PETER MAGYAR IS ELECTED IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY AS NEW PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS OF VIKTOR ORBAN

NPR ORG: WHO IS PETER MAGYAR WHO BEAT VIKTOR ORBAN?

Excerpt: He burst onto the scene as an opposition leader in 2024, rising rapidly to become the leader of the center-right Tisza Party, which won a two-thirds majority in Sunday's parliamentary election. Orbán, who has led Hungary for 16 years, conceded and congratulated Magyar less than three hours after polls closed. ...

In a victory speech delivered to a sea of jubilant supporters on the banks of the Danube River, Magyar reiterated his promises to rebuild Hungary's ties with the European Union and NATO, root out corruption and cronyism and "restore the system of checks and balances." ...

The country has economic incentive to do so: Since 2022, the EU has frozen billions of dollar's worth of funding for the country because it said Orbán was violating key democratic values. Magyar said the country will "never again allow anyone to hold free Hungary captive or to abandon it." ...

A note: I apologize for identifying the man previously as the President of Hungary and have fixed my errors.  I suppose my Americanism is at fault. However, Hungary has both a Prime Minister and a President. 

HUNGARIAN FLOWERS and BIRD

 

Image credit Gordon Johnson  - Pixabay

FASCINATION

 

SANDOR PETOFI : POEMS WRITTEN IN HUNGARIAN and TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

I learned that when it comes to translating poetry written in the Hungarian language, there can be a number of translations. 

I use a number of translation opportunities on the Internet, including the one Google offers.  I can't say that these translations are always correct or perfect, however, I do think the essential meaning is rarely lost.  The question would be the eloquence, a quality that I think is especially essential for poetry,   Here is a web site that offers a translation of the poem THE END OF SEPTEMBER by Sandor Petofi, a man who is thought of as one of Hungary's greatest poets.  

I looked at several sites offering a translation of this poem and think this is the best one.

To me this is a sentimental love poem, quite beautiful.

BABEL MATRIX : END OF SEPTEMBER IN TRANSLATION

PAPRIKA PAPRIKA PARIKA : HUNGARIAN/ HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN STEREOTYPE

 

Hungarians supposedly use PAPRIKA generously and more so that salt.  I mean on EVERYTHING not just Chicken paprikash.  When I started this series on nationalistic stereotypes, I mentioned goulash.   You say "I'm Hungarian."  They say "Oh, Hungarian goulash."

 Well, it seems goulash has paprika in it too.  So do many recipes that have become traditional.  Hungarian cooking is said to be the only European fare that embraces heat.

 So what's the 'scoop?'

In Hungary there are many varieties of the peppers that were introduced, like tulips were, by the Turks, who were so much the enemy that they slaughtered two thirds of the Hungarians in order to occupy and take over the country. But then maybe the Hungarians only borrowed the name for the plant from Turkish words and were more comfortable with the notion that the peppers originated in Portugal. The Hungarians liked these peppers, not to be confused with the Spanish/Mexican peppers, as these have a more sweet taste. Peppers are higher in Vitamin C than citrus and provided much of the vitamin C at a time when citrus was a tropical fruit that didn't grow in a temperate climate and wasn't imported much either. There are a variety of these peppers with different degrees of heat, from none to mouth burning.

Supposedly if you buy paprika you should use it within 6 months because of flavor changes that could mean the taste goes bitter but I've had the same tin longer than that, from an American grocer too, and it's just fine sprinkled on boiled eggs after 'deviling' the yolks, and on potato salad or on freshly made humus.

So here's the catch. In the United States only one type of paprika spice is generally sold (but for a little importing into rare specialty stores) so many a Magyar-American may not even know about the other flavor varieties available in Hungary and so have a limited number of recipes to use it in. (American paprika is often a product of California.)  Depending on the region of Hungary, the soil there, the pepper has a different flavor.

