In response to LA Times article
2009. október 20. 02:23:26 | in English
After reading the article written by Megan K. Stack in your Los Angeles Times, Oct 11, 2009 “In Hungary, far right is making gains”, I felt the need to write to you and ask my political party, Jobbik, to press charges of slander against your newspaper and the writer herself.
If the government of Mexico was able to sue the Chitos Chip company (and win) for their Chito Bandito commercial, which portrayed all Mexicans as bandits, then I think the Jobbik political party has a good chance of winning against your newspaper for the lies and slander found in the above mentioned article that portrayed the Jobbik Party and president in an extremely bad way.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ory?page=1
Mistakes, lies and slander found in the article:
1., Gábor Vona did not start a militia. The definition for a militia quoted from the Wikipedia is as follows: “The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens[1] to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service.”
The Hungarian Guard is not and can not be considered a military force. This word “militia” communicates a totally different intention and meaning to the entire Hungarian National Guard movement. Gábor Vona was one of several who was part of the National Guard Association. He was not part of the National Guard Movement. These are two separate organizations. There is no hostility toward the Gypsies. (If you want to be politically correct, call them Roma!) There is a problem in Hungary with Gypsy (Roma) crime and because this movement spoke out against this form of crime, the liberal media is trying to make it seem as if the movement is hostile towards Gypsies (Romas). Nothing could be further from the truth as pictures of Hungarian Guard members who worked side by side the Gypsies (Romas) passing bags of sand to save Gypsy (Roma) homes from flooding will prove. Numerous Gypsy (Roma) organizations and leaders agree wholeheartedly with what the movement represents. If you would like, I would be happy to send pictures of the Hungarian Guard passing out Christmas presents to local Gypsy children! These, for some reason or another, were never published or picked up by the media.
2., The Hungarian Guard is not a paramilitary group. Wikipedia definition: “A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having the same status.[1] …The term paramilitary is subjective, depending on what is considered similar to a military force, and what status a force is considered to have. …For instance, in Northern Ireland, paramilitary refers to any illegally armed group with a political purpose, but in Colombia, paramilitary refers only to illegally armed groups which are considered right-wing (for example United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), while illegally armed groups considered left-wing, such as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, are referred to as guerrillas.[2]”
The Hungarian Guard is not a military force and is not an armed group, either illegally or legally.
3., The Hungarian Guard members do not wear wraparound sunglasses, leather vests or combat boots. The old Hungarian country dress was black boots, black slacks, white shirt and black vest. This is what they wear with the addition of a Levis baseball cap and red and white scarf.
4., The red and white striped flag is NOT (a) reminiscent of Hungary’s pro-Nazi party of the 1930s and 40’s. The red and silver flag, sometimes depicted as red and white is the old Hungarian flag that was used for over 1000 years (called the flag of the Árpád Dynasty). This flag was the official Hungarian flag until after the 1848 revolution when the green stripe was added as a sign of peace between the Austrians and the Hungarians. Modern day Socialists (the leftovers of the communist regime) are trying to depict this as a Nazi symbol because a small organization tried (but never succeeded) to change this red and white flag by adding stripes and the arrow cross as their symbol. This has nothing to do with the Hungarian Guard or those who choose to wave it. It would be the same as saying anybody who waves an American flag is a Nazi because Nazis in America used parts of the flag as their symbol. (See picture below.)
5., What singer does the writer quote or translate in the article? In what way does this have anything to do with the National Guard, Jobbik Party, or Gábor Vona? Is this an official anthem of the party? Obviously not. Again, this is a form of yellow journalism and misleading.
6., “Vona steps out of a minivan, a slight young man with a few shoots of gray in a crop of dark hair. A passing driver leans furiously on his car horn, and the young woman in the passenger seat shows Vona her middle finger as they careen past. Vona blinks and turns away with indifference. He's ready to face his fans.” Very imaginative, I must say. Of all the demonstrations that I have taken part in, I have never once seen something like that. In fact, the direct opposite is what usually happens.
7., “…distinguished by its Nazi-like iconography and menacing marches through Roma, or Gypsy, areas, is locked in conflict with police and courts.”
Could the writer be more specific? What is Naci-like iconography? This will be important when we go to court.
8., “The rise to prominence of Jobbik and its Hungarian Guard has come in tandem with a spate of ruthless attacks on Roma, including children. Analysts say this is no coincidence. They also blame Jobbik for spreading thinly coded anti-Semitism and unsubtle hearkening back to Hungary's Nazi past.”
