survey

Study finds Asians largely ‘invisible’ in Hollywood’s top films

USA movie Hollywood

Aside from action star Dwayne Johnson’s hit movies, Hollywood’s most popular films have rarely featured Asians or Pacific Islanders in leading roles on the big screen, according to an academic study released on Tuesday.

The findings showed “an epidemic of invisibility” for Asians and Pacific Islanders (API) in movies released from 2007 to 2019, said the study from researchers at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. They also said the

under-representation and stereotypical portrayals

may have contributed to recent incidents of violence and harassment against Asians in the United States.

About 7.1% of the U.S. population identifies as Asian or Pacific Islander. In the 1,300 top-grossing films during the study period, 3.4% of leads or co-leads were played by API actors, the researchers found. Of 44 films with API actors in leading roles,

14 of them starred Johnson, the former wrestler known for the “Fast & Furious” and “Jumanji” films.

Johnson’s mother is from the Pacific island of American Samoa. Six movies featured a female API character in a lead role, the study said.

The report adds to research that has found under-representation of women, people of color and LGBTQ characters in movies and television. In response, Hollywood studios have pledged to increase the diversity of people in front of and behind the camera. Notable recent films included 2018 romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” and 2020 action film “Mulan,” both with large Asian casts.

While the study found the number of API characters lacking, the researchers also criticized the way many of them were portrayed.

Sixty-seven percent of API characters were shown as “the perpetual foreigner” with a non-American accent, were hyper-sexualized, subject to racial slurs or fell into another stereotype, the researchers said.

“Mass media is one factor that can contribute to aggression towards this community,” said USC professor Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “When portrayals erase, dehumanize, or otherwise demean the API community, the consequences can be dire. Without intention and intervention, the trends we observed will continue.”

The study was conducted by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative with sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen. It was funded by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation.

Unmet healthcare needs in the EU: Hungary ranks first

covid coronavirus hungary hospital

A survey reveals that over one-third of Hungarians have not had sufficient access to healthcare services in the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic. That is almost double the EU average.

As g7.hu reports, according to the most recent Eurofound survey, the postponement of non-essential treatments has affected Hungarians the worst out of all EU member states, where 36% of respondents said that they have had to miss a medical examination or surgery due to the lack of appointments in the past 12 months. That makes the situation only slightly better than in the summer of 2020 when

38% claimed that the pandemic had negatively affected their access to healthcare services.

The EU averages were around 20% for both rounds of the survey, while Denmark, Austria, and Germany reported the lowest figures, all of them under 15% both in the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2021. Some of the worst-performing countries alongside Hungary are Portugal and Latvia, where approximately 35% and 30% of respondents said that they had unmet healthcare needs, respectively.

While Miklós Kásler, the Minister of Human Resources, has recently given the go-ahead on non-essential treatments, as Népszava explains,

it is going to take a long time until the healthcare system can return to its pre-pandemic way of operation.

As the director of an unnamed healthcare institution told the journalists, currently, they are expected to keep vaccinating more and more individuals, sustain Covid-wards with the same capacity in case infection rates take a turn for the worse, and provide outpatient care, all while allowing their employees to take a long-overdue break.

The postponement of medical interventions and the lack of workforce have resulted in terrifyingly long waitlists for certain procedures. According to the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary (NEAK),

those who need cornea surgery could spend as much as 832 days, that is, approximately 2 years and 3 months waiting for an appointment,

while those requiring a heart valve implant or a knee prosthesis could only end up on the operating table within 558 and 512 days from the diagnosis, respectively. What is worse is that the actual waitlists could be even longer, as the data on the NEAK website are always published with a two-to-three week delay, and some people might not even have contacted their doctors yet about their health problems for fear of becoming infected.

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Sustainable house construction is important for Hungarians

Solar Panel Napelem Construction

Recently, újHÁZ Centrum, one of the major, fully Hungarian-owned building materials trade networks in Hungary, has conducted a representative survey about the importance of using sustainable solutions when building or renovating homes.

The survey was conducted between April 13 and 16, 2021. The survey involved asking 1,339 Hungarian citizens between the ages of 18 and 59 who own a smartphone. This means that the survey is representative in the aspects of gender, place of residence, region, and educational attainment, reports Portfolio.

