The masters of the art of political subterfuge are the Russians. In July, when Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev drew back a bit from the Kremlin over Putin’s War in Ukraine, a minor Russian court suddenly suspended Kazakhstan from using the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, its main oil purveyor, allegedly because of oil spills. After a few suspenseful days, an appellate court overruled and instead fined the Kazakhstani consortium $3,300. Oil flowed again. But the point had been made.
Astana certainly learns from the best. Last month, the city judge in Talgar, population 46,000 on a good day, issued an opinion affecting all of Kazakhstan, population 19 million. The judge shut down the Web site of the World Health Organization, accusing it of saying the opposite of what it actually said. The judge said the WHO promoted suicide, though the very title of its article is “Suicide Prevention.” The judge was acting on a complaint filed by the prosecutor in Talgar, where the diplomatic, soft-spoken United Nations agency is undoubtedly a major public menace.
It is hard to escape the suspicion that Astana doesn’t
want Kazakhstanis to read certain data on the WHO website. So I
looked around. And a few recent reports do
intrigue, especially on teeth.
Of children aged 1 to 9, 47% have untreated cavities. Among people at least 5 years old, nearly a third are in the same straits. An eighth of people aged at least 20 have lost all their teeth. There are only 2.9 dentists per 10,000 Kazakhstanis, which works out to roughly 36 minutes of dental services per person per year. Yet dental spending per person is only $3.30 per year. Productivity losses due to oral disease are nearly $700 million, more than 10 times greater than the amount spent on dentistry. But the government does not have an oral health policy.
Neither does it tax sweet drinks. Of course, adults should be free to decide how much sugar to eat and how much to learn about it. Their own consumption of sugar should not be taxed as a vice. But their ignorant purchases of sweets for children may create addictions. One can make a case for taxing these purchases to force parents to take into account the likely health damages to their children -- if they care less about their kids, especially as adults, then they do about themselves.
Kazakhstan has long been indifferent
to health. Health spending is little more than $2 per person per day, and 40%
of males older than 15 smoke. But the
WHO reports give you something to, er, sink your teeth into. Too bad that Kazakhstanis won’t have a chance
to read them.
—Leon Taylor, Baltimore, tayloralmaty@gmail.com
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