Budapest

This year almost one third of the spectators were foreigners: most of them were French, German, Austrian, and Dutch. Tough the six thousand visitors of the Civil Village were still mainly Hungarian, more and more organisations tried to offer programmes for the visitors coming from abroad. Café Babel was represented by seven volunteers of the Budapest team, who installed a 25 square meters large tent where the visitors could get acquainted with headings of the magazine and could play with a scrabble laying down on mats and pillows.

Following opening the tent of Café Babel an ardent going and coming begun around the Civil Playground, where László Mérő mathematician was awaited for an accommodating brunch. The senior lecturer of Psychological Department of University of Sciences of Budapest became internationally known particularly by his researches on game theory and artificial intelligence. In a few minutes a smaller audience gathered together around the professor. Looking for some intellectual filling up they stood silent and intent while sipping a hot coffee and nibbling sweet cakes.

Afterwards, at around 5 o’clock in the afternoon a debate began with the title “Speak your mind!” where representatives of different civil organisations could meet each other. The young volunteers discussed the role of young people in shaping the public opinion and talked about the possibilities and tools that they have to reach wide range of public. Guests of the debate were: Nikoletta Incze Foundation for European Values); Sára Vári (Young for Development Association); Tibor Ibránszki (Pillár Foundation); Dániel Fehér (European Civil Initiation); Márton Vay (Védegylet Association).

Saturday morning started with a brunch, as usual. The guest of the agreeable chat was György Pálfi, a talented Hungarian director, who has already scored full marks in Cannes with his genius movies: Hukkle and Taxidermia. The friendly talk attracted a large audience again who could at the end of the joint breakfast, even ask the moviemaker. Pálfi imparted the crowd to secrets of filmmaking and his plans for the future.

During the afternoon a transparent installed close to the road passing by the Civil Village called attention of the visitors of the festival. The title of the panel was: “Who fears Europe?” on which members of the Budapest team collected concerns and opinions about the European Union. Number of comments multiplied quickly. Finally it was a real challenge to know our way among the slip of papers hung on the table: number of languages and different hand writings.

Besides Hungarians, Austrians, British, Dutch, French, Germans, Swedish, Romanians, Turkish, and even Australians and Canadians placed a slip on the board. Surprisingly, mainly the foreign visitors were interested in the action, while Hungarians seemed to be a bit timid. Some of the people standing by the panel have already heard about Café Babel, and many of them belong to the readers of the magazine.

Fortunately, struggling with the slips of paper was not unreturned: the volunteers distributed more hundreds of dictionaries among people passing by. The Budapest team complied a pocket-dictionary especially for the festival in order to ease communication between the visitors coming from abroad and the Hungarians. Fifteen useful expressions were collected together on the seven official languages of the magazine, like: „Hi! How are you?” or “How much is the beer here?”. The pocket-dictionary became popular with the visitors shortly, mainly among the foreigners.

Sunday started a bit gloomy, particularly because it looked like rain and the ground was still wet because of previous night’s rain that almost upset our plan of making a picnic. It seemed that we have to cancel our usual chat, when Palya Bea the beautiful and charming Hungarian singer arrived with a face beaming with happiness to the Civil Playground. The internationally known folklore and world music singer woke up spectators camping close to the Civil Village with singing. Many of them immediately took his pillow and joined the audience. During the one and a half hours long conversation Bea talked about her childhood, her attachment to France and about her future plans. Then, she sang again and all the people around her wished she would never stop.

Meanwhile almost two hundreds comments gathered together on the panel during the 3 days; bit by bit there was no place left on the board. Opinions and fears were discussed among experts during Saturday afternoon in course of a debate “Quo vadis Europe?”. Guests of the event were: András Bozóki, former cultural minister; Gabriella Lantos, expert of development policy and Zoltán Pogátsa economist researcher. Questions such as competitiveness of the European Union, the sustainable development, the democratic deficit and bureaucracy of Brussels were mentioned in course of the discussion. The audience took the floor quite shortly and asked the guests about a wide range of questions from new challenges of the common foreign and security policy, through national identity of new member states and the allocation of EU-funds.

