This is the first editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times

The Sakhalin Economy Committee proudly declared that the standard of living in Sakhalin is rising. To support this, it came out with figures that show that the average Sakhaliner has gotten a 30% pay-raise over the last year. These figures can be tremendously misleading if not looked at in proper perspective.

Petro-dollars have helped many a Sakhaliner earn a much higher salary than previously imaginable and these high salaries have lifted the overall average. Most of the jobs from the oil boom are in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, a city which just has 25% of the population of the Sakhalin Region. While the infrastructure of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk keeps improving, towns that are just 30 to 40 miles away from the city are still in a state of stagnation.

Just a few weeks ago, Korsakov residents appeared on a BBC television programme where they complained that they get running water for a few hours every day. In Dolinsk, there are reports that the heating supply has been cut off to 300 buildings where outstanding utility bills have mounted since 2003. Surely the average Sakhaliner outside Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk isn’t living like a Czar.

The economy committee also mentioned that there were increases in pay in several industries but there was no mention of salaries for doctors and medical professionals, teachers and scientists that are woefully low. A large number of these professionals live in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and can’t afford an evening out at some of the city’s glitzy new restaurants. It looks like unskilled workers in many parts of Sakhalin have received better salaries but a large number of highly qualified and well educated people are still struggling. Such trends really send a wrong message to young people in Sakhalin. If students altogether shun mathematics and science then there will be severe repercussions for Sakhalin in the not-so-distant future. When doctors, teachers and scientists are so poorly-paid in Sakhalin, what’s to stop young people, who choose such professions, from migrating to the Europe or North America where they will be highly valued?

The Sakhalin Administration needs to press hard for more federal funding so that teachers, medical professionals and scientists are paid much higher salaries. Higher oil project royalties from Moscow should go directly into paying better salaries to these professionals.

It takes a significant improvement in the lifestyles of a majority of the people before a region can declare that its overall living standards have improved. The Sakhalin Region has to ensure a more even spread of wealth before boasting about how much better the life of an average Sakhaliner is.

This is the first editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times.

The Chekhov Theatre in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has been a hallmark of class since it opened 75 years ago. Some of Russia’s great artists have performed in the centre to appreciative crowds. These days, however, most high quality cultural programmes run to half empty audiences whereas the two cinema halls that are close to the centre are jam packed with young people who want to see the latest Hollywood movies dubbed in Russian. The cultural decay in Sakhalin is quite apparent. The Sakhalin Administration’s Culture Department wants to spend millions on a massive cultural centre. It would be a big waste of time and money to have large auditoriums, unless a large and appreciative audience is present for the performances.

The millions that the Sakhalin Administration wants to invest in the cultural centre should go into improving educational facilities on the island. Sakhalin’s schools have seen better days. State funding for the schools has been on a decline every year since 1998. We can hardly expect poorly-paid teachers to be highly motivated. The curriculum in schools is close to what it was during the Soviet days without the communist propaganda. While there is still and an excellent maths and science curriculum, few students want to specialise in either while entering university. English is taught in schools across the island but how many students who graduate from school can speak even 1 sentence in English?

University education in Sakhalin is becoming more expensive every year. The island’s only state university has offers very few scholarships. As a result, it is extremely difficult for middle class people to afford sending their children to university. Those that go to university prefer to study linguistics over engineering, finance or medicine. A minuscule minority consider enrolling in pedagogical college to get into the teaching profession. There is nothing wrong per say with getting a university degree in the English language. After all, it can help a Sakhaliner get a job as an interpreter in a multinational company. However, when it comes to global competitiveness, such a person stands nowhere. Countries like Germany and Finland, which invest millions into education, have an educated and technically skilled workforce which can also communicate effectively in English. If Sakhaliners are to expect as high salaries as the “over paid foreigners,” they are going to have to be as competitive.

The Sakhalin Administration is desperately seeking more in energy project royalties from the Federal Government. This money needs to be invested in human capital, in the education system. Well educated and globally competitive Sakhaliners are the ones who will really appreciate the cultural programmes in the Chekhov centre.

This is the first editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times.

There is very little doubt about the fact that the Ainu were the original inhabitants of the Southern Kurils, Sakhalin and even parts of the Russian mainland. The community flourished for generations before Russia and Japan “discovered” these lands. Unlike those great civilisations that grew with changing times, the Ainu are too miniscule to ever be a force again. A vast majority of Ainu live in Hokkaido and chose to leave the Southern Kurils for Japan, even though the Japanese treated them in the cruellest possible manner. Ainu claims to controlling sovereignty of the islands were renounced when they voluntarily abandoned the islands.

There is, however, no reason why the Russian Government shouldn’t allow the Ainu to resettle in the Southern Kurils. The islands are sparsely populated as they are and could use another 15,000 inhabitants. The “new” settlers would be free to practise their age-old customs and rituals and preserve their culture. Such a resettlement would also do a world of good for Russia’s image abroad.

Japan, on the other hand, would not allow such a resettlement as this would hurt their cause to recover the islands. It’s a real shame that countries in the Asia-Pacific region are still bickering over land. The people in this part of world suffered as much on account of World War 2 as those in Europe. Six decades later, Europe in united and border-less. Centuries of bitterness, hatred and acrimony have been put aside for the greater good of the European people. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, there are several petty territorial disputes and a 6-decade-old paranoia that isn’t likely to go away any time soon.

