From hungary-report-owner Mon Nov 6 08:22:21 1995 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id IAA08224; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 08:22:21 -0800 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id IAA08201; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 08:21:51 -0800 Received: from jbrown@isys.hu () via =-=-=-=-=-= for hungary-report@hungary.yak.net (8199) Received: from kingzog.isys.hu (KingZog.iSYS.hu [194.24.160.4]) (fnord) by nando (8.6.5/8.6.5) with ESMTP id IAA08182 for ; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 08:19:42 -0800 Received: from [194.24.161.32] (hrep.dial.isys.hu [194.24.161.32]) by kingzog.isys.hu (8.7.Beta.11/8.7.Beta.11) with SMTP id RAA03013 for ; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 17:18:36 +0100 (MET) Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 17:18:36 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: jbrown@mail.isys.hu (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable To: hungary-report@hungary.yak.net From: jbrown@isys.hu (Jennifer Brown) Subject: Hungary Report 1.26 Sender: owner-hungary-report@hungary.yak.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hungary-report@hungary.yak.net =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D The Hungary Report Direct from Budapest, every week Also available on the World Wide Web (http://www.isys.hu/hrep/) No. 1.26, November 6, 1995 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D SPONSORED BY: iSYS Kft., providing full Internet solutions for companies and individuals in Hungary. For further information, send e-mail to , view our World Wide Web home page (http://www.isys.hu) or call (+36-1) 266-6090. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D CONTENTS BRIEFS Prime minister visits London Nationwide electricity strikes threaten Bokros tells CNN Matav will be privatized Romanian-Hungarian high level talks reopen Parliamentary debate on electricity privatisation New Danube bridge opened Hungarists on trial for racial incitement Border guards nab illegal goods Hungary pays back IMF loans early Gold struck in the "wild East" Crafty oil pumpers end up in arrest NUMBERS CRUNCHED Hungary's embargo losses Six-month investment total Real-term wage drops Consumer price hikes Central budget deficit Budget deficit target FEATURE STORY Hungary's folklore bursting with bloodthirsty characters PARLIAMENT WATCH A top class electricity industry? MAGYAR NET WATCH The winds of change The Hungary Report is also supported in part by: MTI-Econews, a daily English-language financial news service. For online (fee-based) subscription information, contact the Internet address: . (It's not automated -- write a nice note.) =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D BRIEFS By Jennifer C. Brown and Kriszta Fenyo Copyright (c) 1995 ------------ GENERAL NEWS Prime minister visits London The state visit of prime minister Gyula Horn in London last week focussed on Hungary's European integration and possible NATO membership. British prime minister John Major assured Horn that Britain would do "everything it possibly can" to help Hungary's Euroatlantic and EU integration , Magyar Hirlap reported. that Horn later told the press that Major was "committed" to help start Hungary's EU integration talks in the first half of 1998. "Hungary is in the first group, and both the Labour Party and the Liberal Party share this opinion," Horn added. The Hungarian prime minister also met British foreign minister Malcolm Rifkind who, following the talks, told the press that "Hungary's joining the European Union is not only a possibility today but reality." During his 36-hour visit Horn also met the president of the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ) and British trade and industry secretary Ian Lang. The talks mainly concerned economic relations, with a special emphasis on British investment in Hungary. So far around 800 US$ has been invested in Hungary by the Brits, and there are currently 350 joint ventures, according to Magyar Hirlap. British companies have a keen interest primarily in Hungary's utilities industry awaiting privatisation. -KF Nationwide electricity strikes pose threat Nationwide electricity strikes threaten the industry if the trade unions and the government do not succeed in reaching an agreement over wage increases. Following last Monday's two-hour warning strike at the Paks atomic reactor, two other power plants in the Vertes and in Tatabanya staged two-hour warning strikes with 70% participation last Friday Magyar Hirlap reported. In all three cases workers demanded a 25% wage increase. In order to avert further strikes the government held a special meeting on Sunday and decided on a 21% increase (instead of the former 15% offer) in mobile wages (as opposed to fixed wages) in the case of those big state companies that had made a "significant profit" through an increase of productivity and not by prices, Hungarian radio reported. None of the energy companies, however, fall