First Letter from UlaanBaatar (UB) – April 2011
I started writing this letter in March and it has languished
unfinished. Now it is nearly May and I need to at least send Passover and
Easter greetings, though neither of these holidays are celebrated in
Mongolia. It is now spring, but the
weather is somewhat odd. Wonderful that there is no longer thick black ice on
the sidewalks, which makes walking possible; and I have come to realize that UB
is really quite a small city and you can walk to most places in the central
core. That is good, because traffic is quite horrendous, and it often is faster
to walk than to drive. Two weeks ago, it was a balmy 23 degrees C and I was
thinking of taking out my sandals. Yesterday, there were snow flurries mixed
with dust – a combination that made your eyes sting as the wind whipped up --
and the hill behind my apartment building was dusted in fine white powder. People say it rains here a lot in May, but
I’ve seen no rain thus far; but the wind is strong and can be bitter.
Nonetheless, I am quite delighted that the deep freeze is over and I can roam
outdoors a bit. However, let me first
give you the bits I wrote earlier.
Mid March
An item on the menu at the Mika Hotel, around the corner
from my office, reads: “Tripe cooked internally with red hot stones. Please
order 4 to 6 hours prior to the planned time.” I did not order the tripe. Nor
did I order the cooked sheep’s head. But the borscht was delicious, with beets
(Russian style) as opposed to cabbage (which would be Ukrainian style), beef,
slices of sweet gherkins, and a glob of sour cream. As well, against all my
moral principles, I had grilled horse meat at the Modern Nomad Restaurant, a
chain intended to make Mongolian food that foreigners would eat. It is
remarkably tender, free of fat and sinew, and very tasty. Mongolians raise horses, to ride, to milk
(fermented mare’s milk is glassy white in colour and tastes a little like
sake….not at all unpleasant), and to eat. Shame, because they are such
beautiful animals; they look very much like ponies, with wonderful full manes
and swishy tails. I do intend to ride a horse on the Gobi steppes before
leaving this country, but it will have to wait till it is a little warmer.
It is still cold, perhaps minus 25 at night, minus 8 or 10
in the daytime. But with the sun around noon, it is brilliant and almost warm. Certainly,
not too different in temperature from Montreal. I had been unnecessarily
spooked about the weather and brought long johns and turtle necks and fleeces
and woolens. But, with cashmere socks (which I acquired here), a down coat (a
Canadian product), a hat (from Afghanistan) and ski gloves, I have not found
the weather to be a problem. Since I’ve been here, I’ve not experienced a snow
storm or an ice storm, though the streets and sidewalks can be treacherous.
What is also a problem is that indoors, it is too warm. The heating and hot
water in UB is provided by four central power plants. I have no idea how it is
charged/priced, but all buildings are overheated. Impossible to wear a sweater
in doors. So people open the windows to let in some cool air.
This notwithstanding, the
young women here are all very fashion conscious -- they all wear knee
high boots (in suede, in fur) with 5 inch spike heels, tights and mini skirts,
and beautiful cashmere sweaters. (Reminiscent for me of Podgorica, where the
Montenegrin young women would fashion parade down the main street similarly
clad in frigid weather.) By contrast, children are generally bundled with a
scarf wrapped several times around their faces, only eyes showing. (My mother
used to dress me that way so many years ago.)
Then there is the traditional Mongolian dress that so many of the older,
or country people, still wear: the coat – double breasted – navy blue for many
men but with a bright orange sash, in brilliant colors and with flowers for
women (fushia, green, purple), also belted, down almost to the ankles, with
good leather or felt boots on their feet and warm caps on their heads. The
juxtaposition of that dress, and the highly sophisticated elite, in their fur
coats and hats, is startling. Yet it is representative of the juxtaposition of wealth
and poverty here – both highly visible in UB. The wealth associated I believe
with the mining industry, the poverty with the countryside ….though I have not
yet really gotten out of UB enough to comment on that.
Mongolia is certainly not a developing country à la Uganda
or Timor. Nearly 50% of the population lives in UB, and while it may all be
flattened if an earthquake strikes (and that is what I am here doing,
contingency planning for a possible earthquake), at the moment, UB is a city
where construction is ubiquitous, building going up everywhere. The apartment
building in which I live is owned by a Russian (I assume mafia money). It is a
6 storey building, with three wings, so maybe 60 apartments…..quite beautifully
designed and furnished, with the latest in security equipment (locks that are
digital as well as mechanical), granite hallways, wooden floors, cabinets with
all kinds of gadgets, large screen TVs with cable hookups and internet access.
