Today we walked around Satu Mare, and I have to say it was depressing. It seems like nothing has been repaired or renovated since my mother left more than 50 years ago. There are beautiful old buildings just falling down because no one has had the skill, money, or maybe desire to fix them.
It made me want to interview people about what their idea of success is, and what they would do with money if they don’t have, or what they do with it if they have it.
It made me wish for a marshall plan in the early 90s following the fall of communism, like we had for western Europe after World War II. I suppose with no opponent to stick our thumb in, magnanimity just wasn’t worth it? Or perhaps no one knew how badly the USSR had left its satelite countries. In any event, my mother took a bunch of photographs of where she and some of her friends and family used to live.