e-Gov:The Universal Scapegoat
For most people (and the media) yesterday was spent putting together as many of the pieces of information about what actually happened on Sunday. Alongside all the personal accounts the media machine slowly cranked into gear following an unbelievable silence (which had been reported as a news blackout). The personal accounts really brought home the impact of the storm, but the news being gathered from those in positions of power, privilege and authority was and is unbelievable.
In short, they are asking us to believe that an email is responsible for it all. Yep, an unread email did it. Four people died, hundreds injured... all because someone (unnamed) sent an email to someone (unnamed) telling them important news (undisclosed) about a serious storm heading towards 1.5 million unsuspecting people, but that someone never read what someone else wrote until... there were bodies in the river.
Let's just play part of that last paragraph back: "...sent an email..." Sent an email?!
It's easy to blame technology and computers because they can't answer back and your average technologically challenged audience will mildly sympathise with you. But e-Gov is planned, implemented and managed by people (normally very well paid) for people. The contracts and sums of money involved are generally enough to compensate for inevitable risk. And yes, the sums are enough to demand that there is a clear audit trail for all transactions, so that the cause of problems can be found and dealt with (translate that as 'blame attributed and the people responsible called to answer for their actions').
Apparently, according to the meteriological office, the organisers haven't asked for a pre-event weather forecast for years. Sending an urgent email was 'their only available option'.
The lack of any news from the scene, tv reports or news coverage was apparently being due to cameras being rendered useless or them just being in the wrong place at the right time. Because of the panic the reporters felt they should hold back on saying anything, apparently surveying the scene all night and on until morning when they finally started to inform the public of their findings. I'd love to be present when the state TV comes cap in hand begging for more money for the public service they provide.
Perversely, you can watch the meteriological re-enactment of the storm played out at 15 minute intervals from the meteriological picture archive (time is recorded in UTC so you have to add 2 hours to get the local time in Budapest): 17h15 17h30 17h45 18h00 18h15 18h30 18h45 19h00 19h15 19h30 19h45. The police found out too late that trouble was on the way. The police knew by 20h40 that all was not well. There was some 20 minutes to act before the worst struck the 1.5 million oblivious crowd, but a crowd of that size would take at least a few hours to safely disperse. The police had had to find out from calls from their colleagues in Siófok about what they were about to get hit with. Meanwhile the head of the meteriological office had been furiously sending off urgent warnings since 19h39. Had someone acted, there was clearly time to avoid what then followed.
What is kind of worrying is the precision and force with which the storm hit the gathered crowd. Had the winds only been the predicted 80-90 km hour instead of the recorded 120-130 km hour then lives would not have been lost, trees would have stood and roofs remained in place. But the full force did hit the waiting crowd, when only a few kilometers away in Újpest the winds were only 40-50 km hour.
Damage will take days to clear as so far an estimated 3 thousand cubic meters of detritus (trees, branches, roofs and rubbish) now lines the streets of Budapest. A clean-up operation that will take 470 people and 50 machines days to complete. Although all of the Hungarian press is so far reporting the confirmed deaths as 4 (though the english language press report five), there are still many in a critical condition. One 15 year old is still fighting for her life.
So, your Hungarian word for the day is bunbak or 'scapegoat'. You will never learn a more useful and universally applicable word in Hungarian. Practically all day-to-day situations, conversations and life experiences call for its use. There are some days were it is practically every third word spoken. Learn it and rejoice that you are finally becoming encultured in what it means to be Hungarian.
Storm in a Teacup?
According to the latest information from the Hungarian National Sailing Association it wasn't a large boat that overturning in the storm on Sunday, but a speedboat. Overall they can't currently put a figure on how much damage was caused when 7 or 8 boats collided in the turbulance, or if they did collide.
It seems the news of boats being capsized on the Danube are mildly exaggerated. No big boats sank, but cutlery was dropped, plates spilled, glasses flew in the air and awnings ripped on a number of the river's floating restaurants like the Columbus and the Spoon.
If you want pictures of the chaos caused by the storm there is a really good set published by the cloneshit (hu) blog over on flickr. And the whole thing is a big talking point here.
This morning people are picking through the detritus and working out what it all means. On the National Holiday right at the appointed hour for the firework display as everyone (1-1.5 million) was gathered along the Danube the skies opened, a gail force wind appeared from nowhere, the heavy rain quicky turned to pelting hail... Someone was sending a message. Just not any of the politicians or meteriologists, who according to all reports all knew what was coming, but still put everyone in danger.
This morning, despite the corrections to the initially exagerated news the death toll stands at 3 with hundreds injured. The toll of the injured that were carried or crawled to the hospitals is pretty depressing. Of the 287 so far reported injured, 44 are serious. They are still searching for two missing people in the Danube. Estimated damage is about half a billion forints (you do the math).
In very late breaking news it's good to see that the Guardian in the UK is keeping up its unrivaled record for cheesy, out-of-date and cliched stories about Hungary. They have only just covered the Hungarian Tourist Board's cartoon affair 'scandal'. Better late than never, hey? To be fair they did manage to contain their journalistic tourette's, so never mentioned goulash in the piece - now that is great editorial self control. British readers can look forward to a story about last night's events sometime in November.
So, your Hungarian word for today is 'tömegszerencsétlenség' or 'mass-misfortune' (also, stampede, bloodbath or 'collective disaster/badluck' depending on the situation) - as in "példátlan tömegszerencsétlenség" or 'unparalleled mass-misfortune'. A pretty neat summary of the event, but let's hope you don't have to use it too often.
