Post-Glasnost Tips
for Former East Bloc Citizens:

Ever-Present Eyes and Ears

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You are moving away from a system where the affairs of all people, great and small, are subject to the incessant probings and pryings of the secret police.  We understand that while most of you have resented this practice, up to now hardly anyone has dared even to grumble, except to close and trusted friends.

Here in the West, the prying and snooping is performed by persons called celebrity journalists and paparazzi.   Nobody pays much attention to the average citizen, though.  On the contrary, being surreptitiously photographed through the shrubbery, and having one’s garbage rummaged through, are considered marks of great social attainment.

(c) COPYRIGHT 1998 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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