The main thing that is evident from the survey is that sustainability is important for Hungarians, and they are willing to look into sustainable or renewable solutions when renovating or building their homes.

82% of Hungarians think that such solutions are more expensive than normal ones, but 54% of them also think that these investments will pay off.

The survey also asked people whether they know about any subsidies for environmentally sustainable building materials. Half of the people asked knew about such support and one-third of them would also like to utilise it during their homemaking.

Sustainability is important for more than half of Hungarians when planning their future homes or renewing their existing ones. For 7%, sustainability and eco-friendliness are the number one priority when considering homemaking.

Although most people think it involves more expenses, more than half of them think it is a good investment. Most people thought that solar panels are the most expensive to install, followed by heat pumps, and then solar collectors, and they thought smart bricks were the cheapest solutions from these options.

According to the report, the most popular technologies among respondents are solar panels (91%), adequate insulation (87%), and solar collectors (79%).

The most popular sustainable energy solutions
Data: Portfolio.hu (újHÁZ Centrum)

But luckily, the respondents were quite well educated and knew many more types of environmentally sustainable building solutions, such as heat pumps (56%), inverter air conditioners (45%), and smart bricks (36%), among many others.

Finally, the survey asked respondents about the source of their information. 70% of them find information about such building solutions on the internet on professional websites, almost half of them from the press, 32% of the respondents find information on social media, and 29% of them are informed by their relatives and friends.

Portfolio reported that many people ask for professional help, but Dr Rázsóné Szórády Csilla, the CEO of újHÁZ Centrum, said that the education of the general public is important as

“these environmentally sustainable solutions can not only increase the value of a property but also lower operating costs and improve the residents’ overall quality of life”.

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All Hungarian rivers are full of microplastics

Tisza River Pollution Environment Waste Garbage

Laura Jurecska, an environmental chemist, presented how much microplastics there are in Hungarian waters. 

A microplastic is a piece of less than 5 millimetres that is either already manufactured in this size or created by the destruction of a larger product. These contaminants are everywhere, in soil, air, and water, writes 24.hu.

Their effects are not yet known exactly; they are likely to pose a risk.

Laura Jurecska, an environmental chemist and an employee of the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Science of the Hungarian Eötvös Loránd University, talked about the microplastic contamination of Hungarian waters. An international study has shown that anyone who consumes only bottled beverages feeds 90,000 microplastic particles to their body each year. Anyone who consumes only tap water consumes only 4,000 pieces of plastic per year.

Most of the microplastics are excreted in the faeces. However, 10 per cent of microplastics are absorbed in the body and can cause inflammation. In general, the larger the amount of plastic we consume, the more likely it is to be excreted from our body.

Budapest raised the level of microplastic pollution on the Danube by a fifth.

This can be established from a 2018 Hungarian study and an Austrian one that measured the amount of microplastics in the Danube. This is also an important result because the Danube is one of the main sources of drinking water in Budapest. The water of the Danube passes through sandy, gravelly layers, during which it is cleaned. The cleansing effects of its bacterial community also contribute to this, so the drinking water base of the Hungarian capital is not endangered.

The situation of the second-largest river in Hungary, the Tisza, is even worse. According to some calculations, millions of pieces of microplastic float across the Tisza every hour. According to Laura Jurecska, it would be important to conduct a comprehensive study. In this, not only the current pollution should be observed but also the processes of possible changes. Jurecska adds that although there are large amounts of microplastics in every Hungarian body of water, none of them reaches the risky level.

Over a quarter of EU adults would refuse COVID-19 shot, survey says

coronavirus vaccine vakcina oltas

More than a quarter of adults in the European Union would be unlikely to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it was offered to them, a survey published on Thursday showed.

The results also suggested a strong link between vaccine hesitancy and the use of social media, particularly where social media is the main source of information, according to Eurofound which carried out the survey.

“Unfortunately, these findings reflect a failure to deliver persuasive and clear communication regarding the efficacy and safety of vaccines,” said Daphne Ahrendt, Eurofound senior research manager.

Bulgarians were the most reluctant to get the vaccine, with 67% of adults saying they were unlikely or very unlikely to get it. In Ireland, only 10% of adults said they would not get the shot.

