p.s. I dropped Rejto/P.Howard's name accidentally on purpose. He'd be worth at least one diary... A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
But I'm not sure I have the literary talent to write a diary about him myself - only the short summary below. Maybe you could do it?
Jenő Rejtő was a poor man who got around to a lot of places (lot of shitty places), most notably he served in the French Légion Etrangère in Northern Africa. When he returned to Hungary in the interwar period, he started to hang out at the popular cafés in Budapest, and begun to earn (not much) money by writing pulp fiction under the pseudonym "P Howard". The stories were based on his experiences, they are extremely funny stories mostly in an underworld setting (I mean among criminals) and mostly playing in Africa. He was extremely popular at the time (and ever since), but that didn't save him from becoming a victim of the Holocaust - he was Jewish.
...as for your request for articles, I suggest you start backwards from the last Index article on the issue, there are always links at the end of the article to the two-three previous ones. They give sources, so you can search for the originals in Cotidianul, Transindex, Magyar Nemzet, Népszava and so on. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Thanks for the index link. I found some stuff on Cotidianul in the meantime, and I've had two gut reactions to what you wrote and to what I've learned: the first reaction was, why the hell was this couple put under surveillance, in the first place, when the wife had high level clearance? Was it because they were immigrants, i.e. was it for the same reason why prominent representatives of German, Slovak etc minorities in Hungary had been placed under surveillance some years ago, allegedly for their own good? (This was reinforced as the Cotidianul claimed that the Hungarian paper claimed that the couple had been deported: the thing is, acc. to another source the wife was a Hungarian citizen, so I don't see how she could have been expulsed in the first place.)
The second reaction was that I found the gov-t's explanation a lot more credible viz the husband (who btw was a more recent immigrant) was in Hungary to stir trouble. My impression is that Fidesz has been extremely and dangerously popular among (ethnic) Hungarians in Romania etc. In Romania Fidesz' influence has lead to the formation of right-leaning political formations among Hungarians, and to open rebellion against THE mainstream (moderate) political party of Hungarians in R., the RMDSZ. I can very well imagine a scenario where Mr Szatmari has been a Fidesz-sympathiser whose task would have been to (i) act as a Fidesz mole and (ii) sow dissension between the current Hungarian gov-t and Hungarian political formations outside Hungary.
I think what would be worth a whole series of diaries is the issue of minority politics in C/E Europe in general, and, in particular, the extremely dangerous and irresponsible way in which Fidesz of Hungary has been trying to turn some of these groups into its vassals... It is as if say, Germany would try to exert DIRECT influence on certain aspects of Romanian politics by "buying into" the political party of ethnic Germans in Romania. A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
Then again, Central-Eastern Europe was progressing ok until all went pear-shaped in the 1930's and then they ended up preserved in Communist formol for 45 years. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
I have a different take on C/E history: the dismemberment of the H. empire yielded a host of mini-states that were virulently nationalistic in ideology (possible exc.: Czechoslovakia) but in reality inherited the ethnic & cultural heterogeneity of the old, i.e. precisely what they had been fighting against. This holds e.g. for Romania and Yugoslavia.
Hungary (the new, incredibly shrunk Hungary) was more homogeneous, but its population was in shock, b/c of the tremendous territorial (and cultural) loss after the Versailles/Trianon treaty.
So there several repressive states in the region(more repressive than the H. E. had been) before WWII, and the economic integration of the Empire had also been lost. For Hungary & Romania at least it was a guarantee for a nasty homegrown version of authoritarianism.
I warmly recommend a history of the Romanian Iron Guard by Irina Livezeanu, a Pittsburgh history professor. She traces back the emergence of this homespun fascist movement to the Versailles treaty. More precisely: to the state that Romania was in at the time of the treaty and to the particular way in which it reacted to territorial expansion. The thing is, R. was a relatively poor country with a not-too-numerous intelligentsia when it got expanded with Transylvania and other territories, which were all relatively better developed than the recipient country AND had a multinational (Hungarian, Jewish, German, ...) intelligentsia. So, paradoxically, what should have been the Holy Grail of National Unity for Romania (Transylvania had a substantial Romanian population!) was getting saddled with a wave of snotty for'ners. (I REALLY recommend reading Livezeanu's work to see what happened next. Her main books should be available at e.g. Amazon.) A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
I have one quibble: it may well be that Tibor Szatmári was a shill for Fidesz, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was a Romanian spy - but that's what would have made him a national security danger to be pushed from his job. It's all messy. And if the NBH acted on its own, why did it leak?
BTW, can you tell me something about the background of Cotidianul - political direction, owners, such stuff? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The URL is http://www.cotidianul.ro Physically, they're in Bucharest. They are published by Poligraph Ltd, a consortium of Regent House Printing and Publishing and Academia Catavencu. The main shareholder of Regent House is the Ratiu family --- could be the same Ratiu who got rich in the West and returned to Romania after 1989 to be one of the re-founders of the National Peasant Party. (I think he is dead by now.)
