Szilárd VAJDA's blog

accept each other. With this exodus of immigrants from Syria and whatnot a complete turmoil has started in the EU, and now it echoes trough the whole world. If such thing would happen in Africa -which often does (Rwanda (1994) just to mention one), nobody would care, but once it happens in our doorstep we start to be agitated and complain about the mess. Life is messy dear Europeans like it or not. Hypocrisy is among us.

Instead of solving the situation, which indeed is a real problem we fight each other. While some are welcoming the refugees, others spread hatred and post mainly doctored photos to incite even more to racism and far right ideology. It is normal to some extent.  Most people have never seen a foreigner before in their countries (i.e. Hungary, Slovakia, Poland), therefore their fear is real! We should focus the effort to explain and guarantee that those fears are not real or far less than they would think. To do that, we should enforce the law, letting in only those people who cross legally the Schengen border and register as the current legislation requests. We should keep those out who create problems, do not comply with the regulations and trespass the borders.  We do not want them. We are willing to help people in needs, but we do not want to have restrictions just because other people they do not like our freedom and society. They have the choice: either stay and comply with the current laws and regulations or just pick another country. 

It is quite a pity to see, how people hate each other because they think differently. This energy focused now into hate should be channeled toward finding a solution, but instead we just insult each other calling each other nazi, racist, liberal, stupid and you name it.  Insulting each other is not going to solve the problem which is quite a real one. Thousands of immigrants are prepared to risk their life just to reach Europe. We should solve the problem at the source by stopping the killings and massacres in Syria, but apparently the EU is not capable of doing that. Either they solve it fast, or we just face the consequences. The ball is in our court now! We should act instead of hating each other!

Az eredeti kerdest (lasd "Es mit adtak nekunk mindezert csereben?") Reg szegezte Brian sorstairsainak (lasd Brian elete), es akkor a romaiakat allitottak a kerdes masik oldalara, de mint kiderult, az akkori Judeanak a megszallasert csereben Roma fiai adtak: csatornazast, vizvezeteket, utakat, gyogyaszatot, oktatast, nepfurdot, bort, es nem utolso sorban kozbiztonsagot.

Addressing the whole problem, is probably way too much. Therefore, it would be preferable to focus more on Hungary. Did we learned something? Maybe we did, or some might not. It is up to you my fellow Hungarian to decide and act accordingly. 

1) The wrong message of Chancellor Merkel got us in a big trouble, and now backing up would be quite shameful and dishonoring, but sooner or later she has to retract her encouraging message, otherwise we will be in even more trouble. Europe is not ready to take in so many refugees!

2) Politicians and the society is completely divided on the subject, and instead of solving the problem, people have started hating each other, and sending pros and cons all over the internet calling themselves patriots, nazis, racist, intolerant and you name it.

3) Countries (Hungary included after Spain, Italy, France, etc.) started building fences on the borders as Germany did during the WWII in the ghettos, but the slightly difference is, now the fences are meant "protecting" us from the "evil invaders". In practice is not helping much, but it might give some contracts and money to some people, and some necessary training to the refugees/immigrants  to cut the wires, but definitely not helping what is really meant for, namely to keep illegals out.

4) The immigrants/refugees or at least quite a bunch of them acted like barbarians, attacking police officers, refusing food, roaming around and unfortunately breaking the law multiple times. They caused disruptions on trains, borders, etc. Living on a railway station might helped much to convey a rather negative message to a public unaware of immigrants, and supporting far right ideology.

5) Our government needed months to realize the borders should be closed for those who do not register as the regulation of the Schengen Agreements stipulates. We let into the Schengen area several thousand people without knowing anything about their past, present and future. It is safe? No, it is not! Who is responsible? Our government, your government, and in general the politicians!

6) We are called nazis just because we act in the name of the law, and many pictures about so-called abuses on both sides invaded the digital space trying to support one side or another, though the reality lies in between. Pictures are not going to solve the problem!

7) The different countries (Hungary included among Greece, Austria, Croatia, etc.) try to toss the problem in the neighbor's backyard, hoping that it will go away somehow. Unfortunately it is not going to happen, and it shows how the current political elite is not prepared for such a situation. They all failed, including ourselves.

