Pixelshot

by: Scott L. Lunt
Daily Universe correspondent
(published in: The Daily Universe, Feb 4, 2007, Provo, UT, USA)

It was a Sunday morning, in the summer of 1961, when Berliners awoke to a divided city. On the night before, thousands of East German police and soldiers in Berlin, with the approval of the Soviet government, began building a fence. By the morning of August 13th, the fence was up, instantly dividing neighborhoods, friendships, families. Few people even saw it coming.

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by: Scott L. Lunt
Budapest, Hungary
(published in: The Daily Universe, Dec 11, 2006, Provo, UT, USA)

Take a quick flight from Budapest, hopping north over Slovakia, to the buzzing capital city of Warsaw. Jump on a comfortable train ride to the south and 5 hours later you’ll be in the fascinating Polish city of Krakow, a city filled with dozens of pretzel stands, thousands of pigeons, tens of thousands of tourists, and, according to our trusty Lonely Planet, about 150 Jews–the scant remains of a once-bursting population of around 65,000 Jews from the Krakow of 1939.

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by: Scott L. Lunt
Budapest, Hungary
(published in: The Daily Universe, Oct, 27, 2006, Provo, UT, USA)

You know you’re in a strange place when you can smell tear gas from your front porch.

Yet, in Budapest, on October 23rd, 2006, that’s exactly the situation for me.

Today, a holiday commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, the streets of Budapest have turned violent again. Thousands of citizens, mostly young men, are on the streets of Budapest doing their best to keep the thousands of police from making them go home. The police, for their part, are equipped with tear gas, water cannons, and riot gear. In other words, the situation is tense. And, for some reason, the police feel the need to push the protesters out of the streets.

Of course, underlying all of these protests are the events from 1956. (more…)

by: Scott L. Lunt
Budapest, Hungary
(published in the Daily Universe, Provo, UT, USA, Oct 2, 2006)
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Lying politicians, economic struggles, frustrated citizens, tents, bread lines, riot gear, burned out police cars, and… a popcorn stand? Wait a second, there’s a protest on!

Yet, amidst the spectacle of it all, the popcorn fits.

First of all, it’s capitalism at its finest. Your head of state, Ferenc Gyurcsany, the newly re-elected Prime Minister of Hungary, lies to get re-elected, then gets busted bragging about it. The citizens, incensed, throw a riot, burning up a few cars and storming a TV station. Later, once the smoke clears, the injured are counted and the reports make CNN headlines. Then tens of thousands come in from around the city and country to voice their concerns in Parliament Square. Someone’s got to be there to make a forint or two. Protesters need popcorn. (more…)