Sometimes the relationship between the state and its citizens can be very complicated. But it’s even more so when it’s not clear who should be a citizen and on what grounds – just like in Hungary now. When talking about state and nationality in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), you […]

The beauty of childhood is its lack of expectations Photo credit: Powerhouse Museum Collection Every year, on the 25th of December, everybody in Romania celebrates Christmas. But some Romanians also use the occasion to commemorate the former communist president, Nicoale Ceaușescu. They gather at the Ghencea Cemetry and in front […]

This part of the world has a long history of living in very rough social conditions. Their wealth of experience with rough conditions makes people here much more resilient in facing the so-called “crisis” the world is going through nowadays. Let me share my story and show you where people […]

While developing countries move towards the welfare state, European countries need to redesign their welfare model. European states have become so big they are now unwieldy. Basic safety nets have been stretched to unexpected sizes and because the state supports everything that “people deserve”, it’s getting harder and harder to […]

Whenever I hear about the so-called “welfare-state model”, I always think of Polygraf Polygraphovitch Sharikov. He is a protagonist in Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastic story The Heart of a Dog. In the early days of the USSR, a professor-surgeon created a hybrid between a dog and a man, which turned into […]