Thursday, September 23, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
7
KU economist aids Russian recovery
By Jenny Barlow Special to the Kansan
Tales of mafia bosses, terrorist bombings, money laundering and economic trials have placed Russia in the spotlight — a country with growing social problems.
However, a University of Kansas professor has made a contribution to finding a solution for Russia's woes.
Since 1994, Mohamed El-Hodiri, professor of economics, has been the director of the National Training Foundation in Russia, a nonprofit organization that assists the Russian Parliament in building institutions for democracy through financial advising.
El-Hodiri has had an interest in Russia since he visited the country in 1958 as a student at Moscow State University, where he studied mathematics and language.
The Barent's Group, a consulting firm for economics and banking, based in Washington, D.C., sponsors the foundation and its projects.
Forty paid economics experts from around the world, including El-Hodiri, worked together in various cities around Russia to train 1,200 Russian business people. The courses taught five themes of finance: health care, infrastructure, solutions to social problems, cultural needs and economic development and growth. The students received diplomas after the three-week sessions were completed.
Mohamed El-Hodiri, professor of economics, hangs a poster he brought back from Russia. He returned earlier this month. Photo by Lucas W. Krump/KANSAN
Of the officials who participated in the training program, 200 will visit the United States to further their studies. Twenty already have visited the University, and 20 others will arrive next week.
Since the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian people have been dealing with the transition to a capitalist society.
"Many Westerners went with a historical view of democracy and capitalism," said Bruce Berglund,
assistant to the director of the Center of Russian and Eastern European studies. "People expected Russia to quickly create a system like we have in the '90s in America without recognizing both economies are the product of the same system but at different periods of evolution."
El-Hodiri said Russia rapidly was becoming a third-world country.
"Much of the economic activity is undeclared, too many raw materials are being exported instead of used in national industries, and the government's laws are poorly organized and enforced," he said.
El-Hodiher also said monopolies were replicated because of mafa involvement in business.
"Hired killings in Russia are on the rise with typical targets being anyone in the way of the mafia, commonly journalists who know too much, or bankers who are killed to settle accounts." he said.
Solutions will come from the construction of free democratic institutions and social structures, El-Hodiri said.
He returned to the University earlier this month and now is teaching an honors tutorial called Revolution, Reform and Restoration in Russia. He said he would continue to make short trips to Russia until the end of October, when the project would be completed.
Maria Carlson, director of the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, praised El-Hodiri's efforts.
"Mohamed approaches Russia's problems as someone who understands the culture and country and has a real knowledge of the actual needs," she said.
- Edited by Allan Davis
Russians mourn Raisa Gorbachev's death
The Associated Press
MOSCOW— Several thousand Russians paid their last respects yesterday to Raisa Gorbachev — and some also asked forgiveness for a nation that reviled her while she lived for being the antithesis of the typical Soviet leader's wife.
Mrs. Gorbachev's death Monday, after a battle with acute leukemia, has prompted an outpouring of veneration from ordinary Russians.
"That's a peculiarity of our nation — they know how to bury, but they can't honor the living," said one mourner, Yelena Bondarenko.
A solemn procession for the wife of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev lined up outside the
Russian Culture Fund, which she founded. Mourners waited more than an hour to lay flowers at the foot of her coffin, which was heaped with blossoms.
The mourners were mostly women, and mostly middle-aged or elderly — about the same age as Mrs. Gorbachev, who was 67 when she died. They also were members of a generation that had bitterly resented her for being stylish, sophisticated and outspoken.
World leaders including President Clinton, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent condolences to the Gorbachev family.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Boris Yeltsin's wife, Naina, along with several
other government and parliamentary leaders, came to pay tribute at Mrs. Gorbachev's coffin.
Many ordinary mourners cried;
a few crossed themselves.
"This is just so hard for me," an elderly woman kept saying to herself as she wiped away tears, while leaning against a lamppost just outside the Culture Fund building.
While Mrs. Gorbachev was deeply admired in the West, Russians resented her for her designer clothes, her poise and most of all for daring to appear by her husband's side in public.
"I have come to pay my last respects, my last due — but also to ask forgiveness for all our people, who poured so much mud on her," said a retired musician, German Varamov. "I only have the consolation that I have never thrown a stone at her."
The mourning ceremony was scheduled to last five hours, but Gorbachev decided to extend it when the flow of people showed no sign of abating.
A Russian television newscast yesterday compared Mrs. Gorbachev to Princess Diana and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Others admired the Gorbachevs' unashed love and devotion to each other.
"That love and loyalty was unbelievable — worthy of Romeo and Juliet," said Lyudmila Anis, an entrepreneur from Moscow.
Gorbachev had been by his wife's bedside almost around the clock for the nearly two months she was hospitalized in Muenster, Germany.
Making it Work: Balancing Roles as
a Student-Parent
A panel of student-parents will discuss their experiences
both parents and students.
of trying to balance the responsibilities of their roles as
Thursday, September 23
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Curry Room, Kansas Union
Sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center. 22 Strong Hall, 864-3552
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