A couple of good buying agent china images I identified:
Field of Blood
Image by Âtin
The year is 2052. Every little thing has gone down the crapper after the United States fell into financial ruin. They ought to have known that China was up to anything, with them getting up more and more of the U.S., but it wasn’t till the North Korea/Chinese bombs started to fall that they knew precisely what sort of hell hole they had fallen into. Right after that it was just a hop, skip, and a jump till some of the higher European powers decided to bomb the s*** out of Asia, all that is left there is a crater filled nuclear desert and a few brave souls who live there.
That was just the beginning even though, in a matter of years two of the greatest superpowers on earth had been wiped off the map and all people wanted was peace, not war. The same powers that bombed Asia called a planet council to produce a treaty to end the war, but the meeting turned into a killing grounds. It was at the so named "war on wars" summit that the terrorist organization only identified as The Guild revealed themselves.
It turns out that The Guild had been behind everything. They had pulled the strings that brought America into financial ruin. They had agents placed in influential positions in China and Korea to begin the war. The Prime Minister of England was really a Guild member, and with is power and influence he was able to authorize the nuclear strikes in Asia, simply because "The yanks require to be avenged." They had been in a position to call the international summit and then assassinate 90% of the non Guild leaders of the 1st globe nations. All that time had been put into a program that had a single purpose in mind, world domination.
Boy, did they succeed. By the year 2035 they had united 70% of the world’s nations and by 2040, only Germany was left as independent. Germany quickly fell and following that The Guild was free of charge to mold the globe to match it really is strategy. The Guild created an utterly Fascist Military program of rule that was reminiscent of Medieval Instances. The planet was decided up amongst the men and women who had essential roles in the uprising and given to them and their sons to rule as long as they remained loyal to the Supreme Guild Leader.
By 2050 most men and women had come to accept their fate. As extended as we worked diligently for our lords our lives had been reasonably good. We had meals most days, could have a single son and 1 daughter and could expect to be offered for. Only if we complied to their rules though. That is why I tell this story to you, my son, so you know your heritage and know why factors are what they are nowadays. This is the truth, though the government will deny it, and know that you know the truth you should pass it on to your young children so that a single day they may possibly be free of charge to reside as they want."
-Lorenzo Freeman, to his son
"Today there be a hanging of 3 guys charged with spreading malicious lies about the great government and telling false, fanciful tales about the glorious history of this government.
-By order of Lord Darkwing, Could 4th, 2052
Sergei Requires a Gratuity
Image by Viewminder
The ‘smugglers’ who shared the cabin with me on the Trans Siberian always placed a generous cash gratuity into our passports as we had been to be searched. Andre ‘the elder’ would assert his authority as the head smuggler and gather all 4 of the passports… like mine… and he would give them to the officials with a mischevous smile and a nod that mentioned ‘this is my gift to you.’ This is my business. This is what I do.
Andre often put the American passport on the bottom… I consider he believed it would draw significantly less attention there…and then he usually shushed me with a stern and piercing appear as he ready for these most essential transactions. The 1st thing the official would do is place the American passport on top. I started to recognize that though we shared that cabin and the comraderie of the rails… or confinement thereof… that Andre ‘the elder’ did not really feel that obtaining an American in his cabin was all that considerably excellent for business. It seemed to bring a small ‘extra special’ focus and scrutiny to his small clandestine smuggling operation. Perhaps he had to bump up the bribes a notch or two to insure the safe passage of his worthwhile contraband. Either way you could just inform by watching him that Andre was a bottom line kind of guy.
By the end of the journey even though Andre had invited me to reside with him and his family members in Poland… to work at his shop… and to marry his daughter who he assured me had the bluest of eyes and breasts that had been the national pride of Poland. Even though I never ever saw him once more I came to enjoy Andre as a father in law even although I never ever met his daughter… somehow I really feel like I know her.
It really is no joke either about Polish womens breasts getting an object of national pride. Somehow Andre ‘the elder’ seemed capable of functioning it into any conversation relating to his motherland… to which Andre ‘the younger’ and their female companion would invariably agree with.
This usually led to a toast… a clanking of the glasses… the tipping of a bottle and a slurred chorus of ‘nasdorovia’s.’
