Mongolia, China, and Chinggis Khaan in *The Economist*

"Battle for Mongolia's soul

"On the 800th anniversary of his empire's birth, China and Mongolia both claim Genghis Khan as their own"

The Economist, Dec 19th 2006

"The Mongolian government has already suffered the downsides of economic nationalism. By law, all gold output is supposed to be sold to the Bank of Mongolia, the central bank. This year the amount sold has fallen by half even though production has continued to rise, says the central bank's former governor, Ochirbat Chuluunbat. He blames a windfall tax that has encouraged small producers to sell gold on the black market rather than to the bank. Most black-market gold is smuggled across the 4,677km border with China...

"For all Mongolia's nationalism, the government remains acutely aware of the dangers of upsetting its powerful southern neighbour. Officials studiously avoid criticism of China, which provides vital port facilities for Mongolia's exports...

"In order to avoid falling under the sway of either Russia or, particularly, China, Mongolia pursues what it calls a 'third neighbour' policy. This involves remaining on good terms with its giant neighbours but also reaching out to countries such as America and Japan (Mongolia's biggest aid donor). America has been delighted by Mongolia's support for its military operations in Iraq, including the dispatch of some 200 support troops. This is the first time Mongolian troops have been stationed in Iraq since Genghis's grandson, Hulagu, conquered Baghdad...

"A Mongolian general, given warning by an American counterpart of the dangers of operating in Baghdad, is said to have quipped: 'I know. We've been here before.'"

Widely Misunderstood

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Once you spend half your life just covering up

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son, if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand?"

I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, but he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down this road
Ain't got nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.

-Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."

Declaration against the War

"I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies which they do not, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.

"Siegfried L. Sassoon...July 1917"

Typewriters and Shotguns

And yet, I thought there would be more.

Wikipedia: Writers who committed suicide

Fear This

Ready for some irony?

Get ready.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – The fear of long words.

War on Terror: The Boardgame

"Wage War on the Most Dangerous Abstract Noun Known to Man"

"The actual War on Terror is offensive. This is just a board game."

Just released last month; already banned at several toy fairs.

Clearly designed lovingly by people who enjoy critical thinking, this thing looks smart (stylish) and smart (intelligent). Check out a couple "Empire Cards" from the Card Appendix:

"Weapons Inspector - You need to make sure they haven't got anything that might trouble your liberating forces."

"Terrorist Upsurge - Seems like not everyone wants to be liberated. Ungrateful swines."

As a cartophile and sometime fan of Risk and Axis and Allies, I can't help but pore over the gameboard: New Zealand and the Philippines are apparently planned for the "Southeast Corner of the Map" expansion pack, Alaska is exhibiting symptoms of palsy, and - betraying the game's British origins - the Falklands are way prominent. (Only British folk could design a game of world domination in which the Falklands receive the high-profile treatment. Maybe also Argentinians.) More than offsetting this, however, is the inclusion of Antarctica, which is crazy cool. Antarctica is labeled as "Nowhere."


And Mongolia is on there! It has powdered off to the west and borders Afghanistan, but it's still nice to see it. Kazakhstan didn't make the cut.

Our friend Lajos commented on the game at BoardGameGeek.com:
"Ooooh, I can't wait to read more about this game (preferably the rules). The theme is absolutely brilliant and so are some of the card texts. How can anyone with at least some sense of humour be offended by this?"

For more info from BoardGameGeek, here's a shining review and a play session.

In closing, from the creators:
"The dialogue has effectively been closed. If you think terrorism is a symptom of a wider problem, rather than an inexplicable phenomenon, then you must be a terrorist. We hope this boardgame might play its humble part in opening up that dialogue."

Today

This post has moved to Adventuria - Travels of Radigan Neuhalfen.

Murder in Malaysia

"Setting the stage for a lurid courtroom drama that is sure to grip a country that officially sees itself as upright and puritanical, one of Malaysia’s most prominent political analysts has been charged with the gruesome slaying of a Mongolian 'free lance' fashion model who claimed that he was her lover and the father of her infant child.

"The skeletal remains of the 28-year old woman, described as 'stunning' in press reports, shot twice and torn apart by explosives, were found by police on November 6 in a jungle hilltop near Kuala Lumpur after she had been reported missing. She was later identified through DNA testing."

