Népszava reported on January 3 that the Budapest Transit Authority (BKV) was forced to recall 18 of the 222 metro cars that the Russian company Metrovagonmash delivered to the City of Budapest to the tune of 69 billion forints between 2015 and 2017. The metal floors of the cars had rusted to such an extent over the last couple of years that the cars had become unsafe.
As I reported extensively earlier, the purchase of these metro cars was mired in scandal. Anyone who’s interested in the finer details of the deal should search for “Metrovagonmash” on Hungarian Spectrum.
The story, in a nutshell, is that the very old Russian cars purchased in the 1970s for the Metro 3 line were in such bad shape that the City of Budapest had to look for replacements. They were planning to buy new, modern metro cars, but the Orbán government wouldn’t guarantee the necessary loan. The central government said it would cooperate only if the city spent the money refurbishing the old cars. Experts were convinced that the old cars couldn’t be repaired, but Metrovagonmash, which built the original ones, swore that they were repairable and said that fixing them would be much more economical than purchasing new ones. The City of Budapest reluctantly agreed; they couldn’t do anything else.
As the metro cars started to arrive, the suspicion grew that the critics of the deal were right, that the cars were brand new but of an older vintage, cars that the Russian company couldn’t get rid of. They were clunky, unattractive, and had no air conditioning. They were, in fact, the same model that has been running in some Russian cities for years. Putin, with Orbán’s help, did a favor to Metrovagonmash against the interests of the people of Budapest and Hungary. Not too many people believed that these cars were actually “repaired,” but both Mayor István Tarlós and the management of BKV steadfastly denied any monkey business.
To get back to the problem of rust, BKV now admits that rust spots close to the doors appeared already in May 2017, shortly after the first 15 cars were delivered. The problem was pointed out to the company, which took its own sweet time in responding. By the time BKV got an answer, Metrovagonmash had delivered 78 cars. According to unconfirmed intelligence, these 78 cars had been returned to the company by a previous customer and were left outside in the yard of the company for years. Under these circumstances, it was not surprising that soon enough rust appeared on car roofs as well. All this was bad enough, but the situation turned out to be even more dire. Once the mechanics opened up the floor, they saw out that rust had also attacked the innards of the car, which could cause the whole structure to collapse. Nonetheless, the BKV management wasn’t panicked. They were optimistic that Metrovagonmash would promptly fix all the problems. If the repair work were to take longer than two days, the Russian company would have to pay €23,000 every day. Well, as we learned from Népszava, Metrovagonmash hasn’t paid up, and BKV sued the company.
It was under these circumstances that BKV’s new board of directors held a meeting with the company’s management. One of the top managers, pressed about the extent of the “refurbishing” of the cars, said that the only parts of the delivered cars that were the original were the doors between the individual cars. Thus, he practically admitted what everybody, including Mayor István Tarlós, had denied before — that the “old” cars are actually new, albeit obsolete. I should add here that, even now, the managers of BKV are not being truthful. It turned out that the old doors were operated by keys while the new ones are operated by remote control. Therefore, not even those doors are from the old Budapest cars. István Vágó (DK), a member of the new board, noted on his Facebook page that if it is ascertained that the metro cars are new, the authorities, meaning the central government, the City of Budapest, and the management of BKV, may be charged with the misuse of authority and public money, violation of bidding rules, evasion of EU regulations, and customs and VAT fraud.
István Tarlós, who in the past sounded like such an authority on the technology of metro cars (he has an engineering degree), now refuses to talk to Népszava, claiming that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the deal. He wasn’t even involved in the choice of the Russian company. BKV’s management, which has been in cahoots with the Russians, keeps defending the Russian position. The firm’s defense of Metrovagonmash is so obvious that Magyar Narancs reported that BKV’s decision to sue the Russian company for 6 billion forints in February 2019 was “a miracle.” The BKV management is trying to minimize the problem, perhaps in order to soothe the rattled nerves of the passengers, but the damage seems serious. The factory manager at BKV admitted that the trouble with the floor of the cars occurred immediately after their delivery. They noticed that the floors were buckling, which at the time they chalked up to their stress tests. Even now, he wants us to believe that the rusting is due to inadequate caulking at the doors. But what if the rumor about the frames of old metro cars rusting in the yard of Metrovagonmash is true?
Looking for rust spots in a stripped down old-new Russian metro car
Anna Szalai, in today’s Népszava, wrote an article on the subject after she had the opportunity to view one of the metro cars under repair. As the attached photo attests, all of the innards of the cars had to be removed, and even the factory manager has no idea how long it will take to resolve the problem. He doesn’t know how much it will cost either. The rusted parts of the 2 mm steel plates inside the flooring have to be cut out and replaced and coated with several layers of covering material. BKV “experts” admit that rusting will be a constant problem with the Russian cars because their frames, unlike those of Alstom, Siemens or CAF cars, are not made of stainless steel.
