But what about all the persecuted Christians in the world???!! **warning, contains mild irreverent sarcasm**

So there was a bombing in Budapest this past weekend that is speculated to have been directly targeting police officers.

PS. Uh, thanks everyone for NOT ONE of you contacting me on facebook to make sure I was okay. I can take a hint. And it happened an the area of the city I pass through everyday to go to Hungarian class, BY THE WAY. Not taking all of your facebook silence personally.

This blast comes just in time for tomorrow’s fear-based referendum on whether or not the people of Hungary are keen to take in refugees under the European Union’s proposed member-states refugee settlement quota. This quota would see Hungary having to take in anywhere from 1000-3000 refugees in the next year. Currently, Hungary processes 30 people per day (largely women and children) from the make-shift refugee camps on the other side of the welcoming razor-wire fence Hungary built this past year on the Serbian border:

Earlier this year, the government and army began to stop Hungarian citizens from even bringing supplies to the refugees in these camps. Like, I’m all for some “processes” when it comes to refugees and migrants but at the VERY least they should be treated with dignity. In August, one of Hungary’s elected officials for, get this, the Christian Democratic European People’s Party (YIKES!!), got himself in hot water for suggesting on twitter that pig’s heads should be put up along the fence to deter Muslims from wanting to pass through the fence. I’m pretty sure the Koran (or Hadith… don’t know, one of those pieces of classic fiction) is clear that Muslims can most definitely engage in typically haram “things” without repercussions when it comes to saving their lives. I’m surprised this educated elected official doesn’t know this.

On October 2nd, the country will vote on this question:  “Do you want the European Union to be able to order the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without parliament’s consent?” (Piet, 2016).

Basically it is asking if the people of Hungary are alright with having the EU tell them what to do without the Hungarian government’s approval. Remi Piet (2016), in a current article from the Hungarian Free Press, writes that this question couldn’t be more bias and postulates that the result might be different had the question been written as: “Do you want to protect a handful of civilians escaping war?”.  It is expected that, perhaps the turnout to vote will not be that high. In fact, it was postulated a couple days ago in the press that they won’t even receive the 50% voter turnout required for it to be a valid referendum. But the question of whether Hungarians want to be told what to do by an external body is anticipated to be met with a resounding “Heeeellllll noooo!!”.

For the last number of months, the ruling party, the Fidesz party, led by the congenial Viktor Orban, has been campaigning for the no-vote by plastering fear-mongering billboards all over:

This one translates as: “Don’t take a risk with the future of Hungary: let’s all vote with a no!”

There have been many creative billboards providing Hungarians with fun facts about the scourge of immigrants:

…instilling the fear of losing jobs to immigrants (where have I heard this discourse before, hmmmm, Canada? America?):

And of course, implying that refugees will surely commit terrorist attacks:

However, I’m happy to report that there has been a ‘joke’ party that has emerged in recent months to counter this fear mongering with their own mocking nonsensical billboards. They are called the Two-Tailed Dog party and they have been plastering their own ads everywhere as well.

This one is says, of the most current Olympics: Did you know? At the Olympics the biggest risk reported by Hungarian athletes was all the foreign athletes!

This one below says: “Did you know? The average Hungarian is more likely to see a UFO than a refugee in his lifetime“:

These ones say, “Did you know? There is a war in Syria” and “Did you know? Over 1 million Hungarians want to leave Hungary and go to Europe.”:

“Thank you Austria for not closing your borders to Hungarian refugees in 1956!”

… my personal favourite considering my father and grandfather were one of the MANY Hungarians that fled to Austria as refugees during the Hungarian revolution…. ALSO the biggest year for immigration to Canada in it’s history due to the influx of Hungarians.

Anyways, you get the gist.

There is one international issue where Hungary has recently decided to be generous, however. In September it was announced that they were opening a government department for persecuted Christians and are giving 3 million Euros to help oppressed Christians in the middle east. This disturbs me yet does not surprise me….they have a Christian Democratic European People’s party for christ’s sake!

I keep hearing and reading the statement in the media that the government’s views on the refugee issue does not reflect the Hungarian people’s beliefs. On the one hand they are indeed the people who vote in these horrific uber-right wing parties. On the other hand half of the eligible voters are expected to stay home on Sunday for this referendum, supposedly out of apathy (which is better than intolerance) or out of protest. And some of them (god bless them…my “people”), are part of the above-mentioned two-tailed dog joke party (who have obviously somehow raised sufficient funds  to have been able to do this massive national anti-referndum campaign) and are suggesting people spoil ballots in wonderfully creative ways like this:

THESE Hungarians are a demographic after my own heart.

Piet, Remi. September 24th, 2016. Hungary is free to follow the British Road and leave the European Union. Hungarian Free Press. From: http://hungarianfreepress.com/2016/09/24/ hungary-is-free-to-follow-the-british-road-and-leave-the-european-union/