possible upcoming changes.

– In 2017, Ukraine adopted the Law on Education, including its ominous Article 7, which is both unconstitutional and contradicts the Ukrainian law and the international commitments Ukraine has made, as well as agreements on cooperation, the President said.

According to the Venice Commission, this regulation needs to be changed as it negatively affects minorities’ acquired rights to education in their native language. It should be noted that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made a commitment to do so. He said that the proposals of the Venice Commission would be implemented. Unfortunately, I have to say that no progress has been made on this issue. The new government, with an absolute majority, has not taken any steps to address the issue, and in the last minute, the previous parliament had introduced an amendment to the law on education that will worsen the situation, despite the proposals of the Venice Commission.

According to the Law on Higher Education of 2014, privately owned higher educational institutions are free to choose the language of instruction, in line with the position of the Venice Commission. There has been a backlash since the law passed in 2017 has adopted the language of education at all levels to be Ukrainian, and the law adopted in 2014 was adjusted accordingly. This is contrary to the position of the Venice Commission. Therefore, we have concerns about whether there is any political intent to change this situation.

In primary and secondary schools there is a problem with teaching the native language and the foreign language. At present, students may learn Hungarian in the hours given for foreign languages. In the curriculum for elementary schools, a table showing the number of hours in different languages indicates the total number of hours that can be given to develop language competences and how much of these should be devoted to Ukrainian. The rest of the lessons can only be used for foreign and native language education. This means that teachers in Hungarian schools and nationality schools have to decide whether they will teach their native language or a foreign language.

When we raise this question, we get answers that, after all, the native language is a foreign language in Ukraine. Therefore, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education believes that the native languages of minorities a foreign languages and therefore does not provide a required number of hours. Or maybe they don’t want the children to learn a third foreign language, which would be natural in the 21st century. For the sake of clarity, the presidency of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Pedagogical Association held a meeting, and we also made suggestions to the new Ministry of Education to address the issues of nationality education.

During the past semester, we were not contacted to make any progress on any issue. We can’t wait anymore, it’s November, and it would take some work to start making meaningful decisions this school year. In any case, we will take the first steps, formulate our concerns, and send them to every organization in Ukraine that has the ability and authority to decide on the issues in question.

The eternal problem, that is, the matter of textbooks, remains unchanged. There are new obstacles to the provision of textbooks. Although it is November, there is no alphabet book for the first grade yet. Recently, we have read in the papers that, due to staff reductions, the only full-time head and staff member of the Hungarian textbook editorial office of the Lviv State Publishing House „Svit” has been dismissed. This practically eliminates the Hungarian textbook editorial office.

Referring to the fact that in Slovak schools students are taught entirely from Slovak textbooks, in Bulgarian schools they are taught from Bulgarian textbooks, we have also introduced Hungarian textbooks. We got permission for that. Thus, a year ago we succeeded in being able to teach the first grade from the alphabets and workbooks published in Hungary as alternative textbooks. It should be noted here that a workbook has not been issued to the first grade since Ukraine has existed. The Transcarpathian Hungarian Pedagogical Association has prepared it so that the children can learn. We managed to import textbooks last year, but we have had our books kept in Beregsurány for a year because the committee, which is in charge for declaring these books a humanitarian aid first rejected our request and secondly invited the representative of the Association and a lawyer to justify why these books are needed, stating that Ukraine supplies books to Hungarian schools. Permission has recently been granted, but it still takes two weeks to ship them. We are approaching December, and the first graders have not yet received the alphabet books.

Closing the textbook publishing is also an interesting question. Contrary to the committee’s announcement that all classes have textbooks, we read in the newspaper that the textbook publishing house will be closed from January. That is why we are going to turn to the Ministry for clarification, as we have been informed of the news from the newspaper and we have not read any official statements about it. If the decided not to publish books at all and do not want to allow foreign books, then how do they intend to support minority education, in this case Hungarian education and its development?