Whenever the merits of Polish breasts were agreed on, certainly that meant it was time to drink some more vodka. Even to this day… when I think of Andre or Polish womens breasts… it tends to make me want to knock back a shot of vodka… but I do not drink any longer and actually I am much more of an ass man… but nevertheless. I in no way had the heart to tell Andre that… I mean, talking about Polish womens breasts really seemed to make him so satisfied. I didn’t want to take that way from him. You’ve just in no way noticed a guy so filled with joy as Andre was whenever his favourite topic was becoming discussed or debated… it truly lit him up from the inside.
Anytime you want to make a Polish national really feel excellent… or homesick… just bring up the fact that Polish ladies have the best breasts. It is been great for a lot of free of charge drinks for me.
I had just left Asia… every day I travelled closer to Europe. With the passage of time and distance Andre’s observations have been indeed verified although… the closer I got to Poland… the larger breasts became. I’m not kidding. Andre was appropriate.
The first Russian I met… the man smiling in the photograph… was like most Russians it seemed…named Sergei. A handful of have been named Alexander or Andre. I feel Russians have only three names… except for politicians or people of fame. I may have met a couple of Victors and a handful of Igor’s as well. Somebody once mentioned they’d heard of a Russian named Nikolai as well. Nevertheless… most males in Russia are named Sergei. That’s just the way it is there.
Seconds right after I took this photograph Sergei slipped into his pocket without flinch or hesitation the currency that Andre had stashed in his passport. I knew it was coming and I was watching closely for it. I barely caught it. And I grew up in Chicago.
Living on that train with those smugglers was like taking an sophisticated college course in the subtleties and strategies of graft. It was Andre ‘the elder’ who taught me that you need to have to preserve variable amounts of currency in every of your 4 pockets… like 5 in 1, ten in the subsequent, then twenty and a hundred…and that you have to effectively size up the individual you are attempting to bribe and pick from one particular of your pockets the minumum quantity you are betting it will take to pacify that official.
That is helped me far more than when in life since then.
Andre also showed me that it was genuinely essential to telegraph the bribe… to appear the mark right in the eyes and demonstrate that a single… you have been about to bribe him and two… that you have been going to attain into your pocket and take out all of the funds you had offered to you for this transaction. It was really deep psychology according to Andre. The man had an ethic and he was a perfectionist. It is usually remarkable to watch such a master at operate.
Andre pointed out that it was very good form to let your pocket to turn slightly inside out so that the mark could see that certainly you actually emptied it. This he noted produced them really feel genuinely particular. Like you went all the way for them. He also taught me that a bribe is never to be peeled off of a larger wad of bills or taken from a wallet… unless you had completed business with the mark ahead of but in his opinion it was still a undesirable thought.
Andre’s bribes in no way failed or produced even the slightest trace of hesitation. The man was genuinely a master. Andre ‘the elder’ was the maestro of bribery. And he taught me well. Halfway by means of the journey he announced that he was acquiring sick of the train and that he and his cohorts were acquiring off at Irkusk and flying on to Moscow.
He gave to me a case of vodka and an envelope with extra bribes in it and told me that he would meet me in Moscow with the ‘goods’ next week.
I was proud and honored that Andre ‘the elder’ trusted me with the ‘stuff.’
I was officially a smuggler now.
When I went by way of Japanese customs they even pulled me appropriate out of line… took me to this small workplace exactly where I presumed I was going to understand what a rough rectal exam was like. They in no way even looked in my bags though… they just wanted to know if I slept with any prostitutes in Bangkok… it was a genuine interrogation as well… they didn’t think me when I stated I hadn’t… they even tried to say I must be gay then. the truth that I did not appear to take considerably offense at their calling me gay really seemed to disturb them because thry had a little conference among themselves… in Japanese… so I had no way of understanding what they were saying.
I told them that i did get a killer massage at the James Bond Turkish Bath and Massage Residence… but there was no pleased ending if you know what I imply. I only went in since of the James Bond motiff. I am a sucker for that stuff… like the cosmonaut cigarettes on the train in Russia.
Nevertheless they did not believe me but they let me go with a warning… a reminder to get in touch with them if I wanted to adjust my story and they gave me this pamphlet that described all of the symptoms one might have following a hedonistic weekend in the city of angels… Bankok. Reading the brochure it produced me really glad I just stuck with the massage. The photos, even even though they have been in black and white, they had been specifically disturbing.