You can be sure that the price the landlord is charging means he will be able
to write off his not inconsiderable investment in just a few years. There is a
large black sleek Rolls Royce parked outside the building from time to time,
which I assume is his, though I have never seen him. Nor do I understand why
one would want a car that size with the traffic in UB and the condition of the
roads once you leave the city. But, status is the thing I guess.
In February, I did get to go out of town for one weekend –
to the Secret History Camp, about two
hours north of UB. Slept in a ger, hiked in the mountains. Remarkably
like our Canadian landscape, silver birch and fir, and carvings of totems that
resemble Canadian west coast indigenous art.
I also had an fantastic though very cold day just on the outskirts of
UB, when the Kazakhs from the west of Mongolia came to the city with their
eagles and their ponies for the eagle festival. Their birds – with wingspans
of 6 to 8 feet and huge talons and beaks
– were magnificent to see and to photograph. And when the Kazakhs rode through
snow covered fields at breakneck speeds with the eagles on their arms and the
manes of their horses flying wild, it was a magical experience. So too, though
in a very different way, was the fashion show at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, put on for International Women’s Day – exotic and sensual, a blend of
the best of Paris fashion with the traditions of the Mongolian steppe; and the
performance of Swan Lake which I attended, dancers that were amongst the best
I’ve ever seen. I watched that performance from the front row, over a 60+
person orchestra, with a ticket that cost me approximately $8 -- surely one of
the finest legacies of the Soviet period of support for the arts.
Mid April
My work goes well – getting the Protection Cluster
organized, the Protection response plan drafted, documents translated,
trainings prepared and delivered, recommendations made – though, if there were
an earthquake of the magnitude of 7+ with 300,000 people made homeless in the
dead of winter, and the heating/electrical/water plants all destroyed – (our
planning scenario), I don’t know how much of what we are planning would
actually be implemented. It is really hard for me to visualize… The ability of
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to coordinate a response to a
major disaster on this scale is very much a question mark. Lots of interesting
questions. They have the responsibility but not the authority. Further, I
learned that, while the government’s Central Registration Agency has a
centralized database of all civil registration data and all land/property
(cadastral) data, this database is not at present backed up anywhere. As well,
while the government has developed its own contingency plan for an earthquake,
that is treated as a “state secret”, so the Clusters are really working in the
dark about how what we are proposing dovetails with what the government has on
the drafting table. Nonetheless, we perservere.
I had a brief interlude from the mission, with a trip to
Geneva for Procap’s annual workshop, and a week back in Canada (to put shelves
into the closet in my new condo in Montreal and hang some paintings on the
walls), and three days in Texas to see Arianna, Roxanna and Jesse
(granddaughter, daughter-in-law, son). Not long enough, but much appreciated. I
will be here until the end of June, if all goes according to plan. Two weekends
ago, I got to spend a weekend in Terelj National Park where we stayed at a
small “farm” run by a Dutchman married to a Mongolian woman; they make Gouda
cheese and rent out a few gers to “tourists”. I got to ride horse, hiked a bit
over riverbeds that were dry when we first crossed and were filled with fast
running water when we returned, watched a summer ger being built, looked at
some new born calves, played with small puppies, and took photos – until the
front part of my lens separated from the rest. Fortunately, later that week, I
was able to find a camera shop in UB that reconnected the pieces – 30 minutes
and $10.00 (what more could I ask for?)
So that, this past weekend, when the country folk came into the central
square (Sukhbaatar) to demonstrate … the issue had something to do with how mining
profits were being distributed … I got some super pictures of the men and their
horses in downtown UB.
Today – 26 April.
This letter is long enough to send, indeed, I risk being long-winded. So
I will send it. You can see all my photos on Facebook, should you be
interested. As always, I very much enjoy hearing from you, even if it is only a
short note to let me know you are still out there. I spend long hours listening
to the news these days and wondering whether we – the human rights “community”
– are making progress or are regressing, and whether my friends in places like
Yemen and Sudan and Afghanistan are still alive and safe. Mongolia is really a
haven of peace and stability at this time. So accept my hugs and kisses and
warmest regards. As always
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