Pesti Bulvár called the metro car scandal “the greatest crime of the Tarlós era,” which I find unfair. To order new cars, Budapest needed a government guaranteed loan. But Orbán refused, guaranteeing the loan only if the old cars were refurbished. Tarlós did try to cover up the details, but in the final analysis for this particular crime Viktor Orbán must bear the ultimate responsibility. For some unfathomable reason, he was the one who lent his name to a business deal that he must have known favored the Russian side. He most likely knowingly cheated his own people and country.
Ask Lada for a “Fiat”? – A Lada is what you get!
And even the steel-work of a lada is of better quality than the steel (or steal?) work of the metro “renovation”.
Michael
It’s bizarre that a European country would consider bying any rolling stock or vehicles from Russia, which has no good references at all (except for some very specialized vehicles for cold climate use). But here Putin has Orbàn by the ….s.
Oh my god! Orban knowingly cheated his own people and country? Well, that’s a first! [sarcasm squared]
Hungary is a country where most people can work and live in general and infinite irresponsibility. Moreover, politicians can get away with murder, for others too, the most serious crimes would not be in court until the statute of limitations expire and the criminal cannot be punished.
So now we know why people call Hungary a toilet…because everyone ships their shit there…
Literally ship their shit to Hu – Slovenia and Croatia (known so far).
It looks that the Russians cheated Orban but then Orban should have known better about doing business with Russia.
Using old and now substandard stuff is just one variation on the crime of selling bad (cheap) parts as good (much more expensive) stuff and a multi-billion dollar a year industry in Russia.
Phony medicines and aircraft engine parts have both been linked to deaths in Africa and Asia, where the imitation goods are often sold. If brought to justice, Chinese and Russian counterfeiters would likely be executed.
https://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/The-Fatal-Shame-Of-Russia-7-29-2013.asp
Ovi
Not likely, rather quite obviously
Orbàn cheated the Huns and now the dupes have again to foot the huge bill. How much Orbàn pocketed here is not known yet.
Hajra magyarok (fizetni)!
Not at all, Orban wanted the Russians to be here and Orban just couldn’t care less about the actual outcome. He had his cut from the deal and that’s basically about it. Case closed as far as he’s concerned.
Just a ‘minor’ point; those fantastic Russian metro cars were more expensive than brand new air-conditioned modern western ones… And Tarlos? Nothing moved without his directive…
kinder-surprise cars “we should not be complaining that we got something nicer and better than expected,” he said.
https://dailynewshungary.com/tarlos-russian-metro-cars-for-budapest-not-new/
If he expected even worse, what did he expect????
The Russians may pay for the repairs-“The Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV) on Thursday said it will recoup damages caused by faulty renovated carriages earlier delivered by Russiaʼs Metrowagonmash, state news wire MTI reports.”-Friday, January 10, 2020
Yes, of course the shady deal Orbán did will result in a payment from his dear friend Putin. Funny idea! Orbán and Putin are made from the same criminal material, what they got they will never give back. Another shady deal will follow to settle the claim – and we, the taxpayer, may pay another time for that garbage on wheels.
Dos929
Nothing moved /moves without Orbàn’s directive, he got openly involved in this “deal”. The refurbishment trick was a way to give the deal to the Metrov.. who wouldn’t have a chance in a new cars tender.
CORRUPTION, Corruption, corruption …..
s’pose this is another example of responsible economic management.
This does not bode well for the Paks nuclear project.
Those at least the Russians seem to build well, Finland is building something similar to Pak-2 (VVER-1200), China and Egypt have also signed contracts with Russia for this type of reactor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanhikivi_Nuclear_Power_Plant
But it does not bode well for the other Russian venture, that with Transmashholding https://railway-news.com/transmashholding-hungary-supply-1300-cars-egypt/ .. Metrovagonmash is a subsidiary of Transmashholding.
“Those at least the Russians seem to build well, Finland is building something similar to Pak-2 (VVER-1200), China and Egypt have also signed contracts with Russia for this type of reactor”
Well the reactors in Finland, China and Egypt at least didn’t explode yet.
And about Transmashholding? Orbán gave half the order as a present to Putyin, after Gantz won the entire Egyptian tender. But Orbán doesn’t care about Hungary, Orbán only cares about companies of friends and families (entourage replaced the remaining Hungarian part of the tender).
Gantz alone never won, and likely it would have never won, it is too small for such a feat.