-Asia Sentinel

Khongorzul

Miss Mongolia 2005

Mongolian flags

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/mn.html

Baron Ungern

The God of War as artistic inspiration:

Neue Operative Radikale Kunst

A Movie

Khadak

Life Goes On

"Tibet is lost. You have your freedom."

-Dalai Lama, in Mongolia, 2006 August

Face of Arrogance

"But we will still tell our children stories of Chang'e and the rabbit that lived for thousands of years in the moon, and mooncakes that carried the message of the uprising against the Mongolians, who now have become one of the Chinese minorities. Life goes on."

-China Daily

Face of the Future

"Mongolia is the latest country to be sucked into the centrifugal force of China's rapid economic growth, yesterday signing a series of economic agreements with its prosperous neighbour. . .

"The biggest coal mine in Mongolia is sending train-loads south to China, whose energy hunger is voracious, at a tonnage price well below the global market price."

-The Australian

"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Kubla Khan, or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.
first published in 1816
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English, 1772-1834

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round :

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !

A savage place ! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover !

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced :

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war !

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves ;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw :

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !

His flashing eyes, his floating hair !

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Washington state flood

Mongol-themed Wargames

A list from the Dutch economist, sociologist, and Mongolphile Lajos Brons:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/16944

A Genghis Khan Opera in Austin, Texas

A production at the Salvage Vanguard Theater that opened last spring:

"So today I got the coolest email and I’m just going to paste it below. Graham and I talked about this quite a bit last year when we were writing the opera Genghis Khan. Check this out…

"Mr. Neulander

"My name is Dawadash and I am the Second Secretary of the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington DC. I came across to SVT website and the Genghis Khan Opera blog while surfing the net. We congratulate you on the production of Genghis Khan, who is national symbol and hero for my country. The Embassy of Mongolia regrets that we did miss the chance to watch the show, which was a success in Austin. This year Mongolia celebrates the 800th anniversary of the Great Mongolian State created by Genghis Khan in 1206. That year Temuchin was proclaimed Genghis Khan, the ruler of the first unified Mongolian state. We are eager to learn if the Genghis Khan production is still on stage and where and when we can watch it. Have you thought of putting it in other countries, for example in Mongolia. This would great.
Anyways, congratulations on the production and hope to hear from you.
Any questions are welcome at the address below.
Cheers,

"Dawadash Sambuu
Second Secretary
Embassy of Mongolia"

Salvage Vanguard Theater blog

Salvage Vanguard Theater - Genghis Khan: The Opera

*Modern Mongolia* by Morris Rossabi

A review by Andy Morriss of Morris Rossabi's book Modern Mongolia:

http://stmaximoshut.powerblogs.com/posts/1157293075.shtml

"It's a well-written and well-researched book, with lots of fascinating details about a fascinating country. It is also an incredibly frustrating book, as Rossabi has only a loose grasp of economics...

"Rossabi makes two crucial errors. First, he thinks economics is just a point of view, using quote marks around economic terms to emphasize that they aren't really definitional. Second, he buys an excessively romantic notion of primitive communism among nomads, without asking (at least through this chapter) whether the pre-Communist nomadic civilization included institutions that were destroyed by the Communists and which take time to recreate."

"some two-bit reality show"

American TV -- "The Amazing Race," specifically -- was in Mongolia in the spring:

http://snouts.typepad.com/snouts/2006/06/amazing_race.html

Mongolian surnames

"Sansar" is a cool name:

Globe and Mail

pataphor

pataphor - An extended metaphor that creates its own context.

http://www.paulavion.com/ptest.html

"Jenny is eleven years old. She lives on a farm in Luxembourg, West Virginia. Today Jenny is collecting eggs from the henhouse. It is 10 a.m. She walks slowly down the rows of cages, feeling around carefully for eggs tucked beneath clucking hens. She finds the first egg in number 6. When she holds it to the light she sees it is the deep tan of boot leather, an old oil-rubbed cowboy boot, creased with microscopic branching lines, catching the light at the swelling above the scarred dusty heel, curled at the cuff, bending and creaking as the foot of the cowboy squirms to rediscover its fit, a leathery thumb and index prying at the scruff, the heel stomping the floor. Victor the hotel manager swings open the door and gives Cowboy a faint smile."

