Diversity, openness, or vilifying migrants: which way UK?
Diversity and openness to other cultures attracted me to the UK but these days they are more likely to vilify migrants than welcome them.
Author: Magdalena Williams
Magdalena Williams came to the U.K. from Vienna in 1970 to attend her mother’s wedding and chose to make the U.K. her home. She undertook several career changes until her retirement in 2016 from the then Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She started as a teacher of Hungarian and German to diplomats and finished in the Nigeria Team which was inter alia looking at how to defeat Boko Haram. Before joining the FCO, she worked as a psychologist in hospitals and ran creative therapy workshops in prisons and clinics. Her interest in writing was first raised when she decided to research her family history and leave a record of how her mother, the daughter of a landed gentry family in Hungary fleeing Communism, first to Vienna then Germany, ended up in rural Kent. Magdalena is an ardent Remain campaigner, a Green Party member and she will proudly be forever European.
Do we have an Epiphany?
Magdalena examines the variety of ways of celebrating the Epiphany across Europe, from Germany’s Sternsinger to Spain’s Reyes Magos.
I KNOW MY RIGHTS
Human Rights Day
Human Rights Day celebrates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention and the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Bremain In Spain in Málaga
Magdalena Williams reports on the Annual General Meeting of Bremain In Spain, held in Málaga in the South of the country.
Austrian Healthcare
Magdalena examines the Austrian healthcare System in the light of the treatment which saved her brother’s life, after he had a heart attack.
British Hospitality in Hungary
British hospitality in Hungary surprised us. Albert has lived in Gyenesdiás for several years. We find out why he likes it
Magdalena and Mike Visit Pest
Our visit to Pest, where business and shopping streets spread out unhindered by hills which restrain Buda, shows modern life in the capital
Baja, the City of Two Rivers
Magdalena continues her journey across Europe with Mike, visiting the southern city of Baja, with its two rivers and a Fish Soup Festival
Lake Szelid – Gentle Lake
Magdalena takes Mike to Lake Szelid, the Gentle Lake, where her family once owned land, and where she spent her early childhood.
Across Five European Countries
After France, Belgium and Holland, the longest part of the journey is on the German Autobahn. That that is not my favourite part of the trip, I must admit. I won’t bore you with what I thought were hair-raising moments when four or five cars driving with next to no distance between them overtook at incredible speeds. I also lost count of how many road works I encountered.