Article

On May 19th, two unknown assailants attacked an exhibition by photographer Yevgenia Belorusets at the Centre for Visual Cultural Research (VCRC) in Kiev. The artist's photoworks are dedicated to the lives of Ukrainian LGBT and Queer families, who have to deal with harassment and threats of violence on a daily basis. It's not the first time that the center, which is under constant danger of being closed down by the authorities, is a target of censorship.

In the 1990s, Hungary was considered a role model for the socialist transformation of centrally planned economies in Eastern Europe. Today, economic growth in Hungary is lower, and public and private debt are considerably higher, than in other East Central European countries. The country was led into this plight by politicians who concealed the real situation with irresponsible populism, delayed reforms, and promised the moon.   

For twenty years, the Hungarian political system was a liberal democracy characterised by a multiparty system, free elections, free media and independent courts. But in the past years the country has returned to an authoritarian system. Andras Bozoki, former Minister of Culture between 2005 and 2006 takes a closer look at Hungary's transition away from democracy.

The new Hungarian Constitution disempowers the political community, curtails  fundamental rights and confronts citizens with the prospect of having to live in a state which exhibits authoritarian tendencies in general. But fatalism is not an option.

The Hungarian political system rests on a powerfully centralised party machine, a viable alternative is not in sight. The opposition is scattered and lacks of democratic structures and identity. What are potential sources for a democrativ change? László Lengyel and Eszter Nova (Financial Research Institute in Budapest) about possible sources of change in a country not used to democratic self-defence.

In a recently published online article György Schöpflin, Hungarian political scientist and member of the European Parliament for Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, laments that foreign countries do not understand Hungary. For Schöpflin Hungary is a “small culture with its own very different language”, which is not heard by the rest of the world. Wolfgang Klotz, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, analyzes the values of Hungary's conservatives.

The people of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) have held their 8th Peoples Forum (APF) /ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) in Cambodia from March 29-31, 2012 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia where the ASEAN Summit took place beginning of April. 

Green technologies in themselves will not bring about the change we need. Growth at any price must no longer be the paramount goal. Agriculture is one of the sectors in which reform is most urgent – and, at the same time, most difficult.  

The semi-civilian government of Myanmar has begun to initiate first democratic reforms. But the careful change raises major challenges to the country, especially well-trained professionals are a scarce commodity. Zeya Thu talked in an interview with the Heinrich Boell Stiftung about the recent changes in his country.

In this essay, the president of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Barbara Unmuessig, critically reflects on the opportunities for and the shortcomings of the concept of a "Green Economy" to influence economic policy making globally, its relationship to the paradigm of sustainable development and the need to rethink our understanding and focus on growth.