Archive for November, 2012

By Aage Myhre, Editor-in-Chief

Lithuania has powerful neighbours, as the overwhelming majority of the world's countries with AAA credit rating are located in Scandinavia and Western Europe. These countries, however, are successful in many different ways, not least with regard to social welfare, health care, education, rule of law, transparency, press freedom and a very good balance between government, business, education, science, and more.

The table below tells an interesting story about the relationship between these qualities for a group of nations that lead in world development. These tremendous success stories is something Lithuania should try to learn from.

1. Credit rating, Standard & Poor’s
A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of a debtor, especially a business (company) or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debtor's ability to pay back the debt and the likelihood of default. Credit ratings are determined by credit ratings agencies. The credit rating represents the credit rating agency's evaluation of qualitative and quantitative information for a company or government; including non-public information obtained by the credit rating agencies analysts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating

2. GDP (PPP) per capita
Gross domestic product (GDP) estimates are derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations, per capita. Such calculations are prepared by various organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

3. Human Development Index (HDI), UN
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices to rank countries into four tiers of human development. It was created by economist Mahbub ul Haq, followed by economist Amartya Sen in 1990, and published by the United Nations Development Programme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

4. Best country to live in, OECD
OECD has a whole new way to rank quality of life in countries around the world. Called "The Better Life Index," the new OECD data set ranks countries based on things like the employment situation, leisure time, and life expectancy.
http://www.businessinsider.com/oecd-better-life-index-2011-5?op=1

5. Social welfare
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life. Modern welfare states include the Nordic countries, such as Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland which employ a system known as the Nordic model. The welfare state involves a transfer of funds from the state, to the services provided (i.e. healthcare, education) as well as directly to individuals ("benefits"). The welfare state is funded through redistributionist taxation and is often referred to as a type of "mixed economy.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state

6. Education
The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index every year, which consists of the Education index, GDP Index and Life Expectancy Index. These three components measure the educational attainment, GDP per capita and life expectancy respectively. The Education Index is measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). The adult literacy rate gives an indication of the ability to reading and writing, while the GER gives an indication of the level of education from nursery (UK & others)/kindergarten (USA & others) to post-graduate education. Education is a major component of well-being and is used in the measure of economic development and quality of life, which is a key factor determining whether a country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index

7. Rule of Law
The WJP Rule of Law Index is an innovative quantitative assessment tool designed by the World Justice Project to offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. The Index provides detailed information and original data regarding a variety of dimensions of the rule of law, which enables stakeholders to assess a nation’s adherence to the rule of law in practice, identify a nation’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to similarly situated countries, and track changes over time.
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/WorldStats/WGI-rule-law-percentile-rank.html

8. Corruption, Transparency International
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country/territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index.
http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/

9. Press freedom
The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. A smaller score in the index corresponds to greater freedom of the press. Reporters Without Borders is careful to note that the index only deals with press freedom and does not measure the quality of journalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

The complicated Obama -
Grybauskaitė relationship

In 2010, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė openly disagreed with
Obama on a new arms reduction plan, claiming it harmed Lithuanian
security, and in a rather shocking move refused to take part in
a dinner with Obama in Prague. Grybauskaitė was the only
invited president who refused to meet with Obama.

In April 2010, Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed a new arms reduction treaty in Prague, primarily with regards to the Eastern European missile defense system that had been planned by the George W. Bush administration.

After the signing, President Obama invited the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Romania, as well as the prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia to attend a dinner with him in Prague.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė openly disagreed with Obama on the new reduction plan, claiming it harmed Lithuanian security, and in a rather shocking move refused to take part in the dinner in Prague. Grybauskaitė was the only invited president who refused to meet with Obama.

After becoming Lithuania's president in 2009, Grybauskaitė wasted no time defining her leadership. "Yes, you have to be a strict and loud partner if you want to be heard in the conversation," she told the Associated Press in a 2011 interview.

"Lithuania is not used to a straightforward, terse, forceful way of making statements. I admit using this style in pushing NATO defense plans for the Baltic States," she said, referring to U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks earlier this year, showing that NATO in January 2010 privately decided to expand a NATO defense plan for Poland to also cover Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"I am afraid that if I had chosen a different tone, Lithuania and its neighbours would be still waiting another six years for these," she said to the Associated Press, giving herself credit for USA’s and NATO’s new strategy as revealed by WikiLeaks.

In 2011 President Obama invited the same East European state leaders for a dinner in Poland, and this time President Grybauskaite accepted the invitation, a move presumably leading to a warmer relationship between the two presidents.

At the working dinner the Lithuanian president underlined that NATO anti-missile defense must cover all the NATO allies. According to the president, NATO-Russian relations are particularly important for Lithuania owing to its strategically special location on the boundary of the Alliance’s territory. She said the agreement reached in the NATO Lisbon Summit must not be changed and must not become the object of negotiations with Russia.

It still is little known about how President Grybauskaite’s ‘reflections’ vs. the Obama administration in 2010 and NATO in 2011 were perceived by the said parties. We can only hope they were not given too much weight and that the relationships with Lithuania have not been harmed. Her acceptance of last year's invitation from 
Obama, and the absence of new provocative statements, suggest that she has adopted a more conciliatory 
and diplomatic style and line.

The right to disagree and discuss any topic should always remain free and open, but I think our president would be better off by following more recognized protocol procedures when such delicate issues are to be discussed at high international level.

To have a best possible relationship with the U.S. and the new Obama administration will be important for Lithuania, and one can only hope that his reelection will come to represent another positive step towards improved dialogue and cooperation also between Lithuania and the United States.

Aage Myhre, Editor-In-Chief