Budapest Student Press

Raw Food; Myth or Remedy?

2008-05-22T10:30:00.001+02:00

By Maja Florsic

According to David Wolfe, co-author of Nature's First Law: The Raw Food Diet, “A 100% Raw-Food Diet is the greatest secret in the world today.” Wolfe continues, “Raw food is FUN! Cooked food is dead, lifeless, and boring. What we eat deeply and radically affects the way we think, feel, and behave. 90% of the Earth's abundance is being burned up in the kitchen fire.”

Many would object to Wolfe’s ideas, describing them as somewhat extreme; although I think many would also agree with me that there is a certain intrigue about them. Is there really more to food than meets the eye? Can it provide us with more than just nutrition and the pleasure of eating? Even serve as a substitute to some medicines? It certainly does sound intriguing.

A small but increasingly influential group of people that call themselves ‘raw foodists’ believe that raw food brings them great health benefits. By definition, a true ‘raw foodist’ consumes at least 75% of completely raw food in their diet.

Raw food is uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic food. It can include any of the following foods depending on the type of the raw food diet one follows: raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, meat, and unpasteurized dairy products. However, seeing as most raw foodists are vegetarian and/or vegan, they wouldn't usually eat meat or dairy.

Raw food advocates, including David Wolfe, believe that raw food has many benefits for the body including the regulation of body weight - usually weight loss, and prevention or even healing of many types of chronic diseases and illnesses. They believe it to contain enzymes which aid digestion, regulating the body's metabolic processes. If, however, the food is heated above 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit, its enzymes are destroyed which makes digestion more difficult.
Raw foods also contain micro organisms and bacteria that work to develop the digestive tract populating it with intestinal flora, affecting the immune system for the better.

According to another raw food advocate, Susan Jorg, “eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer”, she adds, “remember, cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer. When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.”
In defense of her diet, Susan argues that raw foods are of better quality as they contain vitamins that can be absorbed by the body to the fullest because they are not damaged in the process of cooking. The same is true for proteins and fats.

Critics of the raw food approach, however, argue that there is significant evidence indicating humans are much better off with cooked food; after all, archeological evidence clearly shows that man has been hunting for hundreds of thousands of years and using fire to cook his meat. According to a 2004 BBC report, “Human-like species migrating out of their African homeland had mastered the use of fire up to 790,000 years ago.” So why should we abandon it now - people may wonder.

Even Susan Jorg, raw foodist, acknowledges the fact that it isn’t simple for people to change their diet so drastically, “the human race learned long ago that cooking meat before eating it would protect them from certain diseases. I realize it isn’t easy to simply abandon thousands of years of tradition and revert back to 100% raw food.”

Dickson Despommier, a professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, in defense of a cooked food diet, argues that “cooking denatures the shape of the enzyme molecule.” “But,” he adds, “the point is, who cares? Enzymes are proteins that are inactivated the moment they hit your stomach, where powerful acids destroy them and break them down into amino acids. It's ridiculous to say that you don't get the full benefit of enzymes by cooking them.” Although he clearly doesn’t believe in the ‘healing’ properties of raw food and their magical enzymes, he goes on to say how he, nonetheless, finds the idea of eating “good, clean, washed and sanitized vegetables from a recognized source” an enticing one. After all, our mothers did have a reason for making us eat our vegetables!

Leslie Bonci, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and the director of sports nutrition for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, also finds the vide variety of healthy foods included in the raw food diet appealing. “Plant-based products like nuts, seeds, beans, grains and vegetables have protein in them, so you can get your protein needs met.” “The only issue is”, she continues to explain, “that with some vegetables, cooking unleashes more of the carotenoids, ‘the plant chemicals’ for the body to absorb. So if you're eating an exclusively raw diet, you're not necessarily getting the full range of nutrients.”

“You feel more energetic and in a way, your body feels cleaner. You don’t feel so weighed down by what you eat, you feel energy” Robin Jahncke, a vegetarian and a student at McDaniel College, describes her diet. When asked if she considers herself as a raw foodist, Robin said no. When asked how much of her vegetarian diet is ‘raw’, Robin immediately said 85%-90%. This, according to definitions, would in fact make Robin a ‘raw foodist’ although she clearly doesn’t see herself as one; “I just like to eat what makes me feel good, I don’t really think about it!” she added.

Whether a raw food diet ‘just makes you feel good’, as is the case with Robin, or if you believe there is more to it, no one can argue that this diet is unhealthy. Naturally, not all experts in the field share the same beliefs in ‘magical enzymes’ and the healing properties of raw food, but they all seem to agree that a certain amount of raw food in a diet, for one reason or another, is extremely healthy worth trying.

Community involvement: giving help

2008-05-22T10:26:00.002+02:00

By Maja Florsic

“It was summer and I wanted to travel. I thought I should do something useful and that’s how I decided to volunteer. This way, I could learn much more about a culture than just by traveling,” said McDaniel College student Krisztina Kovalcsik, talking about her personal experience of volunteering in Cameroon. Along with some other volunteers, she taught English to children from ages 7 to 18, helped prepare food for them, taught them to use computers and generally cared for them.

According to a planetclub.hu definition, “volunteering means to go somewhere, often to a different country, where you work for a period of time on some project, hosted by an organization.” Of course, this is done out of one’s free will and for reasons other than profit. Volunteers work for the community and its benefit.

Form the conversation I had with Krisztina about this, I have the feeling she is extremely happy she did this, despite her initial fears. Most people wouldn’t have the courage to do something like this; to go volunteer in an unknown country and work with orphans in perhaps unsafe conditions. Recently, UNICEF estimated the number of orphans worldwide is 210 million!

Around 18.8 million people were engaged in actively volunteering in their communities in 2001. In 2003, this number rose by more than a million and a half to 20.3 million according to a Home Office Citizenship Survey 2003.

Seeing these numbers rise is definitely a positive thing, however, it is interesting how most people have reason to complain about one social problem or another; yet not nearly as many as find it acceptable to complain, find it acceptable act on this themselves.

The National Crime & Grime Survey in 2005 asked a sample of people in Britain to rank the top three things they would like to see changed in their communities. Results showed that 65% wanted to see litter on the streets cleaned up, 54% wanted dog mess cleaned up and 63% wanted crime reduced.

If we are unable to clean up our own 'dog mess', I certainly don't see how we will be able to fight street crime or address more significant problems such as orphans in Africa; especially if people simply complain without helping.

To help others you don’t have to go to a different continent, or even to a foreign country! There are people in need all around you. Living in Budapest, I can’t help but notice the vast numbers of homeless people in the streets, sleeping in metro stations and benches.

Not everyone has the capacities to go teach children in Africa, however, it really doesn’t take a lot of money or effort to spend a few hours a week helping someone out in your local community, but it means more than we can even imagine to those in need.

Darfur: What is really happening?

2008-05-22T10:19:00.002+02:00

By Andrew Shields

Darfur has been capturing headlines for the last 3 years with cries of Genocide and Human rights violations. But what is really going on in this war torn country of Sudan? McDaniel press got a quote from Salih Booker a leading advocate of U.N. getting involved in his region. “Three years of fighting in Darfur have destroyed hundreds of villages, displaced 2.2 million and led to more than 400,000 deaths. RI (Refugees International) is advocating for a swift and forceful response to the Darfur crisis, including better coordination of and more provision of humanitarian aid and establishment of an effective peacekeeping force to protect civilians.”

Sudan, geographically Africa's largest country, has experienced civil war with only a ten-year pause since independence in 1956. More than 2 million people have been killed and twice that many displaced in the long-running war between successive governments of the north and peoples of the south. So war is no stranger to this country whose main export is oil, but what started all of this mess in Darfur? What I found at in my research was shocking to me. What started the fighting was basically a disagreement on grazing and farming rights of the poorer non-Arab groups in the south, but the tension lies much more deeply then that. On the one side you have the Sudanese Army and the Janjaweed (a militia group formed of Arab Baggara nomads of the north who are mostly camel herders) and on the opposing side you two main groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality movement (JEM). These groups represent farmers from the south of non-Arab descent.