The survey found an east-west divide across Europe. Except for France and Austria, the intention to get vaccinated was above 60% in all Western member states – with Nordic and Mediterranean countries, Denmark and Ireland having even higher rates.

The rate of planned uptake in Eastern member states was much lower, ranging from 59% in Romania to 33% in Bulgaria.

The main influence on vaccine hesitancy was the time spent on social media and which medium was used, the survey said. The proportion rises to 40% among those who use social media as their primary source of news.

Among people who used traditional media including press, radio and television, only 18% of respondents were vaccine sceptics.

The survey also found that students, employed or retired people were less vaccine hesitant than average, while 39% of unemployed people or those with a long-term disease of disability were more hesitant.

The survey was conducted between February and March 2021, after a full year of living with COVID-19 restrictions across the bloc’s 27 member states.

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Read alsoHow can we stop the next pandemic? Here’s what WHO panel recommends

Only 33% of Hungarians believe that Hungary is a democracy

Poland Hungary democracy

According to a recent survey, only 33 per cent of Hungarians are satisfied with the level of democracy in the country.

The survey looked at people’s perceptions of democracy in 53 countries, involving about 50,000 people. The survey was commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, writes 444.hu.

One of the key findings of the poll is that democracy remains popular.

At the same time, controlling the coronavirus pandemic was less effective in democratic countries than in less democratic countries. At the start of the pandemic, during the spring of 2020, roughly 70 per cent of the participants were satisfied with their government’s epidemiological measures in both democratic and less democratic countries. This satisfaction decreased in both measured groups; however, in countries with weaker democracies, it decreased by only 5 per cent. Only 51 per cent of those living in democracies were satisfied with the epidemiological measures taken by their government in 2021. There is also a big difference among continents, as

45 per cent of Europeans and 75 per cent of Asians are satisfied with the epidemiological activities of their government.

The poll asked which great power people fear threaten democracy in their own country. It may be surprising that respondents consider the United States to be the greatest threat to their country’s democracy (44%). The US is followed by China (38%) and Russia (28%). The operation of tech companies (48%) poses a greater threat to democracy than any of the three great powers.

An interesting contradiction is that 81 per cent of respondents think democracy is important, but just over half of the participants think that democracy works in their country. The most satisfied countries are Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and China. In these countries, 71 per cent of respondents think that the democratic functioning of their government is adequate.

Hungary, Poland, and Russia are at the other end of the satisfaction list.

In these countries, only 33 per cent of respondents believe that their country is operating democratically. At the bottom of the list are also Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Despite the fact that Gergely Gulyás declared that “Hungary is a model democracy”, his  statement does not seem to be matching Hungarian citizens’ opinion.

Here is what will happen in Hungary once 5 million people are vaccinated

esetleg bistro terrace terasz

The curfew seems to be the worst (or the least effective) of the coronavirus restrictions: one-third of Hungarians want it to end as soon as the number of vaccinated people reaches 5 million.

As napi.hu reports, based on a representative survey carried out by Pulzus Research, approximately one-fifth of Hungarians support easing any of the current restrictions once we hit the 5 million mark, except for the curfew which 33% want to see gone. The options, out of which respondents could choose multiple, were the following:

  • Being allowed to attend concerts (for those vaccinated);
  • Being allowed to host wedding receptions with any number of guests (for those vaccinated);
  • Stores can stay open as long as they want (for those vaccinated);
  • Opening swimming pools and other sports venues to everyone;
  • Complete cessation of the curfew.

The first four were supported by 19, 20, 22, and 23% of respondents respectively.

Surprisingly, 41% of Hungarians polled voted for the option “neither”, saying that they would not make these steps conditional on the number of vaccinated individuals.

According to napi.hu, the large proportion of those who do not want the reopening to depend on vaccination could be partially explained by the fact that 18% of Hungarians are anti-vaccine, based on the data of the National Statistics Bureau. Another possible reason for the prevalence of this answer is that some may think that the previous measures came too early and we should not risk another great wave of infections.

There were no significant differences between the responses of men and women; however, those possessing a college or university degree were more in favour of keeping restrictions in place regardless of the number of vaccinated individuals than those with a high school diploma or less.