The three-day long presence was a serious showdown for the Budapest team, not only in respect of teambuilding but physically as well. They left a exhausting weekend behind themselves, but their efforts yielded fruit: countless people visited the tent of Café Babel who were informed about the magazine and in a way they were “babelized” as well. They gave out almost 300 pocket-dictionaries to the visitors of the festival, and asked 200 young about their fears concerning the EU. A similar number of people participated the debates and brunches organised in the Civil Village. On Saturday Kinga Göncz, minister for foreign affairs and István Szent-Iványi, member of the European Parliament visited the tent as well.

During the weekend a television and a radio report were recorded with the representatives of the Budapest team that finally spent Sunday evening with celebration.

The title of the show-piece, EU paraván / para van contains a play on words, meaning a display panel (paraván) for fears (para van). Thus, passers by were invited to stick their concerns connected to the Union on the monster. Here are some of them:

“Everything is going well, but it was better in the past”, says one. “I cannot see the future” or “We are second class EU Members” voice others, and so it goes on the bumpy road of our everyday-fears. Besides the resistances towards the EU, there are, nevertheless, some positive remarks: “I like it! The best thing is that, at the border check, you don’t have to pass under the “Non-EU” sign”, “I am glad that I can choose to go and study in the EU, and it only depends on me”, or briefly: “No para” (No fear).

It was in the ambient surroundings of “Centrál”, a famous café from the early years of the XXth century, where all the interested (students, journalists, professors and others) gathered following the invitation of the Hungarian edition to discuss their fears and also to hear the reactions of eminent experts of the field. Bod Péter Ákos, University professor, Jeszenszky Géza, historian, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990-94), Rácz Margit, research director of the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Sükösd Miklós, political scientist, Central European University were all acting as “fear-therapists” in “Centrál”, where one could scarcely find an empty spot before 6 pm. The latecomers could only get a seat next to the various delicacies, such as “Somlói”-art noodle, stacked up on trays. The therapy begun over steaming coffee and the clattering sound of spoons, with the speakers starting in medias res talking about fears.

We always fear the unknown, asserts Rácz Margit, whereas Jeszenszky Géza claims that these fears are rooted in the period after the changes in 1989, when the rise of the standard of living could not meet previous expectations. The speakers are, nonetheless, united in affirming that membership of the Union is the only possible way for Hungary to progress. In the meantime, the first questions bring up the first concerns: “How can the Hungarian economy adapt itself to the introduction of the Euro?” The biggest problem, according to Sükösd Miklós, is that the information concerning EU matters is mostly communicated in professional jargon, if there is communication at all. Thus, it is not much of a surprise if citizens are still uninformed about certain issues. One of the most common fears connected to the introduction of the Euro is that “with the Euro prices go high, but wages stay low”, yet it is only the form that changes, not the value. The same situation can be interpreted as a potential danger or as an opportunity – as it was put forward by Bod Péter Ákos, commenting on the same question. He went on to explain that only the discouraged, lacking the necessary impetus would perceive this opportunity as something dangerous. The Union does constitute a chance for Hungary, even if, as someone added, “the country does not exploit its opportunities with efficiency”.

The responses tell us what kind of disadvantages Hungarians fear most. They would blame the Union for the loss of diversity, Christendom and poppy seed pasta, or even the loss of the whole country. Despite these opinions, the discussion ended in a positive atmosphere. In Jeszenszky’s words: “The Union holds the promise of a better Europe”.

Dora Haller

“Poland is one of the big winners of the 20. century” – was the opening remark of Péter Tálas, the head of the Strategic and Defense Research Centre ZMNE. He went on to explain that it was the end of the First World War that put an end to division and foreign rule for this nation that has always boasted a „Western” identity, despite being firmly entrenched in the „Eastern” part of Europe. The unity of the Polish society was formed by a series of recurrent crises (1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980), up to the point where the working classes finally joined forces with the intelligentsia and were thus able to stand up to the repressive communist rule. These efforts to create a European democracy have resulted in the peaceful change of regime of 1988 that was negotiated and not fought, and the creation of a real political opposition – possibly the only one in Eastern Europe.

Mr Pál Tamás, director of the Sociology Institute of the Hungarian Science Academy analyzed how open Poland really is towards the outside world, and came to the conclusion that Poland’s geopolitical frustration is apparent on various levels: the traditionally strong German, Austrian and Russian influences have lead to Warsaw’s ambivalent relations to its neighboring super powers, but the effects of geopolitics have also left their mark on the uneven nature of the country’s railway system. This is why renewing relations with Germany, Russia and Ukraine turned out to be one of the main challenges for the post-1988 Polish democracy. According to Mr Tamás, it was due to Western Europe’s guilty conscience that Poland – and the other Central and Eastern European countries with it – were allowed to join the European Union despite their weak economies and chaotic political situations.

