The recent history of Hungary is very sad, and we must remember also that it was also a model in education in the past and the best minds, including John von Neumann, came from Hungary.
The list on Wikipedia is illustrative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hungarians
I will also say that John von Neumann was (ethnically) Jewish, and left because of rampant antisemitism among the academic community at the time. Antisemitism is an endemic problem in Hungary, and it would be foolish of me to pretend it wasn't.
For an American, the weirdest thing about Hungarian racism is the fact that they widely discriminate against people who are visually exactly identical to one another. There are many people who don't know they're Jewish here - that Jobbik guy being a case in point (sorry, I don't remember his name, but it was pretty funny).
I just heard a joke the other day. There are three women at a hospital giving birth on the same day - a Magyar, a Roma, and a African woman. Unfortunately, all the paperwork is misplaced, and nobody is sure which baby is which. So the Magyar woman grabs the black baby and screams, "I'm keeping this one until we can figure out which of the other ones is a gypsy!"
This was told to me by a Hungarian - an older guy who always says hi when we walk the dog past his workshop - laughing about the racist element who discriminates based on nothing. Food for thought.
Remember that the population of Hungary is about 1/30th of that of the United States. Correct for population size and you may get more interesting statistics.
You would not believe how excellent math education is here, and how important education is in the culture in general. Very stark difference from the United States.
The theoretical foundations for math and CS is very strong, however, most newgrads has no real world experience neither particularly useful practical skills.
For an American, the weirdest thing about Hungarian racism is the fact that they widely discriminate against people who are visually exactly identical to one another. There are many people who don't know they're Jewish here - that Jobbik guy being a case in point (sorry, I don't remember his name, but it was pretty funny).
I just heard a joke the other day. There are three women at a hospital giving birth on the same day - a Magyar, a Roma, and a African woman. Unfortunately, all the paperwork is misplaced, and nobody is sure which baby is which. So the Magyar woman grabs the black baby and screams, "I'm keeping this one until we can figure out which of the other ones is a gypsy!"
This was told to me by a Hungarian - an older guy who always says hi when we walk the dog past his workshop - laughing about the racist element who discriminates based on nothing. Food for thought.