We were seven girls in the family
and one boy, and this boy
was the last born.
The fellow villagers kept
on laughing at my father.
I started asking myself,
is it a crime
to be born a girl?
So it was from that time
I declared anything that a man
can do, I can also do it.
In South Korea, everyone is
entitled to have a dream,
which is a huge difference
from North Korea.
You may say it is
heaven and hell.
We are still very young;
every country needs a lot of years
to get the old bad stuff out,
and, you know, change it for something
which is better or good.
If I make a decision and if
it's not the best one, then I’m
the one who's going to suffer.
So this was the tough part
that I didn't think before.
We have 3 children and we have
to make efforts for their sake.
We fight for them, to give them
something better, to give them
a better future.
A better future.
That’s a goal all of these people –
indeed, all of us – have in common.
In a moment, we’ll share one of their
remarkable human stories – of survival,
triumph, and a life in transition.
This is also a story of a nation
transforming itself in ways that
are allowing people to rise out
of poverty, and take control
of their own future.
From Zambia to South Korea,
from Slovakia to Chile,
newfound economic freedom
is changing lives.
I’m Johan Norberg, and I’ve been
studying economic freedom for decades.
What is it?  And what impact
does it have on people’s lives?
In the last 100 years, the world
has created more wealth, reduced poverty
more, and increased life expectancy
more than in the 10,000 years before.
Since the beginning of recorded history
until the year 1800, the average
person's income barely changed.
But in the 200 years since,
they've increased by 2,000%.
How did that happen?
And what role did economic freedom play?
Economic freedom is not about numbers
and charts and graphs.
No, it’s really about people,
people who want the opportunity to
work hard to become self-sufficient
and independent, and to
improve their quality of life.
Today we will learn about
a country in Eastern Europe.
For 40 years, the small country
of Slovakia was one of several
Soviet-controlled nations
held behind the Iron Curtain.
At that time Slovakia and
the Czech Republic were united
as one nation, called Czechoslovakia.
In 1989, Czechoslovakia liberated
itself from Soviet control.
Virtually overnight, their communist
nightmare had ended.
(crowd cheering)
But after independence, people struggled
through the tumultuous
years that followed,
people like Olga Rybarikova
and her children.
Olga Rybarikova: The past regime,
the communist regime,
was very harsh for people living
in this system…
especially for free
and open-minded people.
There weren’t any opportunities for me,
because as soon as you would stand
out of the crowd a little bit,
they were trying to
put you down immediately.
We weren’t able to travel abroad freely,
there was no freedom of speech,
very limited opportunities;
it was a true dictatorship.
Norberg: Olga Rybarikova
lived the greater part
of her life under communism.
Throughout those brutal years she
struggled to provide for her two
small children, Katarina and Erik.
Erik Rybarikova: For a child living
in the Soviet Union
it was different, because you didn’t see
all the politicking, of course,
you didn’t care as a child.
But if you grow thinking about all this,
more and more,
it was really not comfortable
and the control was very, very tough.
Katarina Rybarikova: I know some stuff
because my mom was talking
about it a lot.
I didn’t have the option to do what
I wanted to do, so this is
the thing that I cannot imagine.
Olga: People, who have not
experienced living in such a system,
can’t imagine what it was like.
Norberg: From the collapse
of communism through the
uncertain years that followed,
Erik and Katarina would grow up.
As democracy was regained,
Czechoslovakia experienced a
brief period of celebration.
(crowd cheers)
But the economy had been devastated,
political corruption was widespread,
and unemployment was soaring.
Slowly the Czech region began to stabilize,
but the Slovak region
lagged farther behind.
Then, in 1993, the two regions split
into the Slovak Republic
and the Czech Republic.
Slovakia was now truly on her own.
Jan Oravec: The communist leadership
was blaming the imperialists,
United States, capitalists,
all kinds of, you know,
enemies that were cause
of the failures of the
communist system.
There was finally no one to blame
for our own mistakes.
We were learning the lessons from
these mistakes, and we were also
preparing the strategies how
to be more successful country.
Norberg: Ten years after
democracy and freedom
came to Slovakia, the country
was still struggling. In 2001,
unemployment was nearly 20%,
the highest in all of Europe.
The new nation had
hit an economic wall.
Olga Rybarikova: There were many
situations when I would tell my kids
it would be better, because I
had the feeling they are very
capable people, they are fighters.
But I was also telling them that
maybe it would be better for
them to leave the country.
Even if we now lived in a free
country, democratic country, there
were many things I didn’t like here.