It was the RU-HU consortium which won and it “won” what was, next to certain, also a shady and corrupt process, as these big state acquisition contracts often are in most of the world. A lot of Egyptian officials expected and received their “due” and, next to certain, political factors and personal connections also played a big role in the decision. Egypt has also chosen Russia to expand its fighter-jets fleet (50 MiG29), Russia will also build a Pak-2 type nuclear reactor for Egypt.
But Hungary is not Egypt or China. What Orban doesn’t seem to factor well is that in the dog-eats-dog world of sovereign and independent states Hungary is but a poodle – “Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
You can do deals with Russia and China when you are piggybacking Germany&EU but in this case, the metro-cars affair, Hungary would have been better with the Estonian deal.
Wrong, as usual! They won the tender – alone. Part of the deal was financing and the Hungarian export bank gave the needed letter of intent. But Orbán told them to breach the contract and now we are financing the Russian deal. Gantz is not part of the royal court, so nothing Orbán is interested in, our economy is something the dictator is not interested in. Poodle Orbán is laying on his back under snarling pit bull Putin. Éva wrote about the scandal as well, just look it up.
And Egyptians are not stupid, they don’t try to buy things Hungary doesn’t produce as jets or reactors. But we do have a couple of good companies that can offer way better products than that Russian crap. Among them railway carriages.
-Wrong, as usual! They won the tender – alone-
No man, they never won. Egypt and Hungary began negotiations in 2014 toward a “possible” deal on the railway cars but they never finalized and there never was an award to Gantz.
Egypt had also other options which included companies from Italy, India, China and Romania.
Yes Egypt had alternatives and has chosen (!) the best offer according to their own terms, the carriages produced by a Hungarian company of good standing. The deal never finalised, because Orbán cancelled the agreed credit after de Egyptians made the decision. Now we taxpayers may finance the Russian deal with another Hungarian company that only experience on this field is being the belonging of an Orbán friend. Crime and corruption.
This is not only the Russians’ fault.
Everybody knows that there is no government sponsored project in Hungary without corruption – there’s always someone or a group which makes some extra money.
I’ve told the story before:
My builder said that he and his small company would never act on government projects, even local ones, because he knew that a big company was sure to win – so why invest any time and work there?
PS:
We’ve taken the railway trains to Bp now several times (free for us pensioners …) and there also are extreme differences in the cars’ quality there.
And don’t even think about the locomotives – when you pass them you get a strange feeling …
PPS:
This is no critical remark re the people working there – I think they give their very best, just like the people in education and health. But the work environment is kind of horrible for them!
Re: ‘And don’t even think about the locomotives – when you pass them you get a strange feeling …’
Is it because perhaps there’s that ‘Orban Express’ on the books running in the wee hours between Budapest and Moscow? Locomotif ‘diplomacy’ alive and well on the rails.
DARTH-VADER HELMETS FIGHT THE RIGHT
https://www.thelocal.de/20191218/climate-of-fear-how-germany-is-planning-to-crack-down-on-far-right-extremism
QUORA QUESTION RE LOW RATE OF GERMAN CRIME
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-crime-rate-in-Germany-so-low-Is-it-a-merit-of-the-system-the-culture-or-of-the-police
KRIMINALITÄT IN DEUTSCHLAND ··· This Quora query popped up and, since we are evidently talking about criminal fraud, I thought that I’d give you a chance to opine on the Quora topic, Wolfi, as you are the resident Hungarian Spectrum expert on all things German. Remember, those two racist trolls will be watching and will try to use your words against you, so make it good. VERSTEHST?
MAGYARKOZÓ
Most of the answers are ok – of course there’s also the typical “blame it on the migrants” that we find among our resident fascists here. So no need for me to add anything …
Hungarian government dealing in a nutshell.
I know of an American business leader who wanted to donate 1,000 used computers to Hungarian schools. He was called in to discuss the project with Hungarian leaders.
After they listened to his proposal their question was this:
“If we allow you to do this, then what do WE get?”
Hajra Magyarok!
Should we buy a used Russian bridge for the replacement of Chain Bridge to gain gov’t support?
Tnx Mihály. A great one!
I suggest this one
EXTOR COMMENT ON KOSSUTH BRIDGE
https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/01/14/a-fidesz-defeat-in-gyors-mayoral-election-would-be-a-serious-blow/#comment-181803
NOT BAD-LOOKING ··· All things considered, Kossuth Bridge looks quite okay here, given that it was built hurriedly in less than one year. The 1946 fotó I used showed the bridge without light standards.