Which means that Hungarians in Hungary have the variety and the knowledge on how to use the various peppers and paprikas made of them and are judicious.  And get this : a pepper is a pepper and a chili is a chili... sometimes they look the same but they are not, so if you enter a hot chili eating contest you're not eating hot pepper. Sweet, hot, or smoked, you basically have two varieties, and the one that began to be integrated into Hungarian cooking in the 17th century is from Szeged. 

No, Hungarians DO NOT lavish paprika on everything or without first tasting the dish before deciding to sprinkle more on.  However, paprikas are used in very many recipes. So, as for this stereotype, perhaps it's one to be applied more to the Hungarians than the Hungarian-Americans?

Here is a good discussion about the history and use of paprika! THE HUNGARIAN PAPRIKA

C 2022 Magyar-American BlogSpot

MY BELOVED DOG DIED YESTERDAY JUST AFTER OUR TEN YEARS TOGETHER

My beloved dog and I celebrated ten years together on July 3rd, and as our neighborhood went up in fireworks and she seemed unimpressed, I didn't know if perhaps her hearing had dimmed to that point, or if she was tired, or maybe just feeling secure as we stayed closed in the bedroom. My dog had developed cataracts, one was much worse than the other. Sometimes she seemed a bit confused about which way we were going.  She would have been 15 years old in 60 days.

She had recently been vaccinated again for rabies, which I didn't want to do because of her age and fragility, but it was to make her legal.  I will wear her dog tag. 

I made her doggie clothes, crocheted sweaters for her and sewed some too.  She has left behind a nice wardrobe. I don't think I'll go on a give away frenzy.

She had her good days and her not so good, and because it has been hot out, I was laying low with her, not forcing walks, though I had taken her to parks three times in the last two weeks where she got to sleep for a couple hours on the grass and in the shade.  (We have shade but no grass where we live.) She seemed relatively adventurous walking on the grass and sniffing, happy, and so when she got too tired I popped her in her carrier.

I had been putting in a lot of time at the library the last couple days, back into some personal genealogy research. And around three or four in the afternoon yesterday after several hours of researching, I thought to call it a day and go home. I had been concerned about her. But I had been using a computer and a scanner and was making progress.  I thought that I would be off today, Friday, and needed to put the time in. 

photo copyright Magyar American BlogSpot C 2012-2022

My precious Maltese Poodle who has died.

Please do not pin or copy my personal photo.

Over the last couple months I had wanted to spend more quality time with her and maybe I was a little psychic knowing that every moment now was especially precious.  But I did not go home when I thought to. My dog was not waiting for me by the indoor gate.  She usually does, but not always. It went through my head, "I hope she's not dead."  I just thought it was somehow too quiet. But as soon as I saw her, I knew she was. I knew it had to be after quarter to ten when I left. And I think she might have even died when I was thinking to go home or as I was going home.

In the morning  I had woken her up. She had walked a little on grass and cement, sniffed and was sniffed by a male dog, she ate well, she peed, and she went back into her comfortable dog bed. I had been primed to think that if a dog was eating well they were not sick but I knew that she had multiple senior dog issues.

I don't know if it would have made any difference if I had been home. If I would have noticed.  If there was any sound.  But I believe her heart gave out while she was asleep or resting in that bed. It was over quick, hopefully. She died with her eyes shut, and simply passed to heaven.  Where I had recently told her that I hoped she would wait for me.

Did she understand that?

Before I left, as I got ready for the day, I had petted her head and belly and told her I loved her three different times and as I left I said, "OK now, be a  good girl."  I had bathed her twice in the last week, finding fleas. I had just cut out a couple knots in her hair that had formed. I had put medication on an area of her skin that had developed a cyst: this had happened before and I expected it to pop. So she looked clean and groomed as she lay there.  Her mouth appeared closed but there was a lot of sputum - bubbled but not warm when I cleaned it up and maybe if it were not there. 

She was still sniffing when I took her to parks, she was still eating well, she had many signs of aging, yet I felt there was more time.

