Empire of the Ring

"Your Highness, the pilots who had left to Russia and elsewhere said that they are willing to come back. I think we can get rid of Astana's manpower shortage soon. There are already about 20 people who applied to return to Kazakhstan in the second half of the year."

Prime Minister Kasim seems to have great news, but Youngho was not very impressed.

This was because those people had abandoned Kazakhstan and left before, and now they wanted to come back as situations in the country looked better.

Still, it was a good thing that former Kazakhstan Air Force officers and pilots were returning since it was extremely difficult to find pilots in the country. The pilots who were dispatched from Sweden and Britain had replaced pilots that left the country due to the shortage of such workers. A third of the pilots of Air Astana, which was the flag carrier of Kazakhstan were British.

This was because a British defense firm, Bae Systems, owned a 49 percent stake of Air Astana while the Kazakh government had 51 percent of the airline's stake. Britain had been working hard on Kazakhstan even before it started associating with Youngho.

Based in Almaty, the largest city in Central Asia, Air Astana was operating 23 international routes linking Europe, Russia, China, Southeast Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Korea and so on.

Mid-sized propeller planes were still often seen throughout the 21 domestic routes, but for international routes, the newest airplanes were used in making the airlines best among the Commonwealth of Independent States countries. It was only possible because it was a joint venture with Britain.

"Why would they want to come back when they'd be treated less than in Russia?"

"Isn't the return of young elites a sign that there is hope for the future?"

"I hope so. By the way, I still didn't hear that the medical personnel are back from Korea."

"Korean medical people came in large numbers, so it won't be a problem even if they didn't return."

Many Korean doctors and nurses moved to Kazakhstan as the Kazakh government promised exceptional treatment and promoted it officially.

Combining professionalism and skill, they blew a new wind into the medical world of Kazakhstan where even appendectomy was an operation to risk life. Now Almaty and Astana had many Korean doctor offices that people from the Commonwealth of Independent States frequently visited for medical attention.

In particular, the Royal College Hospital of the Arirang royal territory had been undergoing even highly intensive organ transplant operations successfully that many rich Russians visited often. Most of the Russian upper classes usually visited European hospitals, and now they were turning to the Arirang royal territory as it was rumored that it offered advanced medical technology and services.

"Is the renovation of the general hospital in the northern border city of Petropavl finished?"

"It's already completed, but the air pollution is so bad that medical people are reluctant to move there. Not only there, but also Karaganda's pollution is terrible due to the operation of steel mills."

The situation was very serious and embarrassing because Karaganda, an industrial city in the central part of the country was recently had black snow. The findings showed that the Karaganda region had nearly 600,000 tons of harmful substances released annually, with the concentration of hydrogen sulfide exceeding 11 times the international standard.

The steel company was owned by Arcelor Mittal, an Indian multinational steel company.

"If the company doesn't improve its facilities, shut down the factory."

"It can turn into an international problem. We have to be more cautious."

"There is no need to be careful about punishing the main culprit of the environmental pollution according to the regulations. If they want to dig up our resources, tell them to solve environmental problems first. It is a problem that is directly related to the health of the Kazakh people, and that is the most important thing to us."

It may have been overlooked until now, but Youngho was not going to let it happen anymore. Robust research was underway in every industrial area where multinational companies were located. If they failed to meet environmental standards, they would be suspended from every production work.

The situation of the environmental pollution in Kazakhstan was near disaster as the black snow had never happened before.

***

"Your Highness, air pollution is a problem, but ten years are too short to recover from the contamination of the soil. And most of the people near the contaminated soil turned out to have skin diseases. We'll need to do a more thorough examination, but it's a serious situation."

Youngho, who was being briefed by the environment minister was too shocked that he was not angry. It was the government's fault that the environment was completely ignored while digging up iron ore and operating a steel mill for decades now.

"Shut down the factory and move the residents first. People's lives will be at stake at this rate."

"That would eliminate a lot of jobs, and there should be measures to deal with that."

"Our social security system allows us to secure people's basic needs. The priority is to get them out of the polluted environment right now. Let's play our part now even though we may have been neglectful before."

"All right, I'll report to the Prime Minister and try to find a solution."

"It's a shame, but please let the press release about it in detail. We need to alert everyone."

"Your Grace, why don't we be as quiet as possible? It's an international disgrace if you let the press know about it."

