WORLD

Letter to editor

There is a "Russian" way separate from "Western" economies

This article is in response to several articles and critical analyses about the Russian situation
published in your paper during recent weeks particularly it is a response to Don�t Give Up on
Russia of 20-11-98, p.6

Some twenty years of observing the Russian society make me sad to see the present
deplorable situation of the most suffered, most patient and the most peace loving people
which offered 28 millions lives to save freedom and the West. It compels me to express my
deep thoughts and views as to how Russia can really be saved. No one talks about this
enormous sacrifice of young lives that saved the Western capitalism which is now haunting
and imposing deprivation upon the children of its liberators. Instead, since that sacrifice, the
West have been talking about the Communist dictatorship and its tight grip on the Russian
society. Nearly, no one makes any remarks about great socio-economic achievements under
the same regime. Russian people received good quality and free education, free health care,
employment, paid vacations, highly subsided housing, transportation, recreation, and decent
old age benefits. Most importantly, Russia was moved toward a highly non-materialistic
civilized society in which education, art and literature, while accessible to all, enriched the
society by any other nation in the world.
Many enlightened individual in Russia and abroad criticized the dictatorship and ensuing
corruption; but no one was against the benefits people were receiving from the system.
Simply people appreciated the benefits but wished the withering away of the dictatorship.
Mikail Gorbachev understood this public sentiment and tried to democratize the system
including the Communist Party, which he thought, and I agree, was necessary at least for a
while to stay in power. He intended to keep all social benefits people were receiving and
enhance them further. Two factors, in my opinion, hampered the achievement of these goals.
First, too large dosage of Glasnost and Perestroika were injected in the society which was
strictly deprived from both for several decades. It was beyond the normal assimilation by the
people. These measures had to be introduced gradually and with much slower pace avoiding
social turbulence. Second, selfish and opportunistic ventures of Boris Yeltsin disintegrated
the Soviet Union which was the power base of Gorbachev rendering him powerless. Mr.
Gorbachev�s plan was to give full autonomy to the states while maintaining a federal system
similar to that of the United States. If it was materialized, all the states would have been in a
better political and economic conditions that they are today, and at the same time the
superiority of the Soviet Union would have remained intact.
Disintegration brought the Western pressure on imposing a transformation from socialism to
capitalism. The peculiarity of this imposition was that the Western nations already knew the
evils of capitalism and had tried to counterbalance them by introducing socialistic programs
of different degrees in the areas of education, health care, unemployment, old age benefits,
food transportation and recreation. Even the United States, the most capitalist of all, was not
exception. Presently, more then 60 percent of the American budget of about $1,5 trillion is
spent on such programs including the social security and all the areas mentioned above.
If it has been proved to the West that capitalism cannot continue to operate without injection
a good dosage of socialistic programs, then why it had to destroy the comfortable egalitarian
social system people had enjoyed in the Soviet Union and replace it with an evil and
destructive one? The reason that comes to mind are, first, opening of opportunities for
economic benefits to the West�s economic powers, and second, the opportunity of hoarding
the national wealth by the apparatchiks of the old system.
Capitalism is one step backward from socialism. Socialism does not need to be Marxist; it
could be established on a new fully competitive, non-capitalistic private market economy.
That is the way Russia and other CIS countries should follow, moving their societies one step
ahead of the West rather then following it. Nearly, anyone I have interviewed, remembered
appreciatively the benefits received under the old system which they have lost now.
Capitalistic reforms have stripped Russia of its state and economy. No positive result can be
expected from its continuation except further class stratification and corruption. To
accomplish any order in Russia under the present situation requires a publicly supported
authoritarian central system, despite the present political apathy. The main purposes must be
to establish central authority over all the territory while keeping regional autonomies; and at
the same time, to regain a firm hand on the economy by restoring hoarded national assets
and imposing harsh punishments on embezzlers and tax evaders even if it has to be done
through summary trials. Parallel to these functions, the government must move toward
encouraging a wide spread participation in political process which is absolutely necessary to
accomplish the ultimate objective, namely, establishing a totally private non-capitalistic
market economy leading toward a truly democratic society. This non-capitalistic market
economy is not an easy concept to be explained here. It is all described in my two books,
Technodemocratic Economic Theory: From Capitalism and Socialism to Democracy, 1991,
and Thechnological Democracy: A Humanistic Philosophy of the Future Society, 1990, both
published by the Eternalist foundation, 1080, Eastman Street, Platteville, WI, 53818, U.S.A.
The last chapter particularly establishes the transitional process in Russia. Copies of these
books are available at the Academy of Science Library at Almaty.

Dr. Reza Rezazadeh, Professor University of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Adventurers recovering after ending global non-stop balloon quest

HONOLULU
Hawaii, Dec 26 (AFP)

British tycoon Richard Branson and two fellow balloonists were recovering here Saturday
after their failed attempt to become the first to fly around the world non-stop in a hot-air
balloon.
The adventure ended Christmas Day when the balloon capsule, carrying Branson along with
US millionaire Steve Fossett and Swedish balloonist Per Lindstrand, splashed down in the
Pacific just north of Honolulu.
The capsule landed in shark-infested waters 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the island of
Oahu, the main island of the Hawaiian archipelago, around 9:50 a.m. (1950 GMT) Friday.
The trio was quickly plucked from the ocean by two US Coast Guard helicopters.
The men appeared to be in good health, with only their egos bruised after failing once again
to break one of the few remaining major aviation records.
�We really thought we had it in our grasp,� Branson told CNN from Barbers Point, on the
island of Oahu, the largest of the Hawaiiand islands. �We were three days from home.�
The balloon had come up against a low-pressure �brick wall,� officials at the ICO Global
Challenge headquarters in London said.
Project director Mike Kendrick said the team missed catching a jet stream needed to escape
the low-pressure area by a mere hour.
After failing to fly over, sneak under and burst through the low-pressure zone, the balloon
stalled and began to drift south rather than east. The men were forced to bring it down.
The flyers were unable to blast their craft free of the balloon, and were dragged along the
water for some three kilometers (two miles) before coming to a stop, Branson said.
�This is really disappointing,� Fossett told CNN.
Hours later however Branson gave a more positive assessment of the adventure.
�In the last seven days we�ve had the greatest adventure of our lifetime,� Branson said at a
news conference. �The highs were breathtaking.�
The balloon left Morocco on December 18 and the team crossed the half-way point
Thursday.
Until now, most of the problems the team encountered had been diplomatic.
They had to avoid Iraq as the United States and Britain bombed it, then steer clear of Russia
and North Korea, and managed to talk their way through Chinese air space after drifting into
a restricted area over Tibet.
But the diplomatic wrangling left China angry and authorities in Beijing said all such further
balloon flights would be banned, a move that could effectively eliminate any competitors
seeking to follow in Branson�s wake.
Branson�s team had planned to hit the US West Coast before dawn on Christmas Day US
time and celebrate with specially made turkey dinners.
Both Branson and Fossett, a Chicago stockbroker, have failed in previous bids for the record.
Fossett crashed in the Coral Sea off northeast Australia during an attempt earlier this year.
A knot of Hawaiian onlookers braved strong easterly winds and gathered at a northern
beachside golf course to watch the gigantic white balloon touch down on the ocean surface,
the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported.
Many of the residents followed the action with powerful binoculars.
Branson said via satellite from the capsule before touching down that they could have stayed
aloft for another week � �but by the end of the week we would more likely end up in the
Pacific anyway,� he said.