She was sometimes itching and going at it until she was panting. It seemed that even one flea bite could cause this and that it was seasonal. I would scold her - though full of compassion - and hold her to stop that itching - that mania. I have several spider bites on tender places myself so I was not sure she had not also been bitten. I feared giving her the flea poison on the skin or by shot, because it effects all organs and for the same reason that I did not want to give her another rabies vaccine. Or she would feel a bit too hot to the touch. Again in summer.  Sometimes I would put a cool wet cloth against her belly, which rapidly seemed to solve the problem. I'd avoided flea shots and poisons also feeling it would be too much for her. Over the last few days of the holiday I'd stayed home and I noted that she seemed a bit more sluggish. Was it age or summer? I didn't think she was in constant, chronic, or difficult pain. Rather she seemed a bit more blind, addled, and not able to follow me as much as she had.

Of course I can beat me myself up over what all I might have done better but it is too late.  And now I do not have to ponder the horrible question of when to put a dog down.  She would have been fifteen in September and lived past the point in which most maltese-poodles live.  (Some say 12, recently I heard 14.) It could have been much worse.

But as I write this in the middle of the night, she, on her bed, is wrapped in plastic bags, new white plastic (I could not deal with the idea of putting her in a black garbage bag for she was never garbage. I did not attempt to wrap close to her body, though later I read I should.  I noticed she was in rigor mortis when I found her but a couple hours later her tail, which had been down around her backside, was sticking strait up, so the process was continuing. It is quite possible she actually died while I was walking home or even when I thought to leave the library. (I'm feeling bad that maybe I could have been there.)  Indeed, a little research indicates that when I found her, she had not cooled yet. A clue, my friends, is that once the body cools any opportunistic fleas will want to leave.

I had one of those big white cardboard file boxes, white, newish, and full of crochet supplies. I put her in the there, still on her bed. That she died on that bed made it all easier for me.  The strange thing to me is that she felt so heavy.

I have to sit outside with her until she is picked up tomorrow morning and cannot sleep.  I hope they will take her away in the box as is. I believe they take dead animals to a crematorium.  It is illegal to bury your own dog here in the city, though some people do. I could not put her out where night animals might find her and as for insects there are far fewer in here.

I love my dog. I may not have been the best doggie mamma, but she has been so much part of my life, I can only anticipate feeling lonely and alone without her interaction. I often talked to her about my human problems. Such as in the morning I myself had woken up with a pain in my hip and something I ate the night before did not sit well with me.  The pain in my hip was unusual and I wanted to walk it out. I had at one point that morning put her on my belly as I lay in bed and stroked her.

I anticipate forgetting that she has gone and feeling strange walking down the street without her.  People have suggested to me that now I will feel freedom and I can say that this is NOT what I want to feel.  Don't I want to travel?  How could I leave her behind, even with excellent care?  Well, perhaps someone out there will understand that what was on my mind was how I might be able to travel with her.

She went through a lot with me.  After learning about her life before me, I vowed to be her forever home - I was.  When I adopted her she had been pulled from a kennel where she had been for 10 days, and was on death row.  She got an extra decade with me.  People point that out to me, I know they mean well, but I only think of how I might have been a better doggie parent, and as for another dog in the future, that is quite possibly not possible.

Here were what I thought of as the good things about me.

She no longer had to compete for attention, roam to find food, endure more pregnancies in which her pups were sold, go without being bathed or groomed (though I did not do well with her teeth, having never known people with dogs growing up who got doggie dentistry.  Early on I had tried to brush her teeth but she would not let me. At the time also the vet had told me that dry food was better for a dogs teeth. I am not sure this is true.) I upped her food, varied it, over the last year she had been getting more wet food and her last meal included a prepared roasted chicken and dry kibble for small dogs. I cut her nails myself, when I learned how she feared that when even professionals did their best. And I tried to take her with me at least twice a week just to vary her routine, get her out of the house, and have adventures with her. Just recently I had taken her to a park where she walked about an eighth mile, smiling and sniffing sturdy old trees that had been from Australia. She liked her carrier and to sleep in it.

