>Dear Timothy,
>
>I forwarded your request to my son (Gabriel Ramsey).  He attends
>UMAss/Amherst and studied in Pecs, Hungary last year.
>
>Perhaps you can help me.  We want to visit New York City this summer for
>about 3 days in July.  We plan to leave our car in White Plains and take
>a train to a hotel downtown.  Do you know of any reasonably priced,
>clean, safe hotels where we might stay?  I know that New York City rates
>are high compared to the Midwest, but I don't know where to locate
>information about hotels.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Linda Ramsey >
>Centralia High School Library
>Centralia, MO  65240
>314-682-3508
>

Dear Linda,

    Have you received any help concerning yout planned trip
to NYC yet? If not, I can give you some hints.
    Are you a member of AAA? Although I have never used their
travel agency, I understand it is very good. You can get all
kinds of maps and booklets free if you are a member, and don't
even have to use the agency. If you are not a member, let me
know what you need and I'll send it to you by snail mail.
    I always use a travel agancy when I travel. I have used
the same one for over 20 years now, and during all this time
I have had only two agents to work with. It doesn't cost you
anything and a good agency is a *gold mine*.
    Happy New Year!
    Regards,
                Amos

George Lazar wrote:


: I don't think that the problems of the economy have anything to do
: with
: the CURRENT ruling coalition. The trouble started five years ago...

Only five?  I'd think forty-five closer to the truth.


: Basically, the irresponsible, amateurish economic policies of the
: Antall regime led to the current catastrophic situation...

The next question is whether the policies of the current regime
are making things worse.

--Greg

*****************************************************************
Date:    February 2, 1995
From:    Mark Weeding - CERGE  ]
Subject: Ph.D. Studies in Economics

The  CENTER FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND GRADUATE EDUCATION  (CERGE)
of  Charles  University in Prague offers  a  Western-style  Ph.D.
program  in  economics  in cooperation with  major  American  and
European universities.  The program is four years in length, with
at least three years spent in Prague.  Most students spend up  to
one  year visiting such universities as Princeton, MIT, New  York
University,  Cambridge,  Paris, Tinbergen and the  Institute  for
Advanced Studies in Vienna.

Courses are offered in Microeconomic Theory, Macroeconomic  Theo-
ry,  Econometrics and a range of specialized areas such as  Labor
Economics,  Industrial  Organization,  International  Trade   and
Finance, Public Finance and Public Choice, and Financial  Econom-
ics.  The program is modeled on American Ph.D. studies, with  two
years  of  course-work being followed by an  extended  period  of
independent  study  leading to a dissertation.   Faculty  include
leading  professors from the U.S. and Western Europe as  well  as
the Czech Republic.

The  CERGE Ph.D. is especially directed to students from  Central
and  Eastern Europe including the former Soviet  Union.   Current
students come from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Moldova, Macedonia, Ukraine,
Russia and Kazakhstan. In addition, visiting students from  West-
ern  Europe and the United States are welcome to attend  for  the
full  Ph.D.  program  or for a more limited  period  while  doing
research that requires access to resources in Central Europe.

The  program is taught in English and students seeking  admission
must  be capable of doctoral studies in that language.   Entering
students must also have a strong mathematical background.  Formal
training in Economics is desirable but is NOT required for admis-
sion.   Generous  support from the European Community,  the  U.S.
government  and  various private foundations  and  donors  enable
CERGE  to  offer  fellowships consisting of full  tuition  and  a
stipend to students from the transition economies.

The application deadline is March 15, 1995 for the class starting
in late June of 1995. Interested individuals may contact:

Mark Weeding
Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education [CERGE]
P.O. Box 882
11121 Prague 1
Czech Republic
Tel:     [42-2] 242-30-280
Fax:     [42-2] 242-11-374
E-Mail:   for more information or an
         application packet
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
* Dr. Dennis McConnell                   * TEL: +1.207.581.1988 *
* Eastern European Enterprise Network    * FAX: +1.207.581.1956 *
* College of Business Administration     * TLX:  62955628       *
* University of Maine                    ************************
* Orono, Maine 04469-5723 U.S.A.         *   *
*****************************************************************

Victor F. Marx ) wrote:

: Thus, the famous Hungarian national pessimism could be the result of
: being exhausted and  depressed from overwork, late-night intellectual
: and social pursuits. (even the Internet can cause insomnia, I find.)
> ====================================================================

I completely agree with that observation, and from what I have seen in
Hungary, the pessimism will inevitably get worse.

Charles Gal
University of Alberta

George Lazar writes:

>Basically, the irresponsible, amateurish economic policies of the Antall
>regime led to the current catastrophic situation...

There is a great deal of truth in this, but I think George draws too sharp a
line between the Antall government's economic policies and those of the
former regime. Although the external debt load was "manageable" it was still
very high. I recall an interview with Janos Fekete a few months ago in which
he himself admitted that by the 1980s he had second thoughts about further
foreign loans.

Eva Balogh

Zsolt wrote:

>The question is, what do you call old-fashioned Hungarian. I think every
>new generation uses a different language, while thinking of older
>generations as old-fashioned.

Maybe I didn't express myself clearly. That's exactly what I meant. I thought
that the way Tibor Benke described his Hungarian as old-fashioned was not
really accurate. I would say that if someone appeared from the 1860s and
began to talk, we would consider his language old-fashioned. But current
usage is just the question of using certain slang words and expressions as
opposed to others. It would be unbecoming, I think, for a 60-year old to use
any of these expressions, used below:

>I think even "felment a pumpa" is old-fashioned.
>A contemporary Hungarian would use "tokre ki vagyok akadva" or
>"kiakasztottal".  But who knows, even I could be old-fnd. :-)

I learned the "felment a pumpa" from my 20-year old cousin. Maybe he is
already old-fashioned or he was only kind and didn't use the other expressions
 to save me the embarrassment of not having the foggiest idea what he was
talking about. With "felment a pumpa" at least one can figure out the
connection between being angry and the pump going up. The other expressions do
n't seem to have any bearing, at least in my mind, on the state of being
angry.

