the ceu weekly issue 43

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February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43 the CEU Weekly An independent newspaper by CEU students and alumni Hungarian Expression Original: Aki éhes, annak a kenyérhéj is édes. Translation: Hunger makes hard beans sweet. Look inside for: “Death of an Immigrant” - Winner of the Creative Writing Contest p. 2 CEU International Cultural Festival 2014 p. 2 & 3 CEU Debate: Should university graduates be told to do what they love? p. 4 Rock’n Budapest on a Budget -Vegetarian Restaurants p. 1 & 5 Israel is Full of Wonders p. 6 Cartoon by Erikson p. 7 Hungary News p. 7 Puzzle & Upcoming Events p. 8 Vegetarians are horrible, self-righteous and demeaning people. They think they have all the answers and are bet- ter than you. If you meet one run! Yes, my ex was a vegetarian. When I first met her I was so enraptured that when she told me she didn’t eat meat, I replied with a little white lie,and told her that I didn’t either. As things got more serious and dating turned to boyfriend/ girlfriend, I was forced to live up to my statement. It was pretty difficult giving up hamburgers and steaks at first, but I told myself that I wasn’t really giving it up, just trad- ing it for another kind of flesh to be devoured. And it was a worthwhile trade. Continues p.5 Image: randyotter3000 As usual, the vivid art scene of Budapest has a lot to offer for the next two weeks. Just a few tips on what is worth a visit if you are starving for a bit of (contemporary) visual culture. The Ludwig Museum launches a new exhibition on Thursday with the title TRANSITION AND TRANSITION. The show presents collages by Josip Vaništa, the legendary figure of Croatian Neo-Avant-garde, works by Oleg Kulik, known for his performances and radical actionism, and photos and video installations by the Russian group Blue Noses (Alexander Shaburov and Vyeceslav Mizin). The theme is the social changes and con- flicts in post communist countries: you can expect a critical approach, ab- surd humour, and provocation galore. Opening ceremony: 6 February 2014, 7pm Dates: 7 February 9 March 2014 Location: Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, 1095 Buda- pest, Komor Marcell St 1 More information: http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php? inc=kiallitas&menuId=43&kiallitasId=893 Continues p.8 Image: Artist Group Blue Noses Rock’n Budapest on a Budget - Vegetarian Restaurants Upcoming Events February 5 - February 19 Are you in need of a small break outside of ´Hungary but your budget is small? Then check out Karl‘s article on his recent budget trip to Israel on p.6! Image: Karl Haljasmets „Beautiful coastline in Tel Aviv“ I am not a vegetarian because I love animals. I am a vege- tarian because I hate plants. (A. Whitney Brown)

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43rd issue of 'The CEU Weekly', which is the student and alumni edited newspaper of Central European University (Budapest).

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Page 1: The ceu weekly issue 43

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

the CEU Weekly

An independent newspaper by CEU students and alumni

Hungarian Expression Original: Aki éhes, annak a kenyérhéj is édes. Translation: Hunger makes hard beans sweet.

Look inside for: “Death of an Immigrant” - Winner of the Creative Writing

Contest p. 2 CEU International Cultural Festival 2014 p. 2 & 3 CEU Debate: Should university graduates be told to do

what they love? p. 4 Rock’n Budapest on a Budget -Vegetarian Restaurants p. 1 & 5 Israel is Full of Wonders p. 6 Cartoon by Erikson p. 7 Hungary News p. 7 Puzzle & Upcoming Events p. 8

Vegetarians are horrible, self-righteous and demeaning people. They think they have all the answers and are bet-ter than you. If you meet one – run! Yes, my ex was a vegetarian. When I first met her I was so enraptured that when she told me she didn’t eat meat, I replied with a little white lie,and told her that I didn’t either. As things got more serious and dating turned to boyfriend/girlfriend, I was forced to live up to my statement. It was pretty difficult giving up hamburgers and steaks at first, but I told myself that I wasn’t really giving it up, just trad-ing it for another kind of flesh to be devoured. And it was a worthwhile trade. Continues p.5 Image: randyotter3000

As usual, the vivid art scene of Budapest has a lot to offer for the next two weeks. Just a few tips on what is worth a visit if you are starving for a bit of (contemporary) visual culture. The Ludwig Museum launches a new exhibition on Thursday with the title TRANSITION AND TRANSITION. The show presents collages by Josip Vaništa, the legendary figure of Croatian Neo-Avant-garde, works by Oleg Kulik, known for his performances and radical actionism, and photos and video installations by the Russian group Blue Noses (Alexander Shaburov and Vyeceslav Mizin). The theme is the social changes and con-flicts in post communist countries: you can expect a critical approach, ab-surd humour, and provocation galore.