Younger, she was more social with strangers and other dogs: she was not the leader of the pack. She showed athletic ability and even show qualities but her previous owners had not trained her any commands. (This is typical of breeders.) I had tried but gave up and not in frustration.  My dog had gotten it that it was a game that we played in the house but not outside.  I hadn't gotten a dog to do tricks or obey me constantly. Instead I thought she was intuitive and compassionate.

We went to grassy parks, the beach, and for about a year a particular a nature reserve, as well as a garden full of herbal smells, to walk when she was still walking well, over the last few years. I held her up to see the ocean and said "fishy,"  I took her to see sea lions and seals at an animal hospital.  She was fascinated as she heard them bark and as she watched them dive but mimed that she wanted to eat them. She liked the smells at a marina we went to a few times. She liked to eat salmon and tuna so once in a while I gave her some. She went on a light house tour with me and, knowing it was special, went up every step with people, smiling the whole time. 

She could laugh and had a sense of humor.  One time I looked at her and I said, "Who is boss?  You or mummy?  Who picks up whose poo? Who goes out hunting for food and treats?  And she just laughed. She was capable of smiling and laughing was when her shoulders went up and down.

She dreamed of getting a squirrel - eating one. She got close but never did. For a while we went to sit where there were many ground squirrels. I would put out some peanuts and she would understand what I was doing.  She was also crazy for moles, willing to dig.  Never got one. As for cats, she either gave chase or there was mutual tolerance.

She went with me to a coffee house where there were a couple snide employees; but one day she was one of three dogs inside, including one owned by a millionaire and what could they say them? Mostly we sat outside, but certain personalities still gave me a bit of a hard time about her. I began to feel bad that she wore a collar and leash so I stopped using short leashes and hard ones as our pacing diminished.

In her carrier I rushed with her in and out of stores, libraries, and on buses. Though I had one of the best carriers ever, there were a couple situations in which be it my fault or not, it was too wild a ride, or the carrier flipped over with her in it or it rolled.  (In case anyone is wondering, after going into stores to test various carriers that were all over the place, I got a Gen7carrier, one of the more expensive.

I found that it was better I do that then tie her up outside.  It is illegal to leave a dog in a parked car here, though some people do, because of the heat.  Sometimes someone would give me grief about leaving her tied up outside, but that was the bug-a-boo because only service animals are allowed inside.  So in order to do errands, with a plan to also include a walk or another doggie friendly destination, you have to either tie up or take in. 

My dog wasn't doing anything especially frightening.  What is someone doing riding a bike or skateboarding through tables in front of a coffee house anyway?  That is inappropriate and frightened her so she would give one warning bark which was for her and me.  But that one warning bark was interpreted as a threat.  She never bit anyone.  I doubt she would.  She also gave warning barks to dogs who got a little too rough with her in play.

She had many a fan too. Some of them were male dogs.  Some were male humans.  Some were just dogs or humans of any variety. Many a child asked if they could pet her.  One boy who was afraid of dogs learned not to be because of my dog.  Despite her age people still thought she was a puppy.

One time some Muslim children decided that though they could not touch her, they could feed her.  She went along with it as they held some long herbal leaf  their mother had in the kitchen out to her mouth as you would a horse. She smiled and almost pantomimed munching.

I could go on and on about my beloved dog. The days ahead I will not be blessed with her.

A few weeks ago when my friends went out of town for three days I was sitting their dog and mine together. At one point I noticed that both dogs, together, were looking up, and I do believe a spirit was visiting the house, if not them. Now my dog had the cataracts and one eye was significantly worse than the other. They were not looking towards a window.  The house was built in 1933 and has had several owners including the people who had it built for them, supposedly to look like the house she had left behind in Europe. I don't know that the house has a resident spirit. I can't say that I sense anything oppressive or negative.  However, when this happened I did wonder and hope not that the spirit was there about me. When you have a dog that is clearly aging, and thoughts about how long it might have go through your mind, well.  Both dogs were looking into the air, so perhaps this spirit was only showing them some love.

I do hope the angel for dogs was there for her when I was not.

