To fix a slump

                                            

                                               

                                              

                                  
                                                                                        Photo: Raul Mee

The above photo from Äripäev, November 11, 2015, accompanied its article that was headed, "Ministry of Finance: the economy is in a slump".  Given the economic situation, I drafted the following article that appeared in the business daily Äripäev:



Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz recently said that if an economy can’t deliver for most of its citizens, it’s a failed economy.  His opinion brought to mind one of the definitions my professor had offered years ago, which was that economics is the allocation of scarce resources.  Hence the question becomes, how those resources are allocated and for whom.
 

After the restoration of Estonia’s independence from the collapsing Soviet Union, the aim of the government was to establish democratic institutions and a market economy.  Neo-liberal economic policies that included minimum governmental interference in economic activity, including low taxation were implemented and pursued vigorously. 

Nobel Prize-winning economist and Professor Milton Friedman was the “father” of the neo-liberal ideology and the person who implemented it in Estonia was Prime Minister Mart Laar.  In 2006, Cato Institute bestowed on Mart Laar the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.  Mart Laar himself has said that Friedman’s book “Free to Choose” is the only economics book he had read when he became the Prime Minister in 1992. He embraced Friedman’s ideas on privatization, proportional income tax, the free market, and acted to implement them.  Upon accepting the Friedman Prize, Laar said that he was “proud that we succeeded to prove in Estonia that Milton Friedman’s ideas really work.”

By that time, Friedman himself had come to recognize problems with his doctrine, having said in 2003 “I'm not sure I would as of today push it as hard as I once did.” Friedman passed away in 2006 and did not see in 2008 the financial collapse of the economy that had been built on the ideology promoted by him and the Chicago school of economics. 

To this day efforts are being made to recover from the results of the neo-liberal policies which concentrated wealth in the hands of the few and spread poverty and unemployment.   Estonia is no exception.  The situation does not only offend moral sensitivities, but history has shown that under such conditions peoples’ endurance can end with social unrest or war. 

Joseph Stiglitz considers it necessary to abandon the false belief that regulation and taxation thwart business opportunities and economic growth.  He cites, as an example, that increased taxes, cessation of advantages to the high income bracket, and a refined tax code would dampen the desire to accumulate great wealth, because it would be taxed heavily and rendered impossible to avoid.

His agenda includes the goals of full employment, investment into public infrastructure, better access to financial services, healthcare, childcare, vacations and improved possibilities for labor unions to negotiate with employers. 

It would behoove us to look closely at Professor Stiglitz’s analyses in order for Estonia’s economy to develop in a manner that reduces inequality.  In the final analysis, we have to ask ourselves for whom does our country’s economy exist.  Let’s think about that!

 

Another spectacular scandal

                                                      

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On September 16 appeared in Pealinn Online an interview with me, based on the following opinion:

Since Estonia’s independence was restored, the most spectacular scandals involving money have been with members of the Reform Party starting with the disappearance of 10 million US dollars when Siim Kallas was the president of the Bank of Estonia to the recent arrest of Reform Party member Allan Kiil, who is suspected of taking large bribes over the years as an executive at the Port of Tallinn.  Into this framework fits the VEB fond scandal that the business newspaper Äripäev has named corruption at the highest levels of the State of Estonia.  In its 24.07.2014 editorial, the newspaper stated, “The presidents of the Bank of Estonia, Siim Kallas, Vahur Kraft and Andres Lipstok have abused their official position and destroyed the reputation of the Bank of Estonia by lying to the parliament and the nation, covering up for each other and not reporting the criminal deeds.” 

More than three years ago, Reform Party member Silver Meikar confessed that he had donated to Reform Party’s treasury money that did not belong to him nor did he know its origin.  This scandal became popularly known as “the plastic bag story” and now we learn that the current scandal at the Port of Tallinn involves money delivered in plastic bags for years to the Party’s coffers. 
In the current Port of Tallinn scandal, Siim Kallas sees privatization as a solution to the problem.  In recent days the media has advanced his opinion on this subject and in his article in the weekly Eesti Ekspress, Kallas states that electric companies, ports, and airports are privatized in all western countries. 

Considering the Port of Tallinn as an item for privatization, it has to be said that Siim Kallas is mistaken because not all ports in the western countries are privatized.  A glance at the websites of the ports in the Baltic Sea region gives the following picture:

The Port of Helsinki is a public utility owned by the City of Helsinki.

The ports in Stockholm are administered by the Ports of Stockholm Group, comprised of the parent company Stockholms Hamn AB and its subsidiaries Nynäshamns Hamn AB, Nynäshamns Mark AB and Kapellskärs Hamn AB.  Stockholms Hamn AB is fully owned by the City of Stockholm. Nynäshamns Hamn AB is a wholly owned subsidiary. Nynäshamns Mark AB is 50 percent owned by Stockholms Hamn AB and 50 percent owned by the Municipality of Nynäshamn. Kapellskärs Hamn AB is 91 percent owned by Stockholms Hamn AB with the remaining nine percent owned by the Municipality of Norrtälje.