Academia Catavencu is the foundation/think tank that publishes Catavencu, one of the leading satirical publications of Romania. (Used to be even more powerful when poet/dissident Mircea Dinescu was with them.) I recall (when I went home more often) that they used to be heavily involved with the Soros foundation (but this was around 1995), both as recipients of S. funds and as co-"conspirators".
Think of them as a politically more involved and outspoken Daily Show team, who preached and practised as well. (Even more involved and with considerably more spine than the Hocipo team in Hungary.) But, as I say, these are old memories, I don't know what they look like now. And I don't know if Cotidianul as a daily shares the same spirit.
Do you read http://www.transindex.ro ? It has a daily roundup of the Hungarian press in R. What do you think of Provincia?
The Szatmaris:
>>I have one quibble: it may well be that Tibor Szatmári was a shill for Fidesz, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was a Romanian spy - but that's what would have made him a national security danger to be pushed from his job. It's all messy.<<
If you don't mind my Transylvanian paranoia: (i) typical Budapest mud-slinging and backstabbing, and (ii) what do you taint a Transylvanian with? With being on the "olah" payroll. I mean it is a scenario that conforms to certain Hungarian Hungarians' stereotypes about Transylvanians. Transylvanian hypersensitivity aside, it does look as if T.Sz. had not been completely innocent, but, well.
>>And if the NBH acted on its own, why did it leak?<< Send a message to Fidesz shills?
Here is the "kolofon" of Cotidianul (German "Impressum", I don't know the English term ):
[[COTIDIANUL este editat de catre Poligraf SRL, care are urmatorii actionari:
SC Catavencu SA (50%) - detine actiunea de control Regent House Printing & Publishing (RH P&P) SRL 50%
Academia Catavencu IQ Editex SRL 49,993% (Doru Buscu, Eugen Istodor, Liviu Mihaiu, Sorin Vulpe, Cornel Ivanciuc, Octavian Mardale, Ioan Morar, Viorel Motoc, Mircea Toma) Fundatia Anonimul 49,993% Stefan Iordachescu 0,005951% Camelia Celesta Donen 0,005951% Camelia Suciu 0,005951%
Regent House Printing & Publishing (RH P&P) SRL Familia Ratiu 80% Calin Husar 20%]] A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
By leaking the part that hurts the government and helps Fidesz and the supposed Romanian policy of dividing the government and RMDSz? Don't get me wrong, I even suspect your 'paranoia' should rather be called "realism", but the jigshaw puzzle still doesn't fit together for me.
On the other hand, I just remembered, it is said this affair has been known to members of the parliamentary committee since spring this year. So it wasn't necessarily a leak from the NBH, the leak could have been a Fidesz operation altogether.
Thanks for the background info on Cotidianul! In this light, that line about being the voice of Fidesz in Romania sounds even stranger, unless it only means that Cotidianul accepts leaks from Fidesz sources. (Also thanks for recommending those two Transsylvanian sites - I have only visited transindex before.)
From what I read, Cotidianul's Securitate accusations against Markó weren't sound - so this may imply their level has declined since you knew them. (Can happen - in my personal opinion, what used to be the best paper in your present country of living and perhaps the world, DER SPIEGEL, declined greatly in quality after Augstein's death.) As for Hócipő, I agree they have become rather crappy (like, IMO, basically all left-liberal Hungarian papers) - however, lately they did some investigative reporting, contributing to the exposure of Viktor Orbán's little tricks and little lies in his appartment changes. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I'll have to read up on the whole affair to have more paranoid hypotheses about who leaked what and to whom and why, and that if X leaked Y about Z in the daily Alpha then in fact Z did W with U, against V.
Pedantry: I used to know Academia Catavencu, the satirical weekly of this group. I knew they've branched out (e.g. they collectively owned a racehorce at one point), but I had no idea they had the daily Cotidianul until today. Or that Cotidianul even existed.
The AC gang used to be very progressive, they even joked openly about being on Soros' payroll and being the Bozgors' shills. But it doesn't follow that the daily they happen to publish should be just as open-minded, cosmopolitan and so on. (And the funny thing is, the people who WRITE the weekly A.C. are in fact shareholders and co-owners of Cotidianul. Aside: it's at times like this that I realise what a long way we've come since 1989...)
Although, it may still be the daily that's most open & even-handed with Budapest. (The only article I checked was a surprisingly sane and rational editorial from today about the "minority law" that adhoc wrote about here.)
>>Amúgy nem vicces hogy egy francia által az Egyesült Államokban telepített portálon két némileg elnémetesedett magyar angolul beszélget magyar ügyekről?...<< Ugy ingesamt igen, de a mai napig fogalmam nem volt, hogy magyar vagy. Eppugy lehetnel Bp-n megtelepedett amerikai, nemet, vagy mas kapitalista. A dog's a dog. A Cat's a Cat. (T.S. Eliot)
