Author Archive

A few years ago, in 2006, the then Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány made a memorable statement that was later understood as  encitement for Hungarians to leave the country if they didn’t like it there. A look at the statistics today reveals that quite a few people have followed his […]

Imagine your country is rich in an expensive, useful but dangerous resource. Imagine this resource lies near your town. What would you do? What do you think Hungarians should do? Hungary is a small country in Central Europe that lacks significant energy resources and is strongly dependent on energy imports. […]

On April 30, 2012 Norway lost one of its best swimmers when 26 year old Alexander Dale Oen died of cardiac arrest. During the London Olympics more fellow swimmers remembered him. It was a shock for the Norwegian nation. Oen was one of their favourites, a very successful and much-loved […]

One unintentional yet potentially welcome consequence of the education reform in Hungary is the promotion of public-private partnerships (PPPs). In primary and secondary education the churches are taking over a lot of schools which hope for better financing through the takeover as was discussed in a previous Local View on Future Challenges. […]

Historically, Hungarian education has always been of high quality. However, it is impossible to sustain high quality education without money. Right now the country is seriously lacking financial resources for education and an old form of PPP – church-run schools – could well experience a renaissance. But a renaissance at what cost? […]