MAGYARKOZÓ
“For some unfathomable reason, he was the one who lent his name to a business deal that he must have known favored the Russian side.” Among those who watch Hungarian-Russian relations (Zoltan Sz. Biro etc.) there is a view that it really wasn’t the Russians themselves who pushed for the Metro Car deal and Paks2 but Orban and his clan (including long term pro-Russian siloviki like Istvan Kocsis, who was was recently sent to prison for embezzlement at MVM, the state energy holding, but most likely will never spend a day in prison). Of course the Russians wanted to sell things and make money but the real push came from Orban’s side. Orban knew that he can steal more and more easily from these deals than from deals with Western companies. Even if nobody was convicted in the Alstom, Metro Line 4 deals, it was just too much inconvenience. Moreover, by giving business to Russians Orban reckoned that he can purchase the generosity of Putin who is an important backer of Orban’s in Orban’s quest to dismantle the EU and saw conflicts, and to remain in power in Hungary. (Remember that Orban wanted to buy RTL Klub via Rosatom; Orban… Read more »
Logical point and a lot of supporting precedents, it do you know more re this particular case?
No, I read this in an discussion between reliable journalists (probably on tumblr.com which is popular in Hungary with some journalists, instead of twitter.com).
What a coincidence!
Transparency International (Of course they are an outlet of Satan Soros – at least zolidiot will say so … 🙂 ) just published its latest corruption perceptions index
https://www.transparency.org/cpi2019
Hungary together with Romania has rank no 70 in that list of 180 countries.
In the last five years Hungary’s score has become much worse …
No comment necessary.
Updated my infogram, see at https://infogram.com/v4-corruption-perception-index-2006-19-1gqo2qlvnenkm78
Except in Slovakia, in h other V4(+) countries, more corruption perceived in 2019 than in 2018.
Hungary now equal worst with Romania…
The ongoing struggles of Metro 3. I always used to think that the “new” cars were refurbished “old” cars. Certainly the ride is now still as bad as it always was. You might call Metro 3 Viktor Orbán’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Railroad – noisy and rough. But of course the real story is far worse. I think the Viktor fancied himself as the Great Transport Engineer, or was he just trying to gratify Poisoner Putin, or were the two of them just working out a mutually beneficial fraud? We shall never know. Incompetence and Greed form a powerful mix for producing bad outcomes and O1G has done it again. And guess what? The Great Hungarian Nép get shafted again. But we should be fair. Who else can Orbán steal from other than his own beloved people? And as has been pointed out on this page, if you think the Metro 3 is bad, wait for Paks 2 to come on stream. I am reminded of Altan’s cartoon with reference to the then Italian government in La Repubblica last year. It showed a tired, bare breasted prostitute saying, “Well, we’re in the brothel. Let’s have fun.” Sadly it is apt here… Read more »
When the time comes (and it will, if EU subsidies are channeled away) and the city no longer is able to pay the BKV-employees their salaries, at least they can redeem some value out of the enormous Russian scrap-heap (for which they already paid some). The BKV-worker’s union would do wisely to prepare for that predictable outcome.
Metrovagonmash motto said by their ‘Villamos Villys’ to all the magyar commuters:
‘It’s not what you ride…the journey’s the reward!’ And come on yer traveling the scenic routes. We didn’t put windows in for nothing’.
MVM co…..engineering specializing in ‘gingivitis’ outbreaks to metal.😎 Such Russian car ‘dentistry’.
Well! Here is an example of doing business with an American company: Bechtel signed for a mega-project to build a freeway in Romania about two decades ago.
http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/romania-m8oves4-clo0s8er-e4n2d-8d0is6as4t2ro8us/
$1.5 billion for 52 km of highway built. Now that is business, the American way!
Makes the poor deal with Russia for those metro cars seem like a non-story. Especially given that there is no indication that Hungary will not be compensated for the problems.
“$1.5 billion for 52 km of highway built.”
Romania was back then eager to join NATO and actually that was not the only cost, in total it paid way more than that when you add the other arrangements “mediated” back then by the US Embassy in Bucharest.
Joining EU was not cheap either. Most famous, public scandal, was the $2 billion paid to UK (Blair govt.) for two useless old frigates which Brits decommissioned and were preparing to scrap for metal. But again, that really was really only a drop, Austria got the oil and the petroleum industry, 3% of GDP ( the Austrian company which bought had less value than the Romanian which was bought), the French and the Germans got the public utilities (monopolies, sure money), etc. ..”Joining the West” was quite expensive, but joining Russia, or playing alone, would have been even worse and anyway such course had no support form the Romanian public.
And what does that have to do with anything here? Take your pills!
It has everything to do with Eva’s thesis, namely that this is what you get for doing business with the Russians. I rightly pointed out that doing business with the Americans can be far more costly than this.
Idiot
When you got no viable argument left, just went your frustration by calling people names!
