Hungarian Fitness Plan

There should be a Hungarian tourism advertisement. "Come to Hungary and get fit...by running from riot police." All jokes aside, I was out in the city yesterday when the violence erupted. It was odd that there was NO official rememberances of the 1956 revolution to which the general public was invited. At all official events where the government received foreign dignitaries (including our own Peter MacKay), the public was not allowed to participate. I thought that was appalling. Some even observed it was an event commemorating the People's uprising without the People. Very surreal, very clandestine.


As a child of a 56-er, I couldn't just sit at home and do laundry on that day, so I too went out first to the Parliament (I thought the official event was open to everyone) but when I found it wasn't then I waited for the rememberance held by the Fidesz political party. That gathering was peaceful: poetry, singing, speeches etc. But it was annoying that a police helicopter was flying around quite low overhead...it was a little disruptive. About halfway through, a woman next to me got a phone call from her friend at a Square not far away saying that shots had been fired into the crowd. As Viktor Orban's speech was given (the leader of the Fidesz Party), I heard some commotion to the right of where I was standing, toward the Square. It was hard to tell whether this was just some trouble makers which made us wonder why the police didn't remove them quickly to prevent further disruptions. When the rememberance ended, I was with some people and we were supposed to meet others at an arranged spot. We were advised by security people not to go in that direction because there was trouble.

Thankfully we avoided trouble and walked to the Heroes' Square where there was to be an unveiling of a monument to 1956. That area too was closed off for the public. This too was a little upsetting. We were told by the police that the area would be opened up after the unveiling so we could go back then to see the monument. So we waited. In the mean time, my friends were getting calls from their friends about the violence in the area around the square where the trouble erupted, that there was tear gas and people had been shot with rubber bullets. It was crazy to say the least.

We finally were able to see the monument and proceeded to go home. My tram was to have gone right past the area of the troubles. It wasn't even operating at this time because of the troubles. The smell of tear gas was quite strong and was getting stronger as I walked toward the area I needed to go. There were violent clashes with police visible a short distance away, so I decided to go down a side street and head in another direction. As I did, I made my way onto another main street heading away from the troublesome area. Riot police at this point had formed a line and where walking in my direction some distance behind me. I hurried as I could. At one point people started running because police on horseback where coming. So, I ran too, safely making it to an underpass that led to another tram I could take.

It was pretty scary and made me think what it really must have been like in 1956; how a crowd and the authorities can lose control and a person caught in the middle can have a terrible time of it. Also, I was amazed at how information was transmitted, some of it mistaken and controlled propganda to incite people. The police here at any rate are pretty scary. The justice system is corrupt and unjust.

When I got home, I put on the television and saw that the violence had still not been quelled completely. There was a standoff at one of the bridges not far from where I live. It had not been resolved yet at 1:30 am when I decided to go to sleep finally.

It was a sad way to commemorate 1956.