When the 6th Prague International Conference was announced in September 1989, the organisers can have had little idea that within two months the communist regime in Czechoslovakia would collapse and the Berlin wall be breached. The conference was postponed until August 1991. That week the failed Soviet coup led to the disbandment of the USSR as such. It was an exciting time to visit Prague. It was a disconcerting time too, I was still not sure whether my contribution was meant to be a poster or a paper. Writing received no response, fax machines were unavailable, phoning at first resulted in repeated Sprechen Sie Deutsch? but eventually in an assurance that my accommodation had been booked So I arrived as Rusyne airport with a paper and a poster, having ascertained during the journey that delegates to two other unrelated conferences in Prague had had similar experiences!