The residents of Budapest were also less enthusiastic about any of these possible measures than those living elsewhere,

except for putting an end to the curfew, which 32% of them supported, which is essentially the same as the nationwide average.

Contrary to PM Orbán’s plan to vaccinate 5 million people by mid-May and 7 million by early June, the finish line seems to be quite far away. As Telex pointed out, on the 6 May, there was already a gap of approximately 600,000 between the planned and the actual number of vaccinated individuals. According to the latest data released by the government, approximately 4,725,000 people have signed up for the vaccine; therefore, the biggest obstacle in reaching the 7 million mark, which is the necessary minimum for herd immunity, is likely to be not the lack of vaccines but the lack of willing individuals.

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Hungarian employees among the least willing to get vaccinated

employee mask covid coronavirus

Over 40% of Hungarians who were polled said that they would not get vaccinated even if it was required for work.

As napi.hu reports, based on the findings of the newest Randstad Workmonitor survey, among the 34 nations within its scope, Hungarian workers were the 3rd least willing to get inoculated. 59% of respondents said that they would get the vaccine if it was necessary for work, far below the global average of 75%. The two nations where even lower figures were registered are Switzerland and France, with 56% and 57% of those polled saying that they would sign-up for the jab for employment reasons, respectively. Employees in China, India and Brazil seem to be the most motivated to get the vaccine, as over 90% of them said that they were willing to do so.

The key to understanding the stark differences between countries might lie in the demands of the labour market. For instance, in India, 74% of employees said their workplace expected them to get vaccinated, while globally, almost one-quarter of respondents agreed with this statement.

In Hungary, the figure is minuscule: 6%.

Apparently, some employers took a more lax but still motivating approach to inoculation, as slightly more than one-third of Hungarian employees reported that they were being encouraged at work to accept a vaccine. However, that still puts the Hungarian figure under the global average of 46%. 42% of Hungarians said that being vaccinated helped or would help their job prospects, which is, again, slightly lower than the international average of 56%.

It seems that Hungarians are not particularly worried about their colleagues being vaccinated:

only 33% of respondents said that they would not feel safe at work until all their coworkers were inoculated, tying with Switzerland for the last place. On average, 48% of Europeans agreed with this statement, while the global average turned out to be 53%.

As Pénzcentrum writes, while a great part of the survey was concerned with the perception of the coronavirus vaccine, respondents were also asked about the effects of the home office. 48% of Hungarians said that they struggled with maintaining a healthy work-life balance, which seems to be much less of a problem around the world, as every other country reported lower figures in response to this question. Getting work done at home, however, is not a problem for most Hungarians, as only one-fifth of respondents stated that they were having difficulties of this kind. But it is not a joy either, as 80% of individuals polled would return to their workplace immediately if they could.

Karácsony Gergely Budapest Mayor Főpolgármester
Read alsoSocialists suggest guaranteed work for Hungarians?

Romanians say Hungary wants Transylvania back

trianon map hungary

In the opinion of almost two-thirds of Romanians, Hungary wants to take Transylvania back for itself.

The statement is not new or shocking information. The issue of Transylvania, being part of “Great Hungary” until the end of the First World War, is still causing daily turbulences more than 100 years after the incident. Many Hungarians, whose ancestors became foreign citizens on the other side of the border, would like to recuperate the territory. A portion of the descendants of these ancestors, who are now Romanian citizens, would prefer to belong to Hungary and be reunited with their roots. On the other hand, Romanians are comfortable with the current situation and do not like at all the idea of Hungary trying to regain the territory that was once part of the country.

From time to time, public surveys or studies conducted by a private entity are published to show the opinion of the general public. A month ago, INSCOP Research, a private research company, published its findings related to the standpoint of Romanians they asked. That time, almost half of Romanian citizens asked by the company answered that Hungary was seeking to break Transylvania away from their country.

The new survey conducted by the Laboratory Analysing Warfare Information and Strategic Communication (LARICS), operating under the Romanian Academy, states that nowadays, even more people,

almost two-thirds of Romanians think that recuperating Transylvania is still one of the biggest objectives of Hungary.