Well, if you insist on dealing with Trump surrogates,
it’s what you deserve…
Bechtel is a privately held global company and I worked for them for a little over one year as a subcontractor following retirement from the US Army reserves. Bechtel does both international construction and what is called now by the US Department of Defense PMSC work. (Private Military and Security Contracting) The best book on that company is Sally Denton’s “THE PROFITEERS, Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World.” Here is a link to the NY times review of that book https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/books/review/the-profiteers-by-sally-denton.html .
The Romanian construction project referenced by Zoli is discussed in Bechtel’s annual report. Interestingly there was once a Russian Bechtel connection which is discussed in Ms Denton’s book. Zoli may actually like this firm after reading the book. By the way I made close to 7 times my salary on an hourly basis as a US Army reserve captain in the time I worked for Bechtel. If I was willing to work overseas again for prolonged periods of time I might have stayed with Bechtel to be honest.
Zoltán, again not the truth! “The Romanian government paid Bechtel about $1.5bn, mostly in penalties” means that only a lesser part was for the highway actually built, but most for ending the contract without building further according to the contract. Yes, a financial disaster, but no signs of fraud, as in the Metro 3 case.
You might want to look into it further. Romania wanted to end that contract indeed, but it was because Bechtel kept increasing the price they were demanding. Contract was written in the spirit of doing exactly this, and the reason Romania signed in the first place was because US overlords dictated its signing. Like I said, this is what it means to do business with US. You are right, no sign of fraud, just economic neo-imperialism!
After Putin and Orbán made a criminal deal to make the country you don’t live in more and more dependent to Russia (compared to Paks 2 a small part of course) is both economic neo-imperialism and crime. Nothing to compare and if I am well-informed Hungarian Spectrum is about Hungary. 2 important reasons why to discuss Metro 3 here.
off-topic but it may bring hope to some here
French writer Renaud Camus has been sentenced to two months in prison. The writer, who is the author of Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), was charged with “public incitement to hate or violence on the basis of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.” The conviction stems from a November 2017 speech in Colombey-les-deux Eglises. The part of Camus’ speech that specifically garnered the attention of judges was when he talked about European people being replaced : “The irreversible colonization is demographic colonization, by the replacement of the population,” said the author, adding, “The ethnic substitution, the great replacement, is the most important event in the history of our nation since it has existed; as with other people, if the story continues, it will not be that of France.”
Maybe, now that Macron has started arresting writers, he will also arrest Orban, and Salvini as well, next time when they visit France.
Being arrested and convicted for the simple fact that he cited a statistical fact in terms of demographic changes taking place in Europe. How “democratic”.
Careful in Canada as well, I understand that you live there. You can lose your job easily if don’t toe the PC ideology even private conversations let alone in formal (work-official) settings. It has started resembling the old USSR.
“Two drunk men on a flight from Labrador to Newfoundland last Monday caused an outrage, leading to their sacking, after it emerged that one of them at said “Eskimo,” which is now a politically incorrect term.”
https://nationalfile.com/canada-men-fired-for-saying-eskimo-in-private-conversation/
ovoda, you found again a racist right wing (fascist?) site for your fake news? 🙂 🙂
Even snopes.com doesn’t know this provider of real cr*p.
If you look at a real news site the story is rather different:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/racism-apology-labrador-1.5393719
PS:
What I’d like to know:
Do you have a list of these crazy sites or do you search for them until you find the stupid lies that you’re looking for to divert from the topic discussed here?
“If you look at a real news site the story is rather different”
It’s no different at all. It is exactly the same story. Your link only adds to it the North-Korea style of mandatory groveling apology for straying from the party-line.
Here’s what really happened (from my link):
As passengers boarded the flight during a stopover in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Beck used the derogatory term “Eskimo” to describe an Indigenous person, prompting Scott to remark, “Can you smell him?”
This incident was witnessed by Innu Nation member and former Labrador MP Peter Penashue, and other passengers on the flight.
Both Beck and Scott admit this happened, and to an allegation that they mocked an Innu woman speaking her language during a phone call.
Their behaviour prompted some passengers to begin photographing and videotaping the men, and later publishing imagery and messages on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Ovoda calls that a private conversation? 🙂 🙂
It is exactly the same text, you could have copy/pasted it from my link as well.
Idi*T, they were not fired for saying eskimo in a private conversation – they screamed it and other derogatory remarks through the plane.
Do you smell him? – Well, you stink enough so we can call ourselves lucky that the net doesn’t transport smells yet …
Just like you scream your idiocies here – and on other sites too?
I could quote what you bastard wrote about Greta – is that enough?
One trick donkey again – let’s talk migrants…instead of
the 180 BILLION SCANDAL of buying decade old and obsolete technology by Orbàn from Putin.
