The scale of global kleptocracy has become so vast — by some accounts, more than one trillion dollars is stolen annually from developing countries — that it is almost impossible to imagine how the problem could ever be defeated. But a tiny victory in Ukraine shows a way forward.
Ukraine has high rates of smoking and drinking, and the national delicacy — salo, or cured pork fat — is representative of a heart-unhealthy traditional cuisine. Cardiovascular disease is by far the leading cause of death in the country, killing two out of every three Ukrainians. Despite this alarming statistic, however, surgeons have long struggled to obtain stents, the small tubes of steel mesh used to open up the arteries that supply oxygen to the heart after they have become clogged.