There are also problems with higher education. At the time of the 2014 law, Ukrainian Minister of Education Serhiy Kvit announced the opening of higher education towards Europe. He then hoped that within ten years the proportion of professors working in higher education would reach 20 percent. This will bring Ukraine closer to the level of the European system of higher education.

Contrary to Serhiy Kvit’s statement, foreign professors are still being blocked by various internal laws. For example, the title of a professor will only be taken into consideration for the qualification of an educational institution if the individual is naturalizing their scientific degree in a Ukrainian educational institution, which means almost a new procedure, that is, a one-year long procedure. Another difficulty is having to obtain work and temporary residence permits, which entails a great deal of bureaucracy. Currently, six such professors are employed by the institute as part of the Makovecz program. Two of them have residence permits for this year. However, the status our other four professors is pending. It is already November, but they still haven’t received their permission for the current academic year. It is strange to us, as they are very well-known, internationally recognized professors. At the same time, we read in the newspapers that anyone can get a temporary residence permit. Not to mention that the professors are granted a residence permit for just one year, and we would like them to be granted the permit at least for the teaching cycle so that they could be here to help the local teachers. That would be reasonable.

Kárpátalja.ma

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Addressing a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Prague on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that thirty years ago central Europeans had been self-confident enough to declare their region Europe’s future. “And knowing our achievements in light of Europe’s situation we can say with all due modesty that, today, we are indeed the future of Europe”.

“We are ready for this mission,” Orbán said. “Thirty years ago we central Europeans showed that we could not only die for our countries and for Europe but could live and work for them too.”

“Today, we share not only a common destiny but common goals too. The cooperation of central European countries is written into the hearts of the people of central Europe”.

This is why the coming years would be about the success of central Europe and the Visegrad Group, he added.

Orbán said that the Czech and Polish anti-communist resistance had served as a model for young Hungarians in the 1980s. This helped Hungarians to begin dismantling the communist system, he said, adding that it was now clear that belonging to the ’68 generation meant something radically different in West than in central Europe.

He said that whereas the ’68 generation of the West strived to dismantle the Europe of free nation states and Christian culture, “our ’68-ers want to regain and protect these values.”

The message of 1968 in central Europe is still the same, he said. “We want to decide our own destiny.” “We want to live as a free nation, not as an imperial colony or subordinate,” Orbán said.

“We are central European democrats and we must protect the sovereignty of nation states. Because abandoning this [principle] would end our democracy.”

He said it was not a new ideological system that would improve Europe today. “We need simple human things: to live our own central European lives, to honour and protect our families, to enjoy our freedom, love our country and to be proud of our nation.”

Orbán said that

“Central Europeans have their own language: the language of freedom, independence and solidarity with one another. This language gives us an independent and distinct voice in the large family of European nations. This is why central Europe today is not only a geographical concept but a political, economic and cultural reality.”

All the premiers of the Visegrad countries — Czech leader Andrej Babis, Polish leader Mateusz Morawiecki and Slovakian premier Peter Pellegrini — addressed the commemoration, together with Wolfgang Schauble, President of the German Bundestag.

Orbán in Pozsony: Slovakia, Czech Rep also fought for Hungary’s freedom in Velvet Revolution

Slovakia and the Czech Republic also fought for Hungary’s freedom in the Velvet Revolution, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in connection with the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Prague’s Velvet Revolution.

“I’m here to pay tribute to Slovakia and the Czech Republic for their brave acts during these very important days, when they also fought for Hungary, thereby contributing in a significant way to Hungary’s freedom…” Orbán told journalists in Pozsony (Bratislava).

Orbán noted that the countries of the region had experienced the same fate — the Soviet occupation and the lack of freedom in private and public life — in different ways but for the same reason. This is why, he added, that successive revolutions triumphed in a chain reaction.

Meanwhile, commenting on cooperation with his Slovakian counterpart Peter Pellegrini, Orbán said central Europe was strong again. The post-Soviet transformation into a free society and economy had been difficult, he said. “Now Slovakia is a successful country … and we’re on the road to catching up with more fortunate western countries.”