As Fötér writes, the representative survey asking the opinion of 1,000 people via a phone call between April 12 and 13 clearly shows that 66.2% of people asked agree with the statement that Hungary is working towards its goal to separate Transylvania from Romania.

Many Romanians not only think that Hungary wants to acquire territory for itself but they go further with their accusations.

63.6% of them think that Hungary actually interferes in Romanian internal affairs in an unmaintainable way.

However, the survey does not specify what this statement means exactly.

The news site also mentions the interesting fact that further percentages show. According to the answers, we can say that Romanians fear Hungary more than Russia or China. When asked an almost identical question of whether these two superpowers try to meddle with Romanian internal politics, only a little over 45% of the people said yes to Russia and even fewer of them, 21.9%, said the same about China.

It is very interesting, though, that despite the negative view on the whole of the country and thus on the Hungarian government, 47.5% of them still have a very positive opinion of PM Viktor Orbán, seeing him as a politician committed to peace.

trianon map hungary
Read alsoRomanians say Hungary wants Transylvania back

Hungarians have much more confidence in the EU than in their own government

European Union Hungary Flag

The newest Eurobarometer survey shows a marked decrease in the amount of trust Hungarians have in their government, along with a growing faith in the European Union.

As hvg.hu writes, this change is in line with the tendencies observed in the entirety of the European Union. Confidence in the EU, measured annually, is at 49%, the highest it has been since 2008, while only 36% of European citizens say they have trust in their national government, down from the 40% recorded in the previous survey period.

Hungarians have a more positive view of the EU than the average citizen: 59% have given the Union a vote of confidence (an increase of 6 percentage points since the summer of 2020), while only 39% have expressed trust in Orbán’s government, down from the previous figure of 46%.

Those who are unsure make up 5% of the surveyed population in both cases; therefore, 56% of Hungarians tend not to trust the government, while 36% feel the same way about the European Union.

The extensive survey polled Europeans on a variety of matters, including what they believed to be the two most important issues that their country had to deal with. Perhaps unsurprisingly, health came first, being mentioned by 44% of overall respondents and 50% of Hungarians. Other pressing matters include the economic situation, included in the top two by 33% of EU citizens and 30% of Hungarians, and unemployment (25% and 20%, respectively).

A sad fact is that while only 16% of the EU population marked the cost of living as an especially important issue, 37% of Hungarians did so, highlighting how many locals struggle with making ends meet.

And in spite of PM Orbán’s campaign warning about the risks of immigration, only 7% of Hungarian respondents named it as a particularly serious problem.

However, Hungarians appear to be much more divided when it comes to the government’s actions against the pandemic: 52% are very or fairly satisfied, while 47% are unhappy with the official measures. The data from the previous year show that it is the handling of the second wave of the pandemic that has caused significant dissatisfaction: in the previous survey, 69% of respondents said that they were satisfied with the government’s choices regarding the coronavirus situation. The figures are similar in the case of the EU’s decisions: 55% of Hungarians agree with them, while 42% expressed their discontent. It must be said, though, that most Hungarians (74%) believe that the European Union has played a key role in providing Hungary with coronavirus vaccines.

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Hungarian universities in the top 100!

University of Debrecen

Compiled by Times Higher Education and measuring the impact of higher education institutions in 17 categories, the list features six Hungarian universities in total.

According to hellomagyar.hu, the rankings, which were recently published for the 3rd time, are based on the research activity of the institutions in relation to the sustainable development goals of the UN. Some examples are no poverty, good health and well-being, sustainable cities and communities, and climate action. The full list includes a total of 1,115 universities from 94 countries.

In terms of overall performance, the University of Pécs reached the highest position, ranked somewhere between 201st and 300th, the same category as the Sorbonne in Paris or the University of Massachusetts.

“Naturally, we are very happy about the results, but we still have a long way to go. Future development is possible with the help of our excellent teachers and students and increasingly better research background, thanks to the funding we have received both from local organisations and the EU,” said Attila Miseta, rector of the University of Pécs, in an interview with BAMA.hu.

It was not the only non-Budapest institution to do well: the University of Debrecen and the University of Szeged both made it into the next division (301-400), while the highest-ranking university of the capital, Semmelweis University, only got as far as 401-500. However, that is not to say that Semmelweis is not an excellent university, rather, that it is a specialised one, only offering medicine-related degrees.