into this category, according to the radio report. Strikes also loom in the public workers' sector. Teachers, health care workers, policemen and pensioners have all announced possible strikes for the coming weeks. -KF --------------------- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS FINANCE MINISTER BOKROS PUT THE SPIN ON MATAV'S PRIVATIZATION last week in an appearance on CNN, reports the Budapest Business Journal. Bokros said that the state telecommunications company would definitely be sold this year. Observers say the finance minister's comments were an attempt to improve Hungary's image abroad after a year of botched privatization deals that included the HungarHotels fiasco and the failed Budapest Bank sale. But with less than two months to go, Matav's foreign shareholders, a German-American consortium called MagyarCom and privatization officials are not certain that the deal will be completed as swiftly as Bokros anticipates. MagyarCom, which purchased over 30% of the company in 1993, has held talks with the State Privatization and Holding Company (APV Rt) for two months now to purchase a majority stake in the company through a private placement. The two parties are still haggling over the ownership percentage and its final price. Legal issues such as MagyarCom's appointment of board members and the extent of their authority are also sticking points in the negotiations. The BBJ also reports that there are other foreign investors offering a higher price for the stake in Matav than MagyarCom. But MagyarCom argues that it could install new telephone lines faster if it became a majority shareholder. MagyarCom's original concession stipulates that it must fulfill 90% of the orders for new telephone lines by 1996. The waiting list for new lines totals 561,000. Matav has promised to install well over half by next year. -JCB ------------ SHORT TAKES ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN HIGH LEVEL TALKS on the basic treaty and a "historic reconciliation" reopened Friday when the two countries' foreign secretaries met in Budapest. The talks were consultations only, aimed at the "clarification of the basic concepts" and did not deal with textual details, the two diplomats emphasised at their press conference Friday evening. They agreed that the three documents of "historic reconciliation" proposed by Romanian president Iliescu would not replace the basic treaty but would run parallel with it, and eventually could form a package of the four documents, the two diplomats said. The Romanian proposals for reconciliation include a political statement, a legal document for regular state visits and a "code of behaviour in minority policy". -KF IN A DEBATE ON THE PRIVATISATION OF THE ENERGY SECTOR most parties in parliament supported the privatisation but differed on its methods. Privatisation minister Tamas Suchmann underlined that without foreign investors the necessary modernisation of the industry would not be possible. They also pledged to insist on guarantees of prices and safety, Magyar Hirlap reported. Opposition parties criticised the government for not having a clear privatisation policy and opposed majority foreign in the servicing sector. The only party opposing the whole concept of privatisation was the Smallholders Party, led by Jozsef Torgyan, who declared that privatisation of the energy industry would amount to "a wilful robbery of the nation". (See Parliament Watch) -KF A NEW BRIDGE IN BUDAPEST OPENED Monday linking southern Buda and Pest. The new "Lagymanyosi" bridge is the seventh public traffic bridge in the capital. The modern style bridge of red and grey colours is 500 m long, has four car lanes and separate pedestrian and bicycle lanes. The total cost was Ft16 billion. The new bridge is expected to relieve some of the heavy city centre traffic. -KF MEMBERS OF THE HUNGARIST PARTY ARE ON TRIAL this week for racial incitement and use of symbols of totalitarian regimes. The principal defendent is Albert Szabo, who recently caused an uproar by staging extreme right wing demonstration at the 1956 ceremonies. The self-professed Hungarist party leaders, openly calling themselves the successors of the 1944 Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross party, denied the charges of antisemitism while saying that the "cultural inferiority of certain races" was a fact and that Hungarians were under threat from Jewish domination in the banks and cultural life, TV news reported. The leaders of the party are also charged for distributing fascist publications with swastikas and Arrow Cross symbols. A verdict is expected this Wednesday. -KF HUNGARY'S BORDER OFFICIALS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN PUTTING THE SQUEEZE on the illegal flow of people and goods across the country's border check points. Last week, 65 people were prevented from crossing the border without proper documentation. Officials also confiscated Ft 55 million worth of stolen cars last weekend. So far this year, 383 stolen cars have been found and