Eva Balogh

Does anyone know if the red line will be extended to the Moriszigmond
Korter in Buda?

I haven't bored you for a while with one of my media watches. So, here is a
new installment. This essay which appeared in the *168 ora* (January 17) was
written by Iva1n Ga1dor. The title is "Mr. Oplatka is Indignant."

First of all, for the information of those on the list who don't read
Hungarian or don't want to spend the time to read Hungarian journalists, I
would like to emphasize that reading an article in a Hungarian newspaper is
an entirely different experience from reading one in an English or American
paper. In the English-speaking world a person with average intelligence and
average education has no difficulty following an editorial in a daily or a
weekly. Not so in Hungary. One must read two or three times a piece and even
then one is not entirely sure whether he/she got the message or not. This is
what happened to me the other day when a piece of a woman journalist, Julia
R. Szekely, completely baffled me. I couldn't decide whether it was intended
to be ironic or not. After certain sentences I was sure that she is poking
fun of people and situations but after some others I was sure that she was
serious. Eventually I turned to an Internet friend for advice. Luckily, he
also read the piece and was pretty certain (but not entirely sure) that it
was written in the ironic vein. That is bad enough but then come the endless
and complicated sentences which practically need serious grammatical analysis
to find in order to find the nouns and corresponding verbs. The piece I am
presenting to you today is one of these journalistic feats. The first time I
read it I completely misunderstood its message.

The background of the article is as follows. Two journalists from Western
Europe came to give a seminar to Hungarian journalists in order "to teach
them about democracy" and I assume to teach them how to be objective
observers instead of being political partisans. Both journalists are of
Hungarian origin: Georg Paul Hefty (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's
East-European expert) and Andra1s Oplatka (Neue Zu2rcher Zeitung, specialist
in Hungarian matters). They fell on their faces. [He is actually using a
slang word "lee1gni" which is difficult to translate.] Their performance
reminded Ga1dor of an older Hungarian-American gentleman who was an expert on
concflict resolution. "His native admirers called him professor." He had been
away for so long that he couldn't speak the language properly. He kept
insisting that Hungarian journalists are tragically divided and he came to
"build bridges." It was a "very amusing evening." These two journalists also
came to build bridges or rather they came to teach Hungarian journalists how
to "row together in the same boat." But the Hungarian journalists have no
intention to "row together in the same boat and in any case the boat has been
long privatized." Moreover, why should anyone try to build bridges now that
the media war is over.

Well, up to this point I thought that the writer is perfectly satisfied with
the status quo and happy with the way Hungarian journalists behave. But then
came the twist. He accused certain journalists of serving the "powers-to-be"
without realizing that in democracy the powers-to-be will be different every
four years. These people think that Georg Paul Hefty is bluffing when he says
that there is no "power" in democracy because every four years the people
will vote in a new and different government. Today, he says, there are few
people in the profession who are not aware of that. "A new journalism must be
born which doesn't consider itself the instrument of power. We should learn
not to justify or counter current politics but to show the people what they
are."

At this point, I said, oh, after all, he is critical of Hungarian journalism
and thinks that after all Hefty and Oplatka "didn't fall on their faces" and
said a few intelligent things here and there. But then came the last two
paragraphs:

"But then our past doesn't leave us alone. And comes from Germany Georg Paul
Hefty and comes from Switzerland Andra1s Oplatka in order to teach us about
democracy. And Mr. Oplatka is indignant that we call the Hungarian prime
minister simply Gyula. Andra1s Oplatka from Zu2rich has no idea with how many
different emphases  we can say in Pest that Mr. Prime Minister Horn is "our
Gyula."

So, here it goes. By the way, a week later *168 ora* spent three solid pages
on trying to refute the Fenyvesi piece on the "character sketch" of Gyula Horn
, allegedly given to President Clinton. Obviously, some Hungarian journalists
still haven't learned that the "powers-to-be" might not be around for too
long.

Eva Balogh

 wrote:

 In the English-speaking world a person with average intelligence and
: average education has no difficulty following an editorial in a
daily or a
: weekly. Not so in Hungary. One must read two or three times a piece
and even
: then one is not entirely sure whether he/she got the message or
not.

The national pessimism explained!


: They fell on their faces. [He is actually using a
: slang word "lee1gni" which is difficult to translate.]

"went down in flames"?

--Greg

George Lazar writes:

>>I don't think that the problems of the economy have anything to do with
>>the CURRENT ruling coalition. The trouble started five years ago...

Maybe George is right. However, you can only blame the Antall regime for
so long. Eventually the buck will stop at the present door of the present one.

P.S. I do not think that the present goverment is that hot.

Sandor

If you live in the New York area and you are not going to the Hix buli up to
 Boston, why don't you come to the Hungarian House this Saturday, February 4.

Starting at 5 PM, Hungary's UN Ambassador Dr. Istvan Nathon is talking about
 Hungary's role in the international arena.

The series is entitled HUNGARY 2000.  All lectures in this series will be in
 English (future lecturers will include US Congressmen, ambassadors of foreign
 nations, businessmen, etc.)

The Hungarian House is located at 213 East 82nd Street (between 2nd and 3rd
 Avenues) in New York City.  For information, call 212 249-9360. Tax deductible
 donation to the Hungarian House:  $10 (students and senior citizens: $7)

Hope to see many of you at the Hungarian House...

Charles Vamossy

President