The Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge, Budapest

See it (this is an update) in the video of Katy Perry on "Fireworks".  There it is.  Global videos.

Here is the great link beween Buda, the hill-side of Budapest; and Pest, the flat plain side of Budapest. Walk across it from the hotels and old town area, the flat side, at sunset and all goes mauve.

Those are the parliament buildings on the far side at Pest; the picture is from Castle Hill - up the incline from the landing point of the bridge.

Count Szechenyi, instigator; English designer, William Clark; Scots engineer, Adam Clark (for whom the tunnel through the mountain on the Castle Hill side is named), no relation; mid-nineteenth century, triggering the unity of Buda and Pest and its enormous commercial growth, once the Danube was spanned. See www.aviewoncities.com/budapest/chainbridge.

The Castle District - On The Buda Side

Dan Widing at the Castle District, Budapest

The Castle District is honeycombed beneath the cliff with centuries of cave networks, some even used during WWII - there was a History Channel TV show on this that showed a German hospital set up in the underground warren. See www. history.com/ and look for Cities of the Underworld.

See also wikitravel.org/en/Budapest/Buda.

I understand that the caves are so close to the house basements that there are frequent holes opening up and down you go.

Buses are forbidden said the TV show, because of the weight.

Horse cart, Castle District. Budapest
















The area other than the castle itself remains residential and elegant.

Castle district, residential parking problems, Budapest

The Funicular (Incline), the Adam Clark Tunnel

From the Pest side, where we found the hotels and the old town, walk the Chain Bridge over to the Buda side and the ride up to the Castle District.

The Chain Bridge and the 1857 tunnel here opened up Buda to commercial and settlement activity that earlier had been so hindered by the cliffs. See http://www.aviewoncities.com/budapest/chainbridge.htm

Castle District, Budapest. Funicular, tunnel, Turul Bird view.














Walk across the Chain Bridge from the hotels-side (the Pest side), at sunset. The funicular is less crowded then -- the inclined railway cars from the riverbank on the Buda side of Budapest, up the hill to the Castle Hill. See the Turul up there, previous post. Here is how a funicular works: travel.howstuffworks.com/question512.htm/.

Funiculars around the world:  Pittsburgh has some fine ones, web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/Pittsburgh/Inclines/.

Also Gibraltar, see Spain Road Ways(here including the side visit to British Gibraltar).

The tunnel is the Adam Clark Tunnel, named after the British engineer associated with its construction in the 19th Century. Seewww.britannica.com/eb/article-9343099/Adam-Clark.

The tunnel heads to endless suburbs - the drive into the city from the motorway is not glamorous. If you want glamor, go the usual entry way by tourist boat. If you are lost in the car, find the Danube.

Parliament and the Danube View - The Pest side of Budapest

Budapest Parliament Buildings, Danube, Budapest Hungary

Government buildings along the Danube. That is the Parliament.











Pest, as in Budapest, was on the flat land side. Buda, the mountain


Pest was the town on the flatland side of the Danube, the one most accessible to boat traffic, markets, expansion without overcoming cliffs. Then again, the cliffs on the Buda side provided a defense.

Ideal for merchant as well as invaders - down the Rhine and the Danube - Amsterdam, Cologne, Rudesheim, Mainz, Wertheim, Wurzburg, Nuremberg, Passau, Linz, Melk, Vienna, Bratislava to Budapest. See www.rollintl.com/roll/rhine.

The Buda side of Budapest

Saint Gellert monument, Buda side of Budapest (mountain)

Saint Gellert here dominates the cliff and a dedicated park area (lots of steps up from the riverbank). He tried converting the people here and was martyred in the 10th century. He was thrown off the cliff in a barrel, into the Danube below.

A difficulty in researching is the variety of spellings for the same person. This is also Gerard Sagredo, and is also Gerhard. And Gellert. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Sagredo.

See this fine night photo by David Pride at www.davidpride.com/Europe/Hungary/HU_04_061.htm.

The tour boats; Danube-Rhine route to Amsterdam

Budapest, Danube cruise ship view

Idea for easy itinerary regionally: start in Budapest, rent a car, and follow the Danube and then the Rhine all the way to Amsterdam.

