In article ,
"Petal and Leif" wrote:
> Yes, I understand whay you say, and that is a sad story for true.
> There had to be special reasons if a person from DDR or any of the other
> east european countries wanted to go over to the west. But it was in fact
> possible. We had visitors several times every year from countries like East
> Germany and Romania. But it was hard for them to get a visa.
No, in this particular individual's case (and lots of others), it
was not just "hard but possible", it was **impossible**, and
individuals like him couldn't even ask why: asking just got you
(and potentially your spouse, and children) in trouble.
I also met a fair number of Eastern European scientists at scientific
meetings in the West, and in my lab, all through the Cold War years.
But, it was **always** the **same** small set of trusted guys, or
guys whose technical and scientific abilities were matched (or in some
obvious cases substantially exceeded) by their politically compliant
character. There were people I knew of from their translated (and
high quality) publications who **never** came to Western meetings,
until the Wall came down, and I later got to meet some of them.
In earlier years such groups were often accompanied by "minders".
They weren't identified as such, in fact they were claimed to be
scientists also, but it was pretty obvious: big burly guy, always
there with the others, always in big overcoat. You ask him at
the coffee break, "So, what's your lab doing on such and such?" --
Answer from one of the actual scientiests: "Sorry, he doesn't speak
English.
Contrast this with Linus Pauling's passport story (all of it), which
I would imagine you know.
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REMAINDER OF ORIGINAL POSTS RETAINED BELOW, JUST TO KEEP IT ALL
TOGETHER.
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> It is some similarities with American people that are not allowed to go to
> Cuba and spend their vacation (and money) there. It is possible, but you
> can`t just jump on an aircraft in NY and fly just like you do if you go to
> Jamaica.
>
> LA
>
>
> "AES" wrote in message
> news:siegman-D58E05.16210629062005@news.stanford.edu...
> > In article ,
> > "Gregory Morrow"
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> It's obvious neither of you US - hating twots were in the DDR in the
> >> 80's...
> >>
> >
> > I was, however -- although actually it was Bulgaria, on a National
> > Science Foundation program that provided travel funds for U.S. academic
> > researchers to make brief visits to labs in Eastern European countries
> > and see how they were doing.
> >
> > In the hallway of a university lab in Sofia I encountered a faculty
> > member from a university in the DDR whom I'd never met, but whose name I
> > knew from seeing it on scientific journal publications. Very similar to
> > me in fact: Young guy, worked in the same field as I did, married,
> > couple of kids, taught and did academic research, published technical
> > papers, nonpolitical, mostly focused on his research and teaching. He
> > was vacationing in Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast, and had stopped in
> > the univ lab in Sofia on the way through.
> >
> > So, a fragment of our conversation.
> >
> > ME: So, will you be coming to IQEC? [Big major convention in our
> > field, to be held later that year in West Germany, just across
> > the border from his university]
> >
> > HIM: No, unfortunately I'm not allowed to travel to the West [which
> > also explained why he was vacationing in Bulgaria, which is OK,
> > but not anybody's first choice]
> >
> > ME: Uh . . . do you know why you aren't allowed to travel to the West.
> >
> > HIM: In my country, when you're told you won't be allowed to travel to
> > the West, you don't ask why you won't.
> >
> > Made an impression on me; I've never forgotten it. |