NEWSLANC Editor: Richard Field is a graduate of J. P McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA and of Columbia University. He has successfully developed land and residential housing in Eastern Europe for two decades. He serves as Chair of Manor Hotel Corporation and Manor Management Corporation here in the USA.
At the end of 2014, American businessman and philanthropist, Richard Field, condemned the government in a number of articles appearing in the columns of the Budapest Beacon. The other paper he operates is staffed by journalists who used to work for Origo, abcug.hu, and emphasizes poverty in Hungary. Field supported Mária Seres’s movement and then LMP. In the interview given to our paper he explains from whence he expects credible opposition figures to arrive, why he thinks the government falsifies facts, how it is within everyone’s power to do something about child hunger, and answers whether there will ever be a statue of him in Hungary.
hvg.hu: We caught up with you in the United States. Aren’t you afraid the government will ban you from Hungary in response to the US travel ban?
Richard Field: I don’t believe I have done anything that would warrant my being banned from the country, but naturally the decision doesn’t depend on me.
hvg.hu: The government’s relationship with America couldn’t be more tense. It regards nearly every western civil organization active in Hungary with suspicion. Moreover, it has considered you a national security risk since 2012. What is it that keeps you here?
R. F.: The American House Foundation mission is to help East and Central European civil organizations provide support to the poor. Our activities to date have been concentrated on Hungary, and the reason for this was a drastic increase in Hungarians living in poverty and social exclusion over the past five years. The foundation’s activities is strictly humanitarian. It does not engage in political activities at all.
hvg.hu: Over the past five years the American House Foundation has contributed HUF 800 million to the Hungarian Red Cross, civil organizations, and local governments. The statistics attest to growing poverty. What experiences do you have regarding the extent of poverty in Hungary?
R. F.: We do not collect data and we do not conduct surveys. The food aid we provide is distributed strictly on the basis of need. But it is my impression that the past five years has been especially difficult on single parent households with children, especially in those cases when the parent is not able to work full time.
hvg.hu: The question always comes up where the foundation gets the money if the companies active in the region are not profitable.
R. F.: Most of the foundation’s donations (more than 90 percent) come from real estate management companies owned by my family which are members of The Manor Group, as well as from individual donors.
hvg.hu: As is you provided us, you get a lot of letters from desperate people. Seeing their complaints, what do you think of the government’s social policies?
R. F.: It is disingenuous of the government to tell impoverished local governments to finance social programs through the introduction of new taxes. Exactly what are they supposed to tax that would not result in greater unemployment or deeper poverty?
What the government is really saying is that more affluent communities needn’t contribute to the cost of helping poorer communities.
Meanwhile, the taxes paid by the middle and upper classes are used to fund public work programs and to build soccer stadiums. I have yet to read an independent study that supports the notion that public work has a positive effect, socially or economically. I consider the new soccer stadiums a waste of public funds.
At best the government’s social policies are irresponsible. At worst, I would even call them criminal in that they violate the EU’s charter of basic rights which, among other things, guarantees people the right to social security. I don’t know how Zoltán Balog, the Minister for Human Resources, can sleep at night.
hvg.hu: At the end of 2014 you wrote a series of fact-based, satirical letters to government officials in the Budapest Beacon. It is a little bit as though you were doing the job of the press, just as André Goodfriend with his Twitter messages. What is your opinion about the Hungarian press?
R. F.: A number of Hungarian papers use satire to good effect, from 168 ora to 444.hu, so I don’t see anything special in this. What is a journalist to do when a leading government official gives an interview based on half-truths, fallacious reasoning, and lies other than show the absurdity of all of it?
The US travel ban scandal is a good example of this. If the Rosatom-Westinghouse conflict was behind it, then why hasn’t the US banned officials from a half dozen other companies building nuclear power plants with Russian technology? And if, as the government claims, the USA is using the travel ban to pressure Hungary into signing the transatlantic free trade agreement, then why hasn’t Hungary expressed its reservations about the trade agreement over the course of the negotiations?