5+ Art

Photo by 5+, a young Mongolian artists' group.

http://www.art5plus.com/

http://www.art5plus.com/photo.html

'Nambla Monkeybar'?

A year later, still roiling over at The Dilbert Blog:

"You, so called western intellectuals, if placed in Mongolian steppes, you could not survive our harsh climate..."

"Geez, I'm Mongolian but I'm not angry nor humored, it was kind of a lame joke really."

Mongolian Day in Chicago – Malign God Theory

by Neil Steinberg for the Chicago Sun-Times, 2006 July 14:

"The entire length of Washington there is taken up with a dozen anti-abortion protesters, in a straight line, each holding the same 5-foot-tall poster showing a pair of tongs holding the bloody, decapitated, jawless head of a fetus.

"Did I ever mention my Malign God Theory? I don't think so. Briefly stated: There is a deity, and He does hear our prayers, but often acts perversely, for his own amusement.

"I turn my face, away from the grisly horror, and see a group of short Asian men in bright tribal uniforms -- long coats, round hats. A banner reads 'Mongolian Day in Chicago.' A stage, tents, chairs, already occupied by aging relatives, booths of some kind.

"These poor people. Bet they planned for six months. Rehearsing ancient dances. Eager to reflect Mongolian pride, to see a neglected people shining in the public square. Our city's first Mongolian festival.

"The great day arrives. They show up -- take chartered buses down from Waukegan, no doubt, enticing their families and friends along. Only to be confronted by platoons of grim, lipless yokels and gimlet- eyed, corn-fed fanatics, waving huge color photos of chopped-up babies."

California Jet Car

Spectacular engineering.

Important religious questions (vis-a-vis Christian evangelism)

"The Charge of the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus in 1242"

Giuseppe Rava
1963- Italian

In Heaven, will my grandmother, who died at 80 years of age, look like she did when she was 80? Should people hope to die at a young age, so that they can be young in Heaven?

What is Heaven like? Where is Heaven located? What’s the weather like there? Can you see stars or planets from Heaven? What language is spoken in Heaven? Where do people live? Are there houses? What kind of entertainment is there?

What happens to disabled people in Heaven?

Say a married man dies and goes to Heaven. His wife remarries. Later, the wife and the new husband die and go to Heaven. Isn’t it awkward when these two guys meet up with their singular wife? What happens then?

Does God have a wife? If not, doesn’t He get lonely?

Why did God rest on the seventh day? Why would a perfect supreme being need to rest?

Why would God punish humanity so severely simply because a woman wanted knowledge?

Why did God expect Cain to give Him his best sheep? And why did He turn him away when he did not, inciting him to kill his brother Abel?

How did Noah collect the virus that causes AIDS for the Ark? And polio? And influenza? More importantly, why?

Why did Jesus have to pay for the sins of humanity? Why not the Devil?

Why did God even create the Devil? Just to torment and punish His creation? If so, then is this god worthy of praise or devotion?

If God intended the Bible to be His message to all humanity for all time, why does it lack so much fundamental data? Why didn’t He mention that the planets travel in elliptical orbits around the sun, or include references to the periodic table of elements, or allude to the double-helix structure of DNA?

How do you know there is only one god? How do you know there aren’t two? Or ten? Or millions?

Why doesn’t God answer—in easy-to-read, ASCII-formatted text—my prayers?

Why do angels have wings? Why didn’t humans get wings?

Why did God make the Universe expand at a slower rate in the past and accelerate its expansion in the present? Is it because dark matter really does have expansive powers, or are there other universes with gravity pulling ours towards theirs?

Who or what created God?

What evidence is there against the existence of God? What evidence is there against the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Why won't God heal amputees? Why does God seem to cure cancer and other diseases daily, yet he unfailingly ignores the prayers of amputees? Does God hate amputees? Why?

Is God a man or a woman or both or neither?

Through the hundreds of years of religious killing in Europe and the Middle East, whose side has God been on? Catholics or Protestants? Orthodox or Catholics? Christians or Jews? Jews or Muslims? Muslims or Christians? Sunni or Shi'ite? Whose side is He on now?

Do you love your god more than you love your country?

Does God prefer to keep critical thinkers out of Heaven by letting them become atheists, rather than eternally suffer their incessant, impudent questioning of his judgment and authority?