Opening ceremony: 6 February 2014, 7pm Dates: 7 February – 9 March 2014

Location: Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, 1095 Buda-pest, Komor Marcell St 1

More information: http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&menuId=43&kiallitasId=893 Continues p.8

Image: Artist Group Blue Noses

Rock’n Budapest on a Budget -

Vegetarian Restaurants

Upcoming Events February 5 - February 19

Are you in need of a small break outside of ´Hungary but your budget is small? Then check out Karl‘s article on his recent budget trip to Israel on p.6! Image: Karl Haljasmets

„Beautiful coastline in Tel Aviv“

I am not a vegetarian because I love animals. I am a vege-tarian because I hate plants. (A. Whitney Brown)

Page 2: The ceu weekly issue 43

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the CEU Weekly

CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST - WINNER February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

Vlad Levente Viski: Death of an Immigrant

Nothing predicted that day. M was just paid and she was heading to the closest Western Union to send money home. She had been working in Italy for seven years now and her children were back home in Romania. Her story wasn’t unusual; it was quite the norm. Millions of parents working abroad and millions of children left behind, forced to raise themselves and learn self-discipline and financial responsibility. After a week of work, M had one hundred and fifty euros. On her way to the bank she decided to stop by the clothing bin, as she always did. She would always find good clothing that Italians had thrown away and that could fit her kids. Quite often Eastern treasure is repackaged Western trash. She approached the bin, a blue plastic cylinder with a small hole on top. M knew the different bins in the neighborhood, so she decided to go to the one that seemed luckiest; it was her birth-day, after all. “Thank God they didn’t empty it yet!” she said to herself. Friday was trash pick-up day and she had to rush so she could get there before the garbage trucks.

M climbed on top of the bin and started scooping for the good stuff. She reached with her arm inside the bin and took out a pair of old, dark red jeans. She examined the pants, saw a few holes and threw them on the ground. The next item was a dirty military jacket, too big for any-one she knew… another pair of pants, an ugly sweater, some high heels, nothing valuable. “Damn it!” She reached deeper inside and her arm was moving around the bin like a shark looking for a victim. Still nothing. Trying to take out all of these

clothes really gave her a rash, so she de-cided to go deeper.

Slowly, she stuck her head through the small orifice. She was a small, short woman, so she knew she could fit. Now she could see inside the whole treasure chest. Still nothing interesting… She was already getting anxious, throwing everything around, already scooping and twirling eve-rything inside like a baker with some pre-cious dough. All sorts of colors were flying around, different smells, and lots of dust. It was all almost hypnotic to watch. She de-cided to take a last leap of faith and slowly glided her body into the bin. She was now literally inside a trashcan. Desper-ately, she started looking around, reaching inside the pile of clothes, taking out differ-ent accessories, trying out different outfits, making plans. It was like watching a kid in a toy store or a hungry woman in an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Despite all of the hard work, M wasn’t too lucky that day. She set aside the few items she had chosen and decided it was over…that her efforts were in vain. She tried to open the bin’s small hole. She pushed, she pulled, nothing. “What the hell?” Her exit was stuck. The bin had an automatic door, you could push it from the outside, but you couldn’t open it from the inside. “No! No! No! What am I going to do now?” M started screaming, pounding the walls of the bin. From the outside, no one could hear anything, the bin was com-pletely sealed. M started crying hysteri-cally. “Ajutor! Ajutooooor!” No one could hear her scream, no one was around, she was all alone. No one would even look for her, maybe her boss.

Half an hour later, the oxygen was

running low. Maybe the trash pick-up truck would come soon, to save her? Maybe someone would throw some of their clothes inside the bin and hear her? M heard voices, she was too weak to scream any-more, her vision was foggy, her voice too low, her brain was slowly shutting down. “Help! Aiutame! Ajutor!” Still nothing. She was now laying on a pile of clothes, she was breathing hard and thinking of her kids. Bogdan, her younger boy came to her and kissed her on the cheek. “Mami, mami, te iubesc!” The heart beats were louder and louder, the lungs were hearting, the head was spinning, her sight was blurrier and blurrier. She looked at the money she had to send home and started crying. Her cry wasn’t loud, it was more like a whip-ping. No more energy to fight, no more will to shout. A small trace of blood coming out of her nose reached her already foamy lips. Her whole mouth was already full of white foam, she couldn’t control her tongue anymore, her eyes were rolling, her body was already throbbing. Only if she could get one last breath of fresh air, one last sip of cold water… Her dark face, her missing teeth, her unexceptional eyes, her poorly cut hair, her scars covering all of the body were creating the impression that an ani-mal, not a human, was dying.

