>
>But not only the youth feel so. Also, the majority of the Hungarian
>intellectuals, active or moral supporters of the People's Party of Hungarian
>Democrats, led by people, close to the late Jozsef Antal (such as his
>ex-minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Jeszenszky), or the Hungarian Democratic
>Forum. Others are simply "politically neutrals", when talking about parties in
>general; but definitely committed in their intention to push the present
>ruling parties, who have been hosting corruption and nepotism in Hungary to th
e
>periphery of Hungarian public life. Therefore, nothing would be as bad as
>putting equation mark between the Hungarian people and their post-communist
>rulers and clients.

True, there have been enough scandals to cast suspicion on the present- even
the former- government. However I have yet to see any criticism of Hungarian
elections: 1990, 1994 ,local elections all of which have been monitored
internationally.  There is one coming up in 1998. Unless the electorate is
completely ignorant (and I don't think it is) there is an opportunity for
the FIDESZ, the MDF etc.

At 10:15 PM 7/27/97 -0700, Sandy Gostel Perkins wrote:

>Joe - I saw your message to Barnabas regarding the names of flowers.  Since
>you gave your web site -- I had to take a peek.  I wish I wore a hat so I
>could take it off to you.  The beauty is breath taking.  Anyone who could
>so lovingly labor to provide a place of such beauty must have beauty in his
>own soul.
>
>I could almost smell the fragrance as I gazed at the pictures.  I live in
>the desert and seeing the lush flowers were a special treat.

Thank you for the nice compliment, Sandy.  In the fall, I'll be uploading
pictures from this year's gardens to my homepage.  I hope you'll enjoy them
also.

I'm glad that Barna is working on an English/Hungarian flower dictionary.
I could have used one many times before because I never knew the Hungarian
name for many of the plants I grow.  It seems that the '56ers I knew didn't
know the names of the uncommon flowers.  I have no doubt that they had
other things to worry about back then.  In any case, it seems odd that
there is no flower dictionary.

Joe Szalai

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field, or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.
     -- John Greenleaf Whittier

Since it's summer time (for most of us), and some contributors to this list
enjoy gardening, I'm curious about the role of the geranium (muska'tli) in
Hungarian folk culture.

When I visit Hungary, or look at pictures of Hungarian homes, I always
notice that there are plenty of geraniums.  Is the geranium the national
flower of Hungary?

Joe Szalai