Editors' Notes

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Editors’ Notes Sam Beck, Cornell University David Kideckel, Central Connecticut State University Time seems irrelevant in current Central and East European affairs. Each day brings such new, stirring, and seemingly impossible developments that students of the region are hard-put to keep up with them all, let along make sense of what they mean. We are putting out this interim edition of the Review now mainly because of this temporal dissonance. So many things are happening quickly that we thought it best to inform you of a few especially important items now instead of saving them for the larger issue of The Review that should be out sometime in late April or early May. We originally began to put together this special issue to inform you of a letter writing campaign organized by Ken Jowitt and Gail Kligman on behalf of the Romanian diplomat and social scientist, Silviu Brucan. Less than one month ago Brucan was under house arrest in Bucharest in life-threatening conditions. As is par for the current East European course, he is now a leading member of the National Salvation Front; clearly no longer under house arrest. Brucan's release, of course, was a result of the Romanian revolution. The loss of life and property in Romania (e.g. the University of Bucharest library building and collection were severely damaged) compels us to bring to your attention the relief efforts on-going to assist Romania through the winter. Both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization have set up an emergency task force in Bucharest under the direction of the Vice Minister of Health, Dr. Veronica Cubaente. Both the WHO and the United Nations Disaster Relief Organization have also opened special accounts at banks in Geneva to receive private contributions of money for Romanian relief operations. The WHO account number is 0-312831- 007 at Citicorp, P.O. Box 162, Geneva, and is named "Specific Account for Romania Emergency." The UNDRO account number is 183598-01-10 with Lloyds Bank, 1 Place Bel Air, Geneva, and is named "Romania Emergency 89." 1 .

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