Two days later, the trash truck came to pick up the bin. The workers took the whole bin, dumped it inside the truck and took her body to the largest recycling center in the city. Mixed with clothes, plastic bottles, shoes and paper, no one ever even noticed her there. Her body was mixed with other items, chopped into pieces and delivered to Italians. She wasn’t even wor-thy of a proper funeral.

The CEU Weekly editorial team is happy to announce that the winner of the Creative Writing Contest is Vlad Levente Viski, Vice Presi-dent at Central European University's Student Union and MA student in the two year program at the Department of Political Science.

We want to thank all five authors who contributed with a story and our readers who participated in the voting process. All five stories can be read online at www.ceuweekly.blogspot.hu. The audience award is a 5000 HUF coupon to the CEU Bookshop.

Page 3: The ceu weekly issue 43

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

Page 3

the CEU Weekly

CEU International Cultural Festival 2014

REVIEW

The International Cultural Festival takes place annually at CEU and gives students the opportunity to learn about and celebrate the many cultural backgrounds which make up the fabric of our university. The week of film screenings, dance classes, and other such events culminated in an intercultural party, which took place at the CEU dorms. The following photos are from the festivities, which attracted a large portion of the student body, and included food, dance, and singing from over 30 countries. It was considered a big success and a highlight of the year so far by all who attended.

Text: Graham Patterson Images: Nataliya Borys , Alexandra Medzibrodszky, CEU/Daniel Vegel, CEU SU

Page 4: The ceu weekly issue 43

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

Page 4

the CEU Weekly

CEU DEBATE

Should university graduates be told to do what they love?

Our series of academic debates, launched by the CEU Debate Society and The CEU Weekly, continues with a fourth piece. The views expressed below do not necessarily reflect the writers’ personal opinions, but are rather roles taken up in the

context of a debate.

Proposition—Igor Gurkin (POS ‘12)

How many of us would prefer to live in the world of fairy

tales with happy endings if they were given a chance? Probably,

a lot. The problem is that the reality is very different. The essence

of maturing is exactly in recognizing this truth and coming to ac-

cept the world for what it is.

The socio-economic reality of the world today is that peo-

ple differ in the variety of choice that they have when it comes to

choosing their careers. A young person is everything but inde-

pendent in making the decision regarding his or her vocation, as

the almighty invisible hand of the market defines the chances to

get a certain job and the amount of compensation that one would

receive. In this global game you, as an individual, do not have

much leverage.

In this situation the principle “do what you love” is hard, if

not impossible, to achieve. It only creates false expectations on the

side of young graduates and puts additional pressure on them.

They not only have to be self-sufficient, which, as it is the case with

many young professionals, is a challenge in itself due to the eco-

nomic situation and lack of jobs on the market; they also have to

be constantly reflecting on the question whether what they do is

really what they love and, if their answer is no, how can they find

a way to start doing what they love without losing their financial

independence. Constantly repeating the “do what you love” man-

tra to the graduate students will serve them no good, as it is not

based on any realistic assessment of the job opportunities that the

market has to offer today. What it feeds into, on the other side, is

the build-up of unrealistic career expectations which will be

crushed as soon as the fresh graduates will leave their Alma Ma-

ter in quest for professional accomplishments.

There is something else that has to be said about the very

idea of “do what you love.” The major fault of this approach

when it comes to making your first career choices is that it does not

take into account the fact that your preferences change throughout

life. Remember how you were saying that you would like to make

your living by selling ice-cream when you were a child? Your MA

degree in whatever-it-is-you-study does not really bring you

closer to fulfilling your childhood dream. Why is it not a problem?

Because since then you have discovered many things about the

world and selling ice-cream is just not that exciting anymore. Fresh

graduates usually have zero to limited working experience, so

most of the time they do not really know what this or that profes-

sion is really about. Thus, in reality they do not even know what

they love, as they have not tried anything yet.