"Now the people should know what's going on. The situation will not be improved if we take it easy."

"This could also have a huge impact on the national economy when the people's antipathy toward multinational corporations grows."

"Even if the economy slows down temporarily, we should solve the environmental problem first. What is more important than the health of the Kazakh people? It won't have a terrible impact because our economic system has improved a lot."

If factory operations were stopped, it would immediately disrupt the livelihood of salaried workers. In addition, the management of state affairs would be affected as well by the less collected tax. Nevertheless, the reason for taking such a drastic measure was that it was a good opportunity to escape from pollution. Since the Soviet era, the land had been too abused too much due to the disorder of various pollution factories and reckless farmland reclamation. It was obvious that dust and soil pollution would inevitably contaminate groundwater. Kazakhstan was already a water-starved country, but if underground water was also contaminated, it would have to import water from abroad.

"Let the construction minister push ahead with the development of the Ural River waterway, only after thoroughly assessing for environmental impact. I don't want to harm the environment for convenience."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Also consider granting jurisdiction to environment ministry officials. If the environmental officials can have jurisdiction, we'll be able to crackdown the companies more effectively."

"Yes, sir."

"From next year, consider planting trees in the semi-deserted areas, with all the available funds. The Arirang royal territory will set a good example for that."

People who first saw the Arirang state thought that grassy fields existed originally in the semi-deserted region, and no one thought it would have been a wasteland before.

"I've heard about it. In the beginning, the residents had a lot of trouble to form grasslands and farmlands. It's a rare successful case."

"If you plant trees around small reservoirs and dug to make hills, we can slow the evaporation of water. As a result of such efforts, the air of the Arirang state has changed beyond recognition. In the winter like this, it used to be hard to get out because of the dusty wind."

The dust wind was calmed down of the formation of grasslands. The residents of the Arirang state had dug deep into the earth and used solar energy to pump up underground water, and created trees and oasis in various places.

They did not store much water, but the amount was only enough for trees to grow, not to lose a lot of water from evaporation.

Now, woods existed in various areas of the state and farming and ranching businesses were going on in the areas where fields were formed due to nearby underground resources. The winter of the royal territory, which was famous for its strong wind, had become cozier now, as windbreakers and stone walls were made.

***

When the factories that caused pollution were stopped or shut down, opposition was also rampant.

The workers who lost their jobs complained, and multinational corporations even filed international lawsuits to the Kazakh government instead of improving their facility systems. This was proof that they had been underestimating the Kazakh government.

"It's so disappointing that even those companies based in advanced countries are acting this way."

"Your Highness, it's imperative to stabilize the workers first."

"Don't the workers care about their and their families' health?"

"I think companies are encouraging workers to shake the government's policy."

"Please do a full investigation on the companies that filed a lawsuit and find out the details of the environmental damage."

"It's hard to figure out with the capabilities of the Ministry of Environment. We'd like to get help from the intelligence service. We need to look into the companies secretly because they'll try to cover up any fault."

"I hope mobilizing the intelligence service doesn't get a backlash from the companies."

At the request of the environment minister, Park Jong-il of the intelligence service was proud to take the role. This was because he had already investigated multinational factories and mines in Korea while investigating the environmental pollution of Chinese companies.

"Who was the minister that complained about the high budget for the intelligence service?"

"Why do you ask? If you knew, would you go and ask yourself?"

"Of course, this case could not be identified by the Ministry of Environment's ability. Ministers only think that it's best to cut the budget without knowing anything."

"Alright, alright. Now that you know, investigate more thoroughly. We'll sue those companies for the damages they caused."

"Why are you so cautious about a multinational company? If there's a mistake, we can rule it with our own domestic laws."

"You don't know that the power of a multi-national corporation is stronger than the government of a country? You have to collect firm evidence to win against it."

"Man, these guys come into another country and pollute our land and air but without any sign of regret. It's awful."

"It's proof that they see Kazakhstan as an underdeveloped country. Also, the former regime must have not dealt with it properly before."

"Why is Kazakhstan an underdeveloped country? We're a developing country."

"Can't you see the workers are protesting at the instigation of the companies? Is that what people who are conscious enough do?"

Youngho was dumbfounded by people who did not care about their families and neighbors suffering from environmental pollution but only cared about reviving their factories, which also caused damage to the workers of the factory.

Such a level of consciousness would be difficult to pass the threshold of the advanced country.