大象传媒

Owen Bennett Jones introduces insight, wit and analysis from 大象传媒 correspondents around the world. In this edition, Nick Thorpe is on the streets of Budapest with Hungary's new homeless, while Joanna Jolly is tracing the legendary trail of a tantric Nepali goddess as far as Glasgow!

"Zero tolerance" - or zero sympathy - for Hungary's homelessness?

At the beginning of this month a new Hungarian constitution came into force, accompanied by large demonstrations by opposition parties and civil groups. But both the government's controversial policies, and the reaction to them, are dwarfed by the wider impact of the economic crisis.

Nick Thorpe found many once-comfortable people now on the streets of the Hungarian capital, Budapest - and was warned of a looming mortgage crisis too.

Love, theft and tragedy in the Himalayas

The word "Orientalism", coined by the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said and referring to Western romanticized perceptions of the East, has been highly influential in Middle Eastern studies in recent years. While it's set even further away from Europe, the lurid tale of "Mad Carew" - a thieving British officer in Nepal - is something of a case study of Orientalism. Something about its mix of exoticism and intrigue made it resonate - even as far as the music halls of Britain.

Joanna Jolly has been chasing a song all the way from Glasgow to a tiny village north of Kahtmandu.