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HUNGARY ON THE ‘BRINK OF RUIN’
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| Contributor | the wanderer |
| Last Edited | the wanderer Apr 03, 2009 11:49am |
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| Category | Blog Entry |
| News Date | Friday, April 3, 2009 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | BUDAPEST – If anyone wonders how bad the economic crisis is in Europe, consider this: While shooting a story in Budapest, last week we parked our vehicle on a street in a part of town that has fallen on hard times.
Our translator, Andras Krucsai, suggested we not stray too far from the car. But it was broad daylight. And we weren’t headed far enough away to lose sight of the vehicle.
Still, within no more than three minutes, vandals struck, seemingly out of nowhere. In a blur, two teenagers broke the glass and grabbed our GPS navigational device, which was sure to fetch good money on the black market. They'd disappeared by the time we ran the distance – around 300 yards – screaming all the way back.
VIDEO: From Hungary to Spain - economic downturn takes its toll across Europe
''I saw them clearly,'' said Andras, who owned the car, brushing glass shards from the front seat. ''Just kids, 16 or 17, but you know it's gonna happen more and more often. It's gonna be worse and worse.''
Eastern Europe’s shining light
Pal Serge, 38, would agree. We met him at a busy subway station on Moscow Square, in downtown Budapest, standing in near-freezing cold with a couple of dozen other unemployed men. They were looking for any kind of day labor.
Serge, a forklift driver, had recently returned from a bus trip to England. He couldn't find work there either. ''I think if it continues like this much longer, you'll see anger, even violence, in the streets,'' he said.
Not long ago, Hungary was Eastern Europe's shining light, the one former Communist nation that was destined to catch up to its richer, Western European neighbors. Hungarians were egged on by their government to consume with abandon – to buy that new foreign car or take out a low-interest home mortgage, in euros, while resting assured that German or Austrian banks would guarantee the loans.
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