The combination of decades of drought, desertification, and overpopulation are among the causes of the Darfur conflict, because the Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by non-Arab farming communities.
In February 2003, is when the SLM and JEM started attacking government targets and Arab nomads who brought their livestock into the region? The retaliation by the Sudanese Army and The Janjaweed was swift and some of the most brutal violence in the last century. The government is and still to this day attacks villages “suspected” of supporting the SLM and JEM but most experts say they are killing for no reason other than ethnic hatred. The Sudanese government is accused of grievous human rights violations and downright genocide. A particularly horrid method of attack has involved first the killing of all the males in the tribe then raping all the women before killing them. Another shocking technique the Government is accused of is painting their war planes white, the same color as U.N. relief planes, so that when the people spot them, they come out of hiding only to be bombed.

“We receive reports now on a daily basis from our own people on the ground in Darfur on widespread atrocities and grave violations of human rights against the civilian population,” said Jan Egeland, a leading journalist on Darfur in a recent communiqué to McDaniel press.
So the outcry now is for more International Aid to Darfur. The U.N. along with the United States have passed resolutions and assigned aid to the area but according to UK journalist David Blair that is not enough.

“More than two years after Colin Powell, then America's secretary of state, declared the civil war in western Sudan a genocide,” wrote Blair in 2006 the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, “and after the passage of no fewer than 11 UN resolutions on Darfur – Mr. Bashir (president) feels confident enough to launch yet another offensive. At this moment, his forces are laying waste to villages and forcing more families into squalid refugee camps.”

A lot of scholars believe the U.S. is refraining from deeper involvement in Sudan is because of its primary export which is oil, others say that America cannot afford to get involved in another conflict zone. Wherever the truth lies it doesn’t change the fact that deadly violence is going on in Darfur. The violence will continue to flourish until either side wipes out the other side or the U.N. and America get more involved. Sudan is in full blown civil war with one side dominating and the effects are the most visible in Darfur.

It’s a Sony.

2008-05-20T23:34:00.003+02:00

By Dessi Krasteva

Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate based in Minato, Tokyo. Sony is currently one of the richest companies in the world, with a $70.303 billion revenue in 2007, and a leading manufacturer of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles and information technology products. The company is also involved in the financial services sector. The company’s business operations include Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial Holdings.

The history of the company began in 1945 in Tokyo, where Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop after the end of World War II. A year later, together with his colleague Akio Morita, he founded the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., or Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The company’s first product was the Type-G tape recorder, which was also the first in Japan. During his 1950s travel to the United States, Ibuka learned of Bell’s invention of the transistor and managed to convince Bell to sell the license of the transistor to Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K., thus becoming the first one to make transistors commercially successful. Most American companies at the time were studying the transistor for military purposes, while Ibuka looked at its communication applications. In 1955, the company released its first transistor, the TR-55, followed by the TR-72 in the same year. The product was a success not only in Japan, but was also exported to markets such as Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. The next year, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering started producing the TR-6, which had an improved design and better sound quality, thus becoming a competitor of portable tube radios. This was the point when the company’s first advertising character “Atchan”, also known as the “Sony Boy”, was born. 1957 brought tremendous commercial success for the organization worldwide with the release of what was at that time the smallest transistor radio, the TR-63, marking the birth of the consumer microelectronics industry. Sony’s mission was to increase the living standard of its consumers. After WW2, Japan was in a woeful state, with its major cities in ruins and its infrastructure largely destroyed, hence Sony’s idea to improve people’s way of life.

The name Sony was chosen in 1958. The founders of the company wanted to choose a word that does not exist in any language, which they could claim as their own. This did raise some problems, as it was very unusual at the time for a Japanese company to use Roman letters for its name.

Throughout its existence in the market, Sony has been known for creating its own recording and storage standards, rather than adapting them from other manufacturers. An important event in Sony’s evolution is the 1968 introduction of the Trinitron brand name for its line of televisions and later computer monitors, followed by the world’s first portable music player, the Walkman, in 1979, and the 1982 launch of the Compact Disc format. A year later, the company released the 3.5-inch floppy disk, which later became a leading format. Another notable Sony product is the widely popular Playstation game console, which was first released in 1994. It was followed by the Playstation 2 in 2000, the Playstation Portable in 2005, and the Playstation 3 in 2006. In September 2007, the company introduced the egg-shaped digital robotic music player Rolly, which has color lights, that flash to the music and wings that flap and twist.

In the 1980s, Sony recognized the importance of integration of audio-video products with the information “content”, by entering in the music and film business, thus closing the loop in the entertainment industry. The company started the acquisitions of labels like CBS Records Group in 1988, which was renamed to “Sony Music Entertainment”, and Columbia Pictures, subsequently renamed “Sony Pictures Entertainment” in 1991. Other important mergers and joint ventures include the 1997 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Toyota Industries Corporation, called “ST Liquid Crystal Display Corporation,” the October 2001 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Ericsson AB, which produced “Sony Ericsson”, making Sony one of the key players in mobile telecommunication, and the 2002 acquisition of Aiwa Corporation. In 2004, the European Union approved a 50:50 merger between Sony Corporation and BMG, called “Sony BMG Music Entertainment”, which holds a 21.5% share in the global music market, and the 2007 50:50 joint venture of Sony and NXP Semiconductors called “Moversa GmbH”. The main aim of Sony Corporation when it started merging and getting involved in joint ventures was to go beyond the electronics manufacturing business and develop a wider platform, thus getting involved in the Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The corporation maintained its vision and purpose of enriching people’s lives through its various products.

Sony’s first regional company in Europe was Sony UK, founded in 1966. Sony’s presence in the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern European countries began in the 1990’s when Sony Europe International (SEI), a division of Sony Germany, was established. Several regional sales companies were founded as a part of Sony Europe operations, the first one being in 1992 in Poland, followed by the Czech Republic in 1993, and Hungary and Bulgaria in 1994. In 1998 Sony established its first production unit in Eastern Europe in Trnava, Slovakia, together with its Slovak regional office. In the rest of Eastern Europe Sony set up a number of representative offices. In 2000, Sony started the centralization of its business activity by forming a virtual company called Sony Central Europe (SOCE) that includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia. In 2007, SOCE was joined by the sales offices in Eastern Europe and was renamed Sony Central and Southeast Europe (SCSE). SCSE now manages the activities of the Sony companies in 12 Central and Eastern European countries. Due to the volume of business and the strategic importance of the market in Russia, its regional company reports directly to Sony Europe in the UK.

SCSE’s headquarters are currently in Budapest, Hungary. It carries out its business through a network of dealers and distributors in those countries to whom the company sells the full line of Sony products and services. Alongside the local dealers and distributors, Sony points of sale in the region include such large pan-European retailers as Metro, Tesco, Media Markt, ElectroWorld, Saturn, and several others. The reorganization of Sony’s operations in Central and Eastern Europe was aimed at achieving a centralization of resources, improvement of cost efficiency of operations, by optimization of its structures, providing better services to its consumers, and increasing its competitiveness in a constantly changing environment. As a customer-oriented company, Sony “is constantly striving to provide the best possible products and services for its millions consumers,” said Mr. Atanas Krastev, Senior Manager of Marketing Planning in Sony Central and Southeast Europe.

The dynamic nature of the Central and Eastern European market, the increase in foreign direct investment, and the introduction of many new companies to the market, has lead to a very dynamic development of the labor market, thus causing periodic changes to SCSE’s team. This is also often due to the rotational principle of work, employed by Sony, meaning that often employees from one office receive assignments in another office within the Central European structure of the company. This is done in order for the employees to gain full experience and learn new practices. Mr. Krastev adds that as a truly multinational company, Sony successfully applies the principles of a cross-cultural work environment. At the moment, in the Budapest headquarters of SCSE there are employees from many different nationalities, including Japanese, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, British and Dutch, working in the fields of sales, marketing, finance, logistics, customer support, etc. Following the principle of one of the founders of Sony Corporation, Akio Morita, “Think globally, act locally”, the heads of the companies in most European countries are locals.

