Tom Kennedy, editor-in-chief of DunaNovaPress in Hungary passed away Tuesday, December 7th, 2005. Tom, a journalist, author and entrepreneur was a victim of a hit and run accident near his home in Bernecebaráti, Hungary.

That one last step taken by them had to be the quickest. It proved the hardest to make, also. Yet, without its accomplishment the journey would have had no beginning, only a dead end. That clung to the boots behind was home-grown while the toe ahead touched foreign morass. Both of dubious quality, the former was going to be forsaken for the latter in an involuntary metamorphosis. The trade was patently unfair as it had been executed at gun point.

Editor’s note: Into our fourth month of suspended animation we slowly begin to return to a semblance of normal functioning. Although it’s not yet evident the appearance and appointments of our portal will have changed to a more functional and comprehensive mode of operations.

Given such abnormal tendencies, it came as no surprise that the Government should want to mark the gala event of the century in its own odd way. In order to make Hungarian EU status memorable the country’s most notorious mafia boss had been released from jail ostensibly as a reward for ‘good behaviour’ while in captivity.

Riding a wave of an inaugural fervour, sweeping it onto foreign shores, Hungary’s criminal fraternity hoped to get promoted into the top league overnight. It was to earn its credentials by taking an aim at Brussels as the venue for the ultimate inside job. The mob was to penetrate a no lesser target than the European Union’s treasury.

The interrupted burrowing attempt into EU vaults did not relieve the anxiety felt in the community’s administration. A lingering danger posed by moles inserted into it he works remained. Presence of suspect elements in sensitive jobs under national guise no doubt will cast a long shadow over Hungary’s reputation as a trustworthy member.

A habitual early riser dr. Károly Szász, 47, had appointments to keep when other people turned around for one more snooze in their beds. Normally they were slumbering on while he was lumbering up in anticipation of more toil in the local version of the stables of Augeas. This being Hungary, the peculiar dawn habit turned out to be the top civil servant’s undoing, too.

Far off the beaten tourist track and deep into Budapest’s suburban 11. District Nina Nikolajeva’s been changing money for years. Popularly known as the Russian woman the 45 year old native of Omsk’s been plying her trade at first quasi-legally then as a licensed money-changer for six years. She was the first in town to go unilaterally “no commission".

The former conservative finance minister and one-time London financier refused to budge either to resign or to cut the HUF lose. The speculators’ collective detestation for the person who alone stood between them and vast fortunes to be made by wrecking the currency was uncompromising as it was lustful.

The classic Orson Welles film ‘The Third Man’ plays in post-world war Vienna. Its main character Harry Lime lives in the sewers down below because that’s what remained intact of the city and that’s where he feels at home. He makes a living by trading contraband. His underground stockpiles hold American cigarettes and booze and nylon stockings for the survivors among the bombed ruins.