Last night the riots started here in Budapest again, not as bad as they were last year (my cousins have showed my videos of the insane and pretty scary riots from the 18th of september 2006 which lasted for weeks after the fact.) but still pretty scary, and tonight its expected to start up again. If you go looking on youtube (which I suggest, because its shocking and worth a look) dont believe ambitious folks putting videos together calling what happened police brutality, the animals rioting caused the situations where such force was neccessary.

But, about this year... We were out a little pub not far from my cousins place (like a Hungarian McSorleys, I recokoned) and all of a sudden we get panicked phone calls from her mother insisting we come home ASAP because the riot had started by the Opera house and the containment zone was spreading. My cousin Daniella was panicking becuase she couldnt reach her husband, a police officer working the riots, and for most of the ngiht we were watching the news about malatov cocktails down on Anrassy ut. and seeing the police out in force all decked out in riot gear.

Its really sad that there are still ignorant, neo nazi supportors in a country where so much tragedy sprung out of fascism and antisemitism. During the second world war one out of every ten jews murdered was Hungarian, and following that countless thousands, maybe millions, were sent to gulags, tortured and murdered during the fascist and communist occupations, religion no longer stringent criteria for persecution, only free thought and opposition of the government. Talking with my cousin Kata and her friend Hannah, it makes me really thankful to live in a place where you dont have to live in fear of persecuation and oppression for your faith or beliefs.

So yeah, a bit of information to hopefully make all of us in Canada and the USofA stop and think a bit about how lucky we are.

(p.s. needless to say, we will be staying in tonight, slightly anticlimactic for my last night in Europe, but its probably better than getting in a spot and not coming home at all...)