Back in 1988, just before the USSR finally imploded, I was assigned to go behind the iron curtain and conduct a feasibility study on a business located in the Ukraine. At the time Gorbachev had loosened the reins a bit and my Company was investigating a joint business venture with a factory in the city of Cherkassy. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your outlook I was about to see first-hand the results of 60 years of socialism. I flew from London England which, was to be the last of the Western world I would see for two weeks, to Poland and transferred at Warsaw onto Aeroflot, the Soviet National Airline. The first hint of what I was in for came on this flight into a small airport in a town called Borispol about 45 minutes from Kiev. The interior of the plane although clean was not in good repair as half of the screws on the strapping around the seats were either loose or missing, and the headrests were cloth and well used. I prayed that the plane’s internal mechanical parts were in better shape and the jet fuel and oil were of a newer vintage than the lukewarm tea we received with some thin wafers for dunking. After landing and passing through customs and immigration (soldiers with automatic rifles) where they counted every piece of currency you carried as well as all of the jewelry and anything else of value that you had with you. They put it on a piece of paper that they gave you and indicated that in order to leave the country you must submit this paper and have everything with you as stated. Once my visa was certified I found myself standing on the arrival level all alone at 12:45 AM in the morning. Eventually a young man in a leather jacket wandered over and asked me in broken English what was I doing there at that time of night. After explaining that I was on business and waiting for a ride to a hotel in Kiev he indicated that I better follow him upstairs to his office. I found out later that one of the Communist Party members on the board of the Company we were dealing with was supposed to pick me up but he forgot. Luckily I had jotted down the name of the hotel in Kiev during an earlier conference call and this fellow was able to finally (after an hour) contact them and confirm I had a room there. After this we walked back out to the arrival area and he showed me about 15 cars (all Lada’s) sitting out front. He said that he couldn’t send me in any of them because the odds of a foreigner traveling alone to get to their destination without getting mugged and killed were not good. He then told me he had a brother that would take me to the hotel in Kiev which, seemed a little suspicious, but I had limited choices so away we went. It was about a 45 minute ride and although he couldn’t speak English very well we managed to communicate a bit. I had brought cigarettes and other goodies that are supposed to help with the locals and it seemed to work pretty well. When we arrived in Kiev I was somewhat surprised that the city was so dark even though it was around 3AM. In North America cities never sleep and you will see street lights, neon signs etc but not there, pitch black except for the moonlight. When he pulled up in front of a large unidentified building and stopped the car I began to get out and he motioned for me to stop. He was reaching under his seat for something and I thought here it goes…the rough stuff. But no he only pulled out a 12”X12” 4” high cardboard box and when he opened it I saw bundles and bundles of 100 ruble bills. He wanted to trade them for US dollars and began pleading with me to help him and his family. I immediately got out of the car with my bags and gave him the fee I owed him in rubles and told him I couldn’t do it. He slammed the door and took off before I could verify if I was at the right place. If I would have given him the money I would have then had to explain where it had gone on leaving the country (remember the record on entry). With nowhere to spend it they would assume it went into the black market and this was a big no no in the USSR at that time. So here I was standing outside of this building at 3 AM wondering if it was the hotel or the Gulag so I sucked it up and entered. I finally found someone who could speak English at the counter and they verified I was in the right place. I also got a stern warning about traveling in the Soviet Union without being accompanied by a Party member which is something I would never do again believe me. After I got to the room had two double scotches (neat) and 4 hours sleep I was ready for my first full day inside the Iron Curtain.

Yesterday a nut case flew his plane into a building killing himself and at least one other while injuring many. Now some in the media are trying to turn it into a political weapon against their counterparts. Everything it appears is up for grabs to forge an advantage in the world of slick PR people and their political masters. If you look at each and every one of these events over the past ten years with the exception of the 9/11 attack, which was a deliberate act of war, the shootings, bombings and other massacres have been committed by a lunatic. Not a conspirator, not a political idealist regardless of their beliefs or ties to any political party but an insane idiot on a rampage. Reasonable people do not do these things and to try and pin the nutty actions on a valid political movement is an embarrassment to these partisan pols. You have to ask yourself what kind of character and morals do these pinheads in the mainstream media possess. Why do they give credibility to these wing nuts? Is it because they need the ratings or are they biased towards some political party which they support? It is unfortunate that we cannot locate these evil doers before they commit their heinous acts but it is truly despicable to try using their crimes afterwards as political weapons. In my mind this is pretty much as low as you can go in the realm of politics and if we citizens give this stuff any credence than we are as bad as they are. Why don’t we start pushing back at these manure spreaders and demand some honesty and morality when reporting the news? Is it too much to ask?