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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: critical_mass who wrote (574)	9/18/2005 4:58:34 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Respond to of 217764

Yugoslavia, under Broz Tito was by far better off economically then East German. Of course their natural ethnic insanities reasserted themselves once Tito died. Many Eastern Bloc nations were more free. The Stasi were deliberately nasty, far more oppressive than the KGB/GRU. The Stassi were the most unpleasant petty officials I have ever dealt with. One older woman going to visit Potsdam told me she bought the shabbiest clothes she could find at the Bahnhauf Mission stores and even then the Ossis could tell she was from the West. Even if your clothes were perfect, they could still tell you weren't East German because you didn't walk with your eyes cast down on the sidewalk and there was too much freedom in your step. I thought she was exaggerating until I went there. You never felt oppressed like that in Russia. And the goods in the stores, unbelievable. New boots with partially connected heels, shirts with one sleeve longer than the other and missing buttons. You had to change 10 mark for 10 Ostmarks for every day you were going to stay. The old German woman said it was a simple scheme, "shit goods for shit money." Only the "special" hotel right next to the border was fit to spend money at. Eating your dinner next to a table with a North Korean General being entertained by German officials -- no one ordinary was there. .