fyeaheasterneurope:

A founding member of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party has been sharply criticized for writing a newspaper column that contained offensive remarks about the nation’s Roma minority.

Writing about a New Year’s Eve bar fight in which several people were seriously injured and some of the attackers were reportedly Roma, the journalist Zsolt Bayer said “a significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence. They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals and they behave like animals.”

Bayer’s commentary in Saturday’s Magyar Hirlap newspaper criticized the “politically correct Western world” for advocating tolerance and understanding of Roma, who make up around 7 percent of Hungary’s 10 million people and often are among its poorest and least educated citizens. Roma also are known as Gypsies.

Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics criticized the article on Monday night.

Opposition parties said authorities must decide whether Bayer should be prosecuted for incitement against a minority and urged Fidesz to expel him. If that doesn’t happen, opposition groups have called for a protest on Sunday outside Fidesz headquarters.

However, Fidesz spokeswoman Gabriella Selmeczi said at a news conference Tuesday that the party will not take a position on an opinion piece. “Zsolt Bayer wrote this article not as a politician but as a journalist, and we don’t qualify the opinions of journalists,” Selmeczi said.

(Source.)

Tudom, nem a New Yorker, de úgy tűnik, hogy az újságírók az USA-ban meg pont tegnap jöttek haza a szilveszteri buliból. 

fyeaheasterneurope:

IN 1995 some 200,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Croatia. Oh, no, actually, they fled. During the second world war Serbian royalist “Chetniks” were heroes—or were they villains? Balkan history is complicated, but there is widespread agreement on one thing. Every nation knows what is right and how everyone else is wrong. As one Serbian historian puts it: “There is one truth, just as there is one God.”

When Yugoslavia fell apart in the 1990s the question of who did what in 1389 or 1944 played a vital part in the propaganda used to whip up hatred. Balkan children are still being taught wildly varying versions of history with no idea that others view the same events differently. Since 1999, however, a group of historians from across the region has been working to help teachers gain a broader perspective. So far, they have brought out four books of source materials covering the period up to 1945.

Last month at a meeting in Belgrade of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, which runs the project from Thessaloniki, the historians planned the next stage: the cold war and events since 1989. The challenge is huge. Still, by 2014 an estimated 500,000 students may have benefited.

This is really interesting. I’d love to get my hands on the four books that have already come out. Learning about Balkan history can be a…challenging experience. I have absolutely no confidence that these books are actually less biased the the material already available (and I’m not really qualified to judge) but it sounds like a worthwhile project.

(There’s more at the source.)

Tudja valaki, hogy állnak a mi projektjeink? 

fyeaheasterneurope:

The support for Serbia’s EU accession has declined and now 47% of the citizens are in favor of the country joining the organization, shows a new poll.

According to the poll, commissioned by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, it is young Serbians who oppose the country’s EU integration the most.

The survey, conducted September 18-25 by the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID), also shows that the overall support has dropped by two percent since June. 

…Belgrade Center for Security Policy Director Sonja Stojanović has stated that the drop in Euro-enthusiasm and increase in Euro-skepticism in Serbia was a result of the conditioning of Serbia’s further progress and Serbian politicians’ responses to such requests. She stressed that the citizens could mostly hear negative comments about the EU from Serbian politicians in the past month. 

The young population expresses the biggest opposition to EU integration and the lowest level of support. 40.9 percent of respondents aged between 18 and 29 said they were in favor of EU integration while 41.5 percent were against. 

…Commenting on the fact that the biggest number of Euro-skeptics could be found among the youth, she said that the phenomenon was the result of the fact that the young generations had spent most of their lives in the post-transition Serbia, that they “did not remember the 1990s”, and at the same time “failed to see a clear perspective and a better future in the EU”. 

This poll revealed a lot of interesting information on a number of topics, but the article is a bit too long to copy in full. Check it out.

Serbia’s Interior Ministry says the gay-pride parade scheduled for October 6 in Belgrade has been banned along with all other public events. 