C 2022 Magyar- American BlogSpot

All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

AWAKE

 

TESTING THE 1950 CENSUS AT THE NARA WEBSITE ; FAMILY SEARCH and ANCESTRY GENEALOGY DATABASES WILL CATCH UP

I've been testing the United States 1950 census at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES WEBSITE.  Yesterday I also went to FamilySearch and to Ancestry TM to see what is happening with the 1950 census there.

1950 CENSUS NARA SEARCH LINK

The NARA site activated at one in the morning on April 1st.  During Covid closures the employees of the National Archives were busy working on this census to meet the commitment to release it on that date.  Artificial Intelligence was used to 'read' the handwriting and come up with a searchable text. As is the case with FamilySearch and Ancestry, users are allowed to tweak the database- - for better or worse.  A huge amount of trust in the good will and best efforts of the public are expected.  Both companies as well as the National Archives have put a shout out for volunteers.

I came up with a list of the most important people I wanted to find on the 1950.  The NARA database allows you to search by first/given name, last/surname, both, and to also enter an ED district.  You may also put in a STATE, COUNTY, and/or CITY, which narrows the search a bit more.

Of about 20 names I sought, the most important did come right up.  I guess that's a blessing.

However from that point on I was searching for people who were either not counted or who otherwise will require a longer period of time to find.  You see, I'm moving forward in time, looking for those who descended from a branch of my Hungarian immigrant family who may have married, joined the service during World War II, and settled outside the ethnic enclave that they lived in for a generation or maybe two as part of that expansion to suburbs as well as post-service immigration within the United States.  I have no way of knowing if they will be in the same state and some of the surname just bring up so many people.

Eventually FamilySearch and Ancestry - as well as some other genealogy databases - will catch up in their efforts to index.  What will make it all easier on us is that these databases will allow us to further narrow by allowing us to imput a date of birth.

An example from my own research is a distant relative named Katherine or Catherine or Kay, as she was called. As of 1940, she had been diagnosed with TB and had no say in being put into a TB Hospital.  I have never found her on the 1940 and I don't know if that is because she was not counted, or if she was put in a hospital outside the city and state where she lived until that diagnosis or if perhaps her surname was misspelled. Over the years I've periodically rechecked research.

 I know that she was alive in 1950, and that she died not long after that, of the flu complicated by the TB which had been resolved, but which had caused considerable damage to her lungs.  When her surname did not bring her up on the NARA site, I decided to see how many hits it would bring up If I simply put her first name and the state.... many thousands.

Importantly, I found the family that she lived with at some point when she was well enough to leave the hospital, and she was not there. 

The 1950 Census has some special features that the others do not, and you can check the site to learn about the Native American (Indian) census, how college students away from home were counted, and about the census of Guam and Panama.

C 2022 Magyar-American BlogSpot

THE YELLOW ROSE OF FRIENDSHIP

 

HUNGARIAN MONARCH HISTORY - STARTING WITH HOUSE OF ARPAD

CHRYSANTHEMUMS

MEMORIAL DAY - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MALIBU - THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS - A HEAT WAVE HITS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - IT'S 88 DEGREES TODAY!

Sadly, the last few days have been unseasonably hot - very much so.  While parts of the United States of America have more freezing weather, in the last couple months we've had only two significant rainfalls, which brought a "normal" amount of rain, but have no effect on the drought here in California. 

There's a construction site down the street, dug down low for a parking garage, and it's clear that we are living on a deep bend of sand, which once must have been under the ocean.  After the last rain you could see wetness saturated the sand about three feet.  It only stopped construction a couple days and then it dried up and they went ahead and poured cement.  However cement and tarmac roadways, driveways, and construction prevent rain from soaking in.  Instead it makes its way into the Santa Monica Bay, which is very polluted.

Hiking in the Santa Monica Mountain chain, which barely qualifies as a Mountain chain by the way because much of is simply not high enough, you can see more evidence of dramatic earth changes in the past, millions of years ago they say.  Along one trail there are on the top of the mountain the equivalent of undersea scoop outs that are still full of sand.  When it rains sometimes beach quartz and petrified shells that have been in place for ages and were once part of the COASTAL BEACHES are exposed.   Something - a massive earth quake, comet hit, or perhaps volcanoes out at sea or maybe even "polar shift" are responsible for throwing beaches thousands of feet and making these mountains.

