f
establishing a Networked Colour, Exemplar Demonstrator, Copy
Shop in a disused factory, which when I first arrived, was
surrounded by brand-new park benches on which very friendly,
under-employed workers sat talking and smoking.
When at first the money started flowing into East Germany, the
authorities had so much and so little to spend it on in Dresden,
that they replaced and expanded massively the number of old
'park-benches' to facilitate the situation. On arrival at the airport,
on that first occasion, internally painted wooden tunnels had been
erected for the passengers to walk through, from the aircraft to
the terminal building, and on exit I was met by a sea of Trabant
taxis and their drivers vying for my trade. That first journey, what
with the state of the unmaintained roads and the interminable wait
at the multitude of traffic light controlled junctions, took 25
minutes or more. The last visit, taking the same route in a
Mercedes Benz, took less than 10, despite all the roadworks
engaged in the installation of fibre-optic network cables
throughout the city. What a contrast to the situation today
where it appears that Dresden has risen from the ashes and
Dortmund has become the old Dresden !!!???
…