Mid-Week Briefing: If At First You Don’t Succeed

• A suicidal patient of the Ferenc Markhot Hospital in Eger made it second time lucky, jumping from the same building twice before finally making it to the ground and his death. His first botched attempt was from the window of his room from which he made it down three meters as far as a glass overhang. Undeterred, he continued his ascent to the concrete below, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. The diagram to the right is Blikk‘s extremely informative illustration of how exactly it happened.

• A Turkish man disguised as a car seat tried to enter Hungary illegally in a vehicle with Bulgarian number plates on Monday, a police officer told MTI. The car arrived at the Hungarian-Romanian border station of Nagylak in the early hours of Monday with four Bulgarian citizens. A passport controller, however, noticed that one of the rear seats was unusual. It turned out that the original seat had been removed from the vehicle and a man covered by a blanket was sitting there. The Turkish man had a passport but no visa to enter the European Union. The Bulgarian citizens will face legal proceedings in Romania under the charge of human trafficking.
[mti.hu]

• After concerns about policemen not wearing identification tags during the police rampages on previous national holidays, policemen outdid even themselves on this year’s March 15 celebrations. Many of them were spotted wearing different identification numbers on their helmet, clothes and badges, to confuse the Ombudsman Office. The ombudsman stated that citizen rights this time were more respected than usual, but there are still questionable elements, such as security guards controlling access to a state event, instead of the police. [fn.hu]

• Several Rudabánya (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County) residents have complained about the town’s animal keeping regulations which say that all stray animals must be collected. According to pet owners, tranquilizer darts used by the dogcatchers often kill the animals instantly and their bodies are left to lie on the streets. The other problem is that the dogcatchers do not discriminate between pets and stray animals, shooting anything on four legs. The company denies this, however, stating that their drug does not kill the animals, and they are not responsible for all the dead bodies. [hirszerzo.hu]

• One of Budapest’s most popular malls, WestEnd, is infested with mice but, according to consumer blog Tékozló Homár, neither cleaning staff nor security guards care. If you care, click the link to see a rodent invader. [homar.blog.hu]

• Instead of putting its crumbling house in order, Budapest transport company BKV has organized a beauty contest for its female employees. The winner is a law student named Anita who reported on her blog that she picked up a weekend stay for two at a Hungarian wellness hotel. We can’t find a decent pic of her, but click the following link to see the other contestants. [bkvfigyelo.blog.hu]

• Hungarian musician Tamás Nagy of NOX is organizing a “mass sprinkling” (“tömeges locsolkodás“) in Siófok on Easter Monday to preserve the tradition and, of course, win a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Locsolkodás is a Hungarian custom at Easter – originally, young men poured a bucketful of cold water on young women on Easter Monday to keep them well watered and prevent them from withering (seriously). In these urbanized days, men sprinkle women with perfume and receive chocolate and painted eggs in return. [stop.hu]

A teacher in Nográd county was assaulted by a couple for telling their miscreant daughter to go and sit somewhere else. [origo.hu]

• Visitors to summer festivals this year are likely to be seated on recycled waste, as industrial artist group Medence Csoport has been commissioned to make furniture from those big ugly plastic advertising banners you see on the sides of buildings. A member of the group, Gergő Magyar, admitted that making furniture from recycled waste is not cheap, but the price cannot be compared to new items as their creation doesn’t pollute the environment, he said. [stop.hu]

• The much-hyped series of draconian raids by traffic police began badly after a policemen was unable to impose a fine on an unbelted Budapest motorist because he ran out of the paper blocks used for spot-fining. According to one of the embarrassed officers, they should have been provided with the blocks by the national police. The national police denies this statement, stating that it is the responsibility of the local offices to provide sufficient blocks for officers. [stop.hu]

• A glance at the list of state subsidized therapeutic equipment available to patients reveals that Hungary has been left behind by the one-legged march of technology. While a biological prosthetic arm, developed in the US, could provide the possibility for a full life for amputees, in Hungary, subsidies are only available for wooden hook hands. [origo.hu]

• Following heated debates and desperate attempts to save underground center Kultiplex from its closure, scheduled for 28 February, the venue is now occupied and guarded by security people of the District IX government. Tilos Rádió, which used to operate from Kultiplex, has one month to choose a new venue from the locations offered by the local government. Centrifuga Kft., the company which used to run the place, still hopes that Kultiplex, and the Hungarian underground it represents, might be saved somehow, though negotiations with the authorities are not likely to succeed. [hirszerzo.hu]

• Dutch residents of the Szigetvár (Baranya County) are so motivated to learn Hungarian that a 80-hour language course has been launched just for them. Most of the Dutch inhabitants interested in learning the language are elderly who want to fit in and go about their daily business more easily. A Dutch youth with excellent Hungarian knowledge will assist them in their studies. [hirado.hu]

• A 51-year-old man shot himself in the head at the Tököl shooting range where he was practicing with a friend last week. They arrived to the shooting range together, and, after a few shots, fired at the target, one of them lifted his weapon and shot himself. The paramedics could not save his life, and he died on the spot. [havariapress.hu]

• A 61-year-old Hungarian man died after stopping his car to change a tire near Fischamend, Austria on Thursday. He slipped and fell under a truck, dying on the spot. [mno.hu]