This implies that the ruthless attacks on the Roma should be blamed on Jobbik? No connection of ANY crime has been connected in any way to Jobbik or the Hungarian Guard. None what-so-ever. In fact, it was Gypsies themselves that took part in the ruthless attacks on Gypsies. The 3-4 men who were recently arrested for the attacks against the Gypsies had no connections to the patriotic side of Hungarian politics. In fact, one of the 4 was a paid informant for the Hungarian State Police Force the NBH (the equivalent of the US FBI) and another had lived in an Israeli kibbutz! In Hungary you are innocent until proven guilty. What about in the US? When I lived there, that was still the case. Has something changed recently? You could as easily say it was the CIA that has been attacking or causing the attacks against the Gypsies in Hungary. There is exactly the same amount of evidence for this statement as the one in your article! Or maybe New York City’s former mayor Giuliani’s talk about “Zero Tolerance” against crime caused it!
9., "God give us . . ." ". . . a brighter future!" the crowd roars in reply.” “This too has the ring of a resurrected Nazi call and response.”
♦This greeting has nothing to do with the Nazis. This was the greeting used by the members of the Levente Movement. This was a youth movement between the WWI and WWII which began in 1921. It was similar to the Boy Scouts of America. It was for the youth between the ages of 12 and 21 who did not get enough exercise at school. It was a weekend activity for the youth. When it was established, there was no such thing as Nazism. Naming the Levente Movement a Nazi organization would be the same as calling the American Boy Scout Association a Nazi organization.
♦This is the same form of greeting as Americans will say “God bless” instead of Goodbye. Are they too considered to be Nazis? In Hungary, Communism outlawed religion. God give us, a brighter future, is a Christian greeting.
♦What Nazi call and response is the writer talking about?
10., “For all the retro symbolism, Jobbik is a distinctly modern organization. There are websites, YouTube videos and a vast array of nationalistic merchandise, such as T-shirts depicting clawed hands grabbing at chunks of formerly Hungarian land in a nod to the territory lost at the end of World War I.”
♦The Communists and modern Socialists have never allowed Hungarians to talk about or reminisce about what happened after WWI, with the Treaty of Trianon, when Hungary lost 2/3 of its territory and population. To this day we have an official day of grief in remembrance of the crimes of the Holocaust in Hungary, but there is no such official day or form of education in schools to remember what happened after WWI. It is the world turning a blind eye towards the Hungarian minorities in the new states such as Slovakia that causes strife in the area. Look into the Benes Decrees or the new language laws passed in Slovakia that forbid Hungarians to speak their mother tongue in Slovakia.
11., "Now in Budapest, you see these young people wearing the Hungarian Guard logo and the Jobbik scarf," said Peter Kreko, an analyst with the Budapest-based Political Capital think tank. "The main threat is that, even those who don't agree with their ideology, they catch them also by creating this fashion trend."
♦What is the Jobbik scarf? There is no such thing. Trend? Because there is no freedom of speech here and now it seems there is no justice to freedom of speech in the US either, wearing such clothing is the only way to show that we disagree with the mainstream media and dictatorship that denies us the right to talk about such things. The mainstream media, like the LA Times, will immediately label us as Nazis, without trying to learn what the truth is. The reason behind this of course is to discourage others from learning the truth, because when the truth is known, our numbers grow. It is yellow journalism, lies and slander, like your newspaper used, that tries to conceal the truth to stop our numbers from growing. But our numbers are growing because truth will prevail.
12., "Ten years ago teenagers had Che Guevara on their shirts," he said. "Now they have Greater Hungary."
The Communist red star is outlawed in Hungary. The writer seems to believe that wearing a picture of the mass murderer, Communist Che Guevara, is something better than citizens wearing clothing that remind other Hungarians that many Hungarians live outside of Hungary in local majorities, but as minorities in the newly formed states and that their minority rights are considered less important and ignored around the world.
13.,“Young people are particularly attracted to nationalism, he said, because their expectations are clashing painfully with the reality of a country hammered by financial crisis.”