You can talk, Observer, nobody stops you but your contributions are often no more than some ramblings about ‘fascism’. Go ahead, tell us something new about that affair that we don’t know.
Well, ovoda – why don’t you tell us what you think of buying those expensive rusting cars?
Have you ever been in Bp even, riding the Metro?
Probably not and we know that you give a f*ck for the problems of ordinary Hungarians.
I’ve said it before:
One should put you in a village in Eastern Hungary (or Romania or Slovakia) where you have to rely on the money you can make by working …
You probably wouldn’t survive very long …
I have already posted three comments about it : the problems of the Russian industry are old and systemic, even in their own airline and military aircraft industry 30% (!) of the products/components are counterfeited, that is : they are cheating and endangering themselves, let alone the Hungarians. Orban should have known better, what happened was not something exceptional.
Judging by the frequency/train length relationship in combination with DC-motor propulsion, I think the BKV grid is probably maxed out. Also, it’s not easy to find suppliers of compatible motor technology today.
“public incitement to hate or violence on the basis of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.” is no “statistical fact”. That conspiration theory is nothing else but hate mongering. We call such a judgement rule of law and no president of France has the right to tell judges how to interpret the law in a judgement. Macron would have to resign if he did the same with French judges as Orbán does right no with Hungarian judges.
Has the law against hate speech been created without caring about the democratic constitution of France? Is the law against hate speech against the human rights? Is hate mongering a right to the inventors of conspiration theories? No, no and no. So don’t complain when democracy and rule of law are working in France.
The Dalai Lama stated that Europe must remain European:
https://www.newsweek.com/dalai-lama-says-europe-europeans-refugees-should-go-home-and-rebuild-1120065
Based on precedent of this case, The Dalai Lama should be arrested next time he goes to France. Will you still call it “rule of law” then? Now if they do not arrest the Dalai Lama based on this precedent, then it can only be called selective application of whatever law they claimed to follow. Is that still “rule of law” as you claim?
When something is backed by factual data, it is not a “conspiration theory”. Factual data shows that percentage of non-European colonists in Europe keeps growing. Unless trend is halted what will happen is exactly what the French dude said. Its a matter of basic arithmetic. Yet another case where the progressive-Marxist-globalists will claim that 1 + 1 = 3.
What this is, is the end of free speech in much of the Western World! Free to speak only as long as one is ideologically correct!
“Europe should offer safe haven to those in need …. Europe was “morally responsible” for helping the refugees who fled war, hunger and persecution in their homelands …. European nations must “help them, educate them” and ensure they have a good quality of life …. they [the refugees] ultimately should rebuild their own country.”
This is far away from spreading hate and calling for violence against minorities whether this fits into reality is at least questionable. For some it might be possible, a few do anyway. But factually it is concerning the reality of life thought way too easy.
And the entire “replacement” theory makes 2 major faults in the very beginning: There is no plan to do so and adding some people to others who don’t leave will never result in a replacement. All resulting is absolutely wrong seen these wrong assumptions. And even this is no crime, but using it to spread hate and call for violence is. Zoltán, that you love hate speech and try to protect convicted criminals who committed that crime is no reason to change the French penal law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innu
INNU [LABRADOR/QUEBEC]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit
INUIT [NORTHERN CANADA]
NEWFIE JOKE ??? ··· That the two from down on the island [Newfoundland] lost their jobs is unfortunate, that they readily owned up to their nasty words is a bit surprising, however the two Newfs could not very well deny matters given the number of witnesses. They were not fired for using the now-passé term ESKIMO, they were fired for being drunk dipshit racists.
In Canada, the term is FIRST NATIONS, not Indians, when referring to members of various indigenous peoples. The INUIT, no longer referred to as Eskimos, live in the Canadian North. The INNU live in northern Quebec and in Labrador, which is north of Newfoundland. They are not Inuit.
Dave Beck [fotó left] said that he’s not a racist [dubious], that he is (at most, his implication) “culturally illiterate”, however their alcohol spoke their truths, namely that they are (maybe were) racist boors. They’re getting their just deserts, a perhaps-heavy price to pay.
MAGYARKOZÓ
Re: Metrovagonmash cont’d
And they above all should have known as Neil Young said..
‘Rust never sleeps’.
