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The chaos theory of Mongolia

I returned to Mongolia 15 years ago after an absence of 13 years, save for the occasional 2-week leave from work, and that time I spent a semester and a half at a local university drinking endless cups of brown, watery 150 Tugrik instant MaCcoffee at the cafĂ© strangely, or perhaps egotistically, named "In my memory", writing the first and so far the only book that got us into trouble with the local intelligence who apparently had little else to do than to pore through the ramblings of teenagers to catch the tell-tale signs of drug dealery. But I digress. When you visit a country for a short period, be it home or not, you hardly have time to immerse yourself in the spirit of the country and the city and feel the nitty gritty and dirty shiny of it all. So after 13 years, it took me a while to readjust and finally understand what the hometown of my childhood had become.  The most striking, ubiquitous, and inescapable feature was and still, unfortunately, is the traffic. In 2008,

A Story or Two: Accidental Diplomatic Ties

Psstt, lemme tell you a story or two.

You know why we have such a good relationship with N.Korea?
At the time when all the countries were pulling their embassies out of N.Korea, Mongolia was one of the few who stayed. Here's why: We didn't have the funds to mobilize our embassy. So we stayed. And N.Korea now claims Mongolia is one of their true friends who didn't abandon them during their trials. Hence our excellent relationship with N.Korea.

You know why we have such a good diplomatic relationship with Singapore?
In 1965, months after it was kicked out of Malaysia and became independent, Singapore wanted to become a UN member. Our rep to UN was asleep during the session. When the call for votes came, he woke up startled and in his sleepy confusion, became one of the very first to vote "Aye" to Singapore's membership. Singapore has been grateful to Mongolia ever since for our vocal recognition of their worth, giving our citizens the 14-day visa-free priviliege. The rumor has it that the Russians were mad at our rep for this, as they wanted to vote "Nay".

You know how Monaco and Mongolia established diplomatic ties?
During a boring UN session, reps from Monaco and Mongolia were seated next to each other due to the alphabetical seating order. Bored, they started up a chat. And thus, Monaco-Mongolia relationship started. (source: Mongolia Matters)

Thanks to Onon for the first 2 stories and the laughs. Just had to blog about these, whether apocryphal or true.

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