ANNIVERSARY OF 1956
What
can this mean today?
Today is
23 October 2016 and the 60th anniversary of the student
demonstration in Budapest triggering the events in 1956 that came to
be known as the Hungarian Uprising, or Revolution, or
Counter-Revolution, take you pick.
1956
Time was
when it has been relatively unproblematical for the Western media to
report this – you know brave, decent, unblemished and
freedom-loving little nation standing up to the mighty Soviet Empire
and then being ruthlessly suppressed, while we Brits with others were
busy elsewhere knocking spots off Egypt (not that we could or would
have done much if anything anyway to help out Hungary).
That
aside, we and the rest of 'the West' were soon doing the decent thing
for the thousands of refugees who fleeing their re-oppressed
homeland. We took them in, and that was something that have been able
to look back on and celebrate, unproblematically.
2016
In 2016,
however, things are a bit different. Whatever virtues and
achievements of that little country, most people frankly know very
little of it, though that there has been rising awareness in the
Western media that all might not be well, and that Hungary might not
be quite the brave, decent, unblemished and freedom-loving little
nation once believed.
A 60th
anniversary is quite a milestone, but so far this one has been little
recognised in the West, at least if in so far as the English-speaking
media round the world are concerned. The short-lived withdrawal of
Soviet power in 1956, especially it final act and aftermath, will
soon give other sixtieth anniversaries from 1986, so doubtless we may
soon hear a little more.
For a
time, when I was a lad, the words 'Hungarian' and 'refugee' often
came together in a single breath. This year, however, reminders by
Western media of what happened in Budapest in 1986 may occur but
rarely without explicit reminder that the words 'refugee'' and
'Hungary' now have ironically different associations.
The
bubble reputation
I recall being told by Mátyás Domokos
Hungarian Ambassador to London from 1984 to 1989 that the national
publicity in the United Kingdom in 1986 and the years that
followed,generated by the campaign to introduce Conductive
Education, with its associated events, had done more for Hungary's
reputation than anything in the thirty years since 1956. As a mere
Brit, but one closely involved with that,
I think
that he was probably right! I doubt, though, that there is anything
nowadays that could tip the weight of public opinion in Hungary's way
in media circles (and yes, I do know about Kazakhstan).
The
bubble has burst.
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