Borrow and modify the cruise ships' itinerary and just wheel it instead.

Drive, don't ride.

Budapest Castle - the Buda side; nation-building and WWI

Budapest Castle, Budapest, Hungary

Budapest Castle. Its predecessor nearly destroyed in the 17th Century, the conflict to take Buda back from Turkish rule.

http://www.virtourist.com/europe/budapest/03.htm. Here is a photo gallery: www.fsz.bme.hu/hungary/budapest/kepek/nagyok/budvar2.

How nationstates evolve through wars and boundary allocations: a start on the uses of propaganda is at www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/bors/bors04. How this kind of castle is seen, and the power and eras it represented, depends on who is plugs in which charged words, and who has the ability to reach people. Probably very little as to "reality."

The Turul and Magyar Origins

The Turul Falcon, Budapest

The Turul. Mythical bird, central to the Magyar creation story. Once there were three huge Turul. Review the great history of the Magyars at ://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no141/p3.html/  Old in time does not mean last in courage.

Find a Turul on the motorway from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Budapest - the distance between the cities is not great, maybe some 100 km or 65-70 miles. Just see the big green sign, and turn that way.  You can use your debit or credit card until you find out about Hungarian cash.

Look to your left near Tatabanya, up a cliff in a hilly area. See its website about the Turul on its new coat of arms, at 193.138.127.88/tb211911.html. There in the distance is the silhouette of this huge falcon-like bird.

This is a copy atop the Castle District of the Buda side of Budapest. More at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turul.

The cliff Turul is the largest statue of a bird worldwide, so say. Find the creation myth of the Magyar people at www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/turulhawk.

For a colorful and highly educational (because it holds attention) website on the Hun-Magyar roots, the long association with peoples from northwestern China-Mongolia, see www.hunmagyar.org/. Click on the English "Enter" to get in the site in your own language. Click on the "Belep" to appreciate the richness of trying out new sounds and letters. Now: drive that way.

Especially: the Turan portion, related to that Turul. www.hunmagyar.org/turan/turan.

Find a thorough discussion of the Turul in other areas cultures through history, including that the Turul is the symbol of the House of Attila, as well as other cultural "big birds" (Phoenix) at Migratory Patterns of Tales, Big Birds, Phoenix, Turul.

The Jewish Quarter: Jewish History, Eastern Europe

Great Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary

The Great Synagogue is on Dohany Street, so sometimes is known as the Dohany Synagogue. See www.bh.org.il/Communities/Synagogue/budapest.asp.

The synagogue at Jerusalem is larger, then this, then the Great Synagogue at Plzen, CZ. See Czech Republic Road Ways. But this site says it is second only to Temple Emanual in New York City. See www.sacred-destinations.com/hungary/budapest-dohany-street-synagogue. More photos of the graves and Holocaust memorial on the way.

The Jewish Quarter is a mid-length walk from the riverfront, but hard to identify.
The old Quarter has few landmarks. Follow the map to get there, and there may or may not see anything identifable except the synagogue-museum, see below. We did see a few persons in Orthodox dress, but not many. What is haunting is what is not there.

So go to the virtual history tour of the area at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Budapest. See the fine photographer David Pride's slides thumbnails of Budapest at www.davidpride.com/Europe/Hungary/Hungary_index.


Old Jewish Quarter, Budapest, plot now a children's playground

Much of the old Jewish Quarter is now something else, like this playground amid the destruction of other buildings, and I do not know which if any are war-related, or just urban renewal. We just know that there are few Jewish buildings or centers.














Spinoza House, Budapest, Jewish Quarter, Hungary

 This is the Spinoza house, with the 17th Century philosopher on the plaque at the entry, and in the Jewish Quarter, reached by following the streets on any map away from the Old Town.
It is a cultural center founded by groups from The Netherlands. Concerts, theatre. Cafe.

The posts on Magyar origins notes that the Magyars converted to Judaism, and then centuries later, to Catholicism. What were those circumstances? The Inquisition where it was convert or die or be expelled from your lands? Or voluntary, a drawing toward another belief?

