Budapest - Streets of Budapest

Winter in the City

jj — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:55:00 +01:00

Tough according to the calendar we are coming closer to spring from day to day, winter still remains to rule the streets of Budapest.

The biggest open-air icerink of Europe, Városliget

Margaret Island (Margit sziget)

The Icy Danube

Preparing for Christmas - The "honey-cake house" before the building of Parliament

„TB-BUSTERS” advocating for the privatisation of health insurance

Linda — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:12:00 +01:00

written by Pederito

10 December a unique street performance took place right outside the Hungarian Parliament. A group of activists dressed as business leaders and bankers associated with the „Social-Darwinist Movement”, the „National Association of Capitalists”, the „Blood Defender's Society” and the „Anti Humanist Movement” staged a short protest against the planned changes of the Hungarian public health insurance system.

They arrived at the venue in a big white Hummer limousine, playing aloud the famous starting sounds of Pink Floyd’s Money and welcomed the health care reforms due to be voted by the Hungarian Parliament next week in front of a dozens of journalists and bystanders.

The reforms – scheduled to be passed by legislation on 17 December 2007 - will allow profit interests – the interests of these demonstrating businessmen - to enter into the Hungarian health care market. It would also give the insurance companies a substantial portion of the decision making power as they will hold 49% of the share of the newly created regional insurance bodies and will have the means to tailor policy decisions to their preferences.

The CEO representing the "National Insurance Busters"stated that he was delighted that the Government had finally realised that the way forward for Hungary was to remove falsely imposed social protection, that the natural way forward - the Darwinist natural selection scheme - is best achieved by legislation which removes those illogical state benefits that 'keep grannies dodging graves' at the expense of the rich and healthy. Special reference was made to the “guarantees” which the government insists on having to protect citizens from the worst excesses of capitalism: the bankers ensured their cronies that no matter what the state is communicating to the people, they don’t need to worry: 'every guarantee will run out' as the process of privatisation deepens. They were pleased to say that their rights to control the market will be protected and enhanced by the GATS and EU competition laws.

At the end of their protest, the businessmen rolled their limousene to the entrance of the Parlaiment and were to have a chat with their “chums” in the government. However, they were unable to gain entry for some reason, although they claimed that they were old friends with the Prime Minister with whom they compiled the draft legislation together with over many glasses of wine...

The activists were of course neither members of the “TB-Busters” (TB is the Hungarian abbreviation for Social Insurance) nor any of the above organisations, they acted as part of an alliance of NGOs established by the famous environmental-political group Védegylet, the National Association of Large Families, Humanist Movement and other NGOs with the sole purpose of stopping the “privatization” of the public health insurance system.

Tensions are getting higher by every day in the Hungarian domestic political life, as the social-liberal coalition seems to be unstoppable in pushing forward the controversial reform-bill despite the hence rarely experienced nationwide joining of forces of the civil life, the political opposition as well as leftist intellectuals normally providing the moral background of the coalition parties.

Bicyclists conquered streets of Budapest

jj — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:00:00 +02:00

Cyclists of Budapest got together to demonstarte for environmentfriedly way of transport and for more bicycle lanes and paths to be built on the streets of Budapest yesterday, for the occasion of the European Car-free day. Teenagers, students, young families with small children, pensioners, hard rockers and cute girls - all had taken the roads making noise with bike-bells and horns, sometimes shouting. When arriving to Kossuth tér, the square in front of the parliament all of them has stopped for a while and has taken up their bike above his head and started to chant in the same rythm: "BICIKLIUTAT!, BICIKLIUTAT!, BICIKLIUTAT!" (MORE CYCLE PATH, MORE CYCLE PATH, MORE CYCLE PATH!).
Watch our photo reportage!

Budapest woke up for a sleepy but very sunny morning this Saturday. Though being a car-free day, the ususally crowded roads were are full of cars again. On the other hand Andrássy út - the main avenue has been conquered by pedestrians. People of Budapest could enjoy the sun, take snacs and beers in beer gardens and participate in different programmes like road safety educational lectures organised by the Police during the whole day.

From 4 p.m. the ususal demonstartion of bicyclists, the Critical Mass started from Buda and on their way more and more people joined the mass. Last year they've counted 50 thousand participants thus being the biggest byciclist demonstration that has been ever taken place. This year they were around 35.000. Most of them were weekend cyclists, but the hard-core has been represented as well: people who would do not take any meter withouth his bike. They conquer the streets of Budapest twice a year, first on Earth day in spring, then in autumn on the 22nd of September.

The water reigns

jj — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:01:00 +02:00

Banks of river Danube has been partly closed in Budapest since Monday because of the high waters coming from the mountains. Necessary restrictions has been generated traffic jams, making moving around the crowded city almost impossible. This phenomenon reminds people of Budapest year by year how weak they are and how strong nature is.

Highwaters are expected to peak on a much lower level then last spring, at around 710-720 centimeters tonight or wednesday dawning at the latest. Tough chance of flooding decreased considerably during the past days authorities keep up heightened readiness along the river.