What is Slovakia thinking?

I have not written in a long time even though their were plenty happenings on the international scene. (Japan, Lybia and other arabic countries) I changed my mind because today I read an article on a Hungarian online news site, which wrote about the debate on the Minority Languages Act in Slovakia.

I was and still am outraged by what some Slovakian politicians are saying. It is for me simply ridiculous to accuse Hungary of having plans to annex southern Slovakia. According to english language Slovakian news site http://www.thedaily.sk/ Slota a radicalist in Slovakia said that the Slovak parliament was no longer a Slovak intstitution. He said these in connection with the Minority Language Act which will now allow the use of minority languages in public places where 15 % of the population belongs to a minority.

Robert Fico former prime minister of Slovakia

Robert Fico former prime minister wants a special session of the Slovakian parliament in order to adopt an official viewpoint on Hungary's policy towards Slovakia. He said that "we see that someone is cleaning their weapons under our fence, but we are doing nothing". He also remarked that Slovakia should use all its possibilities within the EU and NATO in this matter.

What I truly do not understand is why noone informs Mr. Fico of the fact that minority languages and that their protection is a value and priority in Europe and within the EU. I find also quite interesting that after so many years, decades you can still gain political votes by saying be afraid of the Hungarians they are going to attack us. I believe that these politics are harmful and very evil because they try to divide the people, who are obviously not each others enemies.

The idea behind a united Europe is to have peace between its nations and to prosper side by side. Both Slovakia and Hungary are part of the same European family of countries. History can not be reversed and changed so why not focus on the future. I do not think Hungary should annex any of its lost territories because simply that idea is outdated. As a responsible country in the 21st century Hungary should  try to (and I believe is trying to) follow an external policy that fights for the rights of the Hungarian nationals living on its lost territories. Their are many possibilities to ensure rights to these minorities and many good examples in Europe that are to be followed. One way is to ensure diffirent rights and another the most complex way is to ensure autonomy for the minorities. I believe it is up to Slovakia to decide which path it takes and it is up to Hungary to support Slovakia in all policies that ensure the Hungarian nationals living in Slovakia wider ranges of rights.

living in Ile-de-France

I have recently, well not so recently moved to France. In the beginning of February I moved to France to study at the University of Cergy-Pontoise for a semester. This of course is one of the reasons of my silence on this blog. Another reason is that I did not see the point of having a blog once again.

Well today I checked the statistics and despite the fact that my blog has been dead for more than a month I still got some visitors, which was very nice to see. Unfortunately One day I was in a bad mood and deleted all the pictures from my google account so my blog right now is not too colorful, but I will tryí to compensate those, who do visit this site with pictures in the future.

So I am living in Ile-de-France now. This is practically greater Paris, historically the first territory that kings of France got hold of. Nowadays it is home to more then 11 million people, who live in and around Paris. I have so far had the pleasure to meet some wonderful and some less wonderful people here.

Église de la Madeleine as seen from the top of the Printemps departement store 

I am sorry to say also that many of the stereotypes concerning France are very much true. It is horribly bureaucratic with the administration being very slow in all fields of life. It is also true that most french people don't speak foreign languages or don't want to. This has of course had a positive effect on my french language skills. Of course positive stereotypes have also been true much to my delight all that is said about french gastronomy seems to be true and of course Paris is simply beautiful.

Wines of diplomacy - the Bussay winery

The Bussay winery is a small winery that was founded as a hobby of general practioner dr. med. László Bussay. The winery consist of about 20 acres of vineyards, but despite the size of the winery their wines are excellent.

László Bussay (http://www.bussay.hu/)

One of the most special things about this winery in my opinion is how it has proven that a winery from the Zala wine region can not only make good wines, but can also well respected by vintners of more famous and internationally recognized wine regions of Hungary such as Tokaj, Eger and Villány. The winery is at the Hungarian border of both Slovenia and Croatia.

The philosophy of the winery is to follow traditional methods and so they use 1000-1200 liter oak barrels to mature the wines. They bottle all of their wines which are sold throughout Hungary and also on location where there is possibility of a wine tasting.

Their top wine:
Esküvé This wine is blend of Riesling and Rhine Riesling in a 60 to 40 % ratio. The grapes are harvested with high sugar points and after spending time in the oak barrels the wine has a great full-bodied flavour.

(from http://www.bussay.hu/)

Les vins diplomatique

During the Hungarian EU presidency the diplomats visiting Hungary will be served the finest of the Hungarian wines. Hungary has been a traditional European winemaking nation for centuries after the end of the socialist era privately owned Hungarian wineries rose to prominence and now they are trying to promote their products not only within Hungary, but in the premium sector of wines throughout Europe and some throughout the world.

In a new series of posts I will introduce to you those wineries whose wines will be served to the diplomats of Europe in the next couple of months when they visit Hungary.

I will begin with the producer of fantastic white wines the Bussay winery.

Winter images of Pécs

Talking Korean

It is reported that the two Koreas will not talk the South rejected the North's offer on talks. North Korea called for unconditional and early talks with the South to ease the tensions that have grown between them in the last couple of months after attacks that both sides blame on the other.

North Korea has been in a very difficult position in the last couple of years losing it communist allies after the fall of the Soviet Union, practically their only ally remained China. In the fall of 2010 the Wikileaks incident however brought to light that Chinese officials were thinking about the reunification of the two Koreas after the death of N Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The leak in my opinion put N Korea in an even more difficult position especially since it has been running out of resources namely food and energy supplies. The only thing N Korea can bargain with is its nuclear disarmement, which has been the main subject of six party talks (N Korea, S Korea, China, Russia, USA, Japan) for years and years now.

The resentment of S Korea makes it clear that if the North wants to reach anything it will sooner or later have to give up more of its goals and eventually begin a new diplomatic approach which might lead to a new relationship between the two countries, which also might come at a time of change in N Korea where the leader's son has been raised to a high position, which could be the sign of passing on power.

How international is the EU?

The question might seem simple or even stupid, but believe me it is not.

The EU is of course an international organization, a regional international organization the organization of the European region. The EU is at the same time not just the international forum, a cooperative force of the European continent it is also a player on the international soccer field.

This little introduction might be abstract, but it is quite relevant in the question of international affairs and in my opinion also because of the relevance of affairs.

My example is Hungary. Hungary is in the news all over Europe because of three things:
- taking over the presidency in the Council of the EU for the first half of 2011
- 13 leading companies complain about new taxation
and most importantly because of the new media law.

I would't like to go into detail in any of these subjects what I would like to underline the fact that these subjects have been exploited and written about throughout the European newspapers and online forums.
They have been also mentioned in some leading papers in the USA, but truly I believe that these matters on an international scale are totally irrelevant.

I do not think that the EU and USA realtions are going to be affected by internal media regulations in Hungary. So my concern here is the following is it possible that we are seeing a two faced EU external policy or rather a is there such great level of diffirence between the EU member states that while the smallest moves in the great economies of the EU make headlines in the world some member states (the smaller ones) are disappearing in the shadow of the EU and they are the true states that are represented by an EU external affairs service?

Is their going to be the UK, French, German and the EU policy? Will this clear procedure be shown in the new world order of a changing UN Security Council? Or will the great economies of the EU give up part of their sovereignty and come to the support of the little ones? And if so will that mean that there will be a well functioning EU represented not only on state dinners, but also in the state media of China?

too many questions....