Bangkok… genuinely the only reason I went there is because I loved that song by Murray McMurray… you know the one particular… ‘one evening in Bangkok tends to make a tough man humble.’ I wanted to see what the inspiration for that song was… and I thought I could use some humbling. Murray was correctamundo… I was indeed humbled.
I dealt with smugglers before in Japan… Nigerians… but dealing with the Nigerians usually created me feel dirty. And that was prior to they became famous on the world wide web.
Those Nigerians… they are a resourceful bunch although. And the colorful clothing… you haven’t partied till you have partied with a Nigerian man wearing a yellow daishiki with a matching hat. I couldda stared at those intricate psychadellic patterns forever. I nevertheless felt dirty even though. But as a rule, if you ever want something illegal, if you want to find the corruption or a cities dark underbelly… look for the Nigerians… you can not miss them the way they dress. Or you can just locate cab drivers… who are frequently Nigerian anyway. Cab drivers are also a beneficial resource when you are seeking for some sin in a new city. I never ever after got into a single of these three wheeled cabs in Bangkok known as "Tuk-tuk’s" with no being supplied a "massagy-massagy," Not after.
When I was in higher college and I wanted some beer or alcoholoc beverages… I’d just get in touch with for a cab… and when the guy got there… I’d tell him to go get me a twelve pack or some thing… then I would do that "rip the twenty dollar bill in half" trick and inform him he’d get to preserve the other half when he came back. They loved that. It usually developed for me. It really is one of the most secret agent like items you could do… ripping a bill in half like that… it is an all or practically nothing move… it is like saying neither 1 of us trusts the other but this twenty… that’s what it is all about. Of course you gotta figure in the cab fare too.
I believe Nigeria has the worlds biggest cab driver college or anything. Most Nigerian guys develop up to be cab drivers… the ones with much more education do web scams… white collar operate. From what I’ve noticed… these are your only two profession paths if you’re from Nigeria. Smuggling and dealing in hashish is just a really typical side gig. And they had this scam where they used a personal computer to alter prepaid phone cards and improve their worth. Nigerians can be geniuses.
It was a Nigerian that taught me that if you took the local train long distance in Japan you could have a friend get on at the station prior to your destination and give you an extra ticket he purchased there for like a buck and you could save hundreds simply because if you over rode your fair they did not check on the train… you just had to spend when you inserted your ticket at the exit. These Nigerians.
The Japanese did not have significantly an apetite for the devils weed… they preferred amphetamines… one thing I never ever did. I constantly thought it would be pretty hillarious to hang out with some actually stoned Japanese individuals. I wondered what their eyes could possibly look like when they were smoking pot.
The other gaurd in the image… the mean seeking a single… noted the transaction as if to say ‘I had greater get my cut’ and the cash rapidly dissapeared with all of the magnificence of a Las Vegas slieght of hand magician.
You could see it in the officers eyes… and he didn’t appreciate my shutter satisfied finger either. I believed this would be an additional precious roll of thirty 5 millimeter lost to the angry hands of the authorities. That stuff is tough to come by in Siberia you know.
It was clear these men were used to getting treated to such gratuities. Almost certainly they sent word ahead… there is a man in the rear cabin who treats safety officials very effectively.
It reminded me of the consulate officer at the Russian embassy in Beijing who informed me that they have been ‘all out of visas’ till I made my last eight american dollars… and even then he motioned for me to show him the inside of my bag because I am sure he wanted to make it an even ten. That’s why you keep your money in distinct pockets. Miraculously the rubber stamp that made visas was rejuvenated and after a robust smack on the stamp pad was good for just one much more visa.
Our cabin and our bags had been by no means searched. Not anyplace on the entire journey. They could have contained a ton of heroin or four chinese kids set out to function in the kitchens of europe.
At this time I did not know what the two Andres and their female cohort were smuggling, but I had hoped that it was indeed some thing that would make the journey more pleasant.
My passport was taken from me there at Manzhoulli and I was issued Russian travel papers that I carried for the duration of the trip. Papers that were stamped with a radiation symbol the morning after we tore ass by means of the radiated zone caused by the disaster at Chernobyl. To this day I wonder how the passport was returned to me as I departed Russia at the Polish border.
