WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.786
-This story brings us
to Eastern Europe.

2
00:00:02.826 --> 00:00:05.490
For 40 years the small
country of Slovakia

3
00:00:05.530 --> 00:00:08.128
was one of several
Soviet-controlled nations

4
00:00:08.168 --> 00:00:10.128
held behind the Iron curtain.

5
00:00:10.168 --> 00:00:13.437
At that time, Slovakia
and the Czech Republic

6
00:00:13.477 --> 00:00:17.589
were united as one nation
called Czechoslovakia.

7
00:00:17.629 --> 00:00:22.461
In 1989 Czechoslovakia liberated
itself from Soviet control.

8
00:00:22.501 --> 00:00:30.038
Virtually overnight their communist
nightmare had ended.

9
00:00:30.078 --> 00:00:31.543
But after independence

10
00:00:31.583 --> 00:00:35.035
people struggled through
the tumultuous years that followed.

11
00:00:35.075 --> 00:00:38.490
People like Olga Rybarikova
and her children.

12
00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:43.139
-The past regime,
the communist regime,

13
00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:47.187
was very harsh for people
living in this system.

14
00:00:47.227 --> 00:00:51.115
Especially for free
and open-minded people.

15
00:00:51.155 --> 00:00:54.696
There weren’t any
opportunities for me

16
00:00:54.736 --> 00:00:57.929
because as soon as you would
stand out of the crowd a little bit,

17
00:00:57.969 --> 00:01:00.948
they will try to put you
down immediately.

18
00:01:00.988 --> 00:01:03.279
We weren’t able
to travel abroad freely,

19
00:01:03.319 --> 00:01:06.540
there was no freedom of speech,
very limited opportunities,

20
00:01:06.580 --> 00:01:09.331
it was a true dictatorship.

21
00:01:09.371 --> 00:01:13.964
[music playing]

22
00:01:14.004 --> 00:01:18.067
-Olga Rybarikova lived the greater
part of her life under communism.

23
00:01:18.107 --> 00:01:19.785
Throughout those brutal years,

24
00:01:19.825 --> 00:01:22.567
she struggled to provide for
her two small children -

25
00:01:22.607 --> 00:01:24.567
Katarina and Eric.

26
00:01:24.607 --> 00:01:27.142
-For a child though living in
the Soviet Union it was different

27
00:01:27.182 --> 00:01:29.607
because you didn’t see all
the politic... you know...

28
00:01:29.647 --> 00:01:31.607
of course you didn’t care as a child

29
00:01:31.647 --> 00:01:35.060
but if you grow, thinking about
all this more and more,

30
00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:37.801
it was really not comfortable,

31
00:01:37.841 --> 00:01:40.914
and, you know, the control
was very very tough.

32
00:01:40.954 --> 00:01:46.027
-I know some stuff because
my mom was talking about it a lot.

33
00:01:46.067 --> 00:01:49.085
I didn’t have the option
to do what I wanted to do.

34
00:01:49.125 --> 00:01:54.108
So, this is the thing
that I cannot imagine.

35
00:01:54.148 --> 00:01:58.123
-People who have not experienced
living in such a system,

36
00:01:58.163 --> 00:02:01.042
can’t imagine what it was like.

37
00:02:01.082 --> 00:02:02.658
-From the collapse of communism,

38
00:02:02.698 --> 00:02:04.481
through the uncertain
years that followed,

39
00:02:04.521 --> 00:02:08.399
Eric and Katarina would grow up.

40
00:02:08.587 --> 00:02:10.356
-As democracy was regained,

41
00:02:10.396 --> 00:02:13.624
Czechoslovakia experienced
a brief period of celebration.

42
00:02:13.664 --> 00:02:17.289
[crowd cheering]

43
00:02:17.329 --> 00:02:19.754
But the economy had been devastated.

44
00:02:19.794 --> 00:02:21.819
Political corruption was widespread

45
00:02:21.859 --> 00:02:24.021
and unemployment was soaring.

46
00:02:24.061 --> 00:02:27.404
Slowly, the Czech region
began to stabilise

47
00:02:27.444 --> 00:02:30.733
but the Slovak region
lagged farther behind.

48
00:02:30.773 --> 00:02:33.693
Then, in 1993 the two regions split

49
00:02:33.733 --> 00:02:37.228
into the Slovak Republic
and the Czech Republic.

50
00:02:37.268 --> 00:02:40.590
Slovakia was now truly on her own.

51
00:02:40.630 --> 00:02:44.511
-The communist leadership
was blaming the imperialists,

52
00:02:44.551 --> 00:02:49.550
United States, capitalists,
all kinds of... you know… enemies

53
00:02:49.590 --> 00:02:54.703
that were cause of the failures
of the communist system.

54
00:02:54.743 --> 00:02:59.148
There was finally no one to blame
for our own mistakes.

55
00:02:59.188 --> 00:03:02.425
We were learning the lessons
from these mistakes

56
00:03:02.465 --> 00:03:05.715
and we were also
preparing the strategies

57
00:03:05.755 --> 00:03:09.830
how to be more successful country.

58
00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:13.242
-Ten years after democracy
and freedom came to Slovakia,

59
00:03:13.282 --> 00:03:15.242
the country was still struggling.