As one of the world leaders in consumer audio/video technologies, a main and constant challenge for Sony is to keep developing ultimate new technologies for the entertainment sector. One of the biggest challenges for Sony in the past has been period of change from analog to digital devices. Within analog technology, Sony gained its position as an established leading company. The emergence of the digital era, however, and the appearance of many new companies in the market, has led to changes in the status quo. The technologies were now open, and the new formats allowed many companies to introduce their own products, which partly decreased Sony’s advantage and increased the level of competition in the market for consumer electronics. Such Companies as Apple and Creative - previously known as computer companies - started introducing products that competed with Sony’s. As mentioned earlier, Sony has always striven to provide products that change people’s way of life, such as Walkman, Discman and Playstation, in their will to create the ultimate entertainment experience. Being involved in the music and picture business, this has raised certain challenges as well. Sony takes the concept of copyright very seriously. Each Sony product is configured to protect the copyrights of the author, to be loyal to the author, which while being morally correct has raised some compatibility issues. Many other companies’ products have allowed for the use of pirated material and this has given them a certain advantage with those consumers who do not share Sony’s regard for copyright laws and ideas of intellectual property.

Another challenge for the company was its move away from being simply a product provider to becoming a service provider as well. Cultural challenges associated with Sony being a Japanese company stepping into foreign markets, however, have apparently not hindered Sony’s success. Most consumers in Europe do not see Sony Corporation as a Japanese organization, but rather a global one, says Mr. Tadahisa Baba, Director of Regional Marketing for Sony Central and Southeast Europe. This can be attributed to Sony’s management, as often issues are dealt with on a local basis, rather than from the company’s headquarters. Another contributing factor is that Sony does not rely on the nationality of its employees but rather on their capabilities as professionals to do the right job at the right time, said Baba. He added that if the company had any problems adapting culturally it would likely have occurred in the company’s early days, when it first started operations outside of Japan. Today, the differences from country to country that affect Sony do not come stem from cultural issues, but are rather a question of the stage of development of the country and, naturally, the purchasing power of the consumers. Mr. Baba believes that today, it is not the company that is changing, but the consumer. The differences between countries are shrinking, he adds, which decreases the difficulties for companies from an organizational point of view, compared to two decades ago. What is essential for the effective communication in Sony is the mutual understanding between management and employees, as well as the general understanding of the organization’s objectives and vision and of the fact that everyone is piece of the bigger puzzle.

When Sony first penetrated the European market, there was a quite noticeable financial gap between Eastern and Western Europe, which is now minimizing. Sony’s goal for the future, specifically for Central and Southeast Europe is to become a more “compact” organization in order to be able to better meet the demands of the market. This also includes increasing the competitiveness of their products, the creation of new ultimate technologies, cutting operational cost in order to increase the optimal cost efficiency, as well as maintaining Sony’s brand image of a world leader in the consumer’s mind.

Athens: Where Past Meets Present

2008-05-20T23:28:00.003+02:00

By Dan Faulkner-Bond

“Athens will likely be the most disappointing city in Europe you go to, but I still think it is it is a city that everyone should see. It is where we all came from. It is what our modern society is based on.”
This was the first thing that was told to me by my philosophy teacher Janos Salomon when I excitedly told him about my plans to see Athens over a long weekend.

I arrived in Central Europe with one semester, a student’s travel budget, and the travel bug deeply itching to see as much of Europe as possible. As I looked ahead to the warmer weekends, Greece was on the top of my list. I pictured the pristine beaches of the Greek Islands, the blue roofs descending through the cauldron-shaped cities dotting the hills of paradise. The ruins of perhaps one of the greatest civilizations on earth were calling out to me. I booked my ticket to Athens knowing little more than the pictures I’d seen and the few stories I’d heard from a Greek-crazy teacher in high school.

Eager for my upcoming trip, I informed my philosophy teacher of my travel plans after spending a class period on excerpts from Plato’s Republic. His words of dissuasion came as a complete shock. I heard about the supposed corruption that modern society has had on the relics of our heritage for the first time. I was afraid that the Greece I had seen and dreamed of might not exist anymore, lost in the grips of consumerism and technology.

Eureka for the timelessness of beauty! My fears were abated at first sight of the ancient ruins of the Acropolis sitting high above the Athenian landscape. The beauty inherent in the ancient architecture is more amazing in person than a picture could ever do justice. On our first full day in the city, my traveling partner and I hopped from ruin to ruin looking at what was once one of the most advanced cities in the world, café to café sampling the endless supply of pastries and drinks, sitting amongst the old Greek men twirling their Komboloi (‘worry beads’ used to supposedly drive away nervous energy and calm them – great for souvenirs), and of course ending our day with a bottle of Ouzo.

The second day was spent lounging on the beaches south of Athens accessible by tram. With the choice of rock beaches, sand beaches, restaurants and clubs on the beach, and yacht clubs lining the coastline, one could find any beach experience they wish.

For our final day we went to Aegina, the closest of the Greek Islands, only a 9 Euro, one-hour ferry ride from the docks. Much to my surprise (and relief) Greek life is still present here too. The beauty is still largely untouched on these oases. After a lunch of fresh fish and a Mythos – the beer of Greece, we spent the afternoon exploring the winding roads of the serene island. Walking through history.

The impact of consumerism and technology on Greece is one that is made very apparent as soon as you set foot on the streets of Athens. The street vendors are relentless with their various nick-knacks – many of which I still don’t see the market base for; I mean who wants a light up miniature megaphone to go with their dinner. There seem to be as many stray dogs in Athens as stray people – both of whom are very visible in most areas. Pickpockets are a very real threat – we saw one successfully steal a purse at dinner from the table right next to us.

In retrospect, the reason I love Athens is not because it is a utopia of a city. It’s not because I’m in love with Greek history, or would willingly sell many of my belongings to live on any of the Greek Islands. It wasn’t because I saw the foundation of western civilization, or because the fish were fresh out of the Mediterranean. What I love about Athens is that it is the foundation of western civilization and a perfect example of what that civilization has become. The good cannot exist without the bad – what is beauty without ugly to give us comparison. The beauty of Athens is the co-mingling of what we once were and the sometimes-hard truth of what we have become today.

Professor Salomon was right – everyone should go see Athens, but instead of the most disappointing city, I would say the most shocking. Athens paints the picture of reality: a city of epic history face to face with the harsh evidence of what has happened to our people since those ancient times. I can only imagine where the city will be for our future generations. All I can hope is that it isn’t underwater.

Accused War Criminal Zentai Should Return

2008-05-19T22:09:00.004+02:00

By Peter Gazda

Charles Zentai (aka Zentai Károly) is an old Hungarian man who lives in Australia. He could be described as just a nice old retired man from the neighbourhood, if it weren’t for the skeleton in his closet: he is accused of war crimes.

Zentai was born in Hungary and he lived in Budapest until 1945. Hungary participated in the Second World War as an ally of Hitler’s Germany, in the Axis alliance. After the Hungarian Nazis took power in the end of 1944, aggression against Jews became an everyday pratice in the streets of Budapest.

Zentai was a member of the Hungarian Army at that time. One day in 1944 he met a young Jewish man called Péter Balázs. He and Balázs had lived in the same neighbourhood, so they knew each other personally. The young Jewish man did not wear the yellow David Star on his coat as was required by law for Jews at that time. It proved to be reason enough for a cruel murder: Zentai grabbed Balázs because he violated the law. He took him and tortured him. Balázs did not survive Zentai’s brutality.

At least this is what we can know about the case from the media. A couple of years ago, the Los Angeles, California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organization, collected proofs against Zentai and accused him of the above-mentioned murder. Zentai emigrated to Australia after World War Two where he lives even nowadays. Hungarian authorities requested extradiction of Zentai from Australia, where he has made his home since the end of WWII. An Australian court is scheduled to make a decision about the request.