The ministry statement issued on October 3 said the events were banned in order to prevent possible disorder and ensure safety for citizens and foreigners in Belgrade.

One of the event’s organizers, Goran Miletic, condemned the ban and told RFE/RL that the ban showed “the unity of the government and hooligans.”

Earlier on October 3, the head of Serbia’s Orthodox Christian Church, Patriarch Irinej, called on the authorities to ban the parade, saying it was against Serbia’s traditions.

In 2010, scores of people were injured and arrested when right-wing nationalists and hooligans attacked the Belgrade gay parade.

Officials banned the event last year to prevent possible unrest.

:(

(via fyeaheasterneurope)

fyeaheasterneurope:

Police have busted two people suspected in bootleg booze deaths (at least 26 of them by now) that have shaken the Czech Republic. But officers also warn that as many as 15,000 liters of deadly liquor may still be on the market and caution the public against drinking alcohol of unclear origin.

Officials say that the two, a 42-year-old man and his accomplice, are suspected of deliberately mixing poisonous methanol with drinking alcohol. Then they passed their “brutal blend”, as state attorney Roman Kafka called it, to an alcohol dealer from whom it spread further. The men worked (police would not say in what capacity) in a firm making alcohol-based products such as wiper fluid and antifreeze and thus knew that their concoction could kill people, officials said.

One of the suspects broke down, confessed his guilt and described the operation in an interrogation on September 21th, officials said. The two bought methanol legally from a Czech firm, officially to make wiper fluid, but then diverted 15 tons of it for illicit liquor trade. They made the blend in a former chocolate factory in the north-eastern town of Opava. One third, or estimated 15,000 liters of deadly spirits, are still unaccounted for, police president Martin Červíček said.

The two wanted to get rich. Now they face 12 to 20 years in jail, possibly even a life sentence, for a crime of endangering public health.

(Much more at the Economist.)

newyorker:

Anything attached to Apple gets more than its share of attention, but in this case, the Apple factor is far less interesting than what this instance of labor unrest suggests about the months ahead for China…

Evan Osnos on the Foxconn riots in China: http://nyr.kr/PDMigP

fyeaheasterneurope:

On Wednesday, Russia asked the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to leave the country. First, I’m not a journalist, but I feel that I should disclose that USAID funded a project I worked on.

The short version of this story is: the US says (USAID website) that in Russia…

fyeaheasterneurope:

Posters containing the threatening inscription “See you in October”, and depicting thugs beating up a guy with a crossed-out LGBT flag, have appeared in Belgrade while graffiti reading “Stop Gay Pride” has also appeared in downtown Belgrade.

The ominous, anonymous warnings come less than two weeks ahead of this year’s parade, which will be held as part of a week’s celebrations taking place under the slogan “Love, Faith, Hope” from September 30 to October 7.

Last year’s parade in Serbia was scrapped at the last moment on security grounds. The 2010 Pride took place but at a high cost.

Several thousand youths, including football fans and members of ultra-rightist organizations, attacked police officers who had been deployed to protect the marchers.

Organisers of this year’s event, however, say that everything is ready for the march on October 6 - and if it is also banned, other events will go ahead instead.

“Belgrade Pride is ready and as far as we’re concerned, we could start tomorrow,” Goran Miletic, a member of the organising committee, said.

(Balkan Insight.) 

Hőseim. 

szokjatoklemind:

ka-steve:

Ahogy gondoltam: google és wiki nélkül tök másnaposan már a legalapvetőbb dolgokra sem emlékszem. Csekély vigasz, hogy fogalom nélkül tippelve 75%-os találati arányom van 4 válaszlehetőségből…

39/50

35/50 elégedett vagyok. 

EDIT: Mendelt osztrákként említik, máshol pedig csehet illetve szudétanémetet is találtam a nemzetiségeként. Melyik van közelebb a valósághoz? 

(via emigracio)