Katarina Rybarikova: Well,
it wasn’t easy.
It was really so bad,
so I think that we
should talk about it more.
Erik Rybarikova: I have really bad
feeling, and this is still inside
in us because of what happened.
Still we feel the freedom,
but we are afraid of what
happened in the past.
And this is really, really difficult.
Norberg: The Slovakian people made
a dramatic change in direction.
They voted for sweeping open
market reforms including a flat
tax of 19%, more flexible labor
regulations, and privatization
of their pension system.
These changes were difficult,
but within 5 years, business owners
had newfound access to financing,
the black market shrank,
and foreign investment came
into the country.
Slovakia’s unemployment dropped
to 7.5% and its standard of living
increased dramatically.
Jan Oravec: The economy started
to perform, Slovakia made a
transformation from the country
that was lagging behind the
neighbors, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Poland and that adopted two
waves of serious economic reforms.
These reforms put us ahead
of the countries where we lagged
behind in the 90s.
That was our way,
how we catched up,
with the more developed countries.
Norberg: Slovakia had finally
made the transformation from
an Iron Curtain state,
to a thriving European nation.
And starting one’s own business also
became a real possibility.
Katarina Rybarikova had an idea…
she would bring the growing
Paul Frank brand, with its distinctive
monkey logo,
from America to Eastern Europe.
Katarina Rybarikova: It was almost
six years ago. We didn’t know
Paul Frank people so I found
some address online.
I Googled a lot of stuff about
Slovakia and all information
they would be interested in.
Okay, let’s do small presentation
and we will see how it goes,
maybe they will be
interested in Slovakia.
So, we flew to L.A., we met with
owners, and that’s how we started.
Now we are the only official
Paul Frank store in Europe.
It was really so easy.
Norberg: Katarina has hired
her brother, Erik, to manage product
research in her growing business.
Their mother, Olga, is the bookkeeper.
Olga Rybarikova: Katarina is a
fascinating person, and I’m not saying
that just because she’s my daughter.
I’m very proud of her and Erik,
of what they have achieved, and I’m
happy to be a part of such a company.
Erik Rybarikova: This is a family
business, always we discuss about,
what could be the best.
We have opinion also from our mom,
which is different generation.
That mean you get different
point of view on the product,
and we decide which one is
the best and we go for it.
The feeling is very good because
you do it as a family together.
What I feel now is definitely hard,
it is difficult, but every job
is difficult nothing is easy.
But the feeling on the end of
the day is definitely the best.
Katarina Rybarikova: We’re definitely
growing. I would say 30-40% up.
Even if the market is shaky in Europe,
I mean we had so many problems
with situation in European Union,
but it’s still growing,
so it’s a good thing.
Olga Rybarikova: In the communist
regime, when my kids were small,
I’d have never thought that they
could possibly achieve something like this.
Jan Oravec: We have gone through
three very fundamental transformations.
One was the economic transformation
from centrally planned economy,
to what I would call the market economy.
Then there was this political
transformation from totalitarian
state to democracy, including
building the independent Slovakia.
The most important transformation of all?
It is the transformation from
paternalism to individual responsibility.
State paternalism has not only the
ugly face of the communist rule,
but it has a sort of very nice face of the
social welfare state of the Western style.
If you take responsibility from
the individual citizens and companies
to the state, then you end up in
another version of socialism -
which we proved that it is clearly
unsustainable way of
organizing the society.
(guitar music plays softly)
Erik Rybarikova: Now the monkey’s
name is Julius. It wasn’t famous in
Slovakia at all, and now I can say
people recognize Paul Frank
which the feeling is really good.
Despite the fact that it can be hard
even nowadays, the world problems,
the European problems,
I dare say that there is nothing better
than democratic society and freedom.
(guitar music plays softly)
I am happy that I live now,
and I didn’t live before.
(guitar music plays and ends)
Norberg: In my years researching
this topic, I’ve seen example
after example where people’s lives
have improved for the better because
they had economic freedom.
It may be the most powerful force
I know for empowering people,
and creating conditions for poverty
reduction and national prosperity.
For Katarina Rybarikova and her family
economic freedom has freed the
entreprenuerial spirit and brought
prosperity to many others.
These people are the heroes of our time,
working hard to transform their
lives and their communities.
For them, economic freedom is not
some academic concept,
or economic abstraction.
It’s food on their tables.
It’s a future for their children.
It’s the ability to enjoy
the fruits of their labor.
And ultimately, it’s the power that
we all desire…to control our own lives.