8) Is there any solution? Of course it is, but for that we need to readjust our legal system concerning immigration, enforce the law by letting in only those people who register at the borders, and find a solution to deal fast and quickly with the asylum demands in harmony with our current economical situation and need. Our leaders, are they ready to do this? No!

Don't give them false hopes. Send a clear message. In my understanding this unclear message was/is the reason for this unprecedented waive of exodus from Syria to Europe. First, Germany promised to host the refugees, but it seems in the aftermath of the events in Hungary and other countries, they seem to radically change their "welcome policy". Nobody is to be blamed for that, but Chancellor Merkel. Now it is time for her to send another message. It might be harsh, sad and unfavorable for some, but is a necessary evil.

Meanwhile, we have learned many things. We Europeans just realized that we are not prepared for such a mass of people, and we handle the situation catastrophically. Letting people camp on the main railway station in Budapest was a totally bad decision, and it helped much to paint a rather false picture about the refugees in the eyes of the society. Using brutal force is also not a solution, and is not going to stop people from coming again and again. Let people in the country illegally in the beginning was completely against the law, and nowadays enforcing the same law is awkward and inappropriate [...] We also realized that mainly Eastern Europeans can not cope with immigrants, as many of us are intolerant, spreading hatred and far right ideology at the highest level. Sad but true.

On the other hand, we have seen [some] refugees and immigrants alike behaving [...] You seek asylum in a country and you start by trespassing its border ? You are asked to register and you refuse though it is requested by the Schengen Agreement? You come in a country and you start breaking the law? I am quite an open minded guy, and I have some knowledge about immigration residing myself in several countries over the past decade, but the behavior of the refugees/immigrants was/is intolerable, disgraceful and totally unlawful. Our main values here in Europe are based on democracy, tolerance, and law. If you share these values, you are most welcome, but otherwise probably it would be advisable to look for other destinations. You should respect us in order the have the same favor in return.

The message is clear: "Europe does not have the means to handle such a huge amount of refugees/immigrants. Those who really are looking for asylum should abide the law and respect each letter of the law, otherwise they are not welcome here! Europe was built on christian values, respecting its citizens and welcoming people from all over the world, but only in the spirit of the law and democracy. There is no other way! Take it or leave it!"

  

Mulder ugynok (lasd X Aktak) szerint odaat van ("The truth is out there!"), szerintem meg benned. No persze ezen lehet vitatkozni. En nem fogok. 

Elnezve manapsag az irott sajtot es a digitalis mediat folyik onnan minden. Jo is rossz is egyarant. Tulsulyban a fajgyulolo es a riogato irasok, cikkek, kepek, mig sokkal kevesebb van arrol, hogy nem mindenki un. terrorista, gazdasagi bevandorlo, stb. Fura modon, a legtobb poszt olyan emberektol szarmazik akik sosem lattak meg a sajat szemukkel egy bevandorlot, sosem beszeltek egy ilyen emberrel - sejtem mindent meg is tesznek, hogy ennek meg a lehetosege se merulhessen fel, de oly magabiztosaggal riogatjak a tobbieket, hogy meg szakertoknek velne oket az ember.

Ketsegtelen, a jelen migrans aradat varatlanul erte Europat. Nem voltunk ra felkeszulve, sot nem is sejtettuk (ezert erdekes modon senki nem keres felelosoket!?), de ma akarva akaratlanul szembesulunk vele, es megoldasra var, de sajna a megoldas eleg lassan jon. Mindenki kivar. A politikusok feltik a poziciojukat, feltik a valasztok bizalmat, es nem utolso sorban a nemzetkozi megitelesuk is csorbat szenvedhet. Igy inkabb azt csinaljak, hogy nem csinalnak semmit. Jo taktika nekik, hasztalan szamunkra. 

Tenyek? Vannak. Sok menekult - jo kulonbseget tenni emigrans es haborus menekult kozott, de sajna ehhez kellene egy hajszal ertelem-,  erkezett az EU teruletere, es sokuk nem legalisan, megsertve a hatarokat. Sok problema a regisztracio korul, es az ideiglenes elszallasolasok korul, hogy a szallitasrol ne beszeljunk, mert az egy teljes csod volt. Latni embereket aludni a Keleti palyaudvar kovein elszomorito es embertelen, de sajna megtortent es valosag.  A menekultek sok esetben torvenyt szegtek, nem tartottak be a szabalyokat, a vasuti sinekre vetettek magukat, mert eppen jol mutatott a CNN kepernyon, szemetet hagytak maguk utan, vonatokat benitottak meg, autopalyakat foglaltak el, stb. Van itt jo is rossz is egyarant. Leven, hogy ok jottek Europaba nekik kell alazatosabban viselkedniuk, de ez sokuknak nem megy. 