The “do what you love mantra” creates nothing but the

sand castles which will be washed down by the sea of real life.

Opposition—Ana Gurau (DPP ‘11)

Why do people work? They do it because work offers a

sense of purpose and personal fulfillment. But then how come we

see so many people stuck in jobs they hate?

First of all, we note that university graduates are people

with a wide access to creative jobs; they are the people with most

realistic chances to access scholarships and job opportunities that

are simply not available to people without higher education.

Therefore, we believe that it is primarily university graduates who

must be told to pursue what they love.

We admit that certain graduates end up in jobs they do

not love, but their frustration and sense of failure are precisely the

agents for change and development. Being guided by what you

love to do is what ultimately motivates you to seek alternatives

and move forward. So disappointment is actually good!

We should also look at how society at large benefits from

promoting the narrative of do what you love. People who do what

they truly love are the most productive at their jobs; they seldom

feel tired or suffer from occupational burnout. They bring the sort

of passion and energy into a certain field that society needs in

order to develop, research, and innovate.

Further, the narrative of do what you love is preferable to

the narrative of do what pays you well (or so it is expected). The

latter pursues the idea that the sole purpose of education is to

bring material benefits, and is the kind of logic we are being

given from early adolescence by parents and teachers. It rests

upon the assumption that on the job market it is easier for gradu-

ates when firms come to them to offer jobs (high demand), than

them going around to look for jobs (low demand). This is probably

how we ended up with humongous, unnecessary numbers of

graduates in economics and law (supply higher than demand), and

therefore with a lot of graduates found themselves in jobs they

hate or, even worse, jobless, because they had been given bad

advice. To conclude, being happy with what you do al-

most never means you have to behave in the way your parents,

elder friends, teachers, the job market, whatever, expect you to

behave. We want a society

of people who believe in

what they do and are good

at it.

Page 5: The ceu weekly issue 43

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

the CEU Weekly

Page 5

CEU COMMUNITY

Continued After our rocky breakup I started eating animals with a vengeful fe-rocity; chicken, cow, fish, pig, snail, insect – I didn’t care. As long as it once lived, I wanted it dead and in my mouth. With each smug bite I relished the thought of how angry she would be. Even if I couldn’t win her, I felt somehow that I had won. It’s been a couple of years now since we parted ways and as the dust has settled I’ve begun to rediscover the posi-tives of vegetarianism outside of the in-creased chance of hooking up with beauti-ful hippies. Of course there is the ‘killing an animal’ element, the sourcing out of which I think is morally questionable at best. If you aren’t ready to walk up to a cow and chop its head off so you can eat it, why should you have no guilt about someone else do-ing it for you? What really gets me though is the environmental impact of eating meat, which

is actually pretty considerable. They say that for most people, going vegetarian is the biggest positive environmental impact that you can produce through a lifestyle change. It’s not hard to see why when a typical hamburger requires about seventy-five calories of production energy for every calorie you consume, whereas most vegetarian dishes are closer to a ten to one ratio. Besides reexamining these benefits recently, I also discovered something called weekday vegetarianism. The idea is that from Monday through Friday you only eat vegetables, but then on the weekend you ingest whatever you gosh darn please. Since the most difficult part of becoming a vegetarian is committing to giving up meat forever, weekday vegetarianism is an eas-ier way to commit to limiting your consump-tion. Unlike flexetarianism (being “mostly” vegetarian), this method gives you a struc-ture that you’re accountable for – which

makes for less of a slippery slope. Because it’s more manageable, the idea is that more people will be willing to try it. Since partici-pants have the same effects as if five out of seven of them were completely vegetarian, the number of vegetarians could be theo-retically doubled if just three of every twenty meat eaters were willing to give it a try. That’s like all of America and Canada and Mexico going vegetarian! Not bad. When I moved to Budapest, the land of sausage and meat soups and gyros, I knew I needed to seek out some good vegetarian restaurants. I’ve tried several, but the three below are by far my favor-ites. Each of them is so good in fact that I would suggest all you meat-eaters get out there and try them as well!

Yeah, so I guess my opinion has changed

and I no longer believe that all vegetarians

are evil. Just one.

