ties to tradition, dust clouds and fire

One of the things that I appreciate about Mongolian culture is its ties to the past. They don't seem in a hurry to adopt every new bit of global culture that comes along. This music video is an example of how modern music is being made without neglecting instruments and vocal styles that have been central to Mongolia for centuries.


I don't have the article at hand right now, but last night, I read that the dust clouds from Mongolia have now invaded Alaska. I understand that this is not all that uncommon, but that this is the fourth-dustiest/windiest spring on record in Mongolia. This morning I read that strong dust storms are still ahead, i.e. 30 to 40 miles per hour storms. Officials fear that new steppe and forest fires will be added to the 75 that have already caught this year. Granted, some of these fires are originating in Russia and then spreading across Russia's southern border.

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.

git-r-done

We have most of the week off of school, so I'm trying to get some things done. I got several thank you notes out today, got a new tire, got the car washed, took Elijah to buy a toy space shuttle, tried to contact a few churches, worked on my drama lines, listed something on eBay and probably a few other things. That's more than I've got accomplished in a while.

We had a nice faith promise come in from Olathe Wesleyan Church today, so we have about 87% of our needed faith promise support committed. Unfortunately, I don't know where much of the rest of it is coming from, so we're still really trusting God for it.

I've been a little worried about our right front tire for a while. It has worn really unevenly, and it always squealed going around corners. It was a Goodyear Integrity 50,000 mile tire that I bought last August. It only had 20,000 miles on it but was already down to maybe 2/32 of an inch tread depth. I hadn't kept up on rotating the tires, so NTB wasn't going to honor the warranty. I found a slightly better tire for just a few dollars more at Firestone, so I ran over there and let them put one on. I walked around downtown OP while they made the change. I stopped by Traditions Furniture, which is located in the historic Strang Car Barn. I've often thought about stopping in there but never had done it before. They have a nice display on OP history there. Now, I just need to get up the guts to ask them to let me place a geocache somewhere on the property.

Then I headed over to mail a couple of DVDs that I sold on Amazon.com.

Well, I know this is thrilling, but I'm going to stop and give a little more attention to the Royals' game. They're up 2-0 in the 1st.

twins

In many cultures, twins are considered to be a curse, to be an upset to the balance of nature. Sometimes, one of the twins is even killed. This is apparently not the case in Mongolia. April 30 will be the 17th annual national twin day in the country. After beauty contests, sporting events, a party for the parents and a twins' concert, the twins will gather to lay wreaths at Genghis Khan's monument.

being neighborly

Mongolia is developing closer and closer ties with their two neighbors--China and Russia. China, which has traditionally had somewhat antagonistic relations with Mongolia, is now trying to purchase major mineral-extraction resources inside the country. Their state-owned energy company has about 9 billion dollars to shop with, and they're looking for deals inside Mongolia.

At the same time, Mongolia has nearly reached the stage of strategic partnership with Russia. The Mongolian prime minister is about to visit Moscow to further this relationship. Part of their discussion will focus on cooperation in uranium production and the building of nuclear power plants. While nuclear energy might be a good solution to the pollution crisis in UB, I think it is good that Mongolia is also talking to Japan and France about uranium processing. It would seem so easy for them to slip back into being a Russian satellite nation.

In the meantime, Mongolia is still debating their policy on mineral extraction. Foreign investors, such as Rio Tinto, are getting nervous because the Mongolian government is debating taking 51% of the profits from large mining operations rather than the 34% to which they originally had agreed. This may represent a real roadblock to future foreign investment. Bold Luvsanvandan, chairman of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia, says, "The main danger is if we worsen the investment climate, the only investors we are left (with) will be neighboring countries China and Russia." It may be economically dangerous for Mongolia to trade only (or primarily) with Russia and China, but the geographic and political realities are making it hard to do otherwise.

