Monday, October 29th, 2007
So Halloween fast approaches, and with it, our ISP period. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
I haven’t written much about the last few weeks, which I should, but I’m thinking I’ll probably just type up some of my journal entries, since they give a pretty good picture of some aspects of life here. We went on a whirlwind trip down to Khamrind Khiid (Monaster) in the Gobi, and saw the shambala (108 stupas, and a place to cleanse your karma), a museum dedicated to Danzanravja, the Gobi Saint (he was a lama who lived in the Gobi in the 19th c. and built Mongolia’s first theater, among other things), and some dinosaur bones and petrified wood. The train ride was wild, we spent more time traveling than we did in the Gobi!
Otherwise, I’ve been living with a family here in the city, in the 13th microdistrict (I’ll have to post a map of the city at some point as well, and some photos of the neighborhood are forthcoming). My father is an Evangelical Christian pastor, who has his own church; he also runs the Mongolian Bible society, which is responsible for maintaining a Mongolian language version of the Bible (its NRSV I believe, which is pretty progressive). He was actually one of the lecturers during our religion week, so we all knew who he was when I found out I was living with him. He’s not so extreme, but still, it was pretty insane at first. Anyways, I have 3 host bro’s 13, 11 and 20, and one who’s 25 or so and lives in a ger district by himself (he’s a starving artist, which is awesome). My mom works at the Bible society as a translator, and likes talking to me in English that is only barely better than my Mongolian, which is frustrating. Our apartment is actually pretty nice, it’s on the ground floor of one of the 80’s stalinist apartment buildings, and has 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room (where I stay). They have a TV, a pretty nice computer (and digital camera etc…) and lots of German stuff, since both my parents studied in East Germany. My host father was actually studying to become a vet at first, but he decided to switch to theology. I’ll write more about church later, maybe. I’ve been twice, once to the adult morning service, and once to the youth (teenager) service, both led by my host dad. The youth service was much more interesting because my eldest brother, Sotou, helped us follow along in an English language bible, as well as translating some of the most important words so we could at least follow the main ideas of the service. I had a friend, Kevin, who came too, so I guess it was due to our accumulating a critical mass, but a few times my father paused to give a quick English synopsis of what he’d been talking about. It was a little unnerving to be the focus of attention, but it was worth having a clue what was happening. My mongolian isn’t bad, but it’s not quite sermon-level…
On another note, we had our final language exam today, which went amazingly well. I’m not sure what “level” I’m at officially, but I can hold a pretty decent conversation about anything not requiring special vocab. The key is that my grammar has gotten good enough that I can figure out at least an awkward way to say most things, and finding the vocab is easy since most people I talk to speak some English (yeah, kinda lame, but I think it’s actually helped me learn to some extent, since they can explain what we do wrong). Sooo, ISP…
I went through about 4 different topics in the 36 hours leading up to our proposals being due (thursday), and met with three different people, all of whom have agreed to advice me on different topics… O_o I settled on studying regional development, with a focus on the far western aimags (provinces), specifically Hovd. I plan to travel out west for two weeks or so to chat with the aimag governer, as well as some of the soum governers (smaller division than a province), and regular people. The lady I will hopefully be bringing to translate (my Mongolian isn’t nearly good enough to conduct an academic interview… but I’ll be able to follow along decently) is actually from Hovd herself, and used to be a language teacher at SIT. I’m meeting her this afternoon, so we’ll see how that goes. But overall, I’m still pretty mixed about my topic, since it feels a bit like a compromise. But at this point I really need to move on and just get started researching. I’m hoping that especially once I’m out west, I’ll be able to find some neat angles from which to look at things to make the project more interesting and engaging. I hope.
UB is getting colder, much colder. It’s pretty much below freezing all the time, though midday can be a bit warmer. Also, the smog that hovers permanently over the city in the colder months is rapidly accumulating, turning once lush views of surrounding mountains and hills into a hazy, sulfurous blur, even at night. The air doesn’t feel too bad yet, but we’ve been told during the coldest months you can taste coal in your mouth by the time you get to school (20-30 minutes), provided you’re walking outside. The cause of the pollution is mostly the scores of gers that blanket the land surrounding the city center for kilometers in all directions (except the areas with cleaner air, where the rich people build their mansions and keep their many landcruisers). Since there’s no wood left, people burn mostly coal in small metal stoves, that aren’t very efficient, and are running constantly to keep the frigid Mongolian winter at bay.