Es mindezek mellett van egy rakas menekult kinek tortenete konyvbe illo es szomoru, aki elhagyta az orszagat, az otthonat, a csaladjat, mert menekul(t) a haboru elol. Ok az igazi szereploi ennek a tortenetnek, es ok nem tornek es nem zuznak, csak egy jobb es szebb jovot akarnak maguknak es a gyerekeiknek. 

Hol van mind ebben az igazsag? Ha egyik oldalt nezed, akkor minden bunert a menekulteket teheted felelosse. Ha a masik oldalt nezed, akkor mindenert a kormany es a rasszista, gyulolelet keltok a hibasok. Szerintem meg minden ertelmes ember magaban kell keresse az igazsagot, es nem mashol!

Immigrants. You can like them or not. You can help them or not. You can sympathize with them on not. It is your choice. Stepping aside from being PC (politically correct), it is your own will and choice, and everybody should respect that. Nobody can force you to think differently as you really do. That's democracy or at least the impression of it.

However, it is really sad to see that a bunch of people send photos, messages, slogans and news articles mainly with far right ideology trough Facebook/Instagram/Twitter just to create more tension and more hatred. I am certainly sure they are right to some extent. Many of those immigrants are illegal (trespassing the EU borders), and they should be banned from EU forever! Many of them acted violently with the authorities, many of them refused the food and help! Many of them created chaos by roaming around the streets and highways. Many of them embarked illegally on trains forcing the authorities to stop the whole train causing troubles to the regular customers.  Nobody can deny all these things. It just happened in the last few days, but the problem is not really this. Mainly these guys have never seen an immigrant, even less a refugee who just lost his home, his job, probably some family member. And this lack of knowledge pushes them to publish all kind of news, violent photos and many more articles spreading intolerance, hatred, etc. 

I am not preaching that these immigrants should end up in EU. Currently EU -in my opinion, is not prepared for such a massive immigrant exodus. We neither have the means nor the people acceptance to welcome so many [Syrian] refugees, but spreading hatred on digital media is probably not our best option. The politicians should change the laws, the governments should enforce the law, the authorities should punish all kind of illegalities, but we people should stay calm and focused and we should not preach violence. Jews were killed for less in the Nazi Germany! What do we want? Kill people just because they are different? It is time to wake up and be driven by common sense and humanity. Hatred is not the solution! Our western societies were built on humanity, laws and common sense. We should stand up to these values!

P.S. Not all immigrants are violent! Many of them are respectful, and open to our culture and our values. We should focus on these guys, and get rid of the others by legal means, but not using human stupidity and hatred. Please do not let manipulate yourself by others. Think and act accordingly.

We failed. They failed. We all did. In the light of these new events of Syrian and other migrants ending up at the doorstep of  Europe without even nocking, we just realized -despite our highly elevated social, moral and judicial standards, that we are neither prepared nor ready to handle these newcomers.

Hungary ended up with few thousand of immigrants, and we failed them as much as we failed ourselves. We showed our intolerance toward some [poor] immigrants who do not speak our language, do not share our culture and definitely do not want to stay in Hungary. We did not managed to host them properly, letting them ending up in a central station's floor to sit and stay for days in complete misery. Inhuman. 

Hungary failed to stop illegal immigrants to enter the country's border and the Schengen area, which lead us to currently have on Schengen soil several thousand paperless, undocumented individuals - some of them completely disagreeing with our values, which might lead to unforeseen problems. Some of these problems can not be solved later.  It will be too late at that time. The Hungarian authorities failed miserably to enforce the law of the country and the Schengen agreement. 