Further complicating matters is the lack of infrastructure that makes it difficult to exploit Mongolia's resources. For example, the Ulaan Ovoo mine possibly has a 35-40 year supply of coal but is 120 kilometers from the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Numerous scenarios have been developed for resolving this issue, but all are extremely expensive. Mongolia is also interested in a "coal-to-liquids" technology, but pipelines would necessarily have to run into or through one of their two neighbors.

$25 for free!!!

economic development

This article points out several interesting facts about Mongolia's economy. Although it grew at an astounding 9.9% in 2007, things are slowing down, and the impending double-digit inflation will certainly dampen the economic outlook. Imported food and oil, in particular, jumped in price by 41.3%, a disturbing statistic for a country that imports 80% of its food. Grants and subsidies are all that is keeping Mongolia from slipping into a major trade deficit.

Mongolia now has 40 million head of livestock. That's about 13 times the human population. About 20 million of that is goats, whose specialization is turning grasslands into desert--not a promising future, there.

There is still a great deal of difficulty in extracting mineral wealth, primarily because of the great dependence on foreign investment to build the necessary infrastructure. Foreign investors are wary, however; as the government has tried to renegotiate contracts mid-operation.

medical care

People regularly ask me how the medical facilities are in Mongolia. Perhaps this article gives the best answer to that question when it states: "Statistics show that about 30,000 Mongolian citizens visit China and other countries every year for medical treatment." When 1% of the population is going abroad for treatment, it doesn't speak well for the domestic healthcare situation. China is seeking to alleviate this issue by opening a hospital in the Mongolian capital. Interestingly, the doctors don't speak Mongolian, so everything has to be done through translators--certainly not the ideal in doctor-patient communication.

Unfortunately, the lack of medical facilities is compounded by some of the health risk factors in the environment. Mongolia has recently pledged to clean up 200,000 tons of cyanide, mercury and other industrial wastes that have been used in mining processes.

solar eclipse

Because we are staying in the US until after our baby is born, we will miss viewing the total solar eclipse in Mongolia. But, for all of you who plan to be there in August, it sounds like a fun experience!

Thank you, Japan!

Japan has announced that they are giving Mongolia $230 million for a new airport in UB. The current airport isn't that terrible, but this is certainly a generous gesture on Japan's part.

You know the population of Mongolia is small when the Prime Minister attends the football championship for 11-year-olds and awards the medals.

In a recent meeting with the Indian ambassador, the mayor of UB was urged to name a street in the city for Mahatma Gandhi. Does that seem like a strange request to anyone else?

endangered saiga

A species of antelope in Mongolia is being threatened by, of all things, traffic. This article tells how the saiga is being endangered by its migration route being cut off by a man-made road. Mongolia has 4 people per square mile, far fewer in the affected area. It's hard to believe that the antelope are having to stop and wait for a green light.

True Lemon

If you like lemon or some other citrus flavor in your water, you might try these free samples from True Lemon. Plus, when you request samples for yourself, they also send samples to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

blood and oil

We're still a little uncertain about the healthcare situation in Mongolia, but apparently there is a shortage of blood. Apparently, the National Blood Center paid handsomely for blood in the 70s and 80s, but now that they've gone to a volunteer basis, donations have dropped off precipitously.

This article is primarily about the other kind of blood--oil--and Mongolia's need to build an oil reserve. What I found interesting, though, was the statement that the togrog is falling in value even more steadily than the dollar. It's hard to imagine a currency doing worse than ours. Maybe that will alleviate some of the effects on inflation for us, although it doesn't do much for the rest of the country.

Mongolia is receiving somewhat of a cash infusion, though, from the burgeoning tourism industry. Prince Alwaleed of Saudia Arabia recently visited Mongolia and met with some of the leaders, so this probably speaks well of Mongolia's chances to see some luxury hotels in its future. This has been a growing need, due to the massive mining operations currently underway and more just over the horizon. A new airline flight has also just been initiated to try to lure some of the 40,000 annual visitors to Lake Baikal to Lake Khovsgol in Mongolia.