Are Magyars connected at all with the Khazars - see current research and discussion about Russian Jews being descended from the Khazars, whose roots are not the Jewish peoples in Europe - Germany, Portugal, Spain, etc. See www.khazaria.com/khazar-diaspora. That site reviews the book, "Are Eastern European Jews Descended from the Khazars," by Kevin Alan Brook.

Hungary's Minority Issues as Global. A Call for an Immigration Summit - Immigration Issues Worldwide

Immigration - A Global Issue

Hungary Reacts

Which groups where are "undesirable" -- how did they get that way.

In any country, does the withholding of education and healthcare resources

add to the problem. By reasonable intent, reinforcing it?

 

Time for reflection


A.  Exploring similarities between cultures, in dealing with targeted immigrant groups.

Roma there, Hispanic and others here, on and on.Magyar Hirlap, a Hungarian daily news entity (see ://www.magyarhirlap.hu/) supports the stern immigration measures against particular immigrants, Romanian gypsies.  This mirrors similarly strong measures that the Italian government takes in Italy, see ://www.eurotopics.net/en/search/results/archiv_article/ARTICLE28414-Justified-severity. See FN 3 for the text.



Read that Eurotopics site.  We know from other articles there that there are many cases where local Italian populations (enough to be mentioned) become angered if the Roma are supported with government help, and follow up with their own reprisals against gypsies.

B.  Examine and compare diatribes. Concepts recur.

The United States

1.  Bill O'Reilly.  Bill O'Reilly at ://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156319,00.html, expresses sympathy with Italy's tough immigration policy.

2.  Lou Dobbs.  Lou Dobbs  added to the stereotype of undesirables, here undocumented Mexican immigrants, by combining the term with "aliens" and "criminal.'  Undocumented immigrants become illegal aliens, criminal elements for having crossed an open border.  see http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/03/05/immigration_and_crime/.
See FN 4


3.  Rush Limbaugh.   Criminal illegal immigrants comes out. Do a search, watch the videos.l

C.  These are commonalities: 

1. Immigrants

• inundate the country with vagrants with neither papers nor money,
• fail to follow even rudimentary standards of conduct,
• live in urban and rural clusters,
• are shabby and create piles of refuse and dirt, 
• take jobs from the majority ethnic group, 
•  get free social services at the expense of the majority,
•  bring in more immigrants, 
• commit crimes - crimes of a rapidly escalating gravity.

2. Leaders' reactions, Hungary, Italy and US:

Put an end to this ridiculous and disgraceful state of affairs, punish illegal immigrants, and deport them. Opposition to such measures is not normal, liberal people who oppose these measures are crazy.

C.  Issues:

 When does a program regarding reasonable immigration issues become a virtual pogrom FN 1. Not killing, but killing the spirit, the humanity of a group, reaction by mass deportion to where.


Are we looking at a global crisis in human population movements, an issue confronting nations anywhere.


D. Role of Memes in a national consciousness.

Has a "meme" spread, FN 2, that time's up for immigration from underdeveloped countries and for groups long targeted, to the developed countries. These targeted groups used to be - here - the Irish, others who came in huge numbers in the 19th Century. Now assimilated, as physically similar to mainstream, did ok economically. The Irish. Doing not so well: Gypsies, Roma. Doing well here: Jews. Doing middling: Hispanics.


As to all, another meme at one time: that "bad" immigrant behavior when it occurs, if it occurs, reflects the immigrant's inferiority, the immigrant's culture's unworthiness, not his background experiences, lessons learned, etc.


E.   Who will try out a global Theory:

Is there any chance that universal basic sustenance - food, clothing, shelter, jobs, dignity-fostering policies, could change the meme.

We may find it hard to even give it a chance.

We predict that the Hungarians and Italians, with a longer history of animosity to gypsies, will continue to find it more difficult to change the national "meme" about gypsies. Some of us here are trying to educate ourselves on the depth of the cultural divide. See Gypsies, Roma, Romani.

We have hopes, however, that the US, with its far shorter history of animosity to undocumented hispanics, will find it somewhat less difficult to accept forms of guest worker programs instead of Immediate Invasion of Neighborhoods and Deportation. But that can happen only if memes are kept in check.

