Clearing up the Budapest night

There’s been a demand for 10 years for Budapest to regain its attraction, that its reputation should not fall from year to year, and that it should regain its old glory. Once, the tourists could really walk in safety, spending money and enjoying themselves in a friendly environment. It is even more essential nowadays, with the weakening of the forint - in just the last few months, the forint has lost 10% against the euro, and the country has become that much cheaper for Western tourists.  Thus we have reason to assume that Budapest will be a priority destination in the near future for those wishing to pay a visit to Eastern Europe.

We can see an old theory being proved nowadays...  We have written on a number of occasions, and so have others, that the spread of the Internet leads to just one thing, namely to a decline in corruption, closure of disreputable establishments, and thus to cleaning up the city. Many others have hypothesized this. The only thing no one was clear on was how long this process would take. The bad news is, contrary to the many theories that have seen the light of day, it has taken longer than even the most pessimistic forecasts. We have observed with shock that in spite of this, notoriously corrupt clubs that make their living doing harm to tourists, still prosper, even though information was freely available about them on the Net. With the push of a button, anyone can see which places are to be avoided, and which places are safe to go. It was also strange for us that this information was available not only for tourists, but to the Hungarian authorities, as well, yet for a very long time nothing at all happened. They were very clear, however, on which bars, night clubs were using illegal methods, and which ones used transparent, honest business ethics. But this is a fact of life in Hungary nowadays, let us not deceive ourselves, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Fortunately, however, there is good news, as well:

It seems very much that the Internet community helping each other and the free flow and sharing of information has finally brought about the long awaited effect. One after the other, those places we wouldn’t recommend to anyone are disappearing. Some of them naturally fade from market on their own; some of them were finally closed by the authorities. Thus cautiously, but solemnly, we may state that the cleansing of the Budapest nightlife has undeniably begun, and the light is now visible at the end of the tunnel. Of course this process is far from complete, as there are at least five such places operating right now in Budapest that we would shut down without hesitation. But as we have said, the ball has gotten rolling, and that is a good thing. We are certain that these places’ days are numbered, and they will go to their fates, because there is no other way forward. The process seems irreversible, and if perhaps not  the authorities, then at least the community will make sure that these clubs become unviable, taxi drivers will not be able to cheat people, corrupt hotel employees who deceive people will be dismissed, etc. If only one in five victims would record his experiences on one or another internet forum, it would mean radical change.  If we were just a little more active, then it would long ago have become unnecessary to post blacklists on sites such as budapestbrothels.com, and it would no longer be necessary to write articles like this one...

So despite the progress chronicled above, we must carry the fight forward! We mustn’t stop until the last shadow of corruption is eradicated from this branch of the Budapest nightlife  entertainment industry. There’s one last thing that is necessary to understand: the responsibilities as well as the results must be borne by everyone who love his homeland. If we experience this, or any similar phenomenon, it is our obligation to spread the word, and ward our fellow man. In any other case, we also become accomplices and far from preventing, we instead strengthen the spread of corruption. Don’t allow this to happen!

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