In Copenhagen the port is part of a Danish-Swedish joint venture that includes the port of Malmö.  The company is named the Copenhagen Malmö Port which is partly owned by the City of Copenhagen and the City of Malmö, the states of Denmark and Sweden, and about a quarter of the shares is privately owned.

Not much information is in the Internet about the port at Riga.  It does state that it is managed by the Freeport of Riga Authority and most probably, it means that the port is city owned.
Regarding the port in Gdansk, Poland, it is not in private ownership.  The Port of Gdansk Authority is a joint stock company, partly owned by the State Treasury, the City of Gdansk, and entitled employees.

The picture that emerges about the ownership of the ports in the Baltic Sea region is one that includes municipal and state resources, and private funds to a certain extent.  It would behoove Estonia to consider such a formula for its enterprises.  The problem in Estonia is political.  For years, the power structure at Toompea has appointed members to the boards and executive offices of the state’s major companies without giving any consideration to the appointees ethical character.  Most of the problems at these companies would not exist if competent people with ethical standards were in the executive offices and board rooms.

The next life

Left: my family as refugees in Germany in the summer of 1945.
Right: the Cambodian refugee couple in my home in November 1975.



Estonia, a member of the European Union, is presently debating the issue of accepting refugees from the Middle East and northern Africa.  I wrote an article on the subject that appeared in the weekly Eesti Express, on August 12, 2015.  Following is my translation of the text: 

Wars are the cause of refugees.  Our experience in Estonia serves as an example of the refugee tragedy.  During World War II, my family fled from our home in Tartu to my mother’s parents’ farm in Kõo township in Viljandi county as the battles were moving closer to the city.  Our relatives from Valga came, also to the farm and together we were displaced persons.  When it became clear that the advance of the Red Army into Estonia cannot be stopped, we fled to the West in the fall of 1944, as did tens of thousands other Estonians.

Our family – mother with four children – managed to make it across the Baltic Sea in the midst of war to Germany.  The persistent bombing by the allies had Germany in ruins, but we succeeded in crossing from northeastern Germany, where the ship had docked, to southwestern Germany where lived my father’s relative who had left Estonia with her Baltic German husband when Hitler called the Germans “home” from the Baltic States in 1939. 

When the war ended in the spring of 1945, Germany was divided into four occupation zones by the victorious allies, and the region where we were became part of the American occupation zone.  One of the immediate tasks was to attend to the refugees and by fall of that year, refugee camps were established and we were taken to one.

Millions of people had become displaced persons during the course of World War II and most of them returned home after the war ended.  But the refugees from territories that became part of the Soviet sphere of influence presented a special problem.  Finally, it was decided that the refugees from the Baltic States do not have to return home and gradually opportunities to immigrate to the United Kingdom, the Western Hemisphere or Australia.

We succeeded in immigrating to the USA where we arrived just before Christmas in 1950. I was 13 years old.  My sisters and I started school at the beginning of the new year. We did not know English nor were there any programs to teach English to foreigners.  The teachers were considerate and with their accommodation we became fluent in English by Easter.  My younger sister even forgot Estonian during the two years that we lived in the completely English speaking environment.

Many years later I had a different refugee experience in the US.  It was related to the practice of warring parties withdrawing from a territory and including in the evacuation procedures the local people who had worked with them during the war. At the end of the Vietnam war, hundreds of thousands – mostly politicians, military personnel, and professionals – fled from Indochina and upon arrival in the US were placed in refugee camps.  The media was filled with news of the fall of Saigon in the spring of 1975, showing the panic and people desperate to be evacuated.  I decided to take one of the Vietnamese families in my home and contacted the refugee camp in Texas.

I was contacted in November.  They said that if I’m agreeable a young Cambodian couple is ready to come to my home.  After they had become settled, they told me that they had had other offers, but had decided to accept mine because I had been a war refugee.  There were people in my community who did not approve of refugees, because they take away jobs. In this case, my neighbor had contacts at McDonald’s and the young Cambodian got a part-time job there.  That did not meet with resentment in my community and at Christmas some members gave presents to the young couple.  On the whole, the community was friendly to them.

We spoke in English as much as possible in order for them to make a new home in America. One morning the young woman came to the kitchen and declared, “In my next life I no want to be Cambodian woman”.  She was a smart woman of 27 and when they moved in the spring to Providence, Rhode Island, where a community of Cambodian refugees had settled, she became a cook at the home of a wealthy widow and her husband became the chauffeur.  We continued to stay in touch for years and their story, although very interesting, does not belong in this context.

As long as there are wars there will be refugees and now Estonia is faced with that question.  I live again in my land of birth where I follow the debate over accepting refugees from war-torn countries in the New East and north Africa, and I thought it useful to share my refugee experiences in the hope that it may abate fears.  I think that our country can take about 200 refugees over a two-year period provided we prepare for it carefully and thoroughly.  

Why the pause?

Yesterday I happened to look at my business card and noticed that my blog site was on it.   I realized that events had kept me so busy that I had not had time to think about my blog.  The last entry was more than two years ago!!  What had preoccupied my time?