criminal proceedings have been initiated against 400 people. In the biggest car smuggling case, a Ft 40 million Mercedes 600, reportedly purchased by a French citizen in Italy, was discovered at the Hungarian-Romanian border in Gyula. Customs authorities have also uncovered a Ft 270 million, three-month clothing smuggling operation involving Slovak truck drivers and Chinese living in Hungary. Hungary remains a hotspot of smuggling in Central Europe, with 15,200 cases of smuggling discovered so far in the first nine months of 1995. The estimated value of the goods smuggled over that period was worth almost Ft 20 billion. -JCB THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT HAS DECIDED TO REPAY BACK ITS IMF LOANS ahead of schedule upon approval of the National Bank of Hungary. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, which amounts to $620 million, is due in 1998 but will be paid in full this month. The government also hopes that its prepayment plan will lead to a faster settlement of its external debts. The government also estimates that an early payment will help reduce its net interest payments of Ft 4 billion. The loan payment will reduce hard currency reserves dwindle from $9.1 billion to $8.5 billion. The current outstanding loan totals about 2% of Hungary's $32 million gross foreign debt. The Budapest Business Journal reports that after two failed attempts to wage credit agreements in June and September, Hungary's prepayment will advance Hungary's chances of signing an agreement with the IMF. -JCB AN AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN COMPANY HAS STRUCK GOLD in northern Hungary's Borzsony hills. The area is expected to yield well over 176 pounds a year, making it the most productive mine to have ever existed in Hungary. According to daily Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap, leading politicians and parliamentary members had a hand in helping the company, appropriately called Lone Star Kft, obtain its gold prospecting license. Not surprisingly, all this speculation has also caught the attention of foreign mafia leaders, who are, of course, eyeing the money laundering opportunities. In fact, mafia interests have apparantly left one of Lone Star's executives, a journalist by the name of Ferenc Kiraly, in the hospital with symptoms of poisoning. (They don't call this the Wild East for nothing). -JCB ---------------- NUMBERS CRUNCHED * Hungary's losses due to embargo on Serbia (The United Nations): $2 billion. * Investments made in the first six months of the year in Hungary, 35% higher than last year (Central Statistics Office): Ft 264.3 billion * Drop of wages measured in real terms between January and August 1995. (Central Statistical Office): 9.7% * Rise in consumer prices from January to August (Central Statistical Office): 28% * Total deficit of the central budget deficit from January to August (Central Statistical Office): Ft 216 billion. * Deficit originally targeted for the entire year (Central Statistical Office): Ft 56 billion. * Percentage of the GDP coming from the black market's share in 1994, up from 22% in 1992 (The Business Protection Coordination Secretariat): 30% -------------- EXCHANGE RATE November 3, 1995 (National Bank of Hungary) US dollar - 135.62 (buying), 136.84 (selling) Deutschemark - 95.19 (buying), 96.24(selling) --------------- WACKY AS USUAL Crafty oil pumpers end up in arrest A disabled pensioner and his entrepreneur friend got the big idea in a pub in eastern Hungary when someone told them about a new clandestine way of making money. All they needed was a high pressure pump . They then had to locate the oil pipe running underground between Szazhalombatta and Szajol, and pump up the gas oil. The two men set off and pumped the oil pipe in June, but they didn't find the gas oil "of appropriate quality", the daily Nepszabadsag reported. In October they decided to try their scheme again. This time the gas oil they pumped out was to their liking. The environmental damage, however, caught the attention of the authorities and the two men were arrested within two days. The environmental damage is reportedly over HUF one million and the amount of the oil stolen by this crafty eastern Hungarian method is still under calculation. Illegal oil deals discovered by the police last year totaled HUF 22 billion. -KF =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D FEATURE STORY Dracula, Vlad, and the Blood Countess ... Vampires may be a childish feature of movies and Halloween, but in the folklore of central Europe, night stalkers are alive and well. by John Nadler Copyright, (c) 1995 Flesh eaters haunt the mythology of nearly every culture in eastern Europe: Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans. Every culture, that is, except Hungary, an oasis in a Germanic and Slavic sea of the undead. Even though vampires originated nearby, Magyar folklore is conspicuously devoid of them. Nevertheless, the mythical Magyar night is synonymous with the 'undead'. Why is Hungary considered