Image: Caroline Dang

Indian Vega City Akacfautca 57 +36 70 358 4860 11:00am – 11:00pm This restaurant opened in January, and al-ready it’s one of my favorites in Budapest. I ate there with one of my Indian friends and she said it is not only the best, but the most reasonably priced Indian food she has had in Budapest. I don’t doubt it, I am craving some right now, and I ate there just a couple hours ago – my third time in a week! Do plan on waiting quite a while for your food (probably partially related to them just opening). Don’t plan on leaving without a very full stomach and a smile on your face! I asked the owner if he would offer CEU students a deal, and he said to menti-on that you are from CEU for a free mango lassi (a delicious yogurt based drink). Get

on it! Macska Bérkocsis ut. 23, (at Joszef Korut) +36-1-7868370 6:00pm – 1:00am Strictly vegetarian, with a rotating menu that also offers daily vegan options. They use local and seasonable ingredients, and also offer organic Hungarian wines, juices, homemade sy-rups, and have a couple delici-ous microbrews on tap.

Napfenyes Étterem Rozsa ut. 39, (at Kiraly u.), Budapest, +36-1-3135555 Napfenyes Étterem is a vegan restaurant offering Hungarian specialties in a more upscale setting. They have a menu in English and feature seitan dishes, pizza, traditional Hungarian, desserts, and more. The portions are large and there is an organic shop at-tached with faux meat products for sale. Prices are a bit higher than the other menti-oned places, but they have a weekday lunch menu for 1300 forints that I highly recommend. Graham Patterson, USA, Public Policy

Rock’n Budapest on a Budapest - Vegetarian Restaurants

Page 6: The ceu weekly issue 43

the the CEU Weekly

TRAVEL

Page 6

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

Israel is Full of Wonders

One of the best things about living in Buda-pest is the location. From here you can use cheap airlines like Wizz or Ryanair to travel to exotic places like Tel Aviv, Baku or Dubai, and with a price that makes students happy. Since the beginning of the last se-mester went so quickly and I did not even get out from the crowded Kiraly street, I decided to use the beginning of this semes-ter differently. I was bored one evening and bought tickets to Tel-Aviv for an almost un-belivable 75 euros. The next day I went to school, and told my friend Javier about it and within five minutes he decided that he would join me. After that came the long-waited winter break and naturally we did not bother with arranging the trip. After surviving Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I realized that the flight would leave in two weeks and it was time to start researching Israel. What was sure from the beginning was that I would use couchsurf-ing. This means that we stayed on the couches of people we did not know before, but who offered to host us. It’s definitly a cheaper option, but what is even better, it provides the possibility to see the life of a local. Sunshine was greeting us! Our flight departed on Friday morning and we were supposed to arrive back on Tues-day. We therefore decided to spend two days in Tel-Aviv and two days in Jerusa-lem. When we arrived in Tel-Aviv, we felt happy because it was so sunny and warm compared with Budapest. However, my recommendations would be to always take some time if you are travelling with a friend who is incindentally from Colombia. The security service in the airport tend to think that they are cocaine traffickers and they are usually invited to visit the airport’s special small security room, where they are all thoroughly searched. This happened to my friend Javier, and I had to wait for him for over fourty minutes before we could leave the airport. After that we took the train to Tel-Aviv and soon we were walking in a nice and sunny boulevard in 20 degree weather, feeling a little bad for friends stuck in my homeland of Estonia where it was snowing. One thing that we discovered quite soon was that Israel is quite expensive. Small cokes were 2 euros and a sandwich with a drink was 13 euros. It was also funny that when we visited the local market, which was one of the biggest I have ever seen, a kilo of strawberries increased immensely