There are only two mountain chains in the world that go east to west rather than north to south.  These Santa Monica Mountains and the other chain are the Carpathians of Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.

My concern is not just about water for drinking, cooking, washing, and personal bathing, which is in short supply for the farmers in less citified areas of this massive state of California, resulting in ever higher prices for fruits and vegetables but that the food chain is also effected.

Case in point, the thermostat went up to 88 and insects started coming into the house looking for water.  This means I have to start exterminating, something that I never had to do before the heat wave.  As the earth dries up and the bugs start dying, well so it follows that birds will starve, and so it goes.

Because of the construction site, which is on what had been a long vacant lot, every morning we smell skunk.  In the middle of the night a possum and a cat seem to be getting into a fight for turf in the back yard.  There was a raccoon in our garbage cans.  I figure they have been displaced from the long vacant lot. 

The raccoon was in our cans in the morning light and was bigger than my dog!  My dog was barking, I looked out and saw no human beings, so I opened the door and there was the raccoon.

So do I hope for more rain?

Yes!


NATIONAL PARK SERVICE - SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS

CRYING FOR INNOCENT VICTIMS of TERRORISM - EVIL and BRAINWASHING : OPINON by MAGYAR AMERICAN

Friday night, late, a friend of mine called me with a throb in his throat.  "Did you hear about the terrorism in Paris?  I've met some of the musicians that play in that band! " He explained that they are not a heavy metal or death metal band but took the name of their band as a kind of joke.  Whatever, they do play rock and roll, which is offensive to Moslems, and the terrorists targeted people out to have a good time, if not sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

I had not heard about this latest act of terrorism by Moslem EXTREMISTS, as I'd been feeling under the cold, windy, weather and was laying in bed under a crochet blanket with my dog and reading a book, so I told him I would call him back.  Within fifteen minutes, thanks to the internet on my low budget cell phone, I was able to tell him that the band members themselves were OK.  From that point on I read at least a hundred articles from news services all over the world, especially The Daily Mail - UK, but also the New York Times, Washington Post, and many others, searching for the latest tidbit of information that would bring the whole picture into focus.

Sadly, I will tell you what the whole picture is in one word:  EVIL

And that evil is prevailing makes me feel tearful and depressed.  This morning I wanted to stay in bed under the covers and not get on with my day but I snapped out of it while taking a hot shower and then dressing and putting on makeup and perfume and leaving the house.  I put on my best appearance anyway despite feeling so down.  I knew that I could not quit living my life out of fear...

The American Holiday of Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and is the beginning of our holiday season with Christmas and the New Year coming up fast and this is the time of year when most people make an effort to share, give generously, and be more loving and tolerant, beginning with their own family and then to strangers. 

I've already bought slices of turkey breast, stuffing bread, pineapple, onions and garlic and ginger, an acorn squash, sweet potato, zucchini, and other ingredients to make a small American feast.  But I'm planning on attending a local community celebration that I went to once years ago that happens to be put on by a local Jewish congregation and is open to everyone of any faith.  It is held outdoors rain or shine and wind and cold might keep me away, but I was looking forward to it, and thinking of asking this particular friend along.  I can easily make my personal thanksgiving meal for the following Sunday's meal.

Now that Moslem EXTREMISTS are killing the innocent outside of SYRIA (where even children have been beheaded and women have been killed for refusing to be sex slaves) well, their TERRORISM has worked.  Paris is terrified.  Certainly London is.  But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that terrorism only takes place in big cities.

I'm afraid to go to this community gathering where hundreds of people will be on Thanksgiving, especially because it is being held at a Jewish temple.  I also hesitate to take the subway.  I fear that the subway would be a great target during rush hour.  Yet I know that our HOMELAND SECURITY and other governmental agencies are doing their best to find terrorists and other criminals who mean to hurt or kill others before they can do so.  Still, I think most people I've been talking to feel a bit paranoid.

