Joe Biden stares down Speedo-clad wrestler and names a horse in Mongolia! A quick look at Mongolia’s democracy, urbanization, and political risk.
From Google Analytics I’ve learned that lots of readers come to leslieforman.com to learn about Mongolian politics, especially the nature of its democracy, freedom of speech, and relations with the United States. So far, the lone post I have to answer these fascinating questions is this one, about George W. Bush’s visit to Mongolia in […]
From Google Analytics I’ve learned that lots of readers come to leslieforman.com to learn about Mongolian politics, especially the nature of its democracy, freedom of speech, and relations with the United States. So far, the lone post I have to answer these fascinating questions is this one, about George W. Bush’s visit to Mongolia in 2005.
When I found out that Joe Biden was going to visit Mongolia, as part of an Asian tour featuring far more local color than most diplomatic visits, I immediately set Google Alerts on “Joe Biden Mongolia” to make sure I got a detailed picture of his visit, as well as its broader implications for Mongolia’s position in the world.
I visited Mongolia last September, and my travels really inspired me to write about The Mongolian Ger as a Yanic Symbol and the infamous camel-licking game.
This post is long but hopefully informative.
So, without further due, let me present Vice President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (C) reacts with a wrestler before a Mongolian wrestling performance during his meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold (R) in Ulan Bator August 22, 2011. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden lauded land-locked Mongolia's efforts at democratization on Monday, offering support to a country that is strategically located between China and Russia and sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth. (Source: REUTERS / Zeev Rozenberg Date:08/23/2011)
This is just one of a dozen or so photos of Joe Biden’s trip to Asia that have been dubbed: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Biden… It’s the greatest collection of photographs…maybe ever.”
Here’s a video report on his visit:
Mongolia presented Joe Biden with a horse, a symbolic gift in this nation of horsemen. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos reports:
And arriving Monday in Mongolia—where he was the first U.S. Vice-President to visit since Henry Wallace in 1944—Biden received an official gift-horse, a handsome colt. Heeding metaphor, he immediately placed a blue ribbon around its neck and named the beast “Celtic,” after his Irish origins.
As dictated by Mongolian tradition, Biden then entrusted it to the care of a local herder. (Sorry, no pool photos of him wrestling it into the overhead on Air Force Two). One of Biden’s aides solemnly informed reporters that in Mongolia “a horse is one of the most meaningful gifts that can be given.”
Well, I once had the same impression. Mongolians, after all, say they have about four hundred words to describe a horse; thirty-six just for galloping. But when I was in Mongolia a few years ago, I decided to find out what happened to a horse that been given to Donald Rumsfeld in 2005. (Rummy named his coffee-colored mount “Montana,” after his wife’s home state.)
Mongolia is land-locked and still sorting out its lonely role as a democracy on the high plains of Asia, so it spends a lot of its time juggling the relationship with three heavy-breathing allies: the U.S., China, and Russia. It has abundant experience with the rise and fall of great powers. When I asked around about Rumsfeld’s horse, I discovered that Mongolia doled out steeds with alacrity depending on the political winds. Some gray beards at the Foreign Ministry remembered giving horses to the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
It turned out that horses had been given to a few lesser V.I.P.s, as well. In 2004, a horse was given to Billy Downs, a businessman from Ferndale, Michigan, who was proprietor of BD’s Mongolian Barbeque. Mongolia, like George W. Bush, is also quick to give out nicknames: it graciously calls America its “third neighbor.” It affords the same nickname to Japan and Europe.
But these days, things are even more complicated for Mongolia: an increasingly confident and prosperous China just pulled off a remarkable bit of not-too-soft power, by getting UNESCO to agree to list Mongolian throat singing as a product of China’s heritage rather than Mongolia’s.
So it was hardly a love of archery that drove Biden to make the trip: among other things, his presence was a reminder to undemocratic neighbors that America would frown on any interference with Mongolian democracy.
Though Mongolia is the region’s lone democracy, that does not mean that it is free of risk for investors.
Following Biden’s visit, Reuters’ David Stanway wrote this succinct summary of the top risks for investors in Mongolia: fallout from the initial public offering of Tavan Tolgoi (the world’s larges untapped coal deposit), populism, and dependence. It’s a must-read if you want to learn about the basic dynamics of Mongolian politics, beyond the photogenic charade of entertaining a high-profile guest.
And how has Mongolia’s rapid urbanization affected the masses? Global Atlanta’s Trevor Williams reports: Nomads No More: Mongolia’s New Urbanites Hunt for Homes
When Enkhtuya‘s family moved from frigid northwestern Mongolia to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar six years ago, it was more than a seasonal migration.
It was a permanent escape, a leap of faith away from a cold, hard life into what the family hoped would be a new era of opportunity.
The decision to pack up everything and drive three days across mountains and steppe wasn’t made lightly.
The family’s job prospects were bleak, and a round Mongolian felt tent, called a ger, would be the only thing keeping them from homelessness.
The wheels of their vehicle barely touched paved roads as they crossed a bare landscape that has changed little since Genghis Khan roamed it more than eight centuries ago.
Sitting in her new brick home on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar with a stove radiating heat to keep out the February cold, Ms. Enkhtuya remembered one of the main reasons she left the west.
“You couldn’t spit because it would be ice falling on the ground,” she told GlobalAtlanta through an interpreter. The housewife had just come in from doing chores as the sun dipped behind mountains. The temperature had dropped to about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. She wore a tanktop.
A Habitat for Humanity home has been a dream come true for this family of four. From left to right: Bat-Amgalan, his 13-year-old son Barkhas, 5-year-old daughter Uurtsaikh and wife Enkhtuya. (photo by Trevor Williams, Global Atlanta)
Read the rest of Nomads No More: Mongolia’s New Urbanites Hunt for Homes here on Global Atlanta as well as the other stories on this surprisingly Mongolia-news-rich site:
- Mongolia’s Mad Dash to Modernity
- From Macon to Mongolia: An Ambassador’s Journey
- Made for Mongolia: An Ambassador for the Times
- Is Mongolia a State at Risk? An Emory Scholar Investigates
Photo credit: Andy Wong / AP