60
00:03:15.282 --> 00:03:19.259
In 2001, unemployment
was nearly 20% -

61
00:03:19.299 --> 00:03:21.259
the highest in all of Europe.

62
00:03:21.299 --> 00:03:25.698
The new nation had hit
an economic wall.

63
00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:29.941
The Slovakian people made
a dramatic change in direction.

64
00:03:29.981 --> 00:03:32.853
They voted for sweeping
open market reforms,

65
00:03:32.893 --> 00:03:35.574
including a flat tax of 19%,

66
00:03:35.614 --> 00:03:38.169
more flexible labor regulations,

67
00:03:38.209 --> 00:03:42.524
and privatization of
their pension system.

68
00:03:42.564 --> 00:03:45.847
These changes were difficult
but within 5 years,

69
00:03:45.887 --> 00:03:49.062
business owners had
newfound access to financing,

70
00:03:49.102 --> 00:03:53.973
the black market shrank and foreign
investment came into the country.

71
00:03:54.013 --> 00:03:57.114
Slovakia’s unemployment
dropped to 7.5%

72
00:03:57.154 --> 00:04:00.781
and its standard of living
increased dramatically.

73
00:04:00.821 --> 00:04:03.306
-Economy started to perform.

74
00:04:03.346 --> 00:04:06.551
Slovakia made a transformation from

75
00:04:06.591 --> 00:04:09.599
the country that was lagging
behind the neighbours -

76
00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:11.623
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,

77
00:04:11.663 --> 00:04:17.431
and that adopted 2 waves
of serious economic reforms.

78
00:04:17.471 --> 00:04:21.446
These reforms put us ahead
of the countries

79
00:04:21.486 --> 00:04:25.317
where we lagged behind in the 90s.

80
00:04:25.357 --> 00:04:28.097
That was our way, how we catched up

81
00:04:28.137 --> 00:04:31.293
with the more developed countries.

82
00:04:31.333 --> 00:04:33.980
-Slovakia had finally made
the transformation

83
00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:38.190
from an Iron curtain state
to a thriving European nation.

84
00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:42.749
And starting one’s own business
also became a real possibility.

85
00:04:42.789 --> 00:04:45.533
Katarina Rybarikova had an idea.

86
00:04:45.573 --> 00:04:48.368
She would bring the growing
Paul Frank brand,

87
00:04:48.408 --> 00:04:54.264
with its distinctive monkey logo,
from America to Eastern Europe.

88
00:04:54.304 --> 00:04:56.264
-It was almost 6 years ago.

89
00:04:56.304 --> 00:05:01.646
We didn’t know Paul Frank people
so I found some address online,

90
00:05:01.686 --> 00:05:04.966
I googled a lot of stuff
about Slovakia

91
00:05:05.006 --> 00:05:08.451
and all information
they would be interested in.

92
00:05:08.491 --> 00:05:12.023
OK, let’s do small presentation
and we will see how it goes.

93
00:05:12.063 --> 00:05:15.133
Maybe they will be
interested in Slovakia.

94
00:05:15.173 --> 00:05:23.062
So, we flew to LA, we met with owners
and that’s how we started.

95
00:05:23.102 --> 00:05:27.018
Now we are the only official
Paul Frank store in Europe.

96
00:05:27.058 --> 00:05:29.018
It was really so easy.

97
00:05:29.058 --> 00:05:34.016
-In the communist regime,
when my kids were small,

98
00:05:34.056 --> 00:05:39.634
I had never thought they could
possibly achieve something like this.

99
00:05:39.674 --> 00:05:45.494
-We have gone through 3 very
fundamental transformation.

100
00:05:45.534 --> 00:05:48.136
One was the economic transformation,

101
00:05:48.176 --> 00:05:50.662
from centrally planned economy

102
00:05:50.702 --> 00:05:54.765
to what I would call,
the market economy.

103
00:05:54.805 --> 00:05:56.979
Then there was this
political transformation,

104
00:05:57.019 --> 00:06:01.654
from a totalitarian state
to the democracy,

105
00:06:01.694 --> 00:06:05.604
including building
the independent Slovakia.

106
00:06:05.644 --> 00:06:08.916
The most important
transformation of all,

107
00:06:08.956 --> 00:06:13.231
which is the transformation
from paternalism

108
00:06:13.271 --> 00:06:16.062
to individual responsibility.

109
00:06:16.102 --> 00:06:22.460
State paternalism has not only
the ugly face of the communist rule,

110
00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.896
but it has sort of very nice face of

111
00:06:25.936 --> 00:06:30.903
the social welfare state
of the Western style.

112
00:06:30.943 --> 00:06:34.341
If you take responsibility
from the individual citizens

113
00:06:34.381 --> 00:06:36.801
and companies to the state,

114
00:06:36.841 --> 00:06:41.456
then you end up in another version of
socialism, which we proved

115
00:06:41.496 --> 00:06:47.469
that it is clearly unsustainable
way of organising the society.

116
00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:50.237
-After independence,
Slovakia’s earliest ranking

117
00:06:50.277 --> 00:06:52.661
on the Fraser report was 81.

118
00:06:52.701 --> 00:06:57.374
By the year 2000, it had
moved up just 3 places, to 78.

119
00:06:57.414 --> 00:07:01.993
Then, after its economic reforms,
it had lept to 35.