There is only one way to understand people who blow themselves up, in an effort to kill others.

THEY HAVE BRAIN WASHED and are in a CULT.

So while I cry for the innocent victims, I decided today, knowing that people from all over the world can read this blog, to talk to you about BRAIN WASHING and CULTS.

What is the difference between a  regular religion and a cult?

A cult often expects you to cut yourself off from your family and friends, which is to say, your support group, and gradually you are surrounded only by people who are indoctrinating you. They isolate you as part of their ownership of you. In a cult, your mail may be censored or kept from you.  You may be denied use of communications such as the phone or e-mail.  You may not be allowed to leave the cult, not even to go out to the doctors or shopping, alone or without permission. You may be expected to give them your money, maybe even sell your house and give them all the money from the sell, and move to live with or near others in the cult.  Without the finances to leave them, they now have more control over you.  They will put you to work, often extensive volunteer work, in exchange for bare necessities or access to the leader or permission to marry.

Women are often sexually exploited in a cult.  They have no right to own their own bodies, to decide when or with whom they will have sex with, or are brainwashed to think that having sex with other cult members or the leader doesn't count when it comes to promiscuity.  They may be forced to marry someone not of their own choosing. Their husband may rule their lives like never before, or the couple will be ordered to not have sex or not have children.

What they tell you BEFORE you give up your family, friends, job, possessions, and MOVE to be with them, and the reality may not match.  But you may, having given up so much, and being idealistic, still decide to give it a try, not knowing you can never own your life again.  (I have to wonder if some of the suicide bombers kill themselves because they see it as a way out!)

Some cults use constant teaching called programming to challenge your normal thought processes.  Some use actual hypnosis, sleep deprivation (keeping you working for days on end without proper sleep), nutritional deprivation (keeping you on a starvation diet, or making you work longer and harder for the reward of a full meal), all of these things making you more and more likely to do things their way and to submit and become part of a hierarchy that is dictated. 

When it comes to acts of violence, which you may or may not have been prone to before you joined or were recruited by the cult, your training includes desensitizing you.  (As I understand it the terrorists in Syria even train children to behead beginning with the use of dolls, which of course cannot feel pain or shed blood.)  Because you have learned to think of other people as the Other, not like you, not part of the cult group, even as the enemy, their humanity is in question.  (The Nazi's did this by comparing the Jews to vermin.)

If you try to leave the cult because you realize it is one and that you do not want to be controlled, you may not have any old friends or family left to take you in.  You may be threatened with violence yourself, or be shunned, attacked verbally, or find yourself the target of slander that makes it impossible for you to regain employment.  (This is the testimony of many an ex Scientologist.) Some cult members have found themselves in desperation and decide to make the best of their situation, and years go by before they can leave, often when the leader dies or the group breaks up.

It's best, whenever you encounter a new religion, or version of your religion, in which your personal freedoms and right to determine your own life or fit into a multicultural society, TO NEVER GET INVOLVED IN A CULT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

However, it is a known fact that some people have, though intensive deceptions, including group hypnosis, joined a cult, totally changing over their life, in as little as one long day, or weekend.  Some cults have recruiters looking for their type of person - someone a bit disgruntled with their own life or the state of the world who is idealistic and believes they can make change - but often also someone who is intelligent, educated, or who has special skills and talents - such as an ability with languages, computer programing, or in the case of terrorists, some history of military use of weaponry.

Here is Southern California, there have been and are many cults.  Some of them are storefront preacher-lead cults.  Rarely are they violent.

C 2015 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot 

DO YOU HAVE ONE VIOLIN BOW OF ROMANI (GYPSY) BLOOD?

How Romani are you?

I've met more than one Hungarian who claimed to be part Romani, but in talking to Romani while doing some Canadian Hungarian research, I was told that the two never mixed.  

As is the case now, DNA can tell the truth.