On July 8, 2005, Zentai was arrested by the Australian Federal Police to await his extradition hearing. Zentai's family says the 86-year-old widower, who has heart disease and peripheral neuropathy, would not survive the trip to Hungary. What his family said may be so. But are age and state of health alone sufficient reasons to excuse a person from the judicial process? The Australian court, it appears, will give the answer. In my opinion, he must return to his home country of Hungary in order to face his former life. This includes punishment, if the accusation against him can be proved. Perhaps old age and ill health should be taken into consideration, but here we speak about war crimes committeed during the Second World War. Some may say that this Zentai is not the same Zentai who he was in 1944. That’s probably true, but if we use this kind of thinking then we must admit that everyone is changing constantly. Therefore we cannot be held responsible and accountable for what we did in the past. This would be a faluted interpretation of justice, for everyone should bear the consequences of what he or she has done in the past. I think we just need to know what Zentai did and it’s for everyone’s sake. If he is innocent, then let him prove it, and a lot of people can ask for an apology from him. But he must first come to Hungary, where we Hungarians – Gentile and Jew alike - will be able to watch his case.

Goldfinger Vocalist Dame Shirley Bassey Celebrates 71st Birthday By Releasing New CD

2008-05-19T21:12:00.008+02:00

By Amanke Okafor

At the age of 71, famed UK vocalist Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey has recorded and released a new CD, which includes the cover of a song made famous by rock singer Pink, with whom she is set to do more work collaborations soon. The new CD marks Bassey’s effort to add some flavor to her art. She was convinced, she said recently, to try something different and that she goes a long way to enjoy every bit of it. The Welsh singer has had a lot of achievements in her life such as the production of the James Bond theme song Gold Finger(1964), Diamonds are forever(1971), Moonraker (1979), along with the non-Bond hits “Big Spender” and “Kiss Me Honey.” The new CD is her first offering since she released a recording of the hit single by writer/producer partners Catherine Feeney and Nikki Lamborn in 2005, on the CD, “The living tree.”

The talented singer who started singing at age 15 in local pubs has had a great influence in the world of music as she takes her singing to places few other singers would go. While her music is well-known, it was actually quite difficult to find someone who could be described as a devoted Bassey fan. Many more people know her as the lady that sang the James Bond theme song. One such listener expressed doubt over Bassy’s capacity to woo contemporary audiences.

“She is 71,” said a 23-year-old man who studies at the International School of Business in Budapest, “would she fit in the music industry today? It has changed and she might not be that good anymore.”

The music industry has definitely changed, but Bassey’s comeback with a new pinch of the rock flavor appears on the right track. The real question is, with her new rock style, will she still climb to the top of U.S. charts? Her success in appears more secure in the UK, where she has been selected as a dame commander of the British Empire by the Queen of England.

Orsolya Koklacs, 20, a student at Budapest’s University of Enginerring and Economics described Bassey’s music as music with an impact. When questioned why, she responded that Bassey has had tremendous impact on the music industry in that she is the only singer who has produced more than one theme song for the James bond movies.

“Practically every one who watches the Bond movies absorbs a powerful combination of the music,” Koklacs said. “In Goldfinger, she was extraordinary.”

At 71, Bassey still feels she can go a long way to influence the music industry as she says she has more freedom to choose what she wants. Her fans believe she is going to be even better. She may be older, they acknowledge, but she still delivers as though she were 15. The Welsh singer gave a lot of thanks to Feeney and Lamborn, saying they never give up on her. “The range of my voice impresses them very much,” she said, adding that they believe she can do anything. The release of the album “Get the Party Started” in 2007, demonstrates that Dame Shirley Bassey has gone a long way to let her fans know that there is still more where that came from.

Let it Be

2008-05-04T21:49:00.002+02:00

By Balazs Kercsmarics

The appropriate institution approved a referendum proposal, which would question the opinion of the voters, whether the maximum speed allowed on Hungarian motorways is to be raised to 160 km/h. The referendum goes as follows: Do you agree that the maximum speed allowed in the innermost lane on the Hungarian highways to be raised to 160km/h?

The approval of the committee (OVB) does not mean that a referendum is going to be held, but this is a good first step to satisfy the need for speed of the Hungarians. The next step is to gather 200 000 signatures of supporting citizens, after which the proposal reaches the high jury to decide on the referendum.

As experience on the roads show, the speed on Hungarian motorways in the inner lane is already nearing 160 Km/h. The current highest allowed speed (130) is barely enough to be able to travel in the inner lane, or even to overtake, without creating some piling behind.

Experts are speculating how this increased maximum speed would affect the accident rates in Hungary. The pessimistic view says that it would cause more accidents. The optimists, on the other hand, say that it would not; but rather it could even reduce the number of accidents on the affected roads.

As many other arguments in life this is not simply black or white.

What could be the negative effects of this proposed increased speed limit, were it to be realized? Definitely the first possible negative is more accidents, which could be a true danger as other examples in Eastern Europe show. The Czechs had just raised the maximum speed to 160 on certain areas on the motorways, and with this sadly; they had some casualties as well. Another negative side effect could be the increased fuel consumption of the vehicles, as higher speed demands higher revs, thus increasing consumption. Were the speed to be raised from 130 to 160, this would mean the disposable income of the country would suffer a decline, albeit a marginal one. Moreover, as highway patrolmen would likely have fewer speeders to fine, the result would be a drop of the government income.

But as coins have two sides, there are positive effects as well.
The first and most obvious is that travel times would decrease dramatically. From Budapest, every point of the country could be reached in an hour on highways. Traffic intensity would also decrease and thus accidents would happen more infrequently. Germany is a good example of this phenomenon. There are no speed limits on the highways, and despite this, there are fewer accidents than occur on Hungarian highways.

But what is the real issue here? Too many Hungarians suffer from a mentality that expounds a great dissatisfaction with society. Why is it good to have the 130 Km/h barrier? There are two groups of speeders. Many of us travel at a speed of 140-150, which is still a safe pace, and does not result in higher risk. But the others, who compose approx. 5-10%, are those who trample the gas pedal to death, and fly with speeds of 200 and over.

The proposed higher speed limit would simply mean that 90% of currently speeding cars would no longer be “speeders”, leaving 10% to the police for discipline and fines. By issuing it, every citizen would be a winner. The majority would get into a speed area that is legal, thus creating less paperwork for the legal institutions. The extreme speeders would only have to slow down to 160, and go on with their flying.

But this is just an utopist view of the future. Not all cars are not adequate to meet the requirements of the increased speed. Sadly only a few motorways are smooth enough to allow speeds of 160 Km/h. The proposed limit would could therefore lead to the construction of new highways. But the most devastating of all the barriers is the Hungarian mentality and morality. It is not yet ready to accept or accommodate a higher speed limit, and unfortunately it will not be able to accommodate to one in the near future, either.
We have to change our driving habits dramatically. But fellow citizens! If and when the time comes, grab a pen, and sign that questionnaire. Who knows, we might be part of something new, created by us for us.

Life without Internet

2008-05-04T21:04:00.001+02:00

By Dan Bond

Monday morning confronted me with the beginnings of another week of college education. With an hour to spare before classes, I did the usual student thing and visited my favorite websites: The New York Times, BBC, Facebook, YouTube, etc. There is of course an order to what site gets visited first, second and so on, an order determined by available time, environment, mood and other factors. Then it hit me – the most debilitating situation since the days before my driver’s license – the internet was down!

The hour passed anxiously, a mix of coffee drinking and an excavation of the seemingly innate stores of computer knowledge that separates me from my parents. I scrounged through the old mail to see if there were any outstanding bills, unplugged and restarted our router, checked all of the settings on my computer. After I conceded to the fact that I was ill-equipped to fix the problem, I rushed off to use the WiFi at my school.

How long has my problem existed? When did this online addition first take hold? I remember my first e-mail address. I remember the first time I talked to another person, live-in-box, and got to pick my own font and colors – some that reflect my identity, of course. I remember the first time I saw a streaming video, heard a podcast, and saw my house on Google Earth. Much foggier is the day when the internet turned from a handy gadget to a necessity of the highest order.

