Budapest Day Three:

Today I had the privilege to visit the ELTE University and hear 3 lectures that were in my mind very eye opening. The first lecture was on the transition of Hungary from 1989 until present day. I was very fascinated in the analogy that was discussed about the transition. The analogy was that trying to create a new form of economic regime out of the failed communism that had been place was like trying to turn "fish soup into an aquarium." I am still thinking about that and could not agree more. I mean when I think about to me it means that after communism failed and since everything was state owned, it had to be sold off. That in itself is very difficult to do when everything has to have foreign investment from other countries. I mean if I was an investor from another I don't think I could do anything for a country that is trying to redevelop itself due to the fact that it may not have any return. The other thing is that people also don't want to have their life's work either. I mean someone has worked their entire life to build up what they had and just because of their government failing they have to loose everything?? To me that is not right. But there were those that were not as skeptical as I am about this and did end up investing in the sectors of Hungary. When the communist regime fell, the employment rate dropped drastically. The investors that were looking to buy up the sectors of the state did in fact know how the system works and and knew what they were buying. Because of this, it was able to get people jobs. The second lecture that we had was one that opened my eyes the most. It was about a group of people called the Roma. The Roma are better known as Gypsies. we discussed who they are, where they potentially came from, as well as what it is looking like for their future. What interested me the most is how they were like my own heritage which is Native American. It was interesting to hear that the Roma did not want to call themselves what they were due to the fact that there may be a blowback of social stigma. I can really relate to this because for the longest time I had a hard time calling myself Native American due to the fact that I had no idea what to expect from those who are not tolerant to other cultures as much as I am. So it is something that I really had to hide for a long time. The one thing about the lecture that really hurt me was hearing how the Roma were basically segregated from the rest of the people. I can relate to that based on the history of my heritage. I cant stop thinking about how when the Americans kept pushing to the west and every time they did they drove the Native Americans further ad further away thus making them feel isolated. During the last lecture I was able to take something away from it that many take for granted. That one thing is to be proud of myself and who I am. I mean the professor that was giving the lecture showed so much pride to be Hungarian and I think that is what he wanted to make us feel, proud to be who we are like he is. I mean the people of Hungary have had to go through a lot and they had a long hard life under the arch of communism and there was a lot of struggle when that happened. I can understand that it was hard going back to my own heritage but I am Proud of who I am and it makes me feel strong to be close to my heritage.