Mongolian traffic

A few years ago, even the streets of Ulaanbaatar were nearly devoid of traffic, but today there is a rising number of road fatalities in Mongolia. Over the past four years, 1,453 people have died on Mongolian roads; another 5,242 have been injured.

Happily, there are some who have carried on a great work in Mongolia, even in places where the roads don't go. I was encouraged by this story of a northern Colorado woman, who has put aside her own struggle with cancer to travel to western Mongolia to help others earn a livelihood. At age 63 and battling breast cancer, she is still traveling around the world to help Mongolian women learn marketable skills and to help them sell their handiwork online.

On a completely unrelated note, this blog contains an interesting post related to Mongolia's support of the whaling industry, despite the fact that they are a completely land-locked country. One really does have to question their motives for involving themselves in an issue that seems so unrelated to their land.