Skip to main content

Featured

Posted by

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 café 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,
Read more
Labels
Posted by

Maps, Politics and New "Friends of Ours"

So during my 5-day trip to Mongolia, things took place. Everywhere. Hurricane in New Orleans again, Japanese PM resigned, riots in Thailand and we finally have a new Parliament. Ts.Elbegdorj has resigned from his post as the DP chairman.

Map controversy is taking place in Mongolia due to a Chinese company posting a map of China with Mongolia included and not only that, Mongolia is listed as one of the "Other Cities" next to the "Major Cities". After complaints and emails from Mongolians and perhaps even officials (who knows), they fixed it... by changing the name to "Inner Mongolia" and shading it a slight darker yellow. Sheer incompetence / utter stupidity or political insult to a sovereign nation? (or perhaps a sneaky conspiracy of the Chinese cartographers.) Have a look here. I thought about posting the photo, but given human nature, I am afraid when the image shows up on Google Images, some may mistake it for a genuine map.

After nearly 2 months of stalemate, the new Parliament took oath on August 28 with 69 of the 76 members.
General Election Committee presented 3 additional names from the disputed Khentii Aimag constituency.
Ts.Elbegdorj, disappointed, submitted his resignation to his party in a protest over the DP's decision to take the oath before their full demands were met by the General Election Committee. Among them was to have all the names of all 76 members, including the 7 remaining electees from the disputed constituencies, presented to the President.

On the 30th, the DP committee convened to elect a new chairman. N.Altankhuyag won by 17 votes over Z.Enkhbold.
Email Post
Labels:

Popular Posts