The current government is not above fabricating facts and rewriting history, even recent history, when explaining its actions. While at the same time nothing justifies purchasing shares in Mol or E.On’s gas storage facilities with money confiscated from private pension funds. Or paying EUR 55 million for a bank whose “reorganization” is going to cost as much as EUR 800 million. And I could cite numerous other examples.
The government increasing tries to manipulate public opinion. Not content to control domestic public opinion, it is now trying to dictate public opinion abroad with the launch of English language websites, such as Hungary Today, and plans for M1 to start broadcasting news in English.
hvg.hu.: Your other website, abcug.hu, continuously writes about dire poverty in Hungary. How do you see things? How much solidarity exists between that part of society which is better off and their poorer countrymen? How outraged are they by the poverty?
R. F.: Many Hungarians are of the mistaken belief that dire poverty only affects gypsy families. While Roma families are disproportionately affected, there are at least as many non-Roma families living in poverty as Roma ones. I believe Hungary is going in the wrong direction with regard to poverty eradication. Instead of giving prominent Fidesz supporters state land and agricultural subsidies, it should give it to local governments and cooperatives engaged in labor intensive agriculture.
To the extent such cooperatives cannot compete, the government should support them by requiring certain public institutions, such as schools and retirement homes to purchase fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, etc. from them, even if it costs more. There would be enough experts for the system, and an intelligent system of supports would enable them to be competitive.
hvg.hu: Hungarian society is stirred up, with one protest followed by another. How do you see these protest? Could a new movement or party grow out of it capable of running the country?
R. F.: A kind of awakening seems to be happening, especially among those born after the 1989 system change. Since Hungary joined the UE in 2004, more and more Hungarians have been voting with their feet; that is, leaving the country in search of better jobs, better education, and a better life. As a result of this, growing numbers are struck by the difference between life in Western Europe and Hungary.
Certainly there is a growing feeling of frustration with politics and politicians in general, and it was this frustration that caused me to support Mária Seres and then LMP in 2010. People are fed up with corrupt public officials. Unfortunately, the protest movement appears to lack direction, and certain protest organizers seem to lack certain leadership qualities, like perseverance. Still I believe Ágnes Heller is right that the next generation of political leaders should come from civil society.
hvg.hu: The legendary American civil society pride is light years away from East-Central Europe. In addition, civil self-awareness is lacking in Hungary, and for this reason solidarity and self-organization does not work. Have you see changes in this regard over the past 20 years?
R. F.: The most pernicious legacy of communism is the notion that the state is responsible for solving everyone’s problems, because this is not the case. Governments exist to provide basic services, not to ensure that everybody has a university degree or a great job.
Good governance involves bringing about conditions that promote economic growth and job creation, while providing people with the opportunity to make use of these opportunities. Good governments invest in the education of their own citizens and play an important role in helping the poor climb out of poverty.
People don’t understand why politicians try to regulate their lives and are asking themselves whether they shouldn’t take matters into their own hands when it comes to solving certain problems. Former LMP MP Gábor Vágó hit the nail on the head when he called on the protesters to help a poor family or person. If every Hungarian with a full time job were to undertake to feed one more mouth, then 700,000 children would not have to go to bed hungry at night.
This was the first time I heard a Hungarian politician tell the people that they are capable of doing something about poverty other than simply paying their taxes. So long as people think their ability to live well and lead fulfilling lives depends entirely on the government, then they will be easily controlled and intimidate.
hvg.hu: You supported Mária Seres’ Civil Movement, and then the LMP campaign. In 2012 you offered to help Péter Juhász make connections in the United States. What do you think of these steps, and would you support a political party now.
R. F.: No. Mr. Juhász wasn’t willing to take the necessary steps to visit the United States as a result of an earlier drug conviction. For this reason I was not able to introduce him to potential supporters. Furthermore, in 2012 I publicly vowed not to support Hungarian political parties either directly or indirectly. And I have kept my word.
hvg.hu: Could the time come when you would play an active political role.
R. F.: No. I am not a Hungarian citizen. I am only interested in cooperating with civil organizations in their poverty eradication programs, and contributing in my own way to independent, fact-based reporting in Hungary.
hvg.hu: What do you think. Will they ever erect a statute to you in Hungary?
R. F.: Only if I turned myself into an eagle!