He said success did not depend on a single individual. “Slovakia has good leadership, so Slovakia is a successful country,” he said.

Orbán said he must give Pellegrini credit for his commitment to good Hungary-Slovakia ties and for being a good friend of Hungarians living in Slovakia as well of Hungary itself. “I’m ready to work with him.”

In the featured photo: PM Orbán in Prague. Photo by Vivien Cher Benko/PM’s Press Office

(Hungary Today / MTI)

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House Speaker László Kövér said in his speech at the Budapest Demographic Summit III on Thursday, that “having children is a public affair of the most personal kind”.

The Fidesz politician suggested that it should be made “the most important public issue in social, economic, cultural, and political terms” in each European country to help the bloc survive.

Kövér added that the Hungarian government’s aim was to promote childbirth and increase the country’s reproduction rate to 2.1 by 2030.

Featured photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI

Source: hungarytoday.hu

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A film has been made about the life of Hungarian film director Michael Curtiz (Mihály Kertész), famous for his greatest work, the world-famous “Casablanca.” The official premiere of the movie, “Curtiz – The Hungarian who subverted Hollywood,” can be watched on 12th September.

“Mihály Kertész realised such an international career that it is desired by the majority of film directors; however, regarding his personality, he was unable to ‘Americanise,’ which served as the basis of humorous situations. This was also intended to be shown in the film, apart from drawing attention to his memory that we can be proud of, despite his grumpy and grouchy personality,” said Yvan Tamás Topolánszky, the film’s director and screenwriter. He also added that Michael Curtiz is one of the few Hungarians whose life and personality are interesting on an international level as well.

As igenyesferfi.hu describes, the story starts in 1942 when the Hungarian-born filmmaker, Mihály Kertész, worked on his romantic film “Casablanca,” and the United States entered World War II. In order to support war propaganda, state leadership ordered officials for the supervision of filmmakers, as a result of which, the director had to overcome several barriers, in addition to the challenges in his private life.

“The film depicts reality in 85%, and only some differences can occur in timing. He added that the character of the officer, Johnson, who inspected Curtiz, is not real; however, film control really existed. Kertész had a daughter who wanted to get in touch with her father, but it is questionable whether this happened during the period of directing Casablanca,” reported Zsuzsanna Bak, the film’s screenwriter.

The main character of the black-and-white biographical movie is acted by Ferenc Lengyel. Curtiz’s daughter is played by Evelin Dobos. Apart from them, foreign actors can be seen, such as the American twins Yan and Rafael Feldman, Declan Hannigan, and Scott Alexander Young.

The film won the Award of the 42nd Montreal International Film Festival.

“When we were filming the movie, we got in contact with Curtiz’s family and received a personal relic, a belt with the director’s monogram on it,” recalled Claudia Sümeghy, the film’s producer.

In Hungary, the film is distributed by test screening before the official premiere on 12th September.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/CurtizFilm/

Source: igenyesferfi.hu / dailynewshungary.com

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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has congratulated Giuseppe Conte on his appointment as prime minister of Italy, in a letter, Orbán’s press chief said on Saturday.

“I salute you as a Prime Minister of Italy who has recently proved his commitment to the development of relations between our two countries,” Bertalan Havasi quoted Orbán as writing in the letter.

“I trust that, as in our joint efforts to date, in the future we will also be able to rely on you in the further enhancement of Hungarian-Italian cooperation and the creation of a competitive Europe comprising strong nations,” Orbán wrote, assuring his counterpart that Hungary was ready to continue working with Italy.

“I wish you good health and much success in the continuation of your responsible work,” Orbán concluded.

Italy’s new coalition government between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic party (PD) was sworn in on Thursday.

Source: MTI / dailynewshungary.com

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Eight Airmen assigned to an Ohio National Guard mobile training team conducted an intermediate airfield management course for members of the Hungarian Defence Forces July 29-Aug. 2 at Pápa Air Base.