TB in Mongolia

This article brings up another health concern about modern life in Mongolia. I have seen several articles about drug-resistant TB in surrounding nations, but apparently tuberculosis is a concern in Mongolia as well. Up to this point, we have not had Elijah vaccinated for TB, because we haven't wanted him to test positive every time he has a test for the rest of his life. This, however, may change our perspective on the situation.

Given Mongolia's feelings about Inner Mongolia and their strong connection to Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, I was surprised to see that Mongolia is supporting China's treatment of the Tibetan riots. Mongolia's foreign minister says that "Mongolia always believes that Tibet and Taiwan were inalienable parts of Chinese territory."

Spring Lake Auction

In case I forgot to mention it (and I probably did), we had a great trip to Spring Lake Wesleyan Church in Michigan last month. They had a missions auction on Friday night which raised $14,000 for the work in Bosnia and Mongolia. Here is an article in the Grand Haven, MI paper about the auction.

Mongolia news update

While the U.S. can't seem to get their interest rates low enough, Mongolia keeps raising theirs. Their policy rate is at 9.75% and may go higher if this doesn't check the out-of-control inflation. In the US, I'm a saver, not a borrower, so the low interest rates are poison to me. In Mongolia, I'll strictly be a consumer, so all I care about is low rates of inflation for myself. Naturally, lower rates of inflation would be of great benefit to the Mongolians as well, but making money impossible to borrow may not help them out of their economic slump very readily.

On a happiernote, a new deposit has been discovered in southern Mongolia, which contains 4,000,000 tons of copper and 398 tons of gold. Not a bad addition to the 32,000,000 tons of copper and 1,000 tons of gold found just to the north last year. You would think finds like that would brighten the economic outlook.

Unfortunately, the Mongolian government seems likely to spoil the deal by grabbing huge portions of the profit. This may be a boon for the economy in the short-run, but how many foreign investors are going to keep pumping money into Mongolia when they see that it's reverting to a command economy?

Maybe the government needs the tax money to pay their back debts to New York City. It turns out that diplomatic immunity doesn't apply to property tax evasion.

And, in technology news, Buddhist lamas have dramatically sped up the process of copying their Scriptures by discovering scanners and the internet.

Inflation in Mongolia

I'm getting nervous about the runaway inflation in Mongolia. Their economy seems to be in complete turmoil. This article says that "Mongol Bank’s inflation measurements had it at 15.1 percent in December 2007, but in the year to January has it at 17.5 percent. The inflation rate rose another two points in January of this year, despite the government establishing a council to stabilize consumer prices."

We are raising our support based on February 2007 prices. Real estate has doubled since then, and vehicles are way up. I hope we don't arrive on the scene only to discover we can't even live at poverty level in a developing country.

all-expense paid bike trip

If you're looking for a free bike trip, here is a good option. All you have to do is get yourself to Mongolia and bring your own bike. There are lots of nice perks included, such as "ministerial support and sanctification." How often do you get that thrown in on a bike tour?

Catholics in Mongolia

It's a little discouraging sometimes to think that there are only a couple hundred Wesleyans in Mongolia. This was put into a little perspective for me, though, when I read this article, which mentions that there are only 415 Catholics in Mongolia, despite the fact that they have been at work there since 1992 and currently have 70 missionaries in the field. It reemphasizes the difficulty of spreading the gospel in the country, but where else on earth is The Wesleyan Church nearly half the size of the Roman Catholic church?

Most. Offensive. Lacing Card. Ever.

We were having family devotions when I glanced over at some toys on Elijah's bedroom floor. One of them was a lacing card that I think Tiffany bought at a thrift store or garage sale. I thought, "What on earth... It can't be." But, yes, the more I look at it, the more the lacing card looks like a blue klansman.

Ok, I'll admit that I added the lace noose, but it's purely to help you see it as I saw it.

Anyway, I drove to Bolivar and back today to pick up Tiffany & Elijah and bring them back home. Tomorrow, we're all headed off on a long weekend to Spring Lake Wesleyan Church in Spring Lake, Michigan. That is, we're leaving, weather permitting. It's looking like it might be a little yukky tomorrow.