Wishing Away the Plague

It happens all the time--attempting to make a problem go away by pretending it doesn't exist. People do it all the time. So do political institutions. In Sunday's LA Times Opinion section, Wendy Orent, offered a chilling example.

Wendy Orent, author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease.
Orent explains that earlier this year Saparmurat Niyazov, ruler of the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan, banned any references to the epidemics threatening his country. Then he fired most of the country's doctors who might have been inclined to disagree

Over the last few months, the Turkmenbashi has taken the health of his nation's 5 million people into his own hands, with potentially devastating consequences. In March, he dismissed 15,000 licensed healthcare workers "to save money" and replaced them with conscripts. In June, the Turkmenbashi fired Turkmen doctors and other health workers with foreign degrees, saying their training was "incompatible with the Turkmen education system." Most disturbing, he has declared all infectious diseases - cholera, AIDS and other scourges - illegal and has forbidden any mention of them.

Click HERE for the story, although the Times charges for access to stories more than 7 days old.
For a recent CBS 60 minutes coverage of the Turkmenbashi, Click HERE.