This is Part 1 of a two part series on the Belt and Road Initiative and how it affects Mongolia. Part 1 looks at what the BRI is and its current status in Mongolia. Part 2 looks at the reactions to it in Mongolia, and whether there's anything to be done. Part I Raise your… Continue reading Just What is Going on with Mongolia and Belt and Road? Pt. 1
Four years ago, my nephew and niece, at the time aged ten and six respectively, saw Disney’s animated film Mulan. They gleefully watched a story featuring a red fast-talking sidekick dragon, the brave young Mulan, and the yellow-eyed evil Huns. The movie’s catchy songs were sung around the house calling everyone to “let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns!”
The National Statistics Office just released the annual GDP growth rate for 2014-2015, and it's not pretty. In 2015, the economy grew by 2.5%, which is a far cry from the 15.3% that we had in 2011, or even the 5.9% that we had in 2014. But it's nowhere what it was in 2009. In… Continue reading Mongolia GDP Lowest Since 2009
Two articles ago, I wrote about China’s New Normal. If you haven’t read it, please refer to it now since it explains the background for this post. A quick review: China is transitioning from a cheap-labor manufacturing economic base to a service-oriented consumer economy. If done right, China will finally take its place as a… Continue reading Mongolia in the Shadow of China’s New Normal: Why I’m Still Optimistic
With the waning of the summer, the nights are getting longer and the weather is getting colder. Before long, the winter will be upon us, which means that temperatures will precipitously dip into -30-40 Celsius, and thick blankets of snow will cover the hilltops. It also means that the crisp Mongolian air will soon become… Continue reading UB’s Air Pollution Dilemma and Affordable Smart Air Filters comes to UB
For anyone doing research on Mongolia, especially on the economic side of things, I'm sure that the World Bank database (data.worldbank.org) is a familiar friend. For those of you who didn't know that fun fact, go there immediately to revel in the amount of data that the World Bank has collected and compiled into a… Continue reading Upper-Middle-Income-Ish
Hello everyone - Thank you for all of your support. We are very proud of the work that we have been able to accomplish in Khongor, and could not have done it without the support of the Davis Projects for Peace, the Center for Global Engagement at Kenyon, the 14th School students, teachers and staff,… Continue reading The Last of the Greenhouse Project, International Development and the Future
In those rare times when Mongolia does happen to make it onto the pages of global newspapers and magazines, there is something that the well-trained editors and writers sitting behind the desk invariably do. They emphasize the incredible(ly trite) contrast between the old and the new as evidenced by any number of things around Ulaanbaatar. "Ah, yes,… Continue reading Mongolia. Much Exotic. You Like, Yes?
Tee and I held workshop 1, which centered around eating healthy and exercising regularly, last Thursday. We had about 30 kids show up, all interested in what we were doing and teaching. We first talked about the food pyramid, and then about portions. During the middle, two nurses from Darkhan came and talked about general… Continue reading Workshop 1 a Success!
Some information to consider: Mongolia has the number-one prevalence of liver cancer in the world, with 78.1 cases per 100,000 people; for males, the rate is 97.8 cases per 100,000 cases, and for females, the rate is 61.1 cases per 100,000 cases. The second highest prevalence of liver cancer is in Lao PDR, but consider… Continue reading Mongolia’s Health Crisis
Airports have become something of a common haunt for me. After making the 14+ hour trip between the US and East Asia several times, I have gotten used to the strangely formal atmosphere of air transit. You're stuck together in a metal container that can miraculously lift off the ground despite the tons it must… Continue reading The First Steps
Macongolia: Observations of Mongolia 