“You pay for this, but they give you that”
👍👍👍
If Budapest does not go the Russian route for its rail cars the next cheapest provider based on bids will likely be China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation CRRC. Bloomberg news ran a very major story about their contracts here in the USA https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-04/don-t-trust-china-to-make-our-subway-cars-industry-warns . Chicago has a CRRC plant, because the number of cars being bought here is so huge 846 cars. That of course dwarfs the 222 cars in Budapest. While Eva’s post describes the scandal of the refurbished cars in Budapest, CRRC with its new cars in the USA has its own nightmare. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in October took all of its new CRRC (China Railway Rolling Stock Corp.) MA-built Orange Line rapid transit cars out of service to install replacement door bump stops after one door leaf opened on one car while its six-car trainset was in motion. That was about 152 cars which of course created a crisis in Boston. Of course CRRC was the lowest bidder for the contract. (see https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/rapid-transit/mbta-orange-line-cars-pulled-from-service-report/ ) While some posters on this blog have argued against Budapest buying refurbished cars as illogical because it was actually more expensive than getting new ones, they are indeed correct depending on… Read more »
“Chicago has a CRRC plant, because the number of cars being bought here is so huge 846 cars.”
Sounds like a joke. US has deindustrialized and shipped overseas 70 000 factories and 6 million manufacturing jobs since the late 1990s …and now “it has a CRRC plant” producing cheap and crappy metro-cars (in US !) from which it buys ?
Does it even produce them there or it merely assemblies the parts produced in China ?
Some of the parts are made in China and some by CRRC in California using a joint partner firm there. In order to avoid tariffs I would suspect more and more parts will be made here.
— In order to avoid tariffs I would suspect more and more parts will be made here.
Hopefully so, if Trump doesn’t change his mind again.
Trump doesn’t have a ‘mind’–he has an ‘intuition’, fed by whoever lays some gelt on him.
If I remember well Alstom was the company that offered complete new subway trains for less than the costs for “repair”.
If that was true it was a very good offer indeed.
I am afraid it was not very good offer, but a pretty normal price. Alstrom is usually not making presents. The Russian deal was, well, a little overepriced….
not “less” but “only marginally more” expensive
“the cost of replacing the metro cars outright, rather than simply refurbishing ones that are already 40 years old, would have cost only marginally more than the Metrovagonmash deal. A full replacement would also have made sense in that the city could have purchased the cars from Alstom, thus having roughly identical rolling stock on lines M2, M3 and M4. This would have reduced on-going maintenance costs. The full replacement would have provided metro cars that Budapest could use for the next 30 years. Instead, the only marginally cheaper Russian option of refurbished cars will run for just 20 years, before they have to be replaced.”
http://hungarianfreepress.com/2016/05/17/russias-metrovagonmas-and-the-budapest-metro-refurbishment-a-curious-arrangement/
ZOLI YET AGAIN MANIFESTS HIS RACISM
https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/01/21/a-propaganda-stunt-attack-on-gypsies-lawyers-and-prisoners/#comment-182409
CHERRYPICKING STATS ··· Statistics in isolation prove next to nothing. People pick stats that suit their points of view. Stats are facts in isolation.
CONFIRMATION BIAS ··· Yesterday, Zoli (one of the HS resident racist trolls) cited an article that (in his mind, at least) justifies his racism. Not to prove an argument, he cherrypicked that piece to show hatred. That makes him a LOOZER. Magyarul LÚZER. Ditto for SHEEPMAN.
GDP SHORTCOMINGS ··· Income inequalities amongst social strata can be hidden by GDP stats that show high per-capita incomes. South Africa had high GDP percap stats during its apartheid years, however the figures did not benefit most of the blacks restricted by official racism.
MAGYARKOZÓ
Ferenc Laczo has an essay on Orban’s government in the current edition of Visegrad Insight https://visegradinsight.eu/asymmetrical-strategies-orban-eu/ that some of Eva’s readers might find interesting. This section I am deeply in agreement with to be sure: “The European Union has remained an often misunderstood actor in the sorry political developments that have unfolded in the country since 2010. It has often been assumed that there is an unresolved conflict between European institutions and Hungary’s wayward governments. But such a conflict has only been part of the story. The other, in many ways more uncomfortable truth, is that European political and economic elites, including EU institutions, have been complicit in legitimating and strengthening Orbán’s radicalising regime. Through the unprincipled shielding of Fidesz by the nominally centre-right European People’s Party and through massive European subsidies allocated to Hungary, which have been largely controlled by the country’s power-holders, EU institutions have helped the Orbán regime reshape the country’s political order. After almost a decade of Fidesz’s ever more encompassing anti-liberal takeover, the balance sheet of European actions is – to the surprise and disappointment of Hungarian citizens in favour of a liberal democratic regime – far from laudable. To an extent, the EU may have… Read more »
“If Mexico falls apart sufficiently it is always possible the USA will again invade Mexico and attempt to impose a regime more to our liking.”