While the rest of the world is marching ahead, this region is still stuck in a time-warp known as the Cold War. The legacies of the Cold War distrust are still present and obvious. When President Putin meets Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi next week, they need to start talking about some sort of borderless Asia-Pacific Region. The Southern Kurils can be the ideal testing ground for the border-free experiment. There is already a Russo-Japanese agreement where residents of Hokkaido and the Southern Kurils can travel to each other’s regions without a visa. The Russian and Japanese authorities can extend this agreement to Sakhalin and possibly another Japanese prefecture.

A more important step would be to allow Russian and Japanese nationals to live in these regions on a long term basis without visas, permits and bureaucracy, much like the EU model. The issue of sovereignty over the Southern Kurils would never exist if there was free and unrestricted movement to and from these islands. The islands would still be Russian territory but Japanese people would be allowed to live there as long as they respect Russian law.

With more Asian economies growing rapidly, the Asia-Pacific countries should work towards some sort of Asia-Pacific Union that will be a political and economic force that competes with America and the European Union.

This is the first editorial in this week's edition of the Sakhalin Times

It almost looked like the Federal Government wanted to force the new national holiday, which was christened the Day of People’s Unity, on the Sakhalin public. The state-run television channels kept showing advertisements explaining the importance of the day. In keeping with Russian holiday traditions, old movies were screened to create enthusiasm among the public. A prominent Sakhalin Orthodox Church priest made a television appearance where he said that this is the most important holiday in Russia after May 9.

The communists and a large section of older generation Sakhaliners bitterly protested the new holiday. The laying of flowers at the Lenin Square the night before and the protest march on the old holiday had considerable support. The topic of the symbolic value of the new and old holiday has been debated to death. One thing that has been ascertained across Russia through formal and informal polls is that most Russians prefer the holiday to be on November 7. This isn’t to say that most Russians or Sakhaliners want communism back but there is an undeniable air of nostalgia in the country when it comes to the Soviet past.

Every country has some good and some bad history. It’s very important that Sakhaliners know both the good and bad things about Russian history. A good and unbiased history curriculum is the backbone of a competent education system. There are children in Sakhalin who think that Lenin was a World War 2 hero and that Stalin led the Bolshevik Revolution. The Russian Orthodox Church would like nothing more than to completely erase Soviet history from the curriculum. It would suit them to say that the Romanov dynasty comprised of model rulers and that Czar Nicholas II was a saint. The church even wants the Lenin statue in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to be removed. Such measures will only prove to completely counter-productive.

None of us can change the fact that Russia was communist for over 80 years. We can’t change the sloppy and disastrous way the USSR collapsed. History is a great teacher and offers us some invaluable lessons. There are enough examples of the good and bad decisions that this great nation has made in the past. The younger generation who will inherit this country in the next ten to fifteen years must know everything in order to not repeat the mistakes of yesteryear.

What did the October Revolution help Russia achieve? A welfare state that looked after the interests of its citizens very well. A state that made prioritised and actively promoted equality of all its diverse peoples. A state that eliminated a system where a few were among the wealthiest and most privileged in the world and the masses could barely survive. Shouldn’t these achievements be replicated using a system that is workable in present-day Russia? Or should we just pretend that the good and bad of the greater part of the 20th century never happened?

This is the second editorial in this week's issue of the Sakhalin Times

The latest wave of resentment against oil companies in Sakhalin seems to be triggered by some local politicians. They are being assisted by a large number of opportunistic international journalists for whom Sakhalin is a must-see place these days. Most articles in international magazines, newspapers or television shows blame the oil companies for not doing enough for the “poor masses of Sakhalin.” Television crews work extra hard to find places on the island that are missing basic infrastructure and this helps them kill two birds with one stone. Not only can they prolong their war on large multinationals (like Shell) but they can also show the whole world how backward the former-Superpower is.

Imagine Sakhalin without the energy projects. The costs of living in the region would still be high, as is the case in Kamchatka and Magadan. Sakhalin’s nature might be in tact and undisturbed but there would be absolutely little incentive for people to stay back on the island. Other industries offer little scope for the average Sakhaliner to have a good lifestyle. The fishing industry is dominated by the mafia and if Russia was serious about tourism, three would have already been a tourism boom in many areas of the Russian Far East by now. Sakhalin would be as much as an economic basket-case as other regions in the Russian Far East if it weren’t for the oil projects.

Many argue that there has been disproportionate development on the island. It is obvious that Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has benefited more from the energy projects than say Nogliki or Okha. How much of this is the fault of the energy giants? The Russian Government receives royalties from the oil companies. These royalties should, in principle, go into the development of the region and improving people’s lives. It’s true that the oil companies can do more, but their contribution towards the development of the Sakhalin Region should be appreciated. Unofficial estimates put the contribution of oil companies in the island on roads, bridges, airport improvements, ports and hospitals at US$ 500 million. No one disputes the fact that thousands of well-paying jobs and economic opportunities have been created by the oil projects.

Sakhalin has a long way to go in terms of development. But a greater role will have to be played by the Sakhalin Administration and the federal government to ensure that this development takes place.