It was in 2013 that the Occupations Museum in Tallinn observed its 10^th anniversary and in preparation for that, the museum director had asked me to help with the translation of the exhibit texts into English.  In order to translate correctly the text about the museum founder’s biography, I contacted the daughter of the founder, Olga Kistler-Ritso, in the U.S.  As often happens, correspondence developed between us and I asked her whether she had read the book “Carrying Linda’s Stones”.  She had not, but she had read the book “When the Noise Had Ended:  Geislingen’s DP Children Remember”.  She had encouraged the Occupations Museum to incorporate stories from the Geislingen book into an exhibit at the museum and after she had read “Carrying Linda’s Stones”, she felt that the stories were powerful and should reach a wider audience.

It was also in 2013 that the Estonian language edition of “When the Noise Had Ended” appeared (Estonian title: Kui sõjamüra oli vaibunud.  Geislingeni põgenikelaagri laste mälestused).  I was asked by my Estonian colleagues abroad to help with the book’s presentation in Tallinn and I arranged for it at the Occupations Museum in August of that year. 

Simultaneously, the 70^th anniversary of the massive fleeing to the West came into focus and my suggestion to publish an Estonian language edition of “Carrying Linda’s Stones” for presentation in the fall of 2014 gained the support of the book’s editors, authors and other pertinent parties.  Having drafted a budget for such a publication, I turned to Estonian organizations in North America, Australia and Europe for funding.  As it turned out, contributions by end of 2013 were insufficient to carry out such a project and that’s how the reissue of the book, Mis teha - siin ta on (“Refugee”), was born (picture of the front cover appears at the top).  

As the editor of the reissue, I wrote in the Preface:

“As a schoolgirl in the Geislingen displaced persons camp, I read Mis teha - siin ta on (“Refugee”).   The book was popular in our refugee community and, later, it was on the bookshelves of our new homes abroad. 

One can hardly find a comparable piece of Estonian exile literature that describes so aptly - and in tones of dark humor - the experiences of the Estonian displaced person in wartime and post-war Germany.  

By 1946, it was certain that the Estonian refugees’ wish to return home cannot be realized and their future was uncertain.  It was in that environment that Arnold Sepp and Endel Kõks wrote and illustrated Mis teha - siin ta on.  It was published in 1947 with UNRRA’s permission.  While providing hearty laughter, the humorous text gave a psychological uplift to thousands and a glimmer of hope for the future.  

The republication of the book by Arnold Sepp and Endel Kõks with an introduction by today’s historians and with English translations is part of the activities taking place in Estonia to mark the massive fleeing to the West from Estonia 70 years ago. 

The reissue also endeavors to make available the refugees’ narrative to the Estonian reader, especially the readers who grew up during the Soviet occupation when the fate of Estonians who fled to the West was a taboo topic.

It is thanks to the support of the Estonian American National Council, the Rotalia Foundation, the Foundation for Estonian Arts, and Maano and Epp Milles, Aire and William Salmre, Richard and JoAn Conner, Mall Blumfeld, Karl Noor that this book appears.  The good collaboration by the Estonian Diaspora Academy historians Maarja Merivoo-Parro and Sander Jürisson during the compiling of the book and the Introduction they wrote deserve a special thanks.  Invaluable advice and good suggestions were given by numerous people whenever I discussed the book with them and I thank them for their input.

The hardships caused for Estonians by the Second World War are past.  But again, refugees are a reality.  The UN High Commission for Refugees reported this year that forced migration had exceeded the 50 million number of the World War II era, half of them children under the age of 18. Most of them are faced with a situation similar to what Estonian refugees experienced.  May they, at least, have a resource, which would make their misery more tolerable as did the book by Sepp and Kõks for us.”

So, most of 2014 was spent on preparing for the fall event which was to include the presentation of the reissue. Hence a lot of my time was spent as the editor and translator into English of Mis teha – siin ta on. 

After the observance in September, I left for the U.S. in October to visit family and friends, starting in Connecticut and ending in Florida.  In Connecticut, I visited with good friends in my former home town as well as in Norwalk and Greenwich.  After that I spent many wonderful days, including Thanksgiving, with my daughter’s family in McLean, Virginia.  My son lives in Sarasota, Florida, and I had planned to spend Christmas with him. I headed south at the beginning of December, stopping to visit my good friends since the days of my life in South Carolina.  I arrived in Florida about a week before Christmas and didn’t get back to Tallinn before early January 2015.  

Not long after returning to Tallinn, my younger sister who lives on a farm founded by our great-grandfather in southern Estonia became seriously ill and I went to the farm. Part of her illness prevented her from remembering the password to her computer. After she was released from the hospital, she was not to be left along for two weeks, and that's how most of the winter month of February was spent.  It was tranquil, yet busy. 

Having returned to Tallinn, I began to write a project application, based on a proposal made by activists in Norway, for the Estonian Women's Studies and Resource Centre.  The deadline for submission to the Nordic Council of Ministers was May 31, and it was met.  Almost forgot to mention that during the same period, my Rotary club's Assistance to Large Families Project Committee, which I head, visited families in Valga County for two days at the end of March, and the follow-up work to those visits I finished by end of June.  

Now it is mid-July and I've had time to reflect on the past two years.