Excerpt from
On the Job Training: Berlin to Vladivostok
Events, places, people, and circumstances in Poland that make up a collective memory of my twenty years in the country are especially vivid as I recall the post Berlin Wall black market and grey market activity that grew throughout Central Europe. Getting caught up and sucked into this tsunami-like wave of anarchic and crazed trading became an obsession that had long lasting repercussions for the rest of my years in Poland.
My family and friends still laugh at the memory of phone calls from me in Poland that may have seemed out of character or almost surreal.
"Jay! Do you have any takers for three Russian tanks? They'd be great collectors' pieces."
"John, do you know anything about Osmium? I can get three grams of it out of Russia and they say it's worth a couple million dollars. Don't know what it does though. I am meeting with President Lech Walesa's staff about it tomorrow. Can you help? How about Red Mercury? Got that, too. Two guys were killed on the train in Russia trying to smuggle it out last week. The US Department of Justice sits at the Polish - Lithuanian border waiting for strategic materials that might be leaving the former Soviet Union. Zirc tubes, high grade titanium, you name it...it's all out there for the taking."
The story of how I got involved in the "trading" and what occurred over the years could itself occupy a generous portion of my story. As I look back at some of these events and my behavior, I am amazed that I am still alive.
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