Gotta run, time to meet my new translator… more later
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
I find myself agreeing with what I heard from Ueli Minder, CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition in Mongolia, that the most important development issue in today’s Mongolia is its crisis of identity. Much like the representatives we met from an Evangelical Christian, a Catholic and a Russian Orthodox church, Ueli spoke of the receding tide of communism leaving a people stripped of their inner strength and belief system, thus lacking an identity in a harsh new world. To make matters worse, Mongolians are now suddenly open to the barrage of culture and information from which the Iron Curtain had shielded them, “its not just the lifting of the pressure, it’s the moving of a completely different world, with all the television, with all the Western, European, American values and which come in a completely unrealistic way.” Eager to fill this newly created spiritual vacuum, missionaries from various Christian sects have descended upon Mongolia; according to Father Aleksei, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Mongolia, some are actively destroying the Mongolian identity. He cited an example of the result such destruction brings: the suicide of several young Mongolians in the name of Jesus Christ.
The basis of the identity and moral crisis in Mongolia is in the psychological effects of a people under dictatorial rule. With the ever-present eye of the government dominating one’s life, it becomes easiest to simply yield ones thoughts and beliefs to control from above: “How fear can destroy the human mind: trust and communication, everything.” Ueli gave an example from a Christian friend of his who was holding discussion groups, and discovered trust no longer had any meaning to young Mongolians; in Ueli’s words: “They didn’t know what it means. Trust… that hinders so much people to grow internally. Because they even don’t trust themselves.” Moreover, Mongolia’s ability to navigate a path into the future is dependant on her relationship to this dark history, “Here in Mongolia… I think only with dealing with the reality, also admitting what went wrong, they can really find out again what they are, and what they want to be.” This theme was echoed in a modern context by Mr. Ganbaatar, head of the CMTU, who lamented the rise of “crazy capitalism”, and expressed his wish that Mongolians take ownership of their country, and thus of their own destiny. Instead, a growing number are turning to outsiders to shoulder this burden, blaming the country’s problems on foreign businesses.
Ueli, much like the representatives of the three other religions, sees his role in the solving of this problem as primarily educational. In addition to teaching about Mahayana Buddhism, Ueli has taken advantage of his background in teacher education to affect some real positive change in the education system. After holding a seminar with several other religious groups on the family, alcohol and values, several teachers approached him pleading, “Do this more with us! We need help with how to teach the kids values, what to do!” Not only is he teaching about values, but also how to teach values, a more sustainable, though skill-intensive approach.
Buddhism also has a role in both the reclamation of Mongolia’s history, as well as the laying of a foundation for the future. By learning about Buddhism, Mongolians are rediscovering a vital aspect of their culture, one virtually eliminated during the socialist era. With the Buddhist education comes also a moral and ethical structure, which with history are vital to the building of a robust Mongolian identity. Ueli has no problem with Mongolians converting to Christianity, if they feel it will help them, but he is distressed when this conversion prevents them from fully reclaiming their history, since Buddhism is perceived as a threat to their new Christian identity. Without truly coming to terms with their history, these Mongolians are building a new identity on a partial foundation, and this results in an identity that is fragile and incomplete.
The phenomenon of growing extreme Nationalism is related to this crisis in identity, and aided by the growth of widespread corruption. During her talk on Democratization, Ms. Undarya talked about the growing fascist movement, with its emphasis on history and a biologically purist, male-centric national identity. Perhaps these young Mongolians are reacting violently to outside encroachment, which they perceive as a threat. Their insecurity and emptiness is activated by the presence of foreigners, which inflames and catalyzes the creation of an über-nationalist identity; this nationalism feeds on the strength of Mongolia’s ancient history, creating a sense of invincibility that is even less compatible with the reclamation of a dark period in history.
For the FPMT and Buddhists in general, their efforts are limited by any stigma associated with the name Buddhism. Even Ueli levels some criticism at the historical status quo in both Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism, and their disconnectedness from society. Especially the mixing of opportunistic capitalism with Buddhism, which he believes has alienated many from looking further. But he also sees Buddhism changing, learning from other religions such as the service-minded Christians. The ability of Buddhism to change with the times, under the guidance of the FPMT and Gandan Monastery (the closest thing to a central authority in Mongolian Buddhism), will determine the future of Buddhism in Mongolia, and the extent to which Christianity is able to fill Mongolians’ identity vacuum before people have a chance to rediscover their historical faith.
