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This article examines the novel Final Respects by Abdi-Jamil Nurpeisov from a postcolonial ecocritical perspective. Nurpeisov was one of the first Kazakh writers to discuss the decolonization of the environment and the “process of self-apprehension” by writing about the tragedy of the Aral Sea, power relations between the center and periphery, and the interconnectivity of humans and the environment in the Soviet Union. Through the prism of a small fishing village, he shows the tragedy of a nation that has an impact on the entire world. The novel is thus a critique of anthropocentric policies imposed by Moscow on Kazakhstan and other Soviet republics. Throughout the text, Nurpeisov reiterates the connection between the local and the global on one hand, and human culture and the environment on the other.

The Astana Declaration on primary healthcare in 2018 was the attempt to revive the ideals of the World Health Organization (WHO) Alma-Ata Declaration 40 years later, together with a call for the political will to provide adequate financing at acceptable quality of care. This approach is taken to achieve the past ideals of Health for All, given the new challenges of universal health coverage. The economic case for primary healthcare is justified against the growing demand due in part to the growing costs of chronic conditions and the rise of ageing population, other than the supply-side factors of the healthcare industry. Past healthcare systems have evolved greater roles of the state versus the market, but few have involved the Third Sector or civil society in more integrated ways to provide and finance long-term care (LTC) with population ageing. From the extremes of the communist state to capitalist free markets, an optimal public-private system has to reach a balance in access, cost and quality for health and LTC. Recent studies of health and LTC have distilled newer developments in public-private mixes of provision, financing and regulation, in response to the needs of fast-ageing Asian societies. While Japan was the oldest country in the world, other countries in Asia have caught up and are now acknowledged where innovative models of integrated eldercare under economic limits, hold great promise of their transferability to the rest of ageing societies. Besides other forms of integrated LTC delivery with traditional systems, newer forms of financing like savings funds and superannuation have been developed, with participation from government, industry and civil society. There is much to learn from the new Asian models of financing, using appropriate technology and social innovations, and integrating health and social systems for LTC.

I ssues of national identity and nation-building are at the center of public discourse in Kazakhstan. The country has inherited a complex soviet legacy with a large ethnic Russian minority and other ethnic groups that were either deported during the Stalinist period or came during the Virgin land campaign in the 1960s. 1 These policies provided an important impact on the nation-building project in post-independence Kazakhstan. Debates on the nature of national identity, national ideal, and the Kazakh language have continued since 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. Interest toward these issues is not only a result of internal dynamics in political life and socioeconomic conditions but also a consequence of external factors. The recent 2014 events in Ukraine related to Crimea have contributed to the discussion on the essence of national identity and further construction and consolidation of the nation in Kazakhstan. Scholarship on Central Asia claims that countries of the region, including Kazakhstan, are "nationalizing states" in which the process of ethnicization (Kazakhization, Uzbekization, Kyrgyzation) is well under way. This ethnicization is reflected in the renaming of streets and cities with local names, changing toponyms, and promoting local languages and culture. At the same time, the formation of civic identity-i.e., based on citizenship and promoted by political elites "from above"-is far from complete. Is it possible to inculcate civic (or any other) identity in the minds of people who had a long experience of Soviet nationality policy? How successful is the government of Kazakhstan in promoting civic national identity? Although abundant research has been done on nation-building in Kazakhstan, little primary research has been conducted on Kazakh people's perceptions of national identity, religion, and language. This study is based on survey results in an attempt to answer the following questions: How do people perceive national identity in modern Kazakhstan? And what are the components of civic national identity according to the population? The study draws on an original nationwide survey (N = 1,600) conducted in January 2016 in Kazakhstan and two focus groups held in Almaty in April 2017.

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