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Estonia was really obscure, you wouldn’t be reading this. For
classical music fans, famous Estonians include Arvo Pärt, a
world-renowned composer, and Neeme Järvi, a conductor. Carmen Kass,
one of the world’s top super-models, is Estonian. In sport, Estonia
does much better than its size would suggest, picking up a clutch of
medals in the Sydney and Salt Lake City Olympics; with its one gold,
one silver and one bronze, Estonia was 17th in the national medals
table at Salt Lake City, above the likes of Sweden, Japan and Britain.
Economists find Estonia fascinating because of its unique flat-tax
system, fast growth and Western-style political culture. Some name it
the only real success story in the whole of the former Soviet Union.
Said U.S. Congressman Dick Armey, speaking several years ago in
Washington: “If Estonia is not a vindication of everything we
believe in—from free trade to privatization to balanced budgets—I
am at a loss as to how else one could validate our ideas.”
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