Capitalism 101: U.S. Consultants Help Tiny Moldova Switch From Soviet Ways --- They Rewrite Its Tax Laws, Mastermind the Breakup Of the Collective Farms --- Surveying Bumps in the Land
Corrections & Amplifications</br></br>ROBERT CEMOVICH is Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc.'s chief land adviser in Moldova. In a page-one article Friday about the tiny country, his name was incorrectly given as Robert Cemowitz. (WSJ July 29, 1997)</br></br>NISPORIN, Moldova -- In a cool gray room, a dozen men watch their hostess, Elena Rabu, enter with a plate of steaming mamalinga, a local cornbread. Setting down the plate, she eyes the American at her table and whispers to her son, "Is he the one who got us our land?"</br></br>Vasilie Rabu nods, and the woman smiles, showing off three silver false teeth. At the far end of the table, Vincent Morabito, a short, wiry 53-year-old, raises a glass of red wine in toast. There's reason to celebrate. A few months before, he broke up his first collective farm, securing for the Rabus and thousands of others in this former Soviet state a few acres of land.</br></br>Mr. Morabito cries out the traditional salute, "Narok!" and, following local custom, drains his glass in one gulp. Impressed, one of the men shouts, "Morabito, you are practically a Moldovan."