In fact, in the category of good health and well-being, Semmelweis was ranked as the 10th best university in the world, tied with the Kaohsiung Medical University of Taiwan.

The University of Debrecen also achieved a high score in this category, coming in at 87th. The University of Szeged was featured in all area-specific rankings, which is an impressive feat in itself, ranking 57th in the “Zero Hunger” category, 59th in “Life below water”, and 84th in “Life on land”. In the case of the latter two, the University of Szeged was not the only top-ranking Hungarian university, as the University of Debrecen placed 100th in “Life below water” and the University of Pécs came in at 99th in “Life on land”.

The remaining two Hungarian universities, Eötvös Loránd University and Szent István University, which were included in the ranking, did not do particularly well in any of the sub-rankings, the only notable result being the 201-300th place of ELTE in gender equality research.

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No bikini body: Hungarian obesity increased during quarantine

obesity

When you’re confined to your room or apartment for months, it’s no surprise that those extra kilos are harder to lose and easier to gain.

According to a recent survey by two local health centres, 31% of Hungarians have gained weight in the past year, while 15.6% are now slimmer than before, writes Bors. The non-representative survey was carried out between March 24th and April 5th, in the form of an online questionnaire, receiving answers from 834 people.

Among those respondents who admitted to carrying a bit of extra weight, 58% had put on 2 to 5 kilos during the pandemic, while 30% reported a weight increase of 6 to 9 kilos.

When asked about their eating habits, 44% stated that they had changed. 46% said that they cooked more often, while 38% confessed to having an increased tendency to snack. Every tenth person also reported having consumed more alcohol. According to the survey, almost two-thirds of Hungarians (63.3%) have exercised less than normally during the quarantine, however, on a more positive note, 35.9% have tried out a new sport.

Looking past the matter of weight gain, the pandemic has also had a number of negative effects on the physical and mental well-being of Hungarians. 82.5% of those asked said they slept less and/or worse, 45.9% had felt lonely, and 38.8% had experienced a new health problem. And yet, only 11.6% had reached out to anyone, asking for help.

Szabolcs Gáspár, head doctor of Budapesti Mozgásszervi Magánrendelő (Budapest Musculoskeletal Private Health Center), one of the institutions involved in the survey, has lamented the findings of the study, saying that

Hungarians aren’t fond of exercise anyway, and for many, the pandemic has taken away the very last bits of physical activity, that is, walking around at school or the workplace.

He has also emphasised the negative consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. As he explained, spending too much time sitting puts pressure on the patellofemoral joint, which eventually leads to knee pain. He also mentioned that chronic pain is often first felt in the back and the waist and later on in the lower extremities. People tend to try to make the pain go away by further decreasing the time spent exercising; however, that is a vicious circle: joints need to be able to move in order to function properly. He recommends at least 15-20 minutes of exercise, three times a week, to avoid such complications.

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Survey: Majority of Hungarians satisfied with government crisis management

viktor orbán radio

The majority of Hungarians disagree with left-wing politicians who say that Hungary should have waited for the European Union approval of Chinese and Russian coronavirus vaccines before introducing them, daily Magyar Nemzet said on Friday citing a new representative survey by Nezőpont Institute.

The survey commissioned by the paper showed that support for vaccination has increased and three-quarters of adults said they supported it. Including people already vaccinated, some 6 million Hungarians plan to get vaccinated, it added.

Even among people critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, support for vaccination increased compared to last week but it remained under the national average of 66 percent.

At the same time, 80 percent of Orbán’s supporters also support getting vaccinated, the paper said.

A total of 53 percent of those surveyed said that once the Hungarian authorities issued their approval for Chinese and Russian vaccines, it was good that Hungary started administering these jabs. Only 33 percent said that Hungary should have waited for an EU approval before using these vaccines. Even 35 percent of those critical of Orbán expressed support for the government’s position in the vaccination drive, the paper sad.

Some 13 percent of the people surveyed said that epidemic management would have been better if the left wing had been in government. Among potential left-wing supporters critical of Orbán, some 27 percent said that a left-wing government would have managed the coronavirus crisis better than the current government and only 5 percent of voters with unknown party preference said the same, the paper added.

