Buda Baby: News and politics

Greenpeace Activists Suspend Themselves from the Chain Bridge

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:05:41 GMT

In the midst of breakfast this morning Zoli announced that Greenpeace was staging a demonstration on Lánchíd(aka the Chain Bridge) and that the police were on the way. As the bridge is just a short walk from our flat, your trusty reporter immediately threw on some clothes and grabbed her camera, and set off to see what was what.

When we arrived, the authorities had cordoned off the bridge and traffic was in a bit of a snarl, but we were able to get close enough to take some photos. Greenpeace had hung a huge yellow banner from the bridge saying, in Hungarian, something to the effect of "Climate Alarm! Green Energy Now!" In addition, about a dozen people suspended themselves halfway between the bridge and the water, while others chained themselves to the bridge.

Hungary is going to Brussels next week to cast its vote in the EU regarding energy and what can be done to reduce global warming, so this demonstration was to urge the PM to cast his vote for the strongest possible regulations.

My reporting assistant somehow managed to delete all the photos that we took, so I refer you to Index.hu for a gallery of photos from the demonstration.

The Fugees (No, not those Fugees)

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:41:54 GMT

You may have seen an article in your Sunday paper this weekend about a soccer team in Georgia made up of refugees (hence their name the Fugees). It appeared in the New York Times and I believe was syndicated in other papers as well. If you didn't see it, here is a link to it on the International Herald Tribune website.

The article describes how a small town in Georgia, Clarkston, was chosen as an ideal place to locate refugees in the United States as they begin a new life. The town of 7100 is now one of the most diverse in the country; the high school has students from more than 50 countries. As you might suppose, this relatively sudden diversity in a small town has led to tension and misunderstandings, and has brought out the best and worst in people.

The best is epitomized by the team's coach, Luma Mufleh, herself an immigrant from Jordan and a graduate of Smith College. Coach Mufleh is the living, beating heart and soul of the team. She is tough, making all the kids on the team sign a contract, which is more or less a code of conduct, benching kids who don't show up to practice, and booting those who don't make games. One of my favorite lines from the contract is "My hair will be shorter than Coach's," but the ones that resonate are "I will try hard," "I will ask for help," and "I want to be part of the Fugees."

Team members come from some of the most war torn parts of the world, and they have witnessed and experienced horrible atrocities. Coach Mufleh keeps this off the field, but it does come through from time to time. One player, for example, kept tuning out during practice. It turns out he had been forced by a soldier to shoot his best friend. In another instance, the team was travelling to an away game. Coach Mufleh was driving in front of the bus and was pulled over for a busted tail light. It turned out that she also had an upaid ticket, and the police officer arrested her in full view of the team bus. When these kids saw someone arrested where they were from, that person usually didn't come back. Imagine this person who represented so much to them being taken away in a squad car.

Mufleh does much more than just coach the soccer team. The first hour and a half of each practice is spent doing homework and tutoring (she's arranged volunteers to help with this). She also actively helps the refugee community in finding jobs and general assimilation. As she said, it was like suddenly having a family of 120.

Mufleh has a lot of challenges, getting equipment, uniforms, and the like donated one of them. Also pressing is finding a place to practice: the town as banned soccer from it's playing field. Help comes from unlikely quarters sometimes though: at one game against an affluent suburban team, a parent followed Mufleh. Mufleh at first thought it was going to be an abusive confrontation, but as it turned out the parent said that the team wanted to make a donation to the Fugees (who, by the way, sound like a pretty great team).

Powerful article, and an amazing person.

Storm Swept

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:25:41 GMT

A storm that swept Northern Europe with hurricane-force winds reached Hungary in the early morning hours. 28 people died in Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, France, and the Netherlands. The winds were about 100 MPH in Britain, and around 65 MPH in Hungary. A roof blew off a movie theater near Lake Balaton (a popular vacation/weekend-home area, a.k.a. the Hungarian Sea), but that seems to be the worst of the damage here.

Northern Europe swept by storms (with photos) - BBC News

Hungary escapes worst of killer storm - M&G News

Meanwhile, across Europe there is no snow on the mountains:

Ski resorts depressed by snowfall - BBC News

And finally, on a note related to weather, we watched An Inconvenient Truth last night, the film in which Al Gore describes what has been happening with global warming and what the disastrous effects will be unless humanity makes the necessary changes to reduce CO2 gasses. He also addresses misconceptions about global warming and how the mainstream media has perpetuated these misconceptions despite overwhelming agreement on the issue within the scientific community. This is an extremely important film and I urge everyone to see it. Even if you don't like Al Gore, put your personal feelings aside and pay attention. It is, as he says, not so much a political issue as it is a moral issue.

Watch the trailer here.

I know of high schools where this film is required viewing. My sister took her kids to see it.