According to recent polls, 41.7% of Europeans and 70.9% of Americans have the internet at their ready disposal. The Internet has become our umbilical cord, our daily fix, and our most trusted informant, as well as our most seductive, time-wasting distraction.

My heart aches for the best of Internet junkies. Having spent one and a half of the last three years of my life inhabiting whichever reaches of the globe I can, while still getting college credit, the Internet has been a lifeline for me. Most of my university assignments are handed in and often assigned through emails. The only way to receive my bank statements in a timely fashion is online, and my mother is still blown away every time I call her on Skype. She keeps talking about something called a ‘calling card.’

My flatmate Tyler summed it up best: “So what did people do before the Internet?”
For Tyler the Internet is a medium of entertainment and little else: “At night before going to bed, in the morning, or after class, instead of watching TV or reading I like to chill out on the Internet.”

Imagination is what’s gone missing. Back in the handful of days before the Internet entered my life, my mind used to idle in ponderous speculation, thoughts dissolving into dreams of the unknown. My status as a global citizen was trumped by my innocence and naiveté. Now cut off abruptly as I was on Monday, this lost epoch was renewed.

Filled with the rebellious spirit of youth, I took this handicap as a challenge – and decided not to reconnect.

The results? Our flat is suddenly cleaner. The books I brought from home, but never quite got around to reading, are quickly being devoured. I found myself sitting outside with no more agenda than to have the breeze blow through my hair and stir my senses while the warm morning sun bathed my skin. I left earlier for class; then on my journey home swapped my usual six-minute bus for a fifteen-minute walk. My day became leisurely.

But surely this hiatus cannot last. For how long can three average university students, far away from home, head-over-heels enslaved by the practicalities of the Internet, have a chance to abstain from the biggest global phenomena in our history?

Climate Change Becomes Real For Central Europe

2008-05-04T18:40:00.005+02:00

By Dan Bond

The evidence is in and one thing is for sure: global warming is happening, and at an alarming rate. Ever since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1999, however, awareness has been spreading and technologies geared towards cutting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) have been coming into play.

“We could drop CO2 emissions by 50% if we have renewable energies, if we can implement these technologies,” said Ralph Sims, Professor at the International Energy Agency, speaking in a panel discussion at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s conference held at the Central European Union on May 10th-11th.

Already over the last 20 years, there has been a recorded global average increase of 0.6 degrees Celsius according to reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). With emissions capped at year 2000 levels, data suggests at least another 0.5 degree increase.

“I personally don’t think we have a chance to peak emissions in the next seven or eight years,” said Sims.

The EU set plans, targets, and policies in 2007 that are to be established by the year 2050. The largest of these goals is to cut global greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by the year 2050. This is projected to stop global warming at a net gain of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Even if this increase were capped at 2 degrees Celsius and carbon emissions were stabilized at around 550 parts-per-million (ppm), the IPCC predicts there would still likely be catastrophic regional and possibly global crisis situations such as water shortages, floods, and a switching of the seasons wherein summer would be plagued by drought and winter would have the most rainfall.

Hungary has seen a 35% increase in carbon emissions over the last 50 years from 280 ppm to 385 ppm. This number is only expected to rise so long as current conditions persist. Other greenhouse gasses have also been drastically increasing; nitrous oxide has seen a 20% increase, while methane has skyrocketed by 150%. Depending on which path Hungary chooses to take, the IPCC projects summer temperatures to increase by as much as 5 degrees Celsius by the year 2071.

The IPCC urges that “emissions reductions are needed now, because they take decades to bite, and if delayed would lead to temperature increases that will exceed the capacity to adapt.”
According to the Kyoto Protocol, Hungary is required to push greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below what they were in 1990 by the year 2012.

Dr. Csaba Kákosy, Minister of Economy and Transport for Hungary, voiced agreement with Professor Sims, but gave little concrete evidence to show Hungary’s sense of urgency on the matter, mainly stressing this as a cultural problem just as much as an industrial one. “My hope is that the government and the energy sector can work together to change not only policies but cultural habits,” he stated at the IPCC conference.

“For the sake of our future generations we need to make more rapid progress in reducing GHG emissions than has been the case to date” said Ralph Sims, who is Co-Leading author of the energy sector at the International Energy Agency.

Save money with Geothermal Energy

2008-04-13T18:41:00.045+02:00

By Viktor de Hegyessy

Using a geothermal system to heat your house could save you 70 percent off heating and 50 percent off cooling bills. But it's probably not worth the installation costs. At least, not yet.

Geothermal is one of today’s “hot” alternative sources of energy, but what makes it different from the others has to be found in its foundations. Geothermal heating is not a novelty; it has been used since the time of the Roman Empire as a way of heating buildings and spas. Quite literally, “Geo” means of the Earth, and “Thermal” comes from the Greek “Therine”, meaning heat. Basically, “Geothermal heating systems utilize constant ground temperature as a heat source or heat sink in conjunction with what is essentially air-conditioning technology to provide heating and cooling”, said Dan Zaweski, director of energy efficiency and the Distributed Generation Program for the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). “To make the system work, you must drill wells in the ground, which is very costly”, added Zaweski.

To get into details, geothermal systems absorb heat from the ground or groundwater and carry it to the unit through an underground piping system. Then the heat is transferred to the air, which is distributed through ductwork similar to that used in any conventional air heating system. In the summer, the unit provides central air conditioning by rejecting heat from your home. A portion of the heat can be used to produce hot water, while the remainder is pumped back to the underground well system, where it harmlessly flows down into cooler groundwater. Though homes would still require a hot-water heater, Zaweski said, they usually do not need supplemental heating or air conditioning. During the summer, utility bills would drop a great deal, while savings on heating oil or gas during the cold months would be significant.

What makes geothermal really competitive compared to other alternative sources of energy like solar or wind energy is that it is unaffected by changing weather conditions, thus making it a very reliable source. In addition, geothermal systems are environmentally friendly. And since they have fewer mechanical components, geothermal systems are more reliable and less prone to failure than traditional heating and cooling systems. According to the LIPA, the geothermal system's ground loop has a life expectancy of more than 50 years and requires no maintenance. An excellent example for the integration of geothermal in domestic usage is Cambridge, Massachusetts-based architect Maryann Thompson who designed a U-shaped, 4,500 square-foot family house fitted with a geothermal system. The system saves around 60 percent in energy costs. And, according to Thompson, it is often not even necessary to turn it on. “Because there’s water in the floor, and the sun comes into the house through clerestory and other windows, the floors are often warmed without the need for heat,” she says. “Even in the Massachusetts winter the family tells me their house is often comfortable without using the heater.” The home does have a regular, back-up heating system just in case.

On a larger scale, geothermal energy can also be a resource for electric power generation if it is combined with a power plant. Geothermal power generation typically involves relatively high levels of capital investment. Such expenditure, required to prove the geothermal resource capacity, involves some risk. Geothermal power projects are characterized by high capital investment for exploration, drilling wells and installation of plant, but low operating costs because of the low marginal cost of fuel. Return on investment is not achieved as quickly as with cheaper fossil fuel power plant, but longer term economic benefits accrue from the use of this indigenous fuel source. Geothermal resources may be especially important and significant in developing nations where no indigenous fossil fuel resources exist such as oil, coal or natural gas. The recently joined EU member nation of Hungary is one such example.

“There is a great potential for geothermal energy in Hungary” said Dénes Gyimóthy, CEO and CFO of Pannergy Nyrt. “The ratio of ground depth to temperature increase is nearly double the European average and it is largely unutilized.”

Hence his firm has launched initiatives to construct over 20 geothermal power plants across the country, what will eventually amount to a €350 million investment.

“Our plan to build 20 geothermal energy plants accross the country is the first of its kind.”, added Gyimóthy.

