The following is
an interview I gave to the newspaper Pealinn
(The Capital City). It appeared on March 11, 2013:
In
his Independence Day speech, President Toomas-Hendrik Ilves said that for her
100th birthday Estonia should be fixed up.
How much can a State be fixed up in five years?
I don’t know what he meant by „fixing up“. He mentioned that EU’s support funds should
be used primarily for the purpose of creating something permanent. OK, I agree. As a citizen I want to see Estonia remain on the
world map and life here to get better.
The President did not make any concrete suggestions, but to me it is
clear that our language and culture have to endure. Presently, that poses a challenge to us.
Why do people in Estonia feel so insecure?
The politics in
Estonia have caused people to feel insecure and change is needed. The policies of the past 30 years which got
their start in the United States during President Reagan’s administration are no
longer feasible. It was the liberal economic policies that led to the crisis in
2008 and now it is necessary to clean up the mess they created.
I am lucky in
that I am not young anymore and do not have to worry about my future and I do
not have to look for a job in the labor market. There have been times when unemployment was a
big problem - also in the United States - but the economic crisis has never
been as long and as steep, except during the Great Depression, as it is
now. It will take some time to
recover. It is political decisions that determine
a country’s economic structure and people’s well-being, and decisions are being
made to correct the situation in Europe.
Is there truth to the government’s claim that
Estonia’s economy is recovering and that it is admired even by rich EU
countries?
Ansip loves to
quote statistics – how much GDP has grown and so on. At the same time, he does not break down the
numbers to explain what it means, who is on the receiving end, and so on. Details are important. Everybody knows that the devil is in the
details. When you move away from the big picture and look at the details, you begin to ask why in a growing
economy we have over 40 000 children who do not get enough to eat every
day, why inequality is growing? The
economy could indeed be growing, but the beneficiaries could be only one small
part – the wealthier part – not the ones who are simply managing to get by.
Our problem is
also that a large part of our economy is owned by foreign interests. That is worrisome. Allegedly in recent years about 350 million euros
have exited Estonia as foreign investors’ profit.
As an example of
what is happening, permit me to cite a case in southern Estonia. My younger sister restored our great-grandfather’s
farm in Karksi-Nuia, located near the Latvian border. Couple years ago a Swede had bought there a
farm. When I asked my sister a year
later how farming goes for the Swede, she replied that he interested only in
the forest on that land. What is going to happen when our people no longer own
the land and the businesses? It would
mean that the policies in the country would be influenced by foreigners.
Can foreign investors really influence Estonia’s
policies?
Yes. That is the reality. I have good friends among the foreign
investors here and I talk with them. It
cannot be said that they are blood-sucking capitalists as the Marxists loved to
say. No, they are nice people with whom
one can get along and discuss issues. But my sense is that our own power
structure is not interested in bringing about change. Here is where greed emerges. It is in their interest to increase their own
wealth and that, as a result, could endanger the country’s sovereignty.
Quite evidently many people feel that those in
power are first and foremost interested in their own well-being and not to give
aid to those who need it.
I wrote the
parliamentarians and told them that we cannot continue this way, that the
liberal economic policies are destroying the nation. I spoke with Hans H. Luik (media magnate in
Estonia) about this and he said to me, „ Ilvi, you are against the free flow of
capital. You are a Socialist!“ In fact, I believe in a market economy, but
it has to be regulated.
By the way,
Estonia is not the only country where such questions come up. During the last elections in the US, I saw
and heard how people simply hated each other.
I visited my good friend who is a Republican. She is a lovely person, but absolutely
against changing the extant liberal
taxation policies by which the wealthy pay a smaller tax than the ordinary working
people. She is a beneficiary of that tax structure and understandably she does not support making
changes. She fails to see the large
picture in which changes in tax laws would benefit the country’s economy as a
whole.
Would inequality be reduced by taxation policies
in our country? Can taxing of dividends
or progressive taxation bring beneficial results?
We need to make changes. The current policies make
us poorer. A progressive tax need not be
cast in iron so that it remains the same for all time. Nothing in this world is forever. No, tax laws have to be changed and adjusted
as needed in order for society to be balanced and sustainable. The current tax system is not
sustainable. For some reason, the
President did not touch this topic in his speech. Our very serious problem in addition to the
40 000 hungry children is the large number of our people leaving the
country. He did not mention that either
in his speech. Instead, he spoke of a
metaphorical Eiffel tower: „ Let us bring to our nation’s 100th anniversary a
metaphorical tower which shines and can be seen afar“ was one sentence. Some sentences later, he said, „Everything
that is good and dear need not be grand and seen from afar.“ That lacks logic. I would agree with the
latter sentence. Already, when living in
the United States, I thought that Estonia is so small that as a State it has to
possess quality – that her educational and health care systems have to be of
such quality that others admire and wonder how such a lovely country was
achieved. If one takes a look at foreign
media, it contains praise for us, but in the area of IT development. The latter is not the State’s business.
Big countries have also praised us for our small
national debt. How does the small debt
help people’s well-being?
Indeed, we have a
small national debt, but we are poor and children go hungry. However, private
indebtedness is large. I remember when the
political leaders encouraged people to take loans. Siim Kallas even told us, „That’s the way to
live.“ The old proverb, „Loans and debts
make worry and frets“ was ignored. One should quote that proverb every now and
then. Banks do not give loans out of
human kindness. Their ads are friendly
and show smiling children, and men embracing their wives – it’s all very
nice. In reality, banks have to make a profit
and that should not be forgotten.
Is Estonia not too small for creating something
great?
We have some very
talented people and we could build a nice country, but we have the wrong
leaders.
What are the values and objectives that must
remain in Estonia?
It is very clear
to me that they are the language and culture.
That is our challenge, because our language could easily disappear. I don’t mean in five years. But in a 50 year perspective it is
conceivable, because pressures to use English are strong. Look around Tallinn – how many of the signs
are purely in Estonian? There are some,
of course. I walk around town and every
now and then notice that an English language sign has appeared.
At the same time,
there is pressure to use Russian – at least in Tallinn. However, I believe that the attractions from
the West have a greater potential to supersede our native language.
I lived for many
years abroad and Estonian was my mother-tongue.
Abroad, the pressures and charms of a foreign tongue do their work,
especially if you do not use your mother-tongue every day. There is an apropos saying, „Use
it or lose it.“ It is true that if you
do not use a language, it disappears.
Here in Estonia we must use Estonian every day.
What other dangers besides loss of own language
threaten us?
My view of Estonian life somewhat differs from that shared by many other
Estonians. Bowing to the golden calf, as
someone commented very adroitly, is a very dominant feature in our
society. I would, in fact, like to see
in the next five years – well, it’s not going to disappear – less bowing to the
golden calf. Greed – it destroys people.
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