Hungary has 3 Ombudsmen (Parliamentary Commissioner), but what makes this actually interesting is that one of them is the Ombudsman for Future Generations, commonly known as the "Green"Ombudsman. The fact that such a position even exists is thanks in large part to the NGO Vedegylet and the President of Hungary Laszlo Solyom, both of whom vigorously lobbied for it. After a lengthy political battle over the appointee, environmental lawyer Sandor Fulop was finally appointed last year. He has proceeded to try to make his office as green as possible, and one of the first steps was to use Fair Trade coffee and tea from Treehugger Dan's. Yesterday, in keeping with Earth Day, Sandor Fulop's office organised an exhibition of photos about Fair Trade, served Fair Trade coffee and tea to the <!-- pagebreak -->interested public and staff, and brought in France Mutombo Tshimuanga from the For Africa Foundation that spoke about the plight of child workers in the Third World (just one of the things Fair Trade products protect against). France also taught us all a song and dance from Congo. Afterwards, I met several people in the office and ran across several old friends from the environmental movement whom I have not seen in years. It was visiting my home town.

Racing back from the exhibition, Treehugger Dan's then hosted a concert by vocalist Malesha Jesse. Malesha has been in Budapest since January 2009 and is originally from Los Angeles, CA USA.  While she has had an extensive musical career in Los Angeles area, she would much rather be in Budapest teaching English and singing with her new friends.  Her musical experience spans from classical, gospel, jazz and R & B, while her favorite music is Afro-Cuban and other music from Latin America. Malesha received her Masters degree in Vocal Music at the University of Southern California (aka USC) and has been engaged with several opera companies and orchestras throughout the USA and Europe.  She will be singing at the San Francisco Opera in June in Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess."  She was accompanied by session musicians from the great Columbian band David Dely and Tumba y Quema. Anyone expecting opera was sorely disappointed, but anyone expecting a fantastic vibe and great music was not. It was standing room only with about 80 people all up on their feet dancing and singing along.