Maternal Mortality Rate (per 100 000 live births)

COUNTRY	1980	1985	1989
Hungary	20.9	26.1	15.4
Czechoslovakia	9.2	8.0	9.3
Poland	11.7	11.0	10.6
Albania	45.2	57.6
Bulgaria	21.1	12.6	18.7
Romania	132.1	137.4	169.4
Russia	68.0	54.0	49.0

Source: UNICEF; International Child Development Centre. Central and Eastern Europe in Transition;

Public Policy and Social Conditions. – Children at Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Perils and

Promises – Economies in Transition Studies. Regional Monitoring Report; no. 4, Florence 1997.

Our Grey Streets

The streets are agitated. The traffic tumour absorbs the crowd of living dead. Grey faces of pedestrians are blurred into the fading colours of gigantic blocs. The pride of Communism. The morbid spirit comes to life. A fighting couple. He is a heavy man, his beard unshaved, his fists undone. She’s thin and pale. Her blemish face, her frown and pride can’t tell enough. Her angry voice is seeking desperate reasons. She makes no sense. Suddenly, her words are scattered by his weighty rage. She’s bleeding, but it doesn’t matter. He’s rational and she’s neurotic. Her voice was too loud. These are grey streets with grey pedestrians. Grey, since they don’t care.