National Guard members taught the course alongside air advisers from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Ohio National Guard conducts regular engagements focused on sharing best practices and learning from Hungary, its state partner for the last 26 years as part of the Department of Defense State Partnership Program.

“We taught various facets of managing the airfield to include parking plans for various types of aircraft and having a plan in place to run the airfield while maximizing safety,” said Tech Sgt. Andrew Lipian, an aviation resource manager assigned to the 164th Operations Squadron at the 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield, Ohio. “We taught the hierarchy within the airfield management career field and we engaged in real-world exercises.”

During the training period, the Airmen also taught a familiarization course focused on flight line safety emergency procedures, cargo handling and air base occupational health.

This year’s course built on the foundation of the information presented last year during the beginner’s course, and is part of a three-course series focusing on joint training and sharing best practices.

“Ohio has been the state that has supported us in several areas,” said Brig. Gen. Nándor Kilián, the inspector of the Hungarian air force. “There is a lot of room to improve. The basic thing is to exchange the knowledge, exchange the possibilities and to learn from each other. This is the main goal, to cooperate.”

One aspect of the course was firefighting training, as the mobile team and air advisors trained Hungarian military members on firefighting techniques to improve flight line safety knowledge and skills. They also showcased how firefighters work closely with airfield management and air traffic controllers to improve the overall effectiveness of in-flight emergency response.

Another teaching point of the course was familiarization with occupational health. Ohio National Guard occupational health specialists assessed and provided insight on the Hungarian Defence Force’s current program. Based on their observations, they were able to teach medical triage and advise their partners on additional ways to treat their service members who are exposed to environmental hazards.

At the end of the training, the Hungarians and Ohioans participated in a joint demonstration to showcase how air traffic controllers, airfield management, firefighters and medics all work together in an emergency response situation.

Ohio is dedicated to continuing building and strengthening its 26-year partnership with Hungary. With an increasingly unstable global environment, this partnership increases strength in peacetime, which will improve Ohio-Hungary joint capabilities in times of conflict.

“This is a long-term relationship,” said Brig. Gen. Todd Audet, the Ohio deputy assistant adjutant general for Air. “The more we work together, the more our relationship with the Hungarians strengthens. As the Hungarian air force transforms, we’re right there alongside them, helping them in that transformation.”

Ohio’s partnership with Hungary provides mutually beneficial training, builds cultural understanding and showcases the accomplishments of two nations collaborating to achieve security cooperation goals. Through military exchanges like the airfield management course, both nations are able to learn from each other and improve their policies and procedures.

“A great way to learn is by teaching,” Audet said. “You learn what your partners know and you learn what you’re teaching even better by sharing the information. Both the Hungarians and the Ohio National Guard service members have benefited in that regard.”

Since 1993, Ohio and Hungary have developed a partnership and friendship that has allowed both nations to come together and work as a united force. This partnership has transcended military training alone and developed relationships that will prepare both entities’ forces for the future.

Source: dvidshub.net

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This year’s Sziget Festival’s main message, ‘Love Revolution’ is about environmental consciousness and sustainable development. In this spirit, renowned primatologist, environmentalist, and UN Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall held a short but positive and inspiring lecture for the “Szitizens” about her life, motivation and hopes.

Goodall entered the stage right after legendary Franz Ferdinand finished their concert; although she noted that people were here primarily for the music, it was exciting to observe that hardly anyone left the area after the British band had said goodbye to the festival.

Organisers gave her only a mere 10 minutes, which apparently wasn’t enough for her to go into details, or to reveal something previously unknown but proved to be enough to make big impression and a change in view, which, hopefully, will result in better decisions regarding the world that surrounds us and living creatures.

Stylishly, she started off by imitating a chimpanzee greeting. First, she talked about her childhood memories, about the origins of her fondness of animals and Africa. How she had been observing chimpanzees’ behaviour through sixty years, how she realized that their behaviour resembles men’s.

