Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Reagan in Budapest

President Reagan never went to Budapest during his 8 years in office. However, he's clearly something of a hero in Hungary. Budapest's mayor supports a proposal to erect a statue to Reagan in "City Park, a popular recreation site in the capital".

I'd love to ask all those people I met during my year as a student Trinity College what they think about that. They were so certain and so smug about "Ronnie Ray-gun". I know it's fashionable these days to try and imply that the sentiments regarding the US and President Bush are new in Ireland, but they are not. I've heard it all before. That generation of smug students are now the smug middle class Dubliners who deride Bush for his stupidity and who see the US as a uniquely malevolent force in the world.