In the minds of the current generation, it is hard to imagine life without Internet. My 7 and a half-year old grandson Ryan and 6-year old granddaughter Sara can access free video games through the Internet and watch movies on DVD’s when I drive them home from the caregiver. Students can carry out research on topics they are learning in schools and Universities. Professionals requiring up-to-date information on technical and business matters generally sign in to the Internet via lap top or desk top computers and can access information that is current even in terms of hours.
Life was quite different in the “olden days” (as my grandchildren call the time when my generation was their age). When I was 7 years old (just after World War II in rural Hungary) we saw a few cars, trucks were more frequent, and we travelled mainly on trains and buses when we had to go to the big city. Otherwise, we walked for hours, rode on horse drawn carriages, and the more affluent people got to places on bicycles. We listened to the commentary of soccer games at one of three radios that was available in the village of 800 people. The word television was unknown to us but we could watch a movie in the community centre on Saturday nights.
During University years (1960’s) we did our research by going to libraries and looking up books and publications. Our essays contained information that was often 2 to 3 years old, especially when we quoted authors in published journals. We submitted these essays in hand-written form on hard-copy paper. A few students were able to use a typewriter which at times earned them a few extra points through the marking system.
During the early part of our professional careers (1970’s and 1980’s) we conducted our research work by reading books (which were published a few or more years earlier) and scientific journals. In order to project an image that our knowledge of the technology was “up-to-date” we generally quoted fellow scientists by stating that the information was obtained through “personal communications”.
We witnessed some major breakthroughs in the 1970’s with the word processing phenomenon. We threw away the carbon paper and connected the
electric typewriters to magnetic tape machines so that we could make changes in the documents and re-print them. This made a major impact on the typing pool in large offices, often resulting in re-assignment of secretaries to other duties. The next phase in the modernization of office practices involved word processing technology with spell checking capabilities.
The most exciting development occurred in 1991 when World Wide Web was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailau. In 1993 the first proper web-browser (Mosaic) gave a jump start to the Internet. Services were then set up for domain registration and sites began turning up on the web, running on basic HTML. Web had over 600% annual growth rate as important sites such as the White House and Pizza Hut appeared, followed by on-line shopping sites. In the mid 1990, Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) such as AOL and CompuServe began offering Internet access to the masses.
Internet is now an integral part of our everyday lives. Many of us are not satisfied by accessing the Internet via desk-top and lap-top computers, we feel the need to be connected even when we are away from office or home. BlackBerry and iPad are impacting our lives by providing wireless Internet access from almost anywhere so we can respond to important e-mails right away, as well as can track our travels with GPS and on-line digital maps.
I often think: how did we manage in the olden days without Internet?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The things I learned from my father about politics.
My father grew up in a small village in Eastern Europe. Like many of the people at the time, he had a grade 6 education which was above the village average. He lived through several political systems, including clerical feudalism, Nazi occupation/fascism, socialism, and communism. I also lived under these political systems under his guidance and after leaving the family nest, I had the opportunity of experiencing life under colonialism, capitalism and democracy. I was strongly influenced by father’s in depth knowledge of politics.
My father developed rather unbiased and realistic understanding of the various political systems which were controlling life in central Europe during his lifetime.
Under clerical feudalism, the Roman Catholic Church owned a lot of land in Hungary. Our parish priest lived in a mansion, the land under his control produced enough to maintain his rather lavish lifestyle, yet he still demanded donations from villagers, many of whom barely had enough to maintain their modest existence. While father was a supporter of his church and recognized that many were in the priesthood to help the spiritual development of the faithful and the poor, he often warned about the segment of clergy who controlled the land that “they preach water but drink wine”.
Father was strong critic of Nazi occupation and fascism. He predicted in the early 1940’s that Hitler’s Dictatorship will be destroyed and that we may end up living under the war zone. He strongly opposed the Hungarian government’s alliance with Germany, even though he was highly critical of the Treaty of Trianon after World War I. which was used as the justification for the Horthy regime to join the Axis powers. He was right in predicting the advancement of the front to our village. Fortunately, he prepared our family for the inevitable. He and grandfather dug a large underground bunker in the barn to store barrels of wines and food supply just in case the soldiers would start looting. He also prepared an underground bunker in the back yard, which came in handy when German and Russian soldiers were fighting door to door in our village. Our family was well protected during the final weeks of war in terms of both safety and food supplies.
