The Great Lakes Consortium (GLC), through WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc. – as Contract Agent and Manager received a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs grant for a two-way exchange program from September 2012 through August 2017. This Professional Fellows Program Sustaining Civic Participation in Minority Communities included 57 participants from four East Central European countries and 32 U.S. mentors. Citizen Action of New York, Organizing Director, Rosemary Rivera was one of those participants. Rosemary is documenting her time there through daily blog post aimed at sharing her experiences and lessons learned during the trip. This is the first entry.
Since landing in Budapest, I have been cursed out by a homeless woman, experienced French Toast without syrup, and spent a full day with an online organizing group of about 12 people. We spent our time together discussing their organization and the referendum happening on October 2nd which will ask if the country should accept mandatory quotas established by the European Union (EU) for accepting migrants. In a country of about 10 million people, 160,000 refugees could be swallowed without notice.
Unfortunately, the anti-immigrant sentiment is strong here. There are billboards everywhere that incite fear and tell the public that since immigrants have been coming to the country, there has been a rise in violence against women. This kind of fear mongering seems to be pretty common.
Fortunately, groups like Migszol continue to fight using Facebook as their main means of reaching the people. Now, let me detail these wonderful young people, ranging from about 22 to 32. These organizers are not paid staff. In fact, they refuse to register as an organization because they don’t want to be beholden to anyone. They want to operate freely. The core group is about 12 to 15 people and they share responsibility. The level of trust and love that the group has for each other was really present. There exists no hierarchy, they have no process for holding each other accountable because it has not been necessary, and they rotate roles. No one maintains the same role and everyone learns everyone else’s role.
GO TO www.facebook.com/migszolcsoport/?fref=ts and like their page. Please!
I did a presentation to folks and by the end of the meeting, they were much more generous with their praise than those in the States. I think maybe we are a bit too critical of ourselves and each other, hmmm different culture or different expectations? Well, after the organizing work, I headed back to the city center where I am staying in a very beautiful hotel. I tell you one thing about this country, I have no idea what I am doing with my money here. The currency exchange is a bit nuts if you ask me.
Here are some fun facts I have learned:
- There is an aggressive campaign to get people to stop smoking cigarettes (yes there are no Newport’s and I am not sure what to do about that!).
- Each pack of cigarettes has (in Hungarian) “Smoking will cause you to die!”
- Each pack of cigarettes has this horrible picture of what your lungs will look like.
- The Basilica (Yes I crashed a wedding going through the ropes and was escorted out) has the hand of St. Stephen in it. Apparently, he is the guy who founded Hungary and they have his actual hand in a case in the Basilica.
- Most cops don’t carry guns. I watched security try and stop some kids from going into the public fountain. They gave them a real hard time. The security guard came over and was upset because I took pictures of them. Of course, I played the dumb tourist and kept taking them.
- Because of the anti-immigrant and terrorism fears, they have placed troopers in the subways.
- One of the stops is Astoria, plus they have the 1, 2, 3, and D trains here.
- The subways are clean
- Everyone must love gelato because it is everywhere!
- The Prime Minister wants to cut down the trees in the city park because he wants to move into the Castle on the tax payers dime. My mentee, Luca Molnar is working on that campaign.
- Hotels don’t give you washcloths.
- There are no shower curtain so I am still figuring out how to take a shower without flooding the entire bathroom!
- I hear a lot of Spanish tourists from Spain.
- Yes, I saw black people in Budapest. But, I could also count them which says a lot. By the way, the people at Migszol were very aware of their white privilege. I found that very interesting since so many white people around.
- Finally, I was told that the government has a big hold on the media here.
