TIME TO SAY - ENOUGH!

DEMOCRACY means tolerance of diverse and often not very palatable views.

However, there comes a point, when people, the decent majority say - "ENOUGH!"

That was the situation when thousands poured into the streets of Budapest's XIIIth district on an April day. They were responding to a small bloc of extreme rightwingers, who have got the idea, they have freedom of the streets of this beautiful city.

That misconception was corrected in a resounding and, frankly, very satisfying manner when the decent folk of this city made their views known in a very public manner. And it wasn't confined to the ordinary people. Hungary's Prime Minister was on hand and thunderous ovation greeted the speech of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who announced - "We will stand up to them!"

There we all were, Jews and non-Jews, Skinheads Against Nazis, Gypsies, men, women, young and old, black and white, sweeping the rubbish from our streets.

Young men and women holding up their names and phone numbers, to show the bastards that decent people are not afraid.

It was a good day to be alive, a good day to be in Budapest, a good day for decent folks.

And, a very bad one, indeed, for the lunatic thuggish fringe. They have remained conspicuously absent from the streets of the city ever since.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

IT may not be New Year's but, nonetheless it is time for a resolution.

From now on Fran and I will do our very best to keep our blog going, even when we may be busy, tired, or simply not in the mood.

So, if we have nothing meaningful, or interesting to say, we will still try to post a Photo of the Day. And, here's one for starters -

Budapest and the Danube on a crisp and clear winter's night, with the Royal Palace in Buda providing the backdrop to our Serbian friends and partners, Nebojsa (left) and Dragana, one of our now retired players and a star recruiter of talent for Scott International Management.

BACK AGAIN - MTK ARE CHAMPIONS!!!

I WAS looking for an appropriate moment to restart our blog - what better than to celebrate MTK winning the Hungarian League?

It was a great day, the 120 year tradition goes on. There were cheers, there were tears and how right was the young guy who announced through his loudspeaker at the kickoff - "Voltunk, vagyunk, leszünk!" Or, we were, we are, we will be!

MTK is and long has been the pride and joy of Hungarian Jews and so it remains. Being there when the Blues won the league again, after an interval of five years, was and will remain a highlight - and a big one at that - of our almost half a decade of living in Hungary. May there be many more such moments, such days, such nights - which ended around 2am at the venerable old MTK Stadium, where fans and players and officials celebrated after the 250km trip home from Sopron.