when the seller realized that we are not locals. So I ended up getting back only two euros from my bill of ten. However, the strawberries were just delicious and soon we met our first host via couchsurfing, whose name was Eyal, a 30 years old aerospace engineer, who usu-ally spent his weekends as a yacht insruc-tor. With him we visited the beautiful beach and seaside of Tel-Aviv and just mainly sat down and talked. The view and the re-freshing wind from the sea was just amaz-ing. I don’t think I have ever met a guy as liberal as Eyal in my life, he had an inde-scribable sense of black humour. Our eve-ning continued with some beers in the fa-mous port of Jaffa. The next day we visited Tel-Aviv’s Museum of Modern Art. To be honest, at first it was quite boring; only installations. However, before leaving we visited the last gallery where there were masterpieces from Picasso, Kandinsky and Klimt and this made it all worthwile. At this point it was also clear that the 80 euros that I changed was not enough and I started using my credit card. Soon after that we moved to the amazing Jaffa Old Town. It was crowded and full of life. We sat down in a small street, enjoyed some waterpipe and relaxed as we watched people stream by. Jerusalem was waiting for us… In Israel people are suprisingly friendly, and have almost perfect English. Like our host Eyal said: “We fancy Americans and their lifestyle”. The two days in Tel-Aviv passed very quickly and it was soon time to go to Jerusalem. I have to admit that we were more than exited about it because it is one of the oldest cities in the world and holy for all three major religions. How much more special can one city be? Another bonus that we did not ex-cpect was also that Jerusalm was much cheaper compared with Tel-Aviv. During the stay in Jerusalem we spent most of our time in the Old Town that is divided into four: the Muslim, the Christian, the Jewish and the Armenian Quarters. These quartiers were like amazing labyrinths of markets and full of life. For me it was also cool how the bargaing styles and everything changed from quarter to quarter, from the more aggressive Muslims to more demure Christians. It was also interesting that there were not many people around the Western Wall, which is considered to be the most sacred place (except Temple Mount) for Jews. On the other hand, I was thinking

about Mecca, the holiest place for the Mus-lims, which is known for being one of the most crowded places in the world. Just the force relations are so different for these two religions… I was just hoping to see more people at the Western Wall. At the Western Wall there is a tradition that everybody can write some questions about their future onto a piece of paper and stick it inbetween the bricks of the wall. We did it and now, hopefully, the answers will come at one point too. However, when there, I would rec-ommend staying away from people who are offering help with finding the sights. We thought that one old Muslim man was just polite but he ended up wanting money for his time of 30 seconds. He was not happy with cents and when I gave him two euros that did not please him either. He wanted more and also before that grabbed my hand strongly. I had to tear myself away from him and go away as fast as possible. He started shouting and swear-ing in his language and so I yelled “F**k you”! Fortunately that is a quite universal and understandable way of expressing emotions in this world. Soon we met our other host Dor who was also a student and we spent the evening in a happy hour bar watching Barcelona’s match. Soccer is another thing that is truly universal in the world. Even though I am a Madrid fan and Javier and Dor fancy Bar-cleona, we found common understanding really soon and we were like old friends. During our last day we visited the tunnels in the Jewish quarter and also had a fresh lunch at the market place. And then it was also time to go. I know that we have to study a lot at CEU. However, I would highly encourage students to travel during weekends when possible. I believe this is more useful than spending all your weekends in the dorm pondering ideas about your thesis topic. It is more helpful sometimes just to get out and experience something new.

Karl Haljasmets,

Estonia,

Public Policy

Page 7: The ceu weekly issue 43

the the CEU Weekly

February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

Page 7

Hungary amended the law which regulates sterilization carried out for family planning purposes. The current regulation enables anyone over the age of 18 to apply for this type of birth control, while the new rule will allow only those, who are either over 40 years of age or have at least three chil-dren, to have themselves sterilized. The ex-ceptions to the rule remain the same: sterili-zation can be conducted for certain medi-cal reasons as well, even if the patient does not meet any of the requirements. As a re-sult, Hungary will be one of those countries in Europe which have the strictest regula-tions about sterilization. The rule will be-come on March 15, 2014. The second concern about the law is that it strengthens the system of gratuity. Doctors will be paid for conducting the sterilization on patients, who otherwise would not fulfill the conditions of the operation. The regulation will not change people’s mindset about this form of birth control, nor will reduce their demand for it. Therefore, people will simply pay to their doctors to

justify them the need of sterilization for medical purposes, thus providing a legal way for the operation. The third and probably the gravest concern about the new regulation is that it constrains the right for self-determination and to hu-man dignity¹. It is a fundamental human right entitled to all individuals and ensured by several international treaties to which Hungary is a signatory state. This right is interpreted in a way that everyone has the right to make decisions about their own body, including the reproductive organs. Therefore, states should provide by law the possibility to decide over when they want to choose the option of sterilization for family planning purposes.

The amended rules of sterilization make people feel that the state does not treat them as adults and wants to gain control over such an intimate and private issue. The previous regulation, which set only the age of 18 as a minimum threshold for conduct-

ing the operation seems too permissive. However, the new conditions seem too re-strictive. The “golden mean” is probably somewhere in between the two extremes. Extended debates and discussions with ex-perts of the field and with members of the civil society might help creating a rule with-

out infringing anyone’s rights and interests.

