The Looking Glass

Ionut Chiru A couple of weeks ago, my father got ill with an ear infection. After trying and failing to remedy this situation, he finally swallowed his pride and opted for a GP appointment. After waiting on the phone for about an hour, he finally got a consultation and received a text message giving him more information about his appointment. Upon closer inspection, he noted with some level of surprise that the doctor about to see him was a Romanian. Obviously, as he himself is also Romanian, he was able to quickly recognize the surname as one belonging to the country which he departed over 20 years ago. It is likely that this commonality between my dad and his general practitioner likely contributed to the appointment going better than usual, according to my father.  Why is this important? The roots of the problem can be traced back to the fall of communist rule throughout Eastern Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, countries within Eastern Europe were subject to suppre...