Guest blog by Foreign Policy, Justice and Home Affairs and Human Rights Attaché Levente Nyitrai
On Sunday, 9 June I took part in the 20th K&H Budapest Marathon Relay. But it was about so much more than just some fun exercise. Let me run through the details.
At the end of April I received an invitation from the Budapest office of Transparency International (TI) to join their marathon relay team. As a former runner, and a supporter of the work of TI, I was really happy about the initiative and I gladly accepted the offer.
On the sunny morning of the marathon we met up roughly an hour before the start. I warmed up well to make sure I wouldn’t run into problems while competing. Being second in the relay team my task was to complete 5.2 kilometres as fast as possible. I tried my best to run like the wind and finished in just a bit over 23 minutes. The team did really well overall and we agreed we wouldn’t let that be the last time we ran into one another.
As in many other countries, people and businesses can at times run up against the lack of transparency in Hungary. Corruption doesn’t only run counter to good morals but it threatens investment and prosperity. There have been some positive developments recently (i.e. Hungary’s accession to Open Government Partnership) but we must all do more to avoid running the risk of losing the battle for greater transparency.
The British Embassy in Budapest has been actively promoting transparency and we certainly do not run short of ideas as to how to do it best. Our involvement in anti-corruption activities runs from sponsoring campaigns, through organising round table discussions to senior management personally taking part in events (i.e. transparency award ceremony, water fight against corruption).
And we will certainly remain dedicated as we know that if we are not careful enough corruption can race ahead of our efforts. So keep an eye out for and join the next large Embassy sponsored TI nationwide anti-corruption campaign (focusing on dancing) that will run all through the summer.
Follow our activities, join our and TI’s programmes and let us all work together to win the race against corruption.