Panorama #2 - Panorama - LUPEF

Hungarian
Politics and
mentality
13.
In Hungary people do not trust their own legal, political or bureaucratic systems, and they commit suicide at an astonishing
rate. To complicate matters Hungary is in the beginning of a post-communist transition and is still looking for its identity,
and to make it even worse the credibility of politicians are extremely low since the prime minister admits that they have lied
for the last two years... Welcome to Hungarian politics!
to understand contemporary hungary and its premises, one must
first understand the past. And the past isn’t as far away as one
may think; only 20 years ago the communist era was still
lingering on the centrally located European country of hungary
and its neighbours after almost half a century. When the Soviet
Union imploded under relatively peaceful conditions, the general
population in hungary felt that something positive might
emerge. they believed that they now would have possibilities
and freedoms they had not enjoyed before. For example, could
the people perhaps now move away from the illegal
secondary markets that where the hallmark of smallscale
corruption in the 1980’s in all of eastern
Europe? these small markets had been
essential because of the flaws in the plan
economy as well as the waiting period
and the shortage of goods that was a
custom. But in a new liberal world,
freedom should come to all. We
can conclude, without too much
rejection I hope, that a transition was
something that was looked upon with quite
a positive premonition.
Let’s make a jump even further back in history
before battling back to the 21st century of hungarian
politics. through history, landlocked hungary has been
squeezed between superpowers such as the Byzantine empire,
the habsburgs and the Ottoman empire, etc. the other thing one
must bear in mind is the fact that hungarians are a very
competitive people. to stereotype their personality one might
say that no matter what category the hungarians always want to
prevail. Which makes the following two statements a bit of a
catch 22: hungary has been successful in losing all wars they
have fought in the last 500 years, which is very impressive of
”
The historical
fact is that Hungary
has been successful in losing
all wars they have fought in the
last 500 years, which is
very impressive of
course.
”
course, and modern hungary is in the lead in the international
suicide category, having an estimated 5 000 people per year in
1987 whom committed suicide, as well as perhaps 50 000 trying.
this give us an estimated ratio of 42 persons per every 100 000
committing suicide. today the level of suicide is lower but still
harvesting around 32 person per every 100 000, three times
higher than the United States and also a noteworthy bit higher
than the Scandinavian countries.
though, to get back up on the horse and not get all lost
in the remarkable history of hungary, the common
suicide rates can have a “simple” explanation
(i.e. this is not an explanation, just elaboration
on a notion that may be correlated). During
Communism almost 100% of people in
working age were employed. After
the fall of the Soviet Union and
the newly found glorified
freedom for the hungarian people,
one out of ten people with
monotonous work got to see themselves
being unemployed; one million of
hungarian workers lost their jobs. this was also
the starting point of hungary’s version of an
underclass, with poverty, segregation and xenophobic
feelings in the reed. this predicament, resulting from the
accommodation of the effectiveness of the beloved market
economy, is still without doubt present. here we can talk about
problems concerning transition from one system to another.