Turning Point – Talking Point is a series of discussions between diplomats, artists and journalists organised by the Hungarian Cultural Centre. The discussions will reveal how distinguished Britons lived through the times of political transition in Hungary and how Hungarians think of those turbulent times.
The Hungarian Cultural Centre aims to show the effect of transition from a historical and cultural point of view, to introduce the essence of the peaceful transitions of Hungary, and to commemorate the events of this exceptional year.
25 March, 2009 The Embassy of the Republic of Hungary, London
The first part of the series took place at the Hungarian Embassy in London, on Wednesday 25 March 2009. HM Ambassador Greg Dorey was in discussion with Jonathan Stoneman.
HM Ambassador Greg Dorey, current British Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary, was subsequently posted to Hungary as First Secretary (Political and Economic) between 1989 and 1992, during one of the most interesting periods of modern Hungarian history.
Jonathan Stoneman has been with BBC World Service since 1992, having worked previously for BBC Television. He spent the 1980s working as a British Diplomat to Hungary, when he acquired his love for Central and Eastern Europe.
Jonathan Stoneman, Ildikó Takács, HE Borbála Czakó, HE Greg Dorey
As part of 'Children of the Revolution 1989 - 2009'
A series of events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1989 democratic transformation in Europe
Over the course of 1989, from June to November, and on into 1990, the cold-war status quo was radically brought to an end by a series of revolutions and political transformations that swept across Central and Eastern Europe. From the shipyards of Gdańsk, via Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and Prague's Wenceslaus Square, to the boulevards of Bucharest, the 'people's democracies' of the region were brought face to face with the democratic will of their own people on their own city streets and squares. Children of the Revolution 1989 - 2009 is a series of events taking place this year London, twenty years on. Through these events we invite you to join us in examining these revolutionary happenings and the legacy that they have left to their children. In public discussions that will range from philosophical speculation on the idea of revolution to careful analysis of what made the changes of 1989 possible and a reconstruction of the visual landscape of the experience of those changes, we shall be looking back into the past to ask a question that points into the future:
Have the children of the revolution been devoured, or do they remain unfooled, ready to change the world once more?
