Budapest and the West

Hungary is the process of joining the EU, although it has been a bumpy ride (as it has for much of eastern Europe). They desperately want to be considered part of the European mainstream (much as it is with the Spanish as well). However, the transition is not easy. They have not converted to the euro yet, although they were supposed to have completed the process by 2006 amd then 2008 and now the target date is 2010 (although many experts think 2014 is more realistic). In the meantime they continue to use the Forint (often shortened to the HUF). The exchange rate is something like 174 Forints to a dollar. It is interesting because the historically weak US dollar is also suffering against the Forint - last year the exchange rate was something like 213 Forints to a dollar. I know this is supposed to help the US in trade with Hungary (as part of that huge US-Hungarian exchange of wooden figurines and chess boards), but it makes it tough for Americans travelling overseas. The Hungarians are having trouble qualifying for EU investment money because they have a very high national debt and are currently in the midst of some tough governmental economic reforms for EU membership. I talked to Istvan Benasces, the economics professor who has been a big supporter of the GM project here, about the whole process of EU integration and globalization. I was talking about whether or not Hungarians were opposed to the whole McDonaldization of the world. He said that when McDonalds showed up in Hungary it was actually viewed a good thing because it meant that Hungary was becoming a part of the bigger world trade picture and felt that it represented capitalism and democracy as Hungary came out of communism. He also said that McDonalds was appreciated because they have famously clean bathrooms, a relative rarity in Hungary. By the time you do the currency exchange here it ends up costing around five or six dollars for a meal at McDonalds, the same as in the US, but it is a much more expensive five or six dollars here than in the US, so in a way it is a symbol of new found wealth. Istvan told me that as an assistant professor he makes around five hundred fifty dollars a month, but is OK because he has other sources of income and his wife works as well.

Generally Americans are viewed very positively in Hungary, although they have their own frustrations with the Americans. One of the biggest is that even though the Hungarian leader supported Bush on the Iraq War it is still necessary for Hungarians to get a passport to travel to the US, while their neighbors in Austria do not have to jump through that hoop. For this reason the Hungarians feel sort of let down - why is it that the French and Germans, who were actively opposed to the war, get to come to the US without a passport but the Hungarians cannot.