our insect overlords
District VI "Santa," Harbinger of Selfishness and Social Decline, a No-Show in '08
As pathetic and miserable as the just-ended holiday season in Hungary was, at least it didn't feature what for us was the most bizarre and ultimately depressing element of the previous December's festivities: A visit by an emissary of the local district mayor's office bearing gift baskets for some of the pensioners living on our floor. The confused and probably deeply drink-addled dude pictured above showed up at our door sometime between December 6 - the day when Mikulás, the traditional Central European "Santa," shows up with (mostly edible) treats - and the 24th, when the Baby Jesus comes by with video game consoles and other even more useful goodies.
Being confused and probably deeply drink-addled ourselves, it took us a while to figure out that our visitor wanted us to take a couple of the baskets from him and then pass them on the old ladies living on either side of us, both of whom, by a remarkable coincidence, were not at home at the time. As we recall, each of the baskets contained a vacuum-packed bag of coffee, some szaloncukor, a chocolate bar, and a few other eatables of the sort you are likely to find in a cut-rate gift basket in these parts.
Even given our bewilderment, it didn't take long for us to figure out why our local government would send out gift baskets to probably a third of the households in the oldster-rich district: oldsters vote. Also, just imagine what was in the gift baskets for the people from the önkormányzat who got the job of choosing where to procure all those baskets. But as pathetic as such transparent vote-buying is, it's nothing when you ponder what us pompous journalists call the "larger implications" of the scheme.
Seriously: how can you expect citizens to behave like adults when government literally plays the role of Santa? (And a Santa who gives out presents to adults rather than children, and doesn't even check whether they've been naughty or nice.) It even helps to explain why Hungarians, like most national "families" living in today's state-Santa Europe, tend to not bother having actual children of there own; why share the presents?
But like we said, this year there were no signs that the District VI Santa had made his rounds. Who knows: maybe Mayor István Verók and his legions of "elves" down on Eötvös utca saw the folly of treating their most mature constituents like children. On the other hand, perhaps word just got around the building that we had gotten into the true spirit of the Budapest municipal yuletide season, and kept the stuff for ourselves. Either way, good riddance, municipal Santa, and bah, humbug.
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COMMENT!So did you actually pass them on in the end or just eat the csokik yourselves? I bet I know what many people would have done under the circumstances...
But in any case, why should giving presents automatically be regarded as treating people like children? I'm a grown-up and I like getting presents.
By the way "there own" should read "their own". Still a little drink-addled from Szilveszter? :-)
Seriously, guys, you've been in Hungary too long. You're starting to
bitch as much as the locals now.
not sure how to take this week's reporting as i generally appreciate the humor and topics treated here.it just seems you guys got paranoid all of a sudden or been here too long as the previous comment suggests? what is wrong with giving presents on a holiday? it was not for election but a seasonal remembrance as it is done every year for children and the elderly. in the town i live we've done it on volunteer effort but we did the same handing out 120+ such packages to the elderly in town. what's with you guys all of a sudden?
atleast they made the effort! didnt see anybody doing the same in UK this Chrimble!
Well they aren't really *gifts* if the gov't is giving them out, are they?
Europe cut off from Russian gas? Why has europe (germany, austria, vichy france, italy, swiss, estonia, latvia, ukraine, republic of ireland, hungary, belarus, bulgaria,etc) never waged war against communist russia? The Allied Forces destroyed europe. Now they have no energy, heat ,etc. THanks Roosevelt. Thanks stalin for your great deeds. I believe there is actually a street named after Roosevelt in Pest. Logical?
@salk2: On your history I won't comment, as a brief spell in remedial class is called for (hint, start at around 1807 using key words like Anglo and Napoleon). On geography, it's the square (not road) next to the chain bridge where the academy of science is (Roosevelt).
Let me get this christmas carol straight, no cut rate gift baskets were given to the 6th district pensioners for Xmas 2008. So in order to write this pathetic and miserable article the editors had to dig into their sack of seasonal ill will for a gift giving incident from 2007. Now that's depressing. HAPPY new year 2009 pestiside!
Europe's condition (and perhaps the world's) is almost entirely
shaped by WW2. Were it not for allied forces (US, Stalin, England),
europe would not be freezing to death nor paying exorbitant prices
for its heat. Stalins and Roosevelts bloodthirsty rape and siege of
Budapest sealed its sad fate.
@salk2: So where would you be buying your gas and oil from? Norway (which is still a member of the European Economic Area - EEA since 1994 anyway)? And is Hungary freezing to death or is the threat of price increases/gas shortages affecting a large number of countries? Is one at the expense of the other. Really, what is your vision for how things should have gone: annex Russian, steal its natural resources and heat your houses at 30C as is common here. Or perhaps infrastructure changes to the központi fütés (centrally controlled heating) should have been/should be invested in so that the state and individuals don't end up paying for people to have their windows open all Winter so they can stand the stifling heat some people like? Is this blame everyone else season again. Grow up.
Erik: "Well they aren't really *gifts* if the gov't is giving them out,
are they?" Only in German, as in "vergiftet..."
Vándorló: "where would you be buying your gas and oil from?"
Hungary needs gas like Kuwait needs oil… Or haven't you heard of
the Makó Through and Hajdúság gas deposits?
@Visitor: Hungary has a lot of options on alternative energy sources that it is sitting on and not exploiting, but the situation we are talking about is what exists today, under current development/economic/political conditions. It would be great to see Hungary sort out it's energy problems in the round, using sustainable resources (thermal, wind...) as well as short term carbon based fuels. Perhaps is fewer members of the political parties had less personal financial interest in energy and construction this would have happened and may happen yet.
I've been away for a couple of months. Great to see everything's still horrible.
Vándorló: forget "alternative energy sources," we have HUGE
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS that are swiped by ExxonMobil et al. while
we are forced to buy Russian gas *from France.* Blaming our
corrupt whore politicians for that is like blaming Karzai for the
situation in Afghanistan or blaming the horses when a horse race
is fixed.
