Circus, music, singing and dance

The land of the blue skies no more....

Photo from Mongol Environmental Conservation on Facebook

No music today.... I think for the past decade, Mongolia's environment has suffered the most extreme and dramatic changes in history.  The explosion of the mining industry, climatic changes, illegal logging, over-grazing, desertification and many other phenomena related to urban development... All this leads to an extinction of many animal species and plants and not only that, but the nomads who once freely roamed the country are disappearing too.  So I am not surprised to read articles like this one: Mongolia on the brink of eco-catastrophe . And, please, take a look at these photos of the damage caused by the ninja miners in the Khovsgol region. Imagine if this is happening in a protected area, what is going on in the rest of the country? Extremely sad.....

Happy Proclamation Day, Mongolia!

Oulan-Bator: vie urbaine en terre nomade

Photo by Frédérick Lavoie
A program on Swiss radio about the rock scene in Ulaanbaatar today. Click here to listen (in French). Nisvanis, The Lemons, Mohanik, etc....

Dzud

There is word that terrifies nomads more than anything: dzud. A natural phenomenon that hits you without a warning. First there was a drought that didn't allow the cattle to gain fat that protects it from the cold. Then, winter arrived with extreme temperatures and an unusual amount of snow. The animals that rely on grazing were doomed. The herders whose livelihoods completely depend on them, lost everything. Millions of cattle dead, thousands of people pushed toward poverty... So, it makes me think, is it the end of nomadism in Mongolia? Will the last nomadic nation soon be forced to change its traditional way of living? It surely looks that way. Unless, something is done urgently to protect the environment and prevent overgrazing. Because if you look closely, it is humanity's fault that dzud and other phenomena happen more and more often. Development and sustainability sound like and oximoron, but there is a way to make it happen. I hope so...

Here's another video about the consequences of the dzud the appeared in the New York Times: click here (Thanks, Joe)

Andrew Zimmern in Mongolia

Harsh winter in Mongolia

Millions of cattle have died this winter because of the coldest winter in decades with temperatures plummeting to -50°C (-58°F) that followed a dry and long summer. The situation is desperate. More info: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Cuaderno mongol por Rafael Poch

Un poco de historia esta vez :-) Me mandaron este artículo que me pareció muy interesante y decidí postearlo aunque no tenga nada que ver con música. Me interesó ya que habla del euro centrismo histórico y de porqué en los libros a los mongoles siempre se los describe como bárbaros y salvajes. Y lo otro que me llamó la atención es que habla de la batalla de Khalkhin Gol. Prácticamente nadie sabe que Mongolia jugó un rol importante durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. La URSS recibió alimentos, lana, ganado para abastecer sus tropas y soldados mongoles lucharon junto a los soviéticos.

"La Segunda guerra mundial comenzó aquí", dice el Coronel retirado Zhavzangiin Yadmaa. No es así en los libros de la historia eurocentrista, para los que ni la invasión japonesa de China, a partir de 1931, ni el ataque italiano contra Abisinia figuran en la cuenta. Tampoco Jaljyn Gol.

Oficialmente la Segunda Guerra Mundial comenzó la madrugada del 1 de septiembre de 1939 con los disparos del acorazado alemán "Schleswig Holstein" sobre la Westerplatte, en Gdansk, pero para entonces decenas de miles de soldados soviéticos, mongoles y japoneses ya habían caído en tierra mongola.

Sigue leyendo en www.lavanguardia.es/cuadernomongol

Gracias, Daniel

Peace Corp Volunteers' work on HIV prevention and education

Help save Urangoo

Today I am not blogging on music... This post is for a young girl who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Please help her, she doesn't have a health insurance and the treatment costs thousands of dollars. Even a dollar will help. More info: saveuvugirl.blogspot.com

People Centered Conservation

What have you done to my land? An ad by People Centered Conservation, a Mongolian NGO that works for the environmental sector.
Be delighted by Cuthberth:

Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti

Not Mongolian music, but I just discovered this and I have three words for this song: Wow. Wow. Wow. It's one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time. It is included in the Tabula rasa elettrificata album by Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti which was recorded after they made a trip to Mongolia in the 90s. The song is about Bolormaa, the contortionist