The immigrants failed in their behavior.  Many of them came illegally in the country already transgressing the law and order governing the country. As immigrant they should have respected the law and the regulations, and in many cases they failed to do so. The hostile behavior also did not helped their case. If you come in a foreign country who does not want you, you should act and behave properly and beside the so-called rights which we provide for you, you should be aware that some rules and laws are to be respected too, otherwise no rights are to be amended. The immigrants' attitude and behavior was intolerable and such attitude goes nowhere and it will incite more hatred and intolerance.  

We all FAILED!

or vice versa. It is more important to be familiar with this notion, and apply it as much as you can. Unfortunately, it seems we hardly manage to comply with this requirement these days. In this turmoil caused by the Syrian and other refugees looking for political asylum in Hungary - or more precisely in EU, this respect seems to disappear. Beside the dumbness of my many co-nationals seeing closely a foreign national for the first time in their life, unfortunately there is no respect from the other side either. And this is sad. Really sad!

I try to understand their delicate situation in which they are currently, but those refugees have to understand that nobody asked them to come to Hungary. Trespassing the border illegally is not an option and trying to avoid registration is beyond the law, therefor forbidden and not tolerated at any time!  If they want to get into the EU they should follow the rules or otherwise their are not welcome here. There are many other countries in the world, probably some even closer to their culture, but I hardly believe the rules are different than here. We built in this corner of the world some judicial system, some social and welfare system which definitely is attractive for outsiders, but to enjoy and share it, you, dear immigrant should respect our laws, society and culture. That's the deal! 

I am a rather tolerant person, trying to help and understand others, but in order to respect you, you should respect me! And apparently many refugees do not comply with this simple rule.

P.S. I spent many years in 4 different countries as immigrant (France, Germany, US and unfortunately in my "home country" Hungary), but I always tried to respect the law and respect the culture, values and people. You should do the same!    

Hungary. A small country in the middle of Europe populated with less people than Big Apple, and definitely weird ones, once they start speaking their weird language not related to anybody else. Nobody gets us, not even our european partners. We are just some crazy people using our last name first, and vice versa. We are good at Maths and making gulyas, and stoping the Turks when they wanted to invade Europe, and many other things [...] I left out the palinka, I should have not!

We were cut off for 45 years due to our Russian friends, and somehow not even today we have not yet opened completely to the changes. Indeed, we got into EU, we managed even to become a Schengen state, but still many things are missing from our culture. Tolerance and acceptance somehow did not reached us. Once the Berlin Wall disappeared many Hungarians immigrated to wealthier states such as Germany, Austria, etc. while the Hungarians outside the current borders moved to Hungary. Of course, they look the same, they speak the same, they share the same history/culture/values, therefor integration was easy and economically convenient at that time. Now the minorities in the surrounding countries (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia), suffer big time, but who cares? Nobody! It just happened!

And now we have a few hundred/thousand immigrants on our land, and we started to panic. They are different, they look different, they have different culture, they don't speak Hungarian and they ask for asylum and somehow we do not handle the situation. Plain and simple. We can't handle it, or we do not want to handle it. Meanwhile, we have TV footages with poor people invading the train stations, living in miserable conditions, and despite the fact that many of us have never seen or met an immigrant, we started blaming them for our personal political and economical failure. It is the easy way to start hatred and spurn. It is a political game and it works just perfectly. 

You are right. They are coming, but some barbed wire fence won't stop them. They are looking for a safe place, and apparently Europe seems to be a safe haven, and I can not blame anybody for seeking a place in there. It is just instinct. However, due to our awkward language and really bad economical situation we have nobody wants to stay here! They want to leave for Germany and some other wealthy countries like UK, Sweden, etc. Meanwhile, we should help them and learn to accept others. We are not good at that just yet. We have work to do more on this account. 

And in such blurry situations there are many irregularities and illegal things - I would say, and we should fight hard against them, allowing in the country only those who came trough official channels, but rejecting somebody based only on some journal columns or video footages would be completely inappropriate and inhuman. 

What we can do? Learn! Learn to be tolerant, learn to be human, and learn that there are other people who have different culture, different religion, different language, but still humans. Once we change our perception and instead of letting emotions drive our judgment, we start relying  on facts, we will be able to handle properly this new situation. The Germans managed with the Turks, the French also managed with North African people coming from former colonies, same the Brits with Indian and Pakistani nationals. We should be able to manage our own immigrants and open up, listen to them, help them because we are humans as they are. We should change our perception!