a home to vampires? If eager to cast blame, point a crooked finger at Irish-born novelist Bram Stoker, the author of the 1897 novel 'Dracula', who chose the former Magyar province of Transylvania as a home of his flesh-eating protagonist; or the 19th-century Hungarian historian Arminius Vambery, who in 1890 regaled Stoker with stories of the rich and eerie history of the Carpathians, and persuaded the novelist to make Transylvania the book's backdrop instead of the author's original choice, Austria. Blame also belongs to Hungarian actor Bela Blasko, who took the stagename of his village birthplace 'Lugos', and went on to personify the cinematic Dracula in the legendary 1931 film, and countless re-makes. But Hungary's true connection with the vampire myth is not via fictional characters, but two real figures of evil: the 15th century nobleman Vlad Tepes, and the Countess Erzsebet Bathory. It is no coincidence that the writer Stoker loosely based his fictional villain on the historic character Vlad (aka 'the Impaler'). Vlad's nickname 'Dracula', 'son of the devil or dragon', a reference to his father's membership in the Order of the Dragon, a Christian brotherhood committed to expelling the Turks from Europe, is one of two characteristics he shared in common with Stoker's literary vampire. The other trait they shared was an insatiable thirst for blood. During his six-year reign of Wallachia (now part of Romania) beginning 1456, Vlad impaled some 40,000 of his subjects -- a homicide rate which surpassed the best efforts of Ivan the Terrible, who only managed to slaughter 10,000 in his career. Vlad impaled Wallachia's noble 'boyar' families, Orthodox and Roman Catholic clerics, merchants and peasants. He murdered to reinforce his power at home. He murdered to defeat enemies abroad. He murdered at whim. And the enormity of Vlad's cruelty gave him an almost supernatural reputation in local folklore. Vlad was not an ethnic Hungarian, but his fortress in Transylvania, his vow of fidelity to Magyar King Ladislaus V, and the nine years he spent as a prisoner-house guest at the royal palace at Visegrad after being ousted from his throne, ties him to Hungary in the minds of many historians. Stoker's other model for Dracula was the Hungarian Countess Bathory (1560-1614), the nearest thing in history to a true vampire. Different than the politically oppressive Vlad, Bathory tortured and murdered out of pure sadism, and a quest to preserve her youth. Legend has it the Countess, purported to have been remarkably beautiful, believed that bathing in the blood of young girls would retard her own aging. Whether or not a quest for youth was her true motive, Bathory killed over 600 people, mainly peasants who labored in her castle in present-day Slovakia, and she did so in unspeakably hideous ways. Those victims who escaped blood-letting were, according to some accounts, stripped naked, covered in honey, and devoured by insects. In the winter, naked victims were doused with water until they died of freezing. Bathory might have gone on killing indefinitely had she limited her victims to peasantry. But, after killing as many as 600 employees, finding domestic help became increasingly difficult. So in 1609 she murdered a noble woman. At this point, not even Robert Shapiro could have saved her. Bathory was prosecuted by the Crown, and spent her remaining years imprisoned in a vault in her own castle where the vampires of malnutrition, solitude, and relentless darkness stole her life. An account of Bathory's crimes first appeared in England in 'The Book of Werewolves' (1865) which was read by Stoker, and without a doubt became the inspiration for the novel Dracula. Count Dracula would come to personify the 'vampire' in western myth. But neither Stoker nor the Hungarian imagination invented the undead. A belief in the vampirism originated in what is now former-Yugoslavia more than millennium ago. For countless centuries, creatures of the night roamed the Balkan imagination under a variety of names: vukodlak (Croatia), vurvulak (Albania), lampir (Bosnia), tenatz (Montenagro) and vrykolakas (Greece). The English word 'vampire' is itself derived from the ancient Slavic form 'obyrbi'. Names differed, but the creatures were always the same. In most cases, vampires were the recently departed who returned from the dead. Often they would visit friends and family members in the night, and consume their blood. Their life. Husbands would sometimes return from the grave to have intercourse with their widowed wives, and they were often capable of siring children. Sex figured prominently in vampire folklore. If a blood sucker was thought to be attacking a village, the recently deceased would be disinterred in the local graveyard. The presence of an erection on a corpse gave away a sleeping vampire. In other cases, corpses that were slow to decompose were treated as blood suckers, erection or not. When discovered, vampires were killed by decapitating the corpses, and piercing their stomachs with hawthorn