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Vaccine acceptance record high in Hungary

vaccinated-vaccine covid coronavirus

The ratio of Hungarian adults wishing to receive the coronavirus vaccine has gone up from 45 percent this January to a record 72 percent, the daily Magyar Nemzet said on Monday, citing a survey by the Nézőpont Institute.

Vaccine acceptance grew from 30 percent last year to 45 percent in January, when the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was accredited, the survey said. Further growth may have been spurred by the growing choice in vaccines, well-organised inoculation points and “pandemic fatigue”, Nézőpont said.

About one-fifth of Hungarian adults want to get inoculated but are yet to register, the daily said.

Pro-vaccination sentiment is more prevalent among government sympathisers than among opposition voters, the survey has shown. Some 60 percent of opposition voters and 82 percent of pro-government voters are ready to accept the vaccine, Magyar Nemzet said. That difference was much smaller at the beginning of the year, with opposition voters lagging behind the full adult population by merely 3 percentage points, the daily said.

The survey was conducted nationwide on April 6-7 on a sample of 1,000.

Read alsoWhat is expected to change in Hungarian COVID measures?

Survey shows that the majority of Hungarians are environmentally-conscious

Tisza River Pollution Environment Waste Garbage Effort

A great majority of Hungarians share an interest in the future of the planet and they demonstrate awareness of environmental problems that have an influence on their lives and future generations, a survey commissioned by the Alteo energy group showed.

An average person could list 12 environmental hazards and among the most serious problems they cited deforestation, climate change and air pollution, the representative survey conducted in January showed. Some 80 percent said that environmental protection was a common responsibility for society.

A total of 92 percent of the people surveyed said they had an interest in environmental protection and 82 percent said environmental problems directly affected their lives.

Some 63 percent said the life of future generations depended on environmental protection but nearly a third of people said they were not convinced that environmental protection was among the most important tasks for individuals.

The survey revealed that 87 percent are anxious about climate change and 31 percent were very concerned about the potential consequences. They were mostly Budapest residents and university graduates, having the highest level of awareness of environmental hazards.

The survey showed that wasting food, water, energy and clothing, and global warming were the most well-known environmental issues.

The top three actions that people said they were willing to do for a greener future were selective waste collection, avoiding energy, water and food waste, and cutting back on shopping.

Renewable energy was cited by every tenth household and some 4 percent of respondents said they were driving electric cars.

People aged above 50 and those with higher levels of education demonstrated the most willingness to protect the environment.

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Read alsoShocking documentary on the unimaginable pollution of Hungary’s second-largest river – VIDEO

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Eurostat: Hungarians are one of the most worst-paid people in the EU

There are huge differences in the cost of labour in some Member States in the European Union. Moreover, this difference is growing year by year. Typically, people are paid much more for work in Western countries than in the East.

Eurostat released last year’s survey data. In the EU, the hourly wage was €28.5 in 2020. In this respect, the last place goes to Bulgaria, where €6.56 is paid on average per working hour, writes penzcentrum.hu. Romania is also at the bottom of the list, with €8.1 per hour of work. Unfortunately, compared to the previous year, Hungary also deteriorated and finished as the third worst place.

In Hungary, the average hourly work earns you 9.9 euros.

Last year, Hungary was the fourth worst, together with Latvians, but while Latvians improved, Hungary got even lower on the list. Among Hungary’s neighbours, Austria has the best position, as an average hour of work there earns you 36.7 euros. This is almost four times the Hungarian figure. In addition, Slovakia (13.4 euros), Slovenia (19.9 euros), and Croatia (10.8 euros) are ahead of Hungary. 

Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Iceland, and France are at the top of the list. In the latter three places, an average working hour earns you more than €40. The Danish workforce is the leader, with 45.8 euros as hourly wages, which is more than four times the Hungarian figure.

Eurostat examined total labour costs.

So, the hourly wage also includes workers’ wages, bonuses, cafeteria, and other benefits. In addition, training and the employee’s work clothes are included as well. Moreover, the statistics also take into account sick leave, petrol money, and free coffee in the office.