Another initiative was taken by CBA, one of Hungary’s largest retail food chains. CBA’s largest supermarket located at Vecsés (in the suburbs of Budapest), was fitted with a geothermal heating system. The unit can provide constant heating and cooling for the whole area of the building, summing 3,300 m². The investment costed approximately 60 million forints.

While the benefits are large, the cost of installing a geothermal system remains high. It varies by a number of factors, notably the size of the unit installed (larger houses need larger units). Retrofitting one to an existing house is more expensive than installing one in a brand-new home. Therefore, geothermal units became a sustainable item for future domestic and industrial architecture.

The Nextgen Console Wars

2008-04-13T18:19:00.005+02:00

By Balazs Kercsmarics

The War of the next generation home videogame consoles has been waging for a year now, and still nothing is decided. The three key players are the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

According to sales figures, Nintendo’s Wii is in the lead, strongly chased by Microsoft’s Xbox 360, while Sony’s Playstation3 occupies the last place. The number of consoles sold is currently about 21 million Wii, 18 million Xbox and 9 million PS3.

The story behind the success of Nintendo’s console is simple. It doesn’t want to shock people with reality like graphics, or eight processors like PS3 has. Wii is as simple as it could be, but offers the best game experience, which brought it to the top of the sales.

The war that is going on right now, had an interesting preface, which started in March 2000, when Sony released its Playstation 2. Microsoft was only able to launch its first console a year-and-a-half later, in November 2001. The latecomer faced a huge disadvantage. It was something new - without a predecessor - and it came significantly later, than the great rival. This is also clearly shown in the sales figures, 22 million for Microsoft, as opposed to 100 million for the Sony Playstation 2. Bill Gates and his team at Redmond did everything to overcome defeat, and created a console that they hoped would bend PS3 and put Sony on its knees.

People and experts have been chattering about the Next generation console war from this time on. Microsoft, and Sony, the two giant enemies, were both attempting to create a machine that had never been seen before...

It seemed that Microsoft won the first battle: the rush to market. It was the first to launch its console in December 2005. This meant huge sacrifices and struggles for the company, because the first series of Xbox 360-s were not tested, and not stabile. The reason behind this was to have as much time as possible on the shelves of the market without competitor. Microsoft took a huge risk by launching its half-ready console early. But time was the most important factor in the beginning of the console war, as the great rival Sony announced its PS3 to be on the market soon.

But things at Sony Corporation didn’t work out as chief executives thought they would be, and Sony postponed the PS3 release by a year. Speculators reasoned this step owed to the production difficulties of the new optical drive the Blu-Ray, and this being the most important feature of the machine, could not simply be left out. Sony had to have had strong reasons to postpone the PS3. The original release date had been prior to Christmas sales in 2005. The launch had already been pushed many times to a further date, but the Japan giant corporation knew what they were doing. In 2005 Sony missed the end season sales, and was not in a position on the market to allow themselves another miss. The Ps3 had to be on the market before Christmas 2006; otherwise Microsoft could ran advantage lethal to Sony.

Finally Sony managed to release its powerful, brutal beast in November 2006, a year later than the Microsoft console made its debut. But PlayStation3 entered the field limping. Sony Corporation delivered only a few stocks of the PS3, and according to shop owners, “after 6 minutes no consoles were left on the shelves”.

At the moment of PS3 release, Xbox 360 sales had reached up to 6 million. Sony could only trust in the hardcore fans in Japan, who refused to buy the American machine. Through the course of one year on the Japanese market, only 80 000 Xboxes were sold. Despite Japanese resitance to Microsoft, a difficult run was predicted for the Sony console.

The battle between the two giants was unimaginable. Hardware for both machines was incredibly expensive to develop and produce.

Rumors buzzed that Microsoft had lost 100-150 USD on each console sold at the beginning. Later, as production got cheaper, the Xbox 360 started to turn a profit. A similar story rang true for PS3. At the beginning, Sony Electronics, Inc. had lost enormous amounts of money on each sold piece. Speculations said that producing one PS3 cost 900 USD, and Sony sold the consoles for 500 USD; the loss on one is 400 USD! This could only have meant that Sony was planning for the future.

Console developers, such as Sony or Microsoft, have little chance of survival, other than building the best available hardware into their machines. The normal lifespan of a console is 6-7 years; and during this time it has to be able to run all the games smoothly. This requires the producers to use incredibly expensive processors, video cards or hard drives. But the users would not buy these if the cost of the console reflected the initial cost of the hardware, so this means that companies routinely lose enormous amounts of money on each console sold, as Xbox, or PS3 did.

Healthy sales for a new console are reckoned to be 10-15 million platforms sold. Once this level of sales is reached, it is the game developers - who program games to run on these consoles – who start playing a major role. They write games for these consoles, and by having more and more game developing studios behind a console, the console will sell better, thereby giving owners a wide selection of quality games to choose from.

While Sony Electronics, Inc. and Microsoft were fighting to the death, a new contestant was gathering more and more popularity, and sales. The father of consoles, as Nintendo was called, created something that was never seen before.

Nintendo released Wii (strongly suggesting relationships among people – ‘we’), which became a best seller as soon as it arrived to the shops. While the two giants stuffed the best hardware and newest solutions into their machines, Nintendo put together a box, slightly bigger than a thicker book and concentrated on gameplay experience. The concept is easy. Let’s create something that is new, Nintendo reckoned, that has never been on the market before. Wii offers a brand new control which requires the gamers to direct the games with movement. (Play tennis, and swing your arm, as you would on a tennis court; the controller senses the motion of your arm, and hits the ball back in the game).

Wii builds on its concept differently from the PS3 or the Xbox 360. While these latter two concentrate on the hardcore gamers, amused by reality-like graphics, Nintendo tried successfully to pursue those new to the world of consoles, who are just occasionally playing games.

Who wins? Tough question. Wii has more sales than Xbox, even though it started a year later. (21m Wii, 19m Xbox) Up till this very point, it seems that PS3 is the loser among them with just 9m sales, but it may have the most potential, as developers say that 2-3 years are needed to exploit the hardware power of a given machine.

At the end of the day, it is the gamers and players that win. As the three contestants are rivaling, we, the users benefit the most. Prices are steadily falling, while more and more games are released, and by this, we can have the chance to choose the console that fit our needs.

Is Fur Back?

2008-04-10T00:20:00.009+02:00

By Andrew Shields

The fur trade is a loaded topic, evoking strong feelings from both advocates as well as opponents. While opponents would like to see the fur trade become a thing of the past, the question remains: is it still a viable business, one vital to the US economy?

Fur is inarguably one of the oldest and important industries in North America. It has played one of the biggest roles in the development of America and Canada for more then 300 Years. Around 7 European nations and nearly all of the North American tribal nations have been involved. Fur helped build bridges and set up relations between the Whites and the Indians. “Traffic in furs,” wrote fur industry watcher Jay H. Buckley, “was an important economic and political motive in the exploration and colonization of the continent.” Animal rights organizations, which were credited with severely dampening the fur market in the 90’s, still hold to the same principles but the market is changing in favor of the Fur industry. To their undoubted dismay, however, the fur trade is once again on the rise.

“The fur trade like any other business is driven by demand,” US furrier Tom Zanders recently told McDaniel Press. “That demand has mostly dried up in the US except for fashion but in cold eastern countries like Germany, Russia, China, etc., the coats are simply the warmest.”

Zanders who was nearly put out of business by animal activism in the early 1990’s, but now has a thriving fur business and gives most of the credit to his accusers. “They got out of hand with their tactics and put people off to their plight and the demand overseas was just too much.”

The tactics he is refers to are measures allegedly taken by some anti-fur activists in the 1990’s to help their cause. On one occasion, a group called No Compromise is said to have planted small devices the size of a deck of playing cards to cause sprinkler systems to activate in fur dealers across the US, thereby destroying millions of dollars worth of merchandise.