Later Sergei ‘the compensated’ and I sat outside the Manzhoulli station exactly where he smoked a cigarette and asked me inquiries about America. It wasn’t modest speak… Sergei had a deep interest in the way issues have been there… why our nations grew up in this diabolic circumstance of mutual assured nuclear destruction. What was so different about us his words seemed to say in a meandering way. I saw then that Sergei was raised also on the exact same diet program of propoganda that I was… just the other finish of the spectrum. I don’t forget it seemed as if we each realized that proper at the exact same time… his deep basso Russian laughter overwhelmed mine and carried beyond our instant confines to precede me into Siberia.
I uncapped the pewter whiskey flask in my bag… the one particular decorated with the golfers on it that I shoplifted from Carson Perie Scott’s in higher college and we shared a sip. The same one the port official in Shanghai uncapped to smell but never ever dared to partake of. I crushed that flask when I had it in my back pocket when I fell off the back of a moving truck… the flask was empty… which undoubtably had one thing to do with me falling off of the back of a moving truck… but I was crushed as well simply because I loved that flask. I ended up filling it with water and freezing it repeatedly till the crushed metal expanded outward. Plus I think it really is realy the only thing I’ve ever shoplifted… except for candy and stuff like that. I just fell in enjoy with that thing the initial time I saw it. I knew then that I had to have it and I carried it around the whole world.
In Siberia vodka was golden… but whiskey… even the inexpensive Japanese stuff I carried…Suntory I think… it developed a reaction in my Russian pals like absolutely nothing I had ever seen. 1 sip… savored as if it had been sent from heaven above and there had been kisses and bear hugs. One sip of whiskey to a Russian then always opened up an instant and robust friendship. At times it even lasted longer than the fire it made in your stomach and the burn in your throat.
I watched the sunset there that evening in Manzhoulli. Alone at the side of the rails I wished that somebody would have walked over… sat subsequent to me… and even in the silence of these who speak no widespread language… just appreciated that Manzhoulli sunset with me.
If I could have discovered one…I would have paid a prostitute just to sit subsequent to me and enjoy that there. But I’ve heard that prostitutes always make you pay extra for weird stuff like that. I did right after all have a bag of Yuan’s that I worked out of the black market place in China. The ones that I was left with following they would not let me acquire booze with them. The ones only chinese citizens are supposed to carry. Foreigners in China are supposed to carry a distinct funds than the Chinese… they are referred to as foreign exchange certificates. I called them ‘fecks’ simply because I like to come up with acronyms or slang names for things. It makes me sound smarter… like I been around the block a time or two.
Chinese money confused me… they seldom utilized coins… I’d break a 1 yuan note… worth maybe twenty cents and about the size of a buck… and for adjust I’d get a bunch of smaller sized notes of differing sizes. It was like some of their cash was as modest as a postage stamp. Right after a week I had so a lot of the stuff and could not figure out how to use it… I’d just open my hip bag and let the bus driver or shop keeper aid themselves.
It was the hearbreak of the solo traveller… that I need to be in a location of such significance and see some thing of extraordinary beauty and have no a single there to even draw breath with in in the way a single does when confronted with such magnificence. The sigh of beauty.
Envy was the emotion I often felt as I watched others hold hands or share the entwinement of a lovers arms… these who whispered to each other at these moments… them who had a person stand on the pier or at the station to wish them bon voyage… even far more so they who met someone to welcome them to their destination.
I often stepped off of my conveyance alone.
I was there alone as the sun set on Asia… I mentioned goodbye as it was dropping low over Mongolia and casting a gorgeous and firery reflection off of the steppes and the deserts miles distant.
It would be to me my last sunset of Asia.
And my last stupid thought. Possibly it was the vodka the Andres forced upon me there… but I clasped my hands behind my head and layed back on my backpack as the sun rounded the earth… and I entertained myself with a promise that if I were ever to become filthy wealthy that I would purchase my childhood home… the one particular I grew up in… have it taken apart piece by piece and put into shipping containers where I would then have them shipped here… or maybe to the Steppes of Mongolia in front of me… and reassembled precisely as it was. I didn’t care where… I just believed it would be loads of enjoyable to take my childhood residence apart and rebuild it someplace actually far away.
That I might reside in my house and appear out the window at this location.