Father favoured socialism as a just political system. Unfortunately, it only lasted in Hungary for a few years. He considered communism as a theoretically appealing system which can never work in practice because human beings are competitive in nature. He often said, to the great annoyance of the village priest, that in his opinion, the only person who ever managed to live by the “communist” type of teachings was Jesus Christ. The Church went to acquire wealth, while the communist under Stalin focused on power over people.
I lived under colonialism for three year in British Guiana and was able to observe the end of an era for the same reason that father believed in, i.e., any political system which involves a certain level of exploitation of the less fortunate or of those who oppose it, will ultimately self destruct.
I found capitalism on its own to be a fragile system, but when it is practiced within a democratic framework, it is sustainable.
Unfortunately, father died before the fall of communism in Hungary, so he never been able to live under democracy in his beloved country. But, he came to visit us in Canada five times between 1969 and 1985 and he was happy to witness true democracy in practice
My father developed rather unbiased and realistic understanding of the various political systems which were controlling life in central Europe during his lifetime.
Under clerical feudalism, the Roman Catholic Church owned a lot of land in Hungary. Our parish priest lived in a mansion, the land under his control produced enough to maintain his rather lavish lifestyle, yet he still demanded donations from villagers, many of whom barely had enough to maintain their modest existence. While father was a supporter of his church and recognized that many were in the priesthood to help the spiritual development of the faithful and the poor, he often warned about the segment of clergy who controlled the land that “they preach water but drink wine”.
Father was strong critic of Nazi occupation and fascism. He predicted in the early 1940’s that Hitler’s Dictatorship will be destroyed and that we may end up living under the war zone. He strongly opposed the Hungarian government’s alliance with Germany, even though he was highly critical of the Treaty of Trianon after World War I. which was used as the justification for the Horthy regime to join the Axis powers. He was right in predicting the advancement of the front to our village. Fortunately, he prepared our family for the inevitable. He and grandfather dug a large underground bunker in the barn to store barrels of wines and food supply just in case the soldiers would start looting. He also prepared an underground bunker in the back yard, which came in handy when German and Russian soldiers were fighting door to door in our village. Our family was well protected during the final weeks of war in terms of both safety and food supplies.
Father favoured socialism as a just political system. Unfortunately, it only lasted in Hungary for a few years. He considered communism as a theoretically appealing system which can never work in practice because human beings are competitive in nature. He often said, to the great annoyance of the village priest, that in his opinion, the only person who ever managed to live by the “communist” type of teachings was Jesus Christ. The Church went to acquire wealth, while the communist under Stalin focused on power over people.
I lived under colonialism for three year in British Guiana and was able to observe the end of an era for the same reason that father believed in, i.e., any political system which involves a certain level of exploitation of the less fortunate or of those who oppose it, will ultimately self destruct.
I found capitalism on its own to be a fragile system, but when it is practiced within a democratic framework, it is sustainable.
Unfortunately, father died before the fall of communism in Hungary, so he never been able to live under democracy in his beloved country. But, he came to visit us in Canada five times between 1969 and 1985 and he was happy to witness true democracy in practice
November 4th: the 54th Anniversary of the Defeat of the Hungarian Revolution
Although the 1956 Hungarian revolution had been initiated by students and intellectuals, once a serious struggle developed, the mass of the working class joined in. For 12 days Hungarians felt that the country was heading towards neutrality from soviet occupation and its citizens were hopeful about the return of democracy. But, this was not acceptable for the Soviet Government.
Although most historians believe that the revolution would have been defeated anyway, several international developments that occurred at the time offered convenient “justification” for the Soviets to crush the revolution.
First, it appears that the Prime Minister Imre Nagy was moving too fast with the establishment of Hungary as a neutral country. On October 30 he announced the end of the one-party system. On November 2 he announced Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and appealed to the United Nations to defend "Hungarian neutrality".
Second, French-British-Israeli invasion of Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez canal weakened the UN’s position to come to the aid of Hungary as was requested by Nagy.
