Yes, it has been a long, long time! Let me explain why. I have been unable to work on this on my own computer for a technical reason I do not fully understand. I could have worked on it at an internet cafe, but that was not always convenient. But now Anna has a computer which, because it does not have the same browser as I have, and does not invoke special firewalls and similar obstacles, I can use hers. I happen to be at her apartment at this time because Anna is in Transylvania and I am here looking after her cat, so it gives me the opportunity to do this---at long last!
I am not going to try to fill you in, other than in a cursory manner. You know that I was to USA in the summer. Since my arrival home a number of important occurrences have captured my attention. First, when I went to the eye clinic for my three-month check-up and eye-pressure reading, they gave me a form advising me that the Health Ministry had advised that they would honor my bills only through the end of this year, and that I would have to contact them and resolve the issue. Naturally I did post haste. It seems that since I never really worked in Hungary---well, I did, but the University of Debrecen and the English university both treated me as a foreignor for tax purposes, and therefore did not have to pay health insurance for me, not that those meager payments could have been expected to significantly affect my status. In short, I was an uninsured claimant. Anna went with me to the appropriate offices and the matter was fully resolved in a single day. I must pay a sum equal to 9% of the minimum wage here, which is what I would pay were I working and earning the minimum wage. Of course I do not have an employer to make the matching contribution, but that will be conveniently overlooked. This will provide me with full coverage, which is important, since the last Rx I got was subsidized by the government for more than twice the amount of my monthly health premium. Although I was told that I would receive my new card within a month, together with forms on which to make payments, I have received nothing to date and the month has passed. However, I have a letter under seal from the Ministry of Health attesting that I am covered and indicating what my coverage ID number is.
Today is rather frosty and will get down into the upper teens overnight. This autumn has been more like what we are accustomed to, and that is the way it is all over Europe these days. I am actually thinking ahead to January, when I shall be going to Spain with Klein Sandor (Sandor Klein) and his family. I just got an e-mail today from Julianna, his wife, advising me that she is ready to book our flight to Malaga and will give me the info when she has it. Speaking of Sandor, their company just won a huge contract from the national government to prepare protocols to be used for the hiring of civil service employees in the several hundred job titles of that force. It is the largest contract they have ever gotten and they have been working night and day to finish preparing all the protocols before mid-December. It will not affect their going to Spain, as Sandor's eldest son, Balazs, can complete whatever needs to be done.
I suppose you have heard about the plight of the dollar. Let me explain it to you in flesh-and-blood terms. When Clinton left office in the beginning of 2001, $1 bought you 310 Hungarian forints (HUF). So, if something cost 310 HUF, it costs me $1. Today if something costs me 310 HUF, I must spend $1.79 for it. Mind you, this assumes that the price has not increased since 2001----which you know it has! It is the same all over Western Europe, where they all use the Euro, which, when Clinton left office, cost $0.85, but which now costs $1.49. So if something cost 1 E in 2001, it cost $0.85 then and $1.49 now, again, assuming that the price has not increased at all, which, again, we all know it has. Now some of you will say that I am trying to blame it all on Bush, and that it isn't fair to put it all on him. Well, if he can claim that the fact we have not been terror-attacked since 2001 is all to his credit, and the fact that unemployment is at only 4. 7% is all to his credit, then why is it so unjust and unreasonable to assign responsibility for the bad along with credit for the good? OR ARE WE SUPPOSED TO OVERLOOK THE FACT THAT JUNIOR HAS INCREASED THE NATIONAL DEBT BY 2.6 TRILLION DOLLARS DURING THIS BEST OF ALL TIMES? I am going to let this rest overnight and resume tomorrow or the day after.
NOVEMBER 28
We are currently in the midst of a series of episodic strikes, which is to say those that are planned to last for a specific duration of time, usually not more than six hours. Today I believe that it is the intercity bus drivers. This could present a problem for me, because I am in Szeged and must get home to Hódmezővásárhely, where my car is parked at the railroad station. But since I can take the train home just as easily as the bus---both go to the main railway station, which is where my car is parked---it is not a problem. It is only a real problem when both the intercity buses and the trains are on strike at the same time. I understand, however, that there will be a railway strike commencing 17th December without a pre-determined end-time, so theoretically the strike could last indefinitely. I cannot see it lasting much beyond the beginning of the year, however, as the government almost certainly will not pay unemployment benefits to the workers during the strike and the unions do not begin to have enough money in their treasury to support the workers during a long strike---they are not the UAW or the Teamsters. All this is about the government's plan to eliminate service on very lightly travelled rail lines, reduce the workforce, change to a semi-private health insurance system (with which I personally do not agree), make permanent medical co-payments for doctor visits and prescription drugs, and "reform" the pension system, which is the new way to describe a cut in benefits. The irony of all this is that the government is Socialist, the direct descendant of the former MSZMP, or Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, spelled C-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-t. The populace is overwhelmingly opposed to most, if not all, of these changes; but the government's term runs until Spring 2010, and they have the votes in Parliament to pass their program, which is why the Opposition is demanding a nepszavazas, or referendum on several of these questions, even though they are not under the umbrella of a referendum requirement in the Constitution. The Opposition, however, is undeterred by such legal trivialities, arguing that "the people have a right to be heard". I am just sitting on the sidelines trying to figure out how much it is going to cost me, however it goes. Overlooked in all this is the fact that the country is currently running a Bush-sized deficit which, according to EU requirements, must be eradicated (or at least reduced to about one-third of its current level) to meet euro-accession requirements. No one who opposes these "reforms" has come forth with any detailed plan as to how he will maintain the current benefit structure and still eliminate the excess deficit in the budget, which makes the the outcries of the Opposition ring a bit hollow.