(source:www.hvg.hu/it-thon/20140128_Mar_a_sterilizacio_sem_

maganugy)

¹ The Hungarian legal system categorizes this right to the group of „right for human dignity”. I did not find another, proper word in English to express the right by which we can decide over what we want to do with our own bodies. This same right is evoked during debates about abortion, as

well.

Eszter Kajtar, Hungary, School of Public Policy

Hungary News

Cartoon by Erikson

Page 8: The ceu weekly issue 43

he Weethe CEU Weekly

PUZZLE & UPCOMING EVENTS February 5, 2014, Year 4, Issue 43

This is a student-alumni initiative that seeks to provide CEU with a regularly issued newspaper. We publish our articles and additional materials on our blog as well: www.ceuweekly.blogspot.hu

Editor in Chief: Agnes Kelemen Managing Editor: Julia Michalsky Editorial Board: Imogen Bayley, Karl Haljasmets, Eszter Kajtar, Alexandra Kocsis, Erik Kotlarik, Philippe-Edner Marius, Alexandra Medzibrodszky, Graham Patterson, Ruth Pinto, Andras Szirko Proofreading and language editing: Imogen Bayley, Philippe-Edner Marius, Graham Patterson, Ruth Pinto Social Media Management: Alexandra Medzibrodszky

Distribution: Reception of Nádor 9, Nádor 11, Nádor 15; Library, Cloakroom, Dzsem Bakery, CEU Dorm, CEU Bookshop. Follow us on facebook as well!

Page 8

YOUR CORNER

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(This time it was a Swedish way of inviting people :-) First and foremost – greetings to Alisa Kamarova! She was the first to send us the answers for the Oxford crossword. Your letter with absolutely correct solutions was quite impressive! Today we have a new challenge for you. Here it is: As you’ve probably noticed it’s February already. And, as you know, it is the shortest month of the year. Still, we need to make some plans and make notes in our day-planners. Now, imagine that one of your friends has invited you on a romantic or business (choose which one you prefer) dinner. But instead of a date you’ve got this strange message: The date isn’t on a Friday The date is after the 15th The date is an even number The date hasn’t got a two in it The date isn’t on a Sunday

Can you find out what day is it? I hope the calendar will help you. We will draw the name of the winner of the free lunch voucher to Dzsem Bakery (Vigyázó Ferenc utca 7.) among those who send the good solution until February 8 to [email protected]. Get! Set! GO!!! Olha Pushchak, Ukraine, History Alumna

Välkommen till CEU Weekly Puzzle!!!

Continued Trafó Gallery hosts the Iranian-born Dutch Navid Nuur’s first show in Budapest. The exhibition titled COLOR ME CLOSELY takes us through his artistic world of monochrome experimental painting “created with the help of smoke-bombs, light-reflecting panels, or vita-mins added to paint.” Postcon-ceptualism? Unconventional logic? Extraordinary solutions? If

you want to explore these vague terms and clichés use the opportunity of this vernissage to be led by the artist himself among the works!

Vernissage: 7 February 2014, 7pm (guided tour with the artist

from 7.30pm) Dates: 8 February – 23 March

2014 Location: Trafó Gallery, 1094

Budapest, Liliom St 41 More information: http://

trafo.hu/en-US/navid_nuur If you feel like discovering Hun-garian Avant-garde, take a trip to Buda castle and visit the ret-rospective exhibition of Endre Bálint, painter and graphic art-ist (1914-1986). Besides the huge collection of 350 works by

Bálint, the exhibition titled THE EIGHTH TEMPLE attempts to guide visitors through his artistic world by the reconstruction of his Parisian studio, photos, docu-mentary films, as well as works by his international contempo-raries like Chagall, Picasso and Max Ernst.

Dates: 1 February – 11 May 2014

Location: Hungarian National

Gallery, Buda Castle More information: http://

www.mng.hu/en/exhibitions …And make sure you don’t miss the photo exhibition on the first floor of CEU’s Faculty tower, showing until 28 February: check out the pictures of the leg-endary Jégbüfé at Ferenciek Square taken through the win-dow by Budapest-based French photographer, Bruno Bourel.

More information: http://cac.ceu.hu/events/2014-01-

27/buffet-a-glace-%E2%80%93-a-photo-exhibition-of-bruno-

bourel Alexandra Kocsis, Hungary, Medieval Studies