Good chances that until that happens California (Mexifornia) will “fall apart”, that is will become a typical looking third world country (or a ‘shithole’ as Trump would have it)
“Were California a Country It’d be the 17th Most Unequal Nation on Earth, Ahead of Mexico & Guatemala”
https://nationaleconomicseditorial.com/2018/01/17/californian-income-inequality-tops-mexico/
good moment to recall a voice from the past :
“Goodbye—if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico—ah, that is euthanasia.” –
October 1913, last letter of Ambrose Bierce
There is no duel power with criminal cartels situation in California Ovidiu, please correct whoever is providing you with your content for posts of that reality. The quality control over at Információs Hivatal (IH) is apparently deteriorating consistently, I can only hope that other operatives reading these posts inform the office of the Prime Minister what is happening.
Not yet kameraden, not yet. Mexico wasn’t either always that bad.
But it is clear in what direction has been moving for the last 30-40 years. It isn’t anymore the white middle-class paradise of the 1960s. California is rapidly becoming a two-tiered society of the very rich and the very poor similar to the other Latino/South-American/ 3rd World countries. Do you think that somehow it will stop and get in reverse ?
“Two miles of homeless people living on the street ? In the U.S. of America ? In 2018 ?..The reality is much grittier and much grimmer: ruinously high taxes; middle-class flight; dangerous streets; and a homeless problem so vast, so serious, so incredible that coastal California is beginning to resemble Rio de Janeiro or Caracas.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/02/is_california_becoming_a_third_world_country.html
Little fascist ovoda, can’t you stop linking to fascist sites? Is it ingrained in your brain? Or do you get paid for it?
The situation in California is much more complicated – simply said:
People from all over the USA, especially the Obesity belt (formerly known as the bible belt) go to CA because living there is much easier.
In some of those religious southern states they’d run a high risk of being killed – or at least imprisoned.
You know that the US have the highest rate of people in prison in the developed world?
Again a failure to comprehend things by Ovidiu, what he is discussing is social inequality in the USA which has always been a reality. As a conservative I accept that as part of the reality our economic system. In fact most conservatives who are not Trump supporters accept that reality here. For us the real question is providing minimum supports for parts of our population who are minimally productive at best, and some indigent. That debate over what is the humane minimum is a very real one among conservatives in the USA.
For liberals in the Democratic Party there is a belief society owes its residents far more than minimal supports. Again I think Ovidiu does not understand the vast differences between being poor in Ca and in Mexico. While gangs and drug dealers have some power in some urban areas of the USA, they are not a governing structure with taxing power as in certain areas of Mexico. Even here in Chicago that is not the situation. The Mexican national police force has been repeatedly defeated in direct combat with drug cartels in certain areas of Mexico nothing comparable has happened here in the USA.
“Again a failure to comprehend things by Ovidiu, what he is discussing is social inequality in the USA which has always been a reality.”
It hasn’t been that much, that was the whole point, which you did not quite get. The inequality index in California is on par with that of Mexico and Guatelemala. IT HASN’T been that great in California say 40 years ago. That’s was the point of what I wrote, and the links I gave.
“Again I think Ovidiu does not understand the vast differences between being poor in Ca and in Mexico. ”
It is NOT “again” but rather it is you who now switches the talking points from “relative” to “absolute” inequality. If absolute poverty, which is defined when people do not have enough money to purchase what is needed for survival, then it is estimated that 16%, about 50 millions, of Americans live in absolute poverty, and yes California leads that pack as well :
https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/jan/20/chad-mayes/true-california-has-nations-highest-poverty-rate-w/
The Index for inequality is high in the USA because there is tremendous wealth at the top, and significant wealth at the middle when property holdings are taken into consideration, but no where near the poverty at the bottom in comparison to Mexico. A good example is federal support for disabled people who have no work histories in the USA and are declared not to be able to work by evaluation, called SSI. It’s around $783 a month for an individual. The average fully employed person in Mexico working 40 hours plus a week. earns about $1,350 a month less than double what a disabled person get here who has never worked. A person who was eligible for what is called SSDI in the USA paid to people who did work and became subsequently disabled is $1,237 per month. Almost as much as the average monthly salary of a fully employed worker in Mexico. A person declared disabled in Mexico gets about $120 a month, very low income Mexicans who are only infrequently working get the Tortilla sin Costo, which provides subsidized or free tortillas for 2.1 million low-income families and equaled approximately 3% of Mexico’s total corn consumption and… Read more »
These carriages are a absolute disgrace to the Budapest Metro System, in particular the summer months due to there disgraceful carriage design, that without air-conditioning become quite a health & safety major failing issue for passenger safety and comfort. URGENT action and decisions are required to ensure there is no further MAJOR issues of these “second rate” built and constructed carriages that deface greatly the other 3 Metro Lines and carriage designs on the Budapest Metro System.