Zanders believes that fur is like any other industry in that an end to demand would make it go away. But, he adds, demand for fur remains. In addition to the healthy market Zanders found for his furs in Eastern Europe, the American market for fur is itself coming back strong. The International Fur Trade Organization (IFTC) has released numbers stating that over the last 5 years the fur industry has grown 5% in America. Last year fur sales and fur related products consisted of over 1.4 billion sales, up more than 800 millions dollars from the previous year. The IFTC gives most of the credit to the fashion industry. The common belief by most furriers - including Mr. Zanders – is that “while in the 90s it was murder to wear fur, now it fashionable once again.”

80% of all fur comes from animals on farms, and this where the problem lies, claims a spokes person for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), especially in China.

“In many cases, individuals who wear fur try to justify their actions by claiming their coat was made from animals killed on a ranch,” reads a P.E.T.A statement on fur farms, “as opposed to animals that suffered for days in a steel jaw leg hold trap (leg hold trap). There is a misconception that ranch raised fur is ‘humane.’ Unfortunately, there is nothing humane about depriving these animals from their behavioral and physiological needs. Fur farming is nothing more than institutionalized torture.”

This opinion is typical of those distributed amongst the different animal activist groups. Most such groups deal with it in their own way, some like P.E.T.A. protest this type of brutality with anti fur demonstrations, newsletters, boycotts and related tactics. Other animal activist groups like No Compromise and Fur is Death have resorted to more proactive and even illegal actions, such as throwing paint on people who wear fur or bombing fur factories.

Whatever tactics opponents are taking, the fur industry is on the rise. It is a multi-billion dollar industry throughout the world. In the last 5 years the fur industry has almost doubled in terms of production and sales. "This is the largest percentage increase for the fur industry since 1988," said Diva Lynch, interim executive director of the Fur Information Council of America. "Younger and more fashion-conscious consumers and hip new designers are attracting a new generation to fur."

Biodiesel, a fuel for the future?

2008-03-24T22:50:00.003+01:00

By Viktor de Hegyessy

As petroleum prices rise and the green-house effect aggravates, Biodiesel - a new alternative vehicle fuel – has come on the scene. According to the National Biodiesel Board, Its major benefits are firstly, that it has significantly lower emissions then traditional petroleum diesel, more precisely cancerous gases are almost eliminated and other poisenous gases such as carbon monoxide are lowered in average by 50%. Secondly, it is produced from domestic, renewable resources such as waste restaurant oil or any other organic fat including vegetable oil or animal fat.

Biodiesel is an easy alternative to replace traditional diesel because it operates in diesel engines just like petroleum diesel and at the same time it provides similar horsepower, torque, and mileage.

Nevertheless, diesel - which before was seen as an unpleasant “smokey” fuel - has, in recent years, gained popularity thanks to the fact that today’s diesel engines are some 30 percent more efficient then gasoline engines, according to a research done by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Moreover, an American development program was launched in 1993 known as The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, which aimed to create vehicles that achieve triple the fuel efficiency of conventional cars while maintaining norms of performance, safety and comfort. Today’s diesel-hybrid engine, unveiled in 2000, is one tangible result of this program.

Biodiesel further enhances the advantages of diesel as it is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar, said Professor C. L. Peterson (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering) and Professor Gregory Möller (Department of Food Science and Toxicology) from the University of Idaho. It would therefore, the Professors added, have a positive impact on the environment. Biodiesel, he said further, could also bloster local economies and reduce many nations’ reliance on energy imports, since it is often produced domestically from renewable resources.

Sarkozy: new marriage, slump in polls

2008-03-24T22:44:00.005+01:00

By Maja Florsic

After much speculation, on the second of February this year, French president Nicolas Sarkozy married his girlfriend, former model, Carla Bruni.

The issue now seems to be that many people, French people, don’t share their president’s happiness when it comes to his new marriage.

It was as recently as October 2007 that Sarkozy divorced his former wife, Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz and it seems the French don't like what they're seeing: "We didn't elect a rock star", states Nice Matin, a local newspaper, in response to Sarkozy's divorce followed by a sudden marriage.

It seems many others feel the same way and agree with a statement from the Alsace: "We don't need this glitz - we need him to give us economic results".

Unfortunately for Sarkozy, poll results seem to increasingly support these views and statements. According to CNN, the percentage of his supporters last July was a high 67, dropping to 54 percent by January, still falling to 41 percent in February. The most recent reuters polls show this percentage is currently low as 36.

Along with other things such as the increasing cost of living, it definitely seems that one explanation for this drop in polls is due to the fact that the French simply don't want to be as involved in their president's private life as they currently are. CNN recently printed that more than three quarters of French people stated they were “annoyed” by their president’s overly public private life.

Tobacco Taxes Pay Off In U.S.

2008-03-24T22:40:00.005+01:00

By Dan Bond

In 2007, polls estimated that 20.8% of all adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. The national health goal is to decrease the number of smokers to around 12% by the year 2010 and states have been taking drastic measures to do so. Tobacco taxes continue to rise, and statewide bans are becoming a norm in the United States as they push harder in fight against smoking.

On February 1^st, Maryland became the fourteenth state to issue a state-wide ban of smoking in public areas including the work place as well as bars, restaurants and casinos. Many states are trying to do so in moderation, usually leaving bars as the last sanctum for smokers. Thirty-three out of the fifty-one states have banned smoking in at least one of the listed public areas.

The average price of a pack of cigarettes today is estimated at $4.36, a huge hike from the $2.92 average in 1999. This data does not, however, include local taxes which shoot the prices in most major cities through the roof – Chicago being the highest, adding $3.66 to the market price. Since 2002, 43 states have increased their taxation on tobacco by at least 70 times and it only appears to be going up.

As much as some die-hard smokers may huff and puff, the bans and taxation appear to be working. The estimated number of smokers has been steadily declining since the bans and taxes started to come into effect to 20.8% - down from 23.3% in 2000 and 25% in 1993. Health officials believe that the drastic measures of prevention will lead to drastic numbers of change and that they will exceed projected numbers.

2008, The Year of The Prancing Horse

2008-03-24T22:22:00.010+01:00

By Balazs Kercsmarics

Toyota driver Jarno Trulli forecasts a dark season to the rivals of Ferrari. The world championship title, he has said, could be awarded to the Italian team right now. To bolster Turi’s claim, nobody has run faster than the new 2008 Ferrari in the pre-season winter testing.

According to grandprix.com, the 2008 Ferrari owns the fastest lap times of the test season. Leading rival McLaren Mercedes comes second.
Most of the new 2008 models can run exceptional lap times with the fuel tank empty fuel, therefore driving a lighter car, which saves many hundredths of seconds. However, with race setup and more fuel, Ferrari bends the opponents to its knees: the Italian team runs 0.4 seconds faster per lap. The others can only maintain fast lap times with the fuel tank empty.

The 2007 car was a title winner, which meant only minor improvements had to be made to meet the requirements of the new season. Among with others, the most important concept is to banish the electronic driving aids, to bring the human factor into prominence.

“The new car is fantastic,” said Ferrari team driver Kimi Raikkonen. “The proscription of the electronic traction and stability control makes the race more interesting and more fun.”

Teammate Felipe Massa expressed his worries concerning the traction control ban. Without the control device, said Massa, it is a struggle to keep the car on the track, especially in rain.

Such worries were instantly flushed away as the team went on to win most of the winter testing. In Valencia the two drivers finished first and second, and in Bahrein, Raikkonen beat the previous fastest lap from 2007 by two seconds.

This all sets the stage for a season that lacks both battles and excitement. An easy run is predicted for Ferrari in 2008. But the championship title is only awarded at the end of the season, which means the opponents still have time to develop and perfect the car that might squeeze the Ferrari.

Who will control Russia?

2008-03-24T22:14:00.008+01:00

By Peter Gazda

The Medvedev-Putin Tandem

“Well, it sank,” said Vladimir Putin to journalists after the sinking of Russian submarine K-141 Kursk in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000. It was a serious crisis in his early presidency; his popularity among Russians was at the bottom. Since then, his reign in this large country has become by most measures successful, and Putin’s and Russia’s “ship” has not sunk. Nobody knows, however, who will be the new captain of the Russian ship. Will it continue to be Vladimir Putin, or will the rudder pass to or Dmitry Medvedev, the new president.

Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, has seen his star rise rapidly during his career in post-Soviet Russia, beginning with his close alliance to former Pres. Boris Yeltsin. Putin’s ascent to Russia's highest office received a sudden lift on December 31, 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, in accord with Russia’s constitution, then Prime Minister Putin became the President of the Russian Federation.

The Leningrad-born Putin later faced a presidential election – in line with the laws of the new Russia - which was held on March 26, 2000. He was elected in the first round. Although widely expected to be a puppet of Yeltsin, he immediately proved his autonomy, and began to control Russia in a strict and tough manner.

In his first term, Vladimir Putin changed the Russian national anthem and gained more and more legislative powers. Although such famed and powerful Russian businessmen as Roman Abramovic, Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky supported him when he was first elected, Putin quickly sought to break ties with them and put restrictions on all such Russian “oligarchs.” This manifested in the 2003 arrest, conviction and sentencing of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to eight years in prison for “tax evasion and other charges,” according to a New York Times article. In early 2007, the Times article continued, the pair were denied parole and new charges were brought against them, potentially extending their sentences in a Siberian prison an additional 15 years.

Putin ran for re-election in 2004. He won handily, with opinion polls indicating that the majority of Russians highly approved of him. Some say that it was because Russians like strong and powerful leaders, even if they are sometimes really cruel, as suggested by the lionization of Peter the Great or even nostalgia for Stalin’s reign. Despite their acknowledged cruelty, many Russians regard them as great leaders who built a powerful Russian empire. Whatever was the reason, Putin was re-elected to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote on March 14, 2004.

In his second term, Putin remained very active. In 2005, four "national projects" were launched in the fields of health care, education, housing and agriculture, an indication of the Russian president’s desire to increase Russians’ living standards. He meanwhile maintained his fight – some say suppression - against certain oligarchs. The fate of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev and their energy firm Yukos – which was nationalized under Putin’s watch - was seen by western media as a sign of a broader shift toward a system normally described as state capitalism. After the Yeltsin period, Putin restored the authority of the state, and he especially emphasized the role of landgas and oil as these are major weapons of Russia. Indeed, by using the “energy weapon”, the president restored at least one part of the Russian influence in the world. Russian Gazprom, a huge energy company became a threat for Europeans.

By the end of 2007, Vladimir Putin was preparing to leave office after his second term. A number of economic indicators demonstrate the success of presidency. Under his administration, the Russian economy saw increases in GDP (2000:10%, 2001: 5.7%, 2002: 4.9%, 2003: 7.3%, 2004: 7.1%, 2005: 6,5%, 2006: 6.7%, 2007: 8.1%), industrial and agricultural production, construction, real incomes, the volume of consumer credit (between 2000-2006 increased 45 times), and other economic measures. Moreover, poverty decreased by half from 2000 to 2007. While the numbers show that Putin achieved a lot of measurable success, and and anecdotal evidence indicates that he helped restore Russians’s pride, there is widespread belief that he put restrictions on Russian democracy. He has been called a quasi-tzar, and has been charged with restricting press. Putin detractors point to the government-ordered shut-downs of independent media outlets such as the 2007 closure of newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the alleged assasination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya as examples. Moreover, political demonstrations of the opposition political parties have been regularly disrupted by Russian police and opposition politicans have been harassed, smeared by the state-run media, barred from running for office and even arrested, as has been the case with former world chess champion Gary Kasparov, member of The Other Russia political party. Opinion polls indicate, however, that the Russian people are satisfied with Vladimir Putin, so finally it was not a suprise that they elected his nominee for presidency, Dmitry Medvedev.

"I will work on this together with Mr. Vladimir Putin, as the future chairman of the government," Medvedev told supporters in Moscow, according to cnn.com. Medvedev may not have much choice: Putin endorsed him and with his support he won the Russian presidental elections with some 71% of the votes on March 2, 2008. At least one voter, Tamara Razumova, gave credit directly to Medvedev for his election victory.

"He is a wonderful, young, handsome, energetic man,” Razumova told CNN, “who will continue Putin's work and be a shining example to our children.”

Medvedev, 43, was, like Putin, born in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg). A veteran of Russian politics and business, he has worked closely with Putin since the early 1990s, first in the business of gambling and later in energy, where he rose to chair the board of directors at Gazprom, the state-owned Russian energy giant. While he has claimed to be committed to fighting corruption and serving the rule of law, Kremlin critics assert – according to CNN - that similar pledges were made by Putin, only to prove later to be disingenuous.

Medvedev is the new president and Putin will become his prime minister, Medvedev stated afted his election. An interesting tandem has formed between them. The question is obvious: who will control Russia then? Dmitry Medvedev was Putin’s nominee, and he won the elections with his support. Much depends on Medvedev character: is he brave enough to lead Russia in his own way, in his own style? One thing is sure: Putin will remain an influential figure in Russian politics in the years to come. The future of Russia will rest heavily on the cooperation of these two men, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. A power struggle between them is not an impossible option. If Medvedev proves as determined and talented as his predecessor, then much is possible.

Bulgaria’s Secret Service – A Thing of the Past?

2008-03-03T22:29:00.015+01:00

By Dessi Krasteva

After checking 673 people, the Bulgarian File Committee revealed the names of 106 deputy premiers, ministers and vice-ministers, and one prime minister, who were collaborating with Bulgaria’s communist-era Secret Service (DS) and the National Army. The prime minister is Zhan Videnov (1995-1997) of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, who collaborated with the secret services in Plovdiv until 1990. Videnov’s term is widely associated with the severe economic crisis and corruption. The head of the File Committee Evtim Kostadinov said that there are members of the current cabinet who were secret service agents and collaborators, however, they are all on the vice-minister level. Some of the names include the Vice-Minister of Culture Ivan Tokadjiev, Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Politics Baki Huseinov, Vice-Minister of Health Care Matei Mateev, and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Feim Chaushev. The name of Bulgaria’s ambassador in NATO, Lubomir Ivanov is also on the list.

The Parliamentary opposition demanded that PM Sergei Stanishev removes from their posts all deputy-ministers who are on the File Committee’s list of Secret Service collaborators. Atanas Atanasov of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria said that the Commission’s report confirms that even though DS was formally abolished in 1990 it never ceased to exist and that the PM of a NATO and EU member country should not think twice before asking for the resignations of officials connected to the Communist Secret Services. Atanasov added that he does not believe Stanishev will take any action as he has previously shown that he trusts “such” people. Krasimir Karakachanov of the Bulgarian National Union pointed out that there is no law in Bulgaria that forbids former DS agents to take high political posts and that it is up to the government to decide whether they should be removed or not. The ruling majority restrained from lengthy comments and Orgnian Gerdjikov of the National Movement Simeon II even stated that the Bulgarian society is simply no longer interested in the topic.

When asked to comment, the US Ambassador in Bulgaria said “I don’t think that the File Committee’s findings, that the Bulgarian Ambassador in NATO Ljubomir Ivanov was a Secret Service collaborator will have any effect on Bulgaria’s relations with the US”. German political scientist Dr. Heinz Bram on the other hand said that “a country can never become a functional democracy if it doesn’t matter whether someone was a communist, a secret agent or a victim of this regime” when asked to comment on PM Sergei Stanishev’s words “What normal person cares about classified files?” Dr. Bram pointed out that he does not expect any consequences for the collaborators as the Bulgarian government has made it clear it is not interested in the subject and added that this will harm

Bulgaria

’s reputation in NATO and the EU.

Among the accused of collaborating with DS is also Bulgaria’s current President Georgi Parvanov. This became evident in June 2006 when his file was opened. President Parvanov admitted that he knew about the file, however, added that he thought he was working for the Foreign Ministry and not DS. The File Committee’s list of former Secret Service agents comes at a time when public dissatisfaction with the governing coalition is increasing and the cabinet is facing its fourth vote of no confidence based on corruption accusations.