Osservo con timore Bolormaa la Contorta
Concetto fatto carne nervi viscere legamenti
Sinuoso movimento
Monito terrorista che la retta è per chi ha fretta
Non conosce pendenze smottamenti rimonte
Densamente spopolata è la felicità
Densamente spopolata è la felicità
Preziosa
La felicità è senza limite e viene e va
La felicità è senza limite e viene e va
Viene
Viene e poi se ne va
Splendida Bolormaa arresa all'amore
Fluida contorta molle resistente
Lascia fluire il dolore
Che la felicità è senza limite
E va e viene
E va e viene

Self-portraits by kids

Found about this very nice project in this blog. Portraits, autoportraits, is a project by Gilles Porte who films kids from around the world drawing themselves with a marker. One of the countries included in the project was Mongolia. More info: simv.over-blog.com


And to end this post, some music:

Mining is NOT Mongolia's future!!!

Because little or almost nothing is done to assess the environmental damage caused by mining companies and not enough measures are taken to protect the land and its inhabitants. Because greed will destroy the pristine rivers and nature that attracts so many visitors to Mongolia. Because of the irresponsibility of the officials that issue mining permits to anyone....

But, thanks to people like Munkhbayar Tsetsegee there is a chance that not everything is lost.

The clear waters of the Tamir river by Tumendemberel

Problems facing the Bogd Khaan nature reserve

Every time I visit Mongolia, the forest area around the capital is diminishing in size and instead of the trees, constructions arise. How sad is that.... The world's oldest nature reserve.... Of course, the govt doesn't give a crap about that.

Some nice photos and music by Ajinai khuur:

Dog sledding in Mongolia

How cool is this? Dog sledding in Mongolia.... This is definitely on my list of things I'd like to do before I die.

Nationalism = ignorance

I had to post this..... I found this article in UB Post about the nationalists in Mongolia. These people make me sick. They call themselves patriots and all they do is spread hatred. Our culture is about being hospitable and tolerant..... If they really loved their country, they would stop blaming all the problems on others and start doing something useful.

Say NOOOOOOOOOOOO to Nationalism and other ugly viruses that plague modern Mongolia, people.

And to wash away all this ugliness: some nice images and sounds:

If you really are a patriot, create, not destroy. There is already plenty of garbage in this world, don't pollute it even more with hatred and ignorance.

Helping people with disabilities

A documentary about people with disabilities in Mongolia. 5% of the population lives with a disability..... I admire the work of the health operators who travel long distances to see handicapped people and provide them with necessary info to better deal with the situation and assist them since people in the country live in very remote areas, far from medical centers.
Mongolian Federation of Disabled Persons

Dansk Mongolsk Selskab

So, for those of you living in Denmark and having an interest in Mongolia, there is the Danish-Mongolian Society. Their aim is to promote Mongolian culture and spread the info about Mongolia-related stuff. They will also publish articles and documents on Mongolia in their members’ magazine “Ger” and support cultural work among Mongolians and create links between various organizations in the respective countries.
More info: www.danskmongolskselskab.dk and on their facebook group

Looking for Chinggis khaan's tomb

A praise song for Chinggis khaan by Baljinnyam and Amartuvshin
Found this very interesting article by ScienceDaily that says that some scientists are going to be looking for Chinggis khaan's tomb using non-invasive technologies.
"As outrageous as it might sound, we're looking for the tomb of Genghis Khan," says Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, an affiliated researcher for CISA3. "Genghis Khan was one of the most exceptional men in all of history, but his life is too often dismissed as being that of a bloodthirsty warrior. Few people in the West know about his legacy — that he united warring tribes of Mongolia and merged them into one, that he introduced the East to the West making explorations like those of Marco Polo possible, that he tried to create a central world currency, that he introduced a written language to the Mongol people and created bridges that we still use today within the realm of international relations.
He also says that, "The process of doing an archaeological dig is up to the Mongolian government." Hmmmmmmmm, I don't know, man, don't trust the govt very much.
"If I could meet Genghis Khan today, I would ask how he would have wanted to be remembered in history," Lin muses. "The fact that he died in his bed surrounded by people who loved him and never had a single General turn his back on him, the fact that the loyalty of his people is so sound it can be heard across the world — these are the marks of one of the most impressive military heroes of all time. This is an example of a leader who was ruthless, strict, disciplined, and in a lot of ways, extremely honorable. If he was able to rewrite his own history, I wonder how he'd want it heard."
Read the entire article