PSU Magazine Fall 1990

GLASNOST CONNECTION The Soi'iet draji is a point of conte111ion in Estonia. The sign on the right, translated, says: "Forcihle drajiing into an occupational army is an i111ernational crime' " those ideas. It 's a mathematical argumen t that fi ll s the blackboard with equations. "Towards the end of the lecture, a bright fellow in the fro nt row pointed out that the propositions were inconsistent with each other. Students love to catch professors in mi stakes and the fellow was absolutely right. The math was wrong. It was "There I was, teaching managerial market economics with the propaganda ministry office just three doors down the hall." inconsiste nt. But you see, it wasn't my math; it was Marx ' s math. "There was this wonderfu l si lent moment - as if it had been scripted in Ho ll ywood. "But it gets sad. I noticed that a young woman in the back row was visibl y weeping. I didn 't embarrass the girl and PSU12 ask her why. I think , given the circ um– stances, that here was a young woman who realized she had been defrauded. She had been asked to build her li fe on a set of ideas that were in fact illog ica l." Many of the soc iety' s most talented people have been involved with the Communist Party and therefore need the most retraining , explains Palm . A ttitudes are changing ra pidl y. When Dr. Palm visited in 1983 , he was followed by a known KGB agent. As late as March 1989, he recogni zed that conversations with some of hi s contacts were guarded. On later visits, he has found that he can talk about anything to anybody. "A visiting touri st seven or eight years ago was a matter of some interest to the government," he says. " I suppose I sti ll am, but, I like to think , in a more pos itive way." A lecture series Palm gave for the private Estonian Business School in Tallinn is indicative of the changing attitudes. The school uses rented facilities in the Communi st Party' s convention hall. "There I was, teaching managerial mar– ket economics with the propaganda ministry office just three doors down the hall ," ex plains a still incredulous Palm. "And I had directors of various enterprises explaining to me that they are trying to fi gure out some way to differentiate their product from everyone else' s. They wanted adv ice on how to become successful monopolies! " Palm has been shown through the plant of a military contractor who wants to form a joint venture with Western capitali st businesses. Such pl ants are now under the control of Moscow, but negotiations are under way to put them under Estonian control and to cease their war-related producti on. Dr. Palm just returned from the Soviet Union where he gave lectures at the post graduate Estonian Management Institute (EM I) and the School of Commerce at Lenin grad State University. At EMI the audience included almost 300 enterpri se directors. He and a PSU colleague, Dr. Abdul Qayum , are fini shing a textbook on manageri al economics for EMI; the ir book on investment analys is has already been tran slated into Estonian. Even when Palm is not in Estonia, he is working on other projects fo r the country. Last fall he gathered over 1,000 business and economic tex tbooks from PSU colleagues and arranged for their shipment to Tallinn. He hopes to produce a simil ar "care package" this year. He is a co-founder of the Estonian American Economic Education Fund, incorporated in Maryland. In addition to arranging for the shipment of uni versity literature, the fund is currently acquiring a Vi rginia school di strict 's used high school and grade school books. Through Palm ' s efforts, the fund and another group will be sending medical equipment, including two used CAT scanners, and medical supplies to Estonia. The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, in which Palm is an active member, held a conference thi s summer in Seattle that was well attended by academics from the Baltic States. "All six presidents of the major Baltic uni versities were present at the Seattle meeting," says Palm , "and a couple of them are buddies of mine. A few years ago that would have been unthinkable."