stakes. Sometimes bodies were burned. Often bodies were simply hamstrung. Vampirism began as a pagan belief, as old as the Slavs themselves. Some anthropologists argue that Slavs in the first millennium AD worshipped the wolf, and that the Greek word for vampire (vrykolakas) is derived from an ancient usage which describes the custom of wearing wolf pelts. Dacian, the people who once resided in present-day Romania, means wolf. No matter how ancient, vampirism survived the onslaught of Christianity. Until recently, Balkan priests were called upon to read prayers during the killing of a vampire, the doomed individual's second death. Eventually, in a bid to stop an epidemic of graveyard mutilations, the church in Serbia and Montenegro promised to ex-communicate any priest who participated in a vampire death ritual. Vampirism thrived in the Balkans in the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly due to the fragility of life during that time. When an epidemic struck a village and drained the strength of its inhabitants, vampires were blamed, and graveyards scoured. In this sense, vampires were very real. They were the messengers of disease and the unexplained. They themselves were manifestations of unnatural death. People who perished from suicide, still births, and accidents were often doomed to walk the earth as the undead. Vampires were also born from bereavement. In some cultures, the grief which occasioned the death of a child transformed mothers into flesh-consuming night stalkers. In a strange way, vampirism had a purpose. Since delays and mistakes in funeral rituals could also cause the recently deceased to return as blood suckers, a belief in vampires forced families -- in the days before professional undertakers -- to bury their dead quickly, and carefully. And haste in burying the dead was necessary to combat the real phantoms of depression and disease. Clearly, vampirism boasted countless victims. As a result, its myth spread throughout Europe like a virus long before the novel 'Dracula' ever left the printing press. In 1732, the Hapsburg Emperor sent a personal emissary to investigate a spate of suspected vampire attacks in northern Serbia. Soon after, vampirism became the topic of fierce debate in several top German universities, and only after a decade of arguing did the educated class decide that ... night stalkers do not exist. Or do they? The violence of Vlad Tepes, the sadism of Countess Bathory, and the fragility of Balkan life are the realities that spawned the vampire myth. In a sense, vampirism has been a fitting metaphor for all central Europe's historic cruelties -- unjust kings, natural calamities, plagues, ethnic hatred, anti-semitism. Arguably, vampires still move menacingly through the Slavic night. In 1993, an expert interviewed on Yugoslav state TV promised that enemies invading Serbia would be repelled by a flock of vampires who would rise from cemeteries across the nation -- perhaps proof that tribalism, ethnic cleansing, and war are the most recent vampires to drain the life blood from the Balkans. * * * John Nadler is a freelance journalist in Budapest who writes for Budapest and European-based publications. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Parliament Watch A top class electricity industry? By Tibor Vidos Copyright (c) 1995 "Deliberate plundering...a crime against the nation," said J=F3zsef Torgy=E1n, president of the Independent Smallholders and Civic Party. He was speaking about the privatization of the energy sector during the political debate in Parliament. According to the orders of the House, a political debate has to be organized if initiated by the government or if at least one fifth of all Members of Parliament petition for it. During a political debate no votes are taken and the total time allocated for the debate can not be less than four hours. This time the session lasted over four hours and forty minutes. The debate, initiated by the Smallholders, bore the title "About the Privatization of Energy Management," making some wonder what the discussion was going to be about. But soon after Privatization Minister Tam=E1s Suchman started his opening speech, it became evident that "energy management" meant the energy sector. According to Torgyan, the only reason for privatizing the electricity sector is the immediate cash demand of the budget. '"I believe that in relation to the privatization of the electric industry, we have to see that we are selling an electric industry that is on top in Europe," said the Smallholders president. It did not seem to bother him that most assets of this top class industry have been depreciated to zero over the last twenty years and that the efficiency of the Hungarian power plants is generally 10% below that of Western European or American plants. Spokesman of the Hungarian Democratic Forum and FIDESZ and even the Socialist chairman of the miners' union criticized the government for the procedural weaknesses of the privatization process, for the lack of energy policy, for the