So the crushing of the revolution moved fast with a series of political betrayals and the military might of the Soviet Union. On November 3rd the Hungarian delegation headed by General Pál Maléter was meeting with the Soviet delegation led by General of the Army Mikhail Malinin. At 1730 an agreement was reached on all points. Soviet troops would depart on January 15, 1957, but until then the Soviet forces would be treated as the friends of Hungary and would be fed and transported by Hungarians means. These agreements, though concurred by all parties, were to be signed by the delegations at another meeting to take place at Soviet military headquarters at Tököl at 2200 that evening. At Tököl, isolated on an island in the Danube just south of Budapest, the Hungarian delegation was cut off from the government. Further negotiations proceeded until around midnight when General Serov, Chief of the KGB, entered the meeting with his henchmen and arrested the Hungarian delegation. This occurred despite their status under international law as accredited negotiators for their government.
On November 4th Russian tanks, motorized troops and armoured trains have streamed into Hungary at the border town of Záhony while bombers and jet fighters scrambled into Hungarian airspace. They were moving towards Budapest. Within days the Soviet military crushed all resistance and Hungary returned to the control of the Soviet Union. Nagy and some of his colleagues who took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy were promised free passage to go into exile but as they left the Embassy, were arrested by KGB agents.
János Kádár, who previously expressed support for the Revolution and the Nagy government, switched sides after Nagy announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. He left Budapest on the evening of November 1 via the Soviet Embassy and went to Uzhgarod, the capitol of the Carpatho-Ukraine. There he met with others who joined him and the Soviets in creating a government for Hungary friendly to Moscow's interests.
The 1956 Student Revolution was defeated by the Soviets and Hungarians who remained loyal to Moscow. The struggle for freedom cost the lives of thousands and as aftermath, 26,000 freedom fighters were put on trial of which 13,000 were imprisoned and over 300 executed. Over 200,000 left Hungary as refugees. I crossed the border to Austria on November 19th around midnight when it was already heavily guarded. With mixed emotions I looked back to my homeland, glad that I was alive but sad that I had to say goodbye.
Although most historians believe that the revolution would have been defeated anyway, several international developments that occurred at the time offered convenient “justification” for the Soviets to crush the revolution.
First, it appears that the Prime Minister Imre Nagy was moving too fast with the establishment of Hungary as a neutral country. On October 30 he announced the end of the one-party system. On November 2 he announced Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and appealed to the United Nations to defend "Hungarian neutrality".
Second, French-British-Israeli invasion of Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez canal weakened the UN’s position to come to the aid of Hungary as was requested by Nagy.
So the crushing of the revolution moved fast with a series of political betrayals and the military might of the Soviet Union. On November 3rd the Hungarian delegation headed by General Pál Maléter was meeting with the Soviet delegation led by General of the Army Mikhail Malinin. At 1730 an agreement was reached on all points. Soviet troops would depart on January 15, 1957, but until then the Soviet forces would be treated as the friends of Hungary and would be fed and transported by Hungarians means. These agreements, though concurred by all parties, were to be signed by the delegations at another meeting to take place at Soviet military headquarters at Tököl at 2200 that evening. At Tököl, isolated on an island in the Danube just south of Budapest, the Hungarian delegation was cut off from the government. Further negotiations proceeded until around midnight when General Serov, Chief of the KGB, entered the meeting with his henchmen and arrested the Hungarian delegation. This occurred despite their status under international law as accredited negotiators for their government.
On November 4th Russian tanks, motorized troops and armoured trains have streamed into Hungary at the border town of Záhony while bombers and jet fighters scrambled into Hungarian airspace. They were moving towards Budapest. Within days the Soviet military crushed all resistance and Hungary returned to the control of the Soviet Union. Nagy and some of his colleagues who took refuge in the Yugoslav embassy were promised free passage to go into exile but as they left the Embassy, were arrested by KGB agents.
János Kádár, who previously expressed support for the Revolution and the Nagy government, switched sides after Nagy announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. He left Budapest on the evening of November 1 via the Soviet Embassy and went to Uzhgarod, the capitol of the Carpatho-Ukraine. There he met with others who joined him and the Soviets in creating a government for Hungary friendly to Moscow's interests.
The 1956 Student Revolution was defeated by the Soviets and Hungarians who remained loyal to Moscow. The struggle for freedom cost the lives of thousands and as aftermath, 26,000 freedom fighters were put on trial of which 13,000 were imprisoned and over 300 executed. Over 200,000 left Hungary as refugees. I crossed the border to Austria on November 19th around midnight when it was already heavily guarded. With mixed emotions I looked back to my homeland, glad that I was alive but sad that I had to say goodbye.
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