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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,

Life on the fringes



The amount of garbage in Ulaanbaatar city forthe year 2006 is estimated as 151 thousand tons and 60 thousand tons of garbage is illegally dumped without being collected. If the current situation continues till 2020, as much as 1.14 million tons will be discarded and Ulaanbaatar City will be buried in garbage. [from Embassy of Japan report. PDF available here]

Suuder.com has a series of photos taken at Ulaan chuluut rubbish dumping ground at Tolgoit. A separate reality altogether for most folks living in the middle of UB, whose waste end up at these hills where the less fortunate rummage through looking for recyclable refuse to sell: bottles, iron, copper wires etc. Much like ninja miners, these people live in terrible conditions at the rubbish dumping ground. Ulaan chuluut is only one of nearly 100 dumping grounds near UB.

A new USD10 million disposal site funded by aid from the government of Japan opened last year, located 2km from Ulaan Chuluut. According to ardchilal.com, the new site at Narangiin Enger meets the modern environmental regulations and recommendations.

Visit suuder.com to view the album.

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