The (chimpanzee) males compete for dominance, swaggering, looking big and strong, reminding me very much of many human, male politicians today”

She also told, how her dog taught her that not only human beings have mind, personality, and emotions, despite what some “scientist” said. When she first had to face climate change and that chimpanzees’ habitat was in danger, she realized that without the improvement of local people’s life, animal protection is unimaginable too.

Perhaps, the most interesting and encouraging part was when she spoke about how she sees the future. She expressed her hope that the younger generations will understand problems, take action, and together change the world.

We can save the world, if we get together; we will save the world if we get together”

she concluded.

You can see her lecture in its entirety below (her speech starts at 8:20 min):

Following her appearance at the Sziget Festival, today, Goodall will visitSzeged too, where she will attend the opening ceremony of famous Hungarian wildlife photographer Bence Máté’s open-air photography exhibition.

featured image by MTI/Zoltán Balogh 

Source: hungarytoday.hu

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Teqball, the new football-based sport invented by Hungarians, an exciting and fast-paced cross between football and ping pong is taking Brazil and the whole world by storm.

The sport was invented by former professional football player Gábor Borsányi and computer scientist Viktor Huszár. Among its fans and ambassadors, Teqball counts Carles Puyol, Robert Pires and Christian Karembeu, as well as Luis Figo and Gianfranco Zola. CNN has just discovered the game and published a lengthy article about the new “sporting craze taking the world by storm.” The article says that former Teqball ambassador, the Brazilian former superstar footballer Ronaldinho is also a self-confessed addict, who sometimes even play up to six hours with the football-based game.

This is not the first time the Hungarian invention has received international recognition. Prince Albert II of Monaco tried the game in his palace last summer, while the Brazilian team, who are using the game as part of their training regime, have brought it to the football World Cup with them to Russia.

In 2016, Ronaldinho arrived in Hungary to popularize the sport and film a commercial for the Hungarian company.

Source: hungarytoday.hu

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Yurts used to serve Magyars (ancient Hungarians) as their shelters. It is part of our heritage that is still worth preserving in our memories. This article briefly sums everything up that you should know about yurts. 

The yurt is a round tent with a cupola on its top. Its wooden frame is covered by felt. The felt was attached to wooden bars, therefore, it functioned as a stable “wall” of the yurt. The most significant advantage of this residence was that it was very easy to take apart – this way, the tribesmen could easily continue wandering and could stay mobile. They used to be the

homes of nomadic tribesmen, e.g. peoples of Central-Asia and Eastern-Siberia – Turks, Mongols, Magyars etc. used to live in them.

These peoples relied on their livestock in order to survive. So, they were constantly moving from one pasture to another to feed their cattle – seasonal climate changes forced them to move as well. They had to have different accommodations for the winter and the summer and constantly adapt to nature or enemy threat. This continuously moving lifestyle is the nomadic steppe. So,

being able to move rapidly if necessary was vital in our ancestors’ lives.

Hungarian children learn about this in elementary school, so they know that their ancestors arrived in the Carpathian Basin from the East and that they lived in yurts. To build a yurt, they had to have serious carpenter skills, especially at that time, because it was much more difficult than building a wooden house or a mud-hut. Yurts were used for surprisingly long in Hungary, until around 1301 – the dissolution of the Árpád dynasty. But some Hungarians continued nomadic lifestyle even further, until around 1400.

We only know about two versions of yurts: the Kazakh and the Mongolian. Kazakh yurts had curved slats on the roof, and this way, bigger space was provided inside. Our ancestors also built this model, but it took more experience, more time, and better skill to avoid mistakes. All the components had to be fumigated in order to bend them. The bars of the “kerege” (bar-wall) were also curved, so their joints were strong enough to hold the roofing.

Fortunately, we can see that yurts are becoming more and more popular and raise many people’s interest. Not long ago, yurt manufacturers and even yurt importers appeared. There are many yurt camps in Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania (Szeklerland), and Ukraine (Transcarpathia) where adults and children can all see yurts and learn about them.

Source: dailynewshungary.com

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