♦In Hungary very few houses fly the country's flag year round. I would guess that it is about 1% of the population, if even that. In the US, 2 out of 3 houses fly the Stars and Stripes of the good old US of A. PATRIOTISM is not a sin. Neither is nationalism. Chauvinism is however. That is exactly what we are fighting against. We are a patriotic party, not a chauvinistic one. Chauvinistic parties are in control of the Slovakian government for example. Why doesn’t your newspaper speak up against the crimes they committed and are still committing against the Hungarian minorities living in Slovakia in local majorities?
14., “Police are too overwhelmed to deal with crime in rural areas, analysts say. Into the vacuum surged the Hungarian Guard, announcing that they would protect their countrymen against the criminal Roma.”
Where do you get your information? Who in their right mind in the police force or government would say that the police are too overwhelmed to deal with crime in rural areas? It is true, of course. Our laws protect the rights of the criminals over the rights of the people. The Hungarian Guard simply organized demonstrations and brought the problem out into the open. Everybody knew about the problem, but nobody was talking about it. Now they are talking about it and the other political parties have started to try to deal with the problems. They didn’t want to, but now they are forced to because of public opinion, thanks to the work of the Hungarian Guard. Therefore the Hungarian Guard did exactly what it intended. It brought the problem into the media and now the other political parties are forced to deal with it. The Hungarian Guard itself can not act like a police force. However, when Jobbik wins a larger piece of the Hungarian Parliament, then hopefully the laws will change and the police will be able to control rural crimes.
15., "If you behave properly, Gypsies will understand not to bother you," said Andras Lipovics, a young Jobbik supporter with combat boots, head shaved and arms swathed in tattoos.”
Why not quote me? A father of 4, a US citizen born in the US, an owner of two companies, holding two university degrees, or what about the teachers, the policemen, the doctors, etc, who support Jobbik? Why did the writer choose a tattooed, bald combat booted supporter? It leaves me to wonder if this is a true quote at all. I am going to try to find András Lipovics and see if he is what your writer says he is.
16., "It was there, it was building, and now the levees have broken," said Gergely Romsics of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. "I'm not saying they're Nazis, but they're using the same strategy as the Nazis: creating a parallel paramilitary which is more efficient than the government itself."
If Gergely Romsics says that Jobbik has built a paramilitary, then I hope he is ready to prove what he says in court!
17., “Budapest's appeals court this summer upheld the banning of the Hungarian Guard on grounds that it created a climate of discrimination and fear. But both the party and its paramilitary refused to bow to the court's ruling, and have continued to hold public gatherings.”
♦The Hungarian Guard Association was disbanded. It was a legal entity. A movement can not be disbanded. It is not a legal entity. It is a group of friends. However just to appease the courts, the Hungarian Guard Movement disbanded itself. Then a new Hungarian Guard Movement was formed. The courts can not tell people not to be friends and when to meet or not to meet, or what clothes to wear. This is a dead end street. A movement is a movement, because it moves by itself. There are no official leaders or organizers. It is a group of friends, or rather many groups of different groups of friends.
18., “Gaining status as an outlaw organization may be working in favor of Jobbik. Opinion polls track a growth in the party's popularity since the Hungarian Guard demonstrations were dispersed by police, Kreko said."It's a warning that, unfortunately, public opinion has moved toward a more radical position," he said. "It shows people tolerate clashes with police by this so-called party of order."
♦It is not because something is outlawed that it is working in Jobbik’s favor, it is the fact that the people themselves are able to avoid a decision that is un-democratic and unlawful. You can’t force people to stop thinking about truth and justice. We still have freedom of thoughts here. People are finally waking up and realizing that the so-called democracy that we live in is not a democracy at all. That is why our political party is growing. Love, truth and justice are on our side and they will prevail.
I am copying this letter to a member of the Jobbik political party. I hope that they will decide to sue your organization. I think it is a shame, that an esteemed establishment such as the LA Times, would allow itself to be used for political reasons and print such lies and slander. I hope in the least that you write another article that tells the truth about what is happening here in Hungary. I remember when I was a child in the States, the media was our friend. They were the voice to the atrocities that were happening in communist Hungary. Then after the Hungary became so-called democratic and the communists renamed themselves socialists, and started to kiss up to the west and the US instead of Russia, the socialist government helped privatize everything for peanuts towards American “investors”, the media turned coat too. Now the truth is no longer important. I have learned that democracy and freedom is only important to the US and its media, if it is good for the US and its investors.
God give us…
Gregory Botos
American born, but Hungarian at heart.
Forrás: M.Botos