As if all this were not enough, we have a resurgent neo-Fascism, replete with storm-troooper like outfits and insignia reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's equivelent of Romania's Iron Guard during the Horthy regime at the time of Hitler. Their mission is to protect Hungary from its "enemies". These are not specified, but you would have to be naive not to know whom they are referring to: gypsies (of whom we have a sizeable number) and various religious and ethnic minorities, who comprise a mere pittance in the total population. Bear in mind that over 96% of all persons in Hungary were either born here or are ethnic Hungarians who moved here from neighboring lands formerly a part of Hungary: Croatia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, for the most part. Hungary is hardly a magnet for refugees, for many of our young professionals have to go elsewhere to find employment, the language is an insuperable barrier for most persons---why even bother to learn a language spoken mainly in only one country and not likely to be understood anywhere else; and we have no special attractions outside the cultural realm to woo outsiders. I personally love it here, but I realize that that feeling would not likely be shared by refugees looking to make a new life for themselves in a Land of Opportunity.
DECEMBER 4
We had miserable weather the past couple of days, but today is sunny and mild, though it is not the same in the Eastern U.S. The Christmas tree in front of City Hall is up, the ice-skating rink is being prepared in Kossuth Square, and the booths for the Christmas Fair are being set up and stacked. I have not been into the center of Szeged, so I have no idea what it looks like there, though I imagine it is as it usually is, meaning like in Vasarhely, only on a bigger scale. It is time to make up gift lists and buy cards. Buying gifts is not a big problem; I buy fragrances for ladies and liquor for men and give money to children. No one has ever said, Oh, I was hoping for a tie, and I'm so disappointed that you gave me money. Anna's brother, Lou, arrives day after tomorrow; later this month Anna and I go to Vienna to visit relatives. We are to decide upon the exact date later this evening. The problem will be how we go, for there is to be a railroad strike beginning the 17th and no one seems to know whether international trains will be affected. If so, there are plenty of busses to Vienna; but if the bus drivers here in Hungary go out in support of the railway workers, and the transit workers in Budapest also join them, then it could be a problem. The only way I see in that case is to drive to Budapest and have A nna's cousin's husband take us to the bus station while we leave our car at their house. If the international busses are also on strike---most improbable----then we can drive to Vienna, it is only about five hours from here on the expressways. For the time being we shall assume that the international railways will operate, or that the intercity busses here in Hungary will operate. The latter would be best, because the intercity and international busses use the same terminal in Budapest and it is just a matter of walking around the corner in the terminal.
DECEMBER 6
Today is Mikulasnap, the Feast of St. Nicholas, which serves as a kind of Christmas preview for children and adults, in that petty gifts are left in the shoe of the person. In the old days it was the official start of the Chriszmas Season commercially, but now it begins as early as it does in U.S.A. Here in Vásárhely we have had Christmas shopping ads up since the end of October, and a friend was telling me how lit up our main square is at night. I of course am rarely out at night in Vásárhely, and certainly not in the center of town, so I have had no occasion to notice. I have digital TV service as of today, with about thirty more channels, about half of them worthwhile, which is, after all, a rather good percentage for TV these days. I am particularly pleased that one of my new channels is Deutschewelle, the German equivalent of the BBC, which has exceptional news programs. I used to get it on cable, but then they switched to satellite and I could not get it anymore. I of course do not understand German, but the programs are in German one hour, and then repeated in English the following hour. Thios evening Anna and I go to a chamber concert, with a work of Corelli and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This chamber orchestra is very good, they perform several times a year, usually at the Conservatory. Earlier in the day Anna was to the airport to meet her brother, but he missed his connecting flight in London owing to the late departure of the flight from JFK, so she decided not to wait, a friend is going to drive him home anyway. I went for my annual check-up for my esophagus, and learned that my specialist is abroad. I could have seen his substitute, who is the Head of the Department, but I decided to skip it as all that would happen would be that he would ask me how I am , I would say I am fine, and he would say that if I have any problems I should come in, I do not need an appointment, and he would hand me a summary of our meeting for me to give to my doctor. That can surely wait until Dr. Izbéki returns from wherever he is.
DECEMBER 12
Last evening we attended the symphony in Szeged: a Mozart symphony and Richard Strauss' A Hero's Life. Richard Strauss is not one of my favorite composers, and not just because he was one of Adolf Hitler's favorites---after all, I adore Wagner and Bruckner. He is one of those composers whom I can abide provided I do not hear him often, as is the case with Delius and Khatchaturian. At the symphony I was approached by the wife of Kosztandy Istvan, the concertmeister. She gave me a recording of his that he had asked her to give to me. He of course was playing in the orchestra, but Gyűdi Sándor, the Musical Director, was not conducting and was in the audience, two boxes down from ours, which is where he always sits when he is not conducting. There is some musical event this Friday that Anna is attending, but I shall be in Debrecen that day and will miss it.
Anna's brother, Lou, is here and I have spent considerable time with him. His wife just got a very big promotion and has to go to Mexico City, so it is not at all certain that she will get here for the Holidays; Lou, however, will stay until sometime in mid-January, as he has an open-dated return ticket. I still have not gotten around to buying Christmas cards, so you will know why yours arrives late, or even not at all. I still have not gotten up to Budapest to visit Sándor and Julianna, if I do it will have to be Monday of next week as I have an appointment at the eye clinic on Tuesday and we go to Vienna to visit relatives either Wednesday or Thursday---I must check with Anna to make certain which day. Everything here is uncertain because we shall have a railway strike and possibly others as well in the transportation field beginning Monday. Unlike other strikes, this one does not have a scheduled ending date.
I am going to close this now with Holiday Greetings to you all and wishes for health, happiness and success in the New Year.