I wonder how many people have tried to explain their yellowish or dark without a tan skin, or even skin that tans easily, as mine does, as being part Romani?  (The Romani have been determined by DNA research to have been from India originally.)

There are other explanations, of course, such as Jewish, Tartar, Mongolian, Italian, etc., and frankly, while there has been intermarriage,  like official marriage, in churches, temples, mosques, and civil, there has also been rape.

NORTH CAROLINA HUNGARIANS! REALLY!

NORTH CAROLINA HUNGARIANS. ORG

"We live in the-Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, but we also have members from the Triad and from Eastern North Carolina. We have a close relationship with other Hungarian groups in North Carolina such as Elkin and Charlotte.  If you are temporarily working in our area, if you have been living here for years, if you are an immigrant Hungarian or later generation, if you are part of a mixed marriage or just curious about Hungarian culture you are welcome!

The preferred language is Hungarian, but we will be glad to translate. COME, BE A PART OF IT! 

THEY NEED A 2014 UPDATE but I can bet they're still there!

IS THAT PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE HUNGARIAN?

WDFA-WA.GOV on HUNTING UPLAND BIRDS AND THE GREY PARTRIDGE

Excerpt from this article :

Making their American debut in the late-nineteenth century, these European imports were first released in Washington and California but are now found in huntable numbers in about a dozen Western and Midwestern states and most Canadian provinces. The first birds released in this country came from Hungary, so the gray partridge is also commonly known as Hungarian partridge, or Hun.

Gray partridges, which grow to just over a foot long and weigh about three-quarters of a pound, eat both cultivated grains and a variety of weed seeds, as well as clover and other green, leafy material. As is the case with pheasants and other upland bird species, young partridge feed heavily on crickets, ants, grasshoppers and other insects. They often inhabit the “margins” where agricultural fields and native shrub-steppe habitat meet. Classic Hungarian partridge country might be a field of corn or wheat stubble bordered or intersected by a couple of brushy draws or a gently-sloping hillside dotted with sagebrush. A small stream, pond or wetland nearby would likely make such a spot even more attractive to a covey of Huns.

RUSSIA : GERMANY : TURKEY : THE CZECH REPUBLIC : POLAND : READ MAGYAR-AMERICAN : ETHNICITY and 9/11 CELEBRATION

Thank You to new readers for stopping by my blog from these countries!

You know, my blog is about the Hungarian American experience and connection to the motherland of Hungary. But as we all know, due to war and politics, borders in these countries have been redefined many times as have the names of cities and towns which sometimes have three or four different language variations. "Ethnic" populations of Hungarians are in all these countries as are people of various "Ethnic" populations living within the borders of Hungary.

And in the United States people of Hungarian family origins are everywhere, though there are concentrations of Magyar-Americans in places where people who came during the industrial revolution resided.

There's a challenge because just about everyone is proud of (or at least not ashamed) of their ethnicity. WE CAN BE PROUDEST OF HAVING MUTUAL RESPECT for our similarities as well as our differences. I believe in the United States intermarriage has, one relationship at a time, made a big difference in how we think about what makes an American. There is a lot of diversity here. I have one friend who counts 6 different ethnicities in her blood; Irish, Polish, Croation, Hungarian, Slovak, German; in the United States we suspect that everyone has a "wee bit" Irish.

On Sunday I attended one of the many small community 9/11 memorial services in a big city. There were beautifully singing young girls, a bag pipe player, a violinist, and representatives from five different religions from Jewish and Moslem, to Catholic and Christian to New Age speaking, as well as representatives from the fire department and the police. It wasn't a spectacle but it was well attended. Fire department helicopters flew over in formation, the boy scouts carried flags, and the names of the 83 Californians who died in the terrorist attack were read, while 83 white doves were let out to fly around the park.

BUDAPEST TIMES NEWSPAPER IS IN ENGLISH

Want to read about HUNGARY in ENGLISH?  For many of us Magyar-Americans, Hungarian is a lost language and the renown difficulties of learning it keep us from even trying!  Still, we don't have to remain ignorant of the NEWS in Hungary!