It wasn’t a question of good or bad conscience, retorted Mr Tálas, who thinks that the EU’s decision to – finally – enlarge was rather economic in nature. Mr Gábor Lagzi, a research fellow at the Teleki Institute perfectly agreed with this latter view. After a brief presentation of the intricate Polish party system, he concluded that economically speaking Poland benefited from the period that the fall of communism heralded in.

And this has brought us to the question and answer session. We found out that Polish minorities do not play an important role neither in interior politics nor in external affairs. The reason for this is that after the war Poles asked their brethren living in Ukraine, Bielorussia and Germany to „come home” to Poland. Those who stayed are therefore considered to have done so by their own will. Other subjects were also touched upon, such as the decline of the Hungarian-Polish friendship (at least regarding high politics), the effects of the pro-American Polish diaspora living in Chicago – where they enjoy a more or less dominant role –, or the political importance or the extensive structure of Polish trade unions.

Finally, Poland’s intention to become a regional power has also come up in our conversation. Mr Tálas found it natural that this ambition should be a concomitant of Poland’s search for identity and of their Europeanization process as well. And we also got our answer as to why this soul-searching country needs to take such an active part in a military campaign in the Middle East: the underlying reason is their wish to live up to American expectations and the prospect of economic expansion.

Translated by Adrienn Kézsmárki

We were glad to notice that the representatives of the Hungarian civil society, academics, and experts also accepted our invitation and participated in the discussion. We appreciate the active contribution of the visiting café babel journalists as well, which was facilitated by the simultaneous translation by a professional interpreter.

The conclusion of the debate can be defined by the different opinions of our four major guests:

As István Szent-Iványi, Hungarian member of the European Parliament remarked: “we are talking about a European enterprise, where everyone is a shareholder”. Dimo Gyaurov, the Bulgarian Ambassador in Hungary underlined the efforts and the interest Bulgaria made in the last years, to become a full member of the European Union in 2007. University Professor Balázs Forman highlighted some key figures that are providing ground for understanding how the European funds are allocated to poorer regions of present and acceding member states. Ödön Szabó, Councillor of Bihar County in Romania, expressed his belief that the accession of Romania to the Union is a unique opportunity for the Hungarian minority to get back to the motherland and therefore the diverse European identity might actually present the best future for all.

Referring to the future scenario, some shared their vision of Europe as a political and military player on the global level.

Before saying anything here is a piece from the film The Citizen Kane:

(A. Grimaldi) “Declaration of Principles”. Don't smile, Mezes. Got it all written out. Declaration of Principles.

(Mezes L.): You don't wanna make any promises, Grimaldi, you don't wanna keep.

(Grimaldi): These will be kept. I'll provide the people of this city with a a blog that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them...

(Jaradi J.) That's the second sentence you've started with "I."

(A. Grimaldi) That’s a blog. People are gonna know who's responsible. And they're gonna get the truth in the http://budapest.cafebabel.com quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with the truth. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings.

Signed, Alessandro P. Grimaldi.

(Jaradi J.) Can I have that, Alessandro?

(A. Grimaldi) I'm gonna posting it.

(Exerption from the The Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, 1941)

Dear Babelias,

However there is no Charles Foster Kane(x) among us (though we would be happy about it), we promise from the deep of our heart - dear Reader - that we will do our work according to his declaration of principles. Thus, we will commit ourselves to show you the truth, mothing but the plain truth, spontaneously without any consratint , just as we think and see.

Kind regards,

The blog-editorial team of Babel Budapest

(x) The protagonist of one of the most famous film of cinematics. Journalist, editor in chief, politician, milliardaire. He has blated his life behind the wings of journasism and politics.A man, who has always been dreamed of having a sledge and a man for who his mother wanted the best....he might as well has been a famous blogger of the 40's.

About the movie: The story traces the life and career of Charles Foster Kane, a man whose career in the publishing world was born of idealistic social service, but gradually evolved into a ruthless pursuit of power and ego at any cost. Narrated principally through flashbacks, the story is revealed through the research of a newspaper reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnate's dying word, "Rosebud." Citizen Kane is often cited as being one of the most innovative works in the history of film.