[Nasional-e] Life in Hungary: before and after

[Ambon]

Letters / Life in Hungary: before and after /



Life in Hungary: before and after

Having lived in Hungary since 1987, I read Zsuzsanna Clark (Goulash and
solidarity, November 7) with interest. Pre-1989 Hungary was indeed not so
materialistic, there was a healthy underground scene, the extended family
was very strong and the only queues were for bananas.
However, it took 10 years to order a car, up to 20 years to have a phone
line installed, customer service was an oxymoron, and many people adopted
the "you pretend to pay me, I pretend to work" philosophy. Almost nothing
worked properly.
For all the nostalgia, it should be remembered that the Kadar regime paid
for the "happiest barrack" in the communist camp by borrowing massively from
the West. This left post-communist Hungary with a huge debt burden.
Most state-owned businesses could not compete in a free market, and the
investors Zsuzsanna complains about have done much to create a vibrant
economy. Poor Zsuzsanna seems stuck in an old paradigm, where the
expressions West and free world still need to written in inverted commas. In
fact, Hungary is just over a year away from joining the European Union, and
no one here still speaks of transition.
The tickets to the opera, by the way, range from about $6 to $25 - still a
bargain.
 Chris Dalton
 Budapest, Hungary
* I also grew up in a communist country (the GDR) and can only concur with
Zsuzsanna Clark. So why, if socialism was so good, did the people reject it?
One of the chief factors was the material superiority of the neighbouring
capitalist countries. This presented a patina of gold masking the underlying
inequality. So much of what was good under communism - job security, social
stability and a strong sense of solidarity - was taken for granted, but has
now been lost in the scramble for wealth.
As friends who remained in east Germany have discovered, what has been lost
was more valuable than we realised at the time.
 Brunhild de la Motte
 London, UK

The Guardian Weekly 14-11-2002, page 15