Digging for Amber.



On a trip through Eastern Europe, some years ago, I visited Kaliningrad, where the worldwide biggest amber state holding company is located. Digging for amber is highly profitable and the owner of the spot, the Sate of Russia, wants to keep the profit itself. Nonetheless a lot of stealing and corruption is going on there, which is tolerated to some extension. Outside the fences of the company area villagers try to gather some small profit too, by digging for amber with their hands, which is not tolerated. I stayed with them for an 'average' working day.