This significantly nuances the situation. For example, in a western country, extra costs are higher, as telephone subscriptions or travel wages are likely to be more expensive than in Eastern Europe. The Eurostat survey examined all sectors of the economy, except for agriculture and public administration. Furthermore, it did not count small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. 

The data explains why there are more and more western brand factories in Hungary.

Does Hungary want to take Transylvania back?

Geological Trianon Map Shrinking Hungary

According to a new public survey, the vast majority of Romanians feel they are considered “second-class citizens” in the European Union. At the same time, almost half of the people asked think that the objective of Hungarian policy towards their country is “to break Transylvania away from Romania”.

Even after 100 years, the issue of Transylvania still causes turbulences and disagreement not only between the two countries involved in the matter but also inside them. When in reality, 

INSCOP Research, a private company of sociological research, public communication and political science, has issued their new poll on Monday. This survey is the third part of their comprehensive study called “Public distrust: West versus East, the rise of the nationalist current in the era of misinformation and the phenomenon of fake news”. This third chapter focuses on attitude towards foreign companies, the relationship with Hungary, opinion on minorities and the Schengen area.

One of the most important questions was whether the people asked agreed with the statement that

“Hungary seeks to break Transylvania away from Romania”. 49,5% of the respondents said yes,

43,2% disagreed, while 7,5% did not answer or did not know what to answer.

87,2% of Romanians think that the country does need to protect the rights of minorities living on its soil. However, 11% thinks the opposite.

The vast majority of people asked,

78% thinks that Romanians are perceived as “second-class citizens” in the EU,

meaning that only a bit over 20% thinks otherwise.

The previously issued first part of the comprehensive survey shows that

the majority of the population thinks that the country has its place in Western political and military alliances,

however, it still needs to defend its national interests, even if it means risking its position as an EU member state.

The second part made public last Wednesday shows that 51.6% of the respondents trust the European Union (as opposed to 47.5%), while a little less of them think the same when it comes to NATO, most precisely 49.4% (and almost half of the people asked, 47.9% is against the organisation).
Concerning different countries, Romanians’ level of trust towards them varies significantly: Germany is the most trusted country based on the opinion of 58% of the respondents, followed by the USA with 47%, then China with 19% and Russia closes the list with only 16% of trust.

The survey was conducted by INSCOP Research and funded by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, created by a Romanian-Latvian-American partnership to support civil organisations and media projects. The computer-assisted telephone interviewing surveying carries a +/- 2.95% error margin and was conducted between March 1 and 12.

The Transylvanian Trilogy
Read alsoNew Trilogy explores the rich history tied to Transylvania

Survey: Hungary is only a partly free state like Senegal or Peru

orbán budapest

According to the latest report of Freedom House, Hungary lost one point on a list ranking countries based on people’s access to political rights and civil liberties. Hungary received 69 out of the 100 points with which it fell into the category of the partly free countries. That means that the country’s ranking is a bit better than India and Ecuador but could not precede Senegal or Peru.

According to freedomhouse.org, “Freedom House rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report. Individual freedoms—ranging from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law—can be affected by state or non-state actors.“

Based on the results, Hungary received 26/40 on political rights. In the introductory overview, they wrote, for example, that PM Viktor Orbán “pushed through constitutional and legal changes that have allowed it to consolidate control over the country’s independent institutions.” They added that recently, the government accepted measures hampering operations of opposition groups, critical journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

Moreover, they wrote sentences like “after Fidesz took power in 2010, it used its parliamentary supermajority to redraw constituency boundaries in its favour.” Below, they say that “opposition parties are disadvantaged by the politicised distortion of the advertising market, notably including the market for the country’s many billboards.”

In the case of civil liberties, the ranking is much better: 43 points out of 60. However, the paper writes, in this regard, for example, that “the constitution protects freedom of the press, but Fidesz has undermined this guarantee through legislation that has politicised media regulation.” Furthermore, it shows how pro-government figures managed to acquire a large part of the Hungarian media market. There were only a few categories in which Hungary received the maximum number of points. These were freedom of movement, freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labour organisations, and freedom of assembly.

Interestingly, Hungary’s ranking is just a bit better than India’s and Ecuador’s, and the country could not even precede Senegal or Peru.