REPORT

If  I happened to meet a foreigner on the street who asked me for some information and the man invited me to a restaurant and, since I had an empty stomach as we all did back then, I accepted, the next morning when I went to work, I had to report it all, in written form: how the previous night Mr. so and so invited me to the restaurant such and such, how we discussed the following issues between this hour and that hour; that we sat at the table in the right corner, etc.

In 1986-88, I traveled regularly to Berlin. There lived a friend of my boss?s who once invited me over and showed me his collection of period and modern weapons. When I came home, I filed in a report describing everything I?d seen, from his Kalashnikoff, to I don?t know what American machine gun. (I. H., 48)

As unemployment and dismissals did not exist at that time, the budget slash meant the institutions reshuffling. In order to "optimize" them, people were dismissed. The selection was made according to the staff file. In the 80s it was bad to have relatives abroad. You were "dead" if you had near relatives overseas. You had no choice, no matter what you did. (111)

Reshuffling was an important reason for stress and worry for all "working people". That is why a lot of poems on this issue appeared. (32)

Restaurants became sad and sometimes empty places. Beer was served until noon when, pretending there was nothing left (it was a lie!), they served only wine, more expensive. So it was easier to carry out the plan of that day. At noon or in the evening beer could be drunk illegally as if it were the time of the American Prohibition. The waiter brought a big tea pot full of beer and served it in cups. Everyone knew the trick, but not anybody could enjoyed it. It was reserved for those who were known by the waiter (friends, members of the underground world or famous artists)