Thus, Mongolia faces many challenges on its quest for a new identity. Mongolia must learn about and come to terms with its past, whilst staying afloat in the flood of imagery and culture that has especially deluged its media-saturated youth. Likewise, the poisonous appeal of fascist nationalism threatens to further radicalize the most severely disaffected. Like Ueli Minder, and his colleagues from other organizations said, civic and historical education, whether from schools or religious institutions, is clearly important to the success of this transformation. While each organization has its own particular approach, they will also all gain from working together, as the successful collaboration of the FPMT with other religious organizations showed. This will also foster dialogue between religious groups on other issues, helping to avoid a further polarization of the religious climate. However, in the end, Mongolia’s future rests in the hands of its people, most notably its large demographic of young people; if they succeed in acquiring a stable and secure identity, Mongolia can turn its attention to more technical issues of development. Otherwise, no amount of development studies or technical reports can fix the torn psyche of this people, caught in a flux between multiple worlds.
Friday, October 12th, 2007
So, it’s been a while since I’ve written, and I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I’ll start with a post on our week of Politics lectures, with some general impressions on the plight of Mongolia and some visions of its future. Then I’ll write a few more posts in the coming days about our excursion, and our time in UB. The basic course of events as it stands now has been: return from homestay, in the city we had a few free days, then a week of lectures on politics followed by a 2 week excursion to Erdenet and Khovsgol. Now we’re back in UB for a week of religion lectures before our quick trip to the Gobi. Lastly, we have a 3 week homestay in UB, followed by our ISP.
Politics Week
The politics week was fascinating, though a bit depressing. We got to hear from all kinds of people with different perspectives on Mongolian politics. The speakers were of varying quality, though only one lecture was through translation (the rest in English), but all the speakers had interesting stories to tell, and the Q/A sessions were generally the most interesting parts. A few lectures were attended by students from the University of the Humanities, with whom the SIT program is affiliated. We got to chat with them, and hopefully they’ll be joining us tomorrow night when we celebrate Kevin’s 21st birthday at one of UB’s more ridiculous discos (more on that later. maybe…)
A summary of Politics week speakers: an independent consultant on Civil Society and Gender Analysis on Democritization: Challenges and Opportunities; a former journalist working in corporate media relations/communications at BHP Minerals Asia on Development of Free Press in Mongolia; an MP and leader of the Citizen’s Will Party on Burning Questions of Politics and Social Development; Secretary of ruling MPRP party (former Communist party) on Strategic Choices of Mongolia in the XX Century; the grandson of purged PM P. Genden and founder of the Memorial Museum of Victims of Political Persecution on the Political Purges of the 1930’s, an American responsible for all community relations aspects of the new Oyu Tolgoi mining project from Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. (my favorite speaker) on an Outsider’s Perspective, he has a strong and sober conceptualization of what is happening in Mongolia; the President of the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Union on From Civil Society Movement to Trade Union, the General Secretary of the Millenium Challenge Account (a $150m 5 year development grant from the US) on The Millenium Challenge Account: What are the Projects?; and lastly another representative from Ivanhoe who is an SIT Mongolia alum (and works under our first Ivanhoe speaker) on the details of the new Oyu Tolgoi project, espectially regarding community relations and public image.
The general perspective I came away with is that Mongolian politics is at a crucial crossroads in its evolution. Democracy is going strong, but pervasive and rapidly growing corruption is threatening to disenfranchise a public already weary of politics from the Soviet era. Economically, the insane amount of revenue that Oyu Tolgoi will generate (if it is approved) will either provide the engine for Mongolia’s development and eventual economic feasibility, or like in so many other resource rich countries, it may simply turn the smoldering corruption into a firestorm engulfing and asphyxiating this young democracy. As my colleague Kevin wisely said “Yeah, I’m both super scared and super excited.”
Whether the civil society movement can get its act together and pressure the government to clean up its act seems to be the big question. Yet the woman who came to talk to us from the forefront of the civil society movement almost left Mongolia out of depression at the state of things two years ago, and says that now, if anything, things are getting worse. There is an election approaching that will decide the country’s fate; if the corruption has reached a critical level, then electoral fraud will be rampant and MPRP will stay in power and the light at the end of the tunnel will dim; if the election is fair, and the MPRP monopoly is broken, then there is hope: Mongolia’s fate will then depend on the opposition groups’ ability to rule maturely and restore the public’s faith in democracy.