Here, issues as to Gypsies and Hispanic immigrants are less entrenched, not a matter of generations, of tradition, of cultural acceptance for centuries, as had been attitudes and memes about blacks. It may be do-able as to gypsies and immigrants, if reasoned voices prevail, and not the inflammatories. See this reasonably hopeful article from the Center for Immigration Studies, at ://www.cis.org/articles/2001/crime/toc.html

That does not address the need for assistance to those groups in education, job skills, sustenance. No other country seems to have answers, either.Everyday People

F. Global Summit.

Hungary: Idea. We are all in same global blue-marble boat. All countries have ordinary people who reasonably will follow a sensible policy - and can be led either way.

Study carefully which way to go.If everybody deports, as you suggest and our people also (some loud ones) are pushing for, where do the people go that will not continue to cause instability on both sides and worse. Take charge in a constructive way. Everybody loves Budapest. Host a global summit on immigration issues, because I can't think of any country that is not dealing with violence in those areas, or that soon will, when immigration across their borders also increase, regardless of the nationality or culture. All beginning immigrants who are unassimilated and distinguishable, are hit upon, sometimes to the death. Is that right? And, is that right?

Please wait until after our national elections. Thank you.
.......................................
FN 1 Pogrom. "An organized massacre of helpless people," see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pogrom. Read about one at ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Kielce.html

FN 2 Memes. See Joy of Equivocating, Memes.

FN 3 Here is the original excerpt, needed here as fair use for purposes of comparing the version above, and from ://www.eurotopics.net/en/search/results/archiv_article/ARTICLE28414-Justified-severity

QUOTE ARTICLE - The conservative daily Magyar Hírlap expresses sympathy with Italy's tough immigration policy: "What are we talking about here? We are talking about the fact that Italy has been inundated with Romanian gypsies. They have neither papers nor money. What is worse is their failure to follow even the most rudimentary standards of conduct. They live in camp settlements on city outskirts. They relieve themselves on the street and create piles of refuse and dirt. They beg and pester Italians. And of course, they also commit crimes - crimes of a rapidly escalating gravity. The Italians reached the end of their tether when a Romanian gypsy killed the wife of an Italian officer. ... Berlusconi and his conservative government have now decided to put an end to this ridiculous and disgraceful state of affairs. In addition to punishment for illegal immigrants, in future Romanian gypsies are also to be deported. Any normal person would support these measures. The problem is that our liberal world is full of crazy people. So now we are witnessing how liberal defenders of rights and commentators unleash an indignant storm of protest against the Italian government. And of course, Berlusconi is the bad guy and the 'populist'." UNQUOTE ARTICLE

FN 4Why not focus on American gypsies? The group subject here is not gypsy for purposes of this discussion, see ://www.americangypsy.com/the_film/full_description.html,because they try to stay under the radar, and have not been in the news recently as a focus criminal element overall. But we are confident that when the cultures clash there as well, the language and response is the same.


Why not Native Americans? Their situation also is not a current news focus. And we have a guilt relationship here, and don't like to look at what we did. They are discriminated against as are immigrants (note some have found a mega-niche in gambling resorts on their reservations). They were here first and cruelly dealt with by us. We created reasons to slaughter them, by touting our "divine right" by superiority and mission, good heavens, to take land and property. We made our own justification. We let ourselves be sold, and now don't know what to do. Like Iraq? And in our making up our own justification, the Native American situation is like the Gypsies and Jews and Hispanic immigrants - not anything inherent in them, but we impose, they react over time, traits evolve both sides, and the meme runs on. We can't cover all groups in one post. Come back for that one.


Why not Asian undocumented immigrants? Not the current news focus, we see. This group enters with somewhat more of a potential support system of entrepreneurs and others, bringing-in, finding housing, initial job, not attracting attention except by numbers, but problems there are many and increasing, see ://www.altrue.net/altruesite/files/alc/pdf/reporter%20final%20PDF.pdf.

Our information relies on Eurotopics' translations, from the Magyar Hirlap. Our interest is in whether the immigration situation in Hungary is like our own.  Do media and other leaders lead diatribes against the undesirables, and rev up the  majority against the immigrants.