improper timing of the privatization, etc. But only two parties, the Smallholders and the Christian Democrats, were opposed to the very concept of privatization as such. As Mr. Janos Latorcai, president of the National Council of the Christian Democrat Party, said: '"The question is, do we want to slaughter the hen that lays golden eggs? No, thank you." The golden egg-laying hen is an old mythical figure in Hungarian politics. The first communist dictator of the country, Matyas Rakosi, used this phrase when he tried to persuade peasants that they had nothing to fear from the communists. "We will not slaughter the .... hen," he said. And the well-to-do farmers found themselves soon in labor camps and prison. Strange taste from a Christian Democrat to revive that bird again. Back to the parliamentary debate: It proved that the three party conservative alliance between the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the Christian Democrats and FIDESZ is rather a two party alliance between MDF and FIDESZ. The Christian Democrats seem to align themselves more and more with the Smallholders. No socialist politician could have hoped for more. * * * Tibor Vidos is a lobbyist and political consultant in charge of the Budapest office of GJW Government Relations. or A version of this article appeared in the Budapest Business Journal. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D MAGYAR NET WATCH The winds of change by Attila Beno Copyright (C) 1995 As I said last week, the Hungarian Internet is growing at an incredible speed. How can you keep up with all these changes? There are several ways. One is to check the "What's new in Hungary?" page at http://www.fsz.bme.hu/wn/wn.html However, this page does not mention the commercial sites, which are just as interesting (if not even more interesting) than the other ones. But there IS a list of sites where everyone can add their new pages: http://www.hungary.com/hudir This is the Hungarian Directory. Seems strange to have the, perhaps most complete, list of Hungarian resources in the US. But this site IS pretty good, offering a Yahoo-style categorical list, and a powerful search engine. And the database does not only contain Web addresses; you can also find loads of gopher and ftp sites. I think this server, available in both English and Hungarian languages, is worth checking out. Another good selection of resources is the "Hungarian Online Resources", found at http://mineral.umd.edu/hunor This, too, is in the US (where else would you expect to find a list of Hungarian resources? :-)), and offers a list of Hungary-related events, as well as hyper news about Hungary, and a collection of all the Usenet newsgroups that have anything to do with Hungary. Well, maybe one day we will have our own list of OUR sites... =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D FINAL BLURB The Hungary Report is free to readers. To subscribe, send an email message to the following Internet address: hungary-report-request@hungary.yak.net containing (in the body of the message, not in the headers) the single word subscribe Conversely, to stop receiving Hungary Report, simply send to the same address (in the body of the message) the single word unsubscribe Please note: all mailing lists suffer from frequent "error" addresses. If we have problems with sending to your address more than one week in a row, we will remove you from the list. If you haven't received the report for more than one week, feel free to inquire directly to Steven Carlson (but please wait for at least a week, as we're also just famously late in getting the thing out sometimes : ) * * * Back issues of The Hungary Report are available on the World-Wide Web http://www.isys.hu/hrep/ and via FTP ftp://ftp.isys.hu/pub/hrep/ * * * The entire contents of The Hungary Report are copyrighted by the authors. Permission is granted for not-for-profit, electronic redistribution and storage of the material. If readers redistribute any part of The Hungary Report by itself, PLEASE RESPECT AUTHORS' BY-LINES and copyright notices. Reprinting and resale of the material is strictly prohibited without explicit prior consent by the authors. Please contact the authors directly by email to inquire about resale rights. * * * For information on becoming a corporate sponsor of The Hungary Report, contact Steve Carlson by email. Feedback is welcome. Rick E. Bruner, Creator <74774.2442@compuserve.com> Steven Carlson, Publisher Jennifer C. Brown, Co-editor Kriszta Fenyo, Co-editor Tibor Vidos, Parliament Watch Attila Beno, Magyar Net Watch * * * For its briefs, The Hungary Report regularly consults the news sources listed below -- for information about subscriptions, contact them by email: The Budapest Business Journal <100263.213@compuserve.com> & Budapest Sun <100275.456@compuserve.com> Budapest Week <100324.141@compuserve.com> Central Europe Today (free online) , as well as most Hungarian-language media (e-mail addresses to come). =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D END TRANSMISSION