Does God believe in a higher power? If not, then that would mean that God is an atheist.

--adapted from http://members.aol.com/nogodperiod/qs_for_christians.htm

Microbial resistance to antibiotics

Antibiotics are overused in Mongolia. Powerful antibiotics, generally Russian-made, are available over-the-counter in UB, and people take them often. When I have been ill, my friends have consistently advised me to take antibiotics. As I understand it, however, taking antibiotics indiscriminately, and especially for short durations, leads to microbes evolving resistance to the drugs.

This letter from 2001 concerns gonorrhoea:

http://sti.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/77/6/463-a

"We read with interest 'The antibiotic susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia' by Lkhamsuren. We also found high levels of resistance to penicillin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. Of the 13 isolates which were successfully transported to our reference laboratory in Birmingham, Alabama. . . 3/13 (23%) were chromosomally resistant to penicillin, 2/13 (15.4%) were chromosomally resistant to tetracycline. . . We agree with the authors that antibiotic resistance is a significant problem in Ulaanbaatar and that a surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance is needed."

from Lena in Sankt-Peterburg

"can i ask u what r u doin in Mongolia? i heard this country is Crazy!"

John Wayne as Chinggis Khaan from Mike

Treasure of Khan

"The action, and there's plenty of it, ranges from Siberia's Lake Baikal and the wilds of Mongolia to the Hawaiian islands. The treasure is that of Genghis and Kublai Khan, the great Mongolian conqueror and his grandson. The villain is a modern-day Mongol with dreams of restoring national power and pride."
-Publishers Weekly

A couple years ago in Costa Rica, an archaeologist friend told me about the adventure novels of Clive Cussler, which kind of incorporate maritime archaeology somewhat. He was reading one of them--I think it had to do with the Aztec--and he offered it to me when he was finished. I opted for Under the Volcano.

Last weekend at the ranch, we watched the mighty crap-bomb that is Sahara, based ("loosely," allegedly) on one of Cussler's novels. The pirate Chinese DVD crashed before the end of the movie, and we cheered.

Today, while researching a dead poet guy, I got into one of those spiraling click-chains that somehow led to Cussler. So, I discovered that his new novel has a Mongolian flavor. And is being released next month.

"When Dirk Pitt is nearly killed rescuing an oil survey team from a freak wave on Russia's Lake Baikal, it appears a simple act of nature. When the survey team is abducted and Pitt's research vessel nearly sunk, however, it's obvious there's something more sinister involved. All trails lead to Mongolia, and a mysterious mogul who is conducting covert deals for supplying oil to the Chinese while wreaking havoc on global oil markets utilizing a secret technology. The Mongolian harbors a dream of restoring the conquests of his ancestors, and holds a dark secret about Genghis Khan that just might give him the wealth and power to make that dream come true."
-Amazon.com

from Lisa with the American Refugee Committee in Monrovia, Liberia

the road to Voinjama

News from the Old Country

"It will be only a matter of time until the talking-snake Christian right self-destructs. Sectarian turmoil is inevitable, with every Jesus lover labeling every other Jesus lover a heretic and slaughtering him in the name of Jesus’ love."

- http://godhatingliberal.blogspot.com/

lot of humanity

This post has moved to Adventuria - Travels of Radigan Neuhalfen.

Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Peace Avenue at night

Russia and China

"Chinese immigrants find opportunity in the fertile emptiness of Siberia. But hosts fear a gradual takeover."

Ulemj

Met up with Ulemj and a couple of his buddies last night. We sat in a bar called "Zona" just north of the Parliament building and drank beer. Got drunk.

Ulemj is one of the first people I met after returning to Mongolia a year and a half ago. He teaches engineering at the Technological University.

He went to Khovsgol with his family over the summer and sent a photo.

simulation argument

Is this a simulated reality?

The simulation argument, claimed by the philosopher Nick Bostrom, investigates the possibility that we may be living in a simulation. The argument attempts to prove the disjunction of three hypotheses (that is, that at least one of the following three propositions must be true), that:

either

• the human race will never reach a level of technology where we can run simulations of reality so detailed they can be mistaken for reality; or
• races who do reach such a level do not tend to run such simulations; or
• we are almost certainly living in such a simulation.

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality

Travelled

Visited Countries and States: