We need an excellent Mayor from abroad!

We need an excellent Mayor from abroad

 Attention please! We need a mayor! A person who has sufficient experiences to run a city of roughly 1.5 Million people! That city is called Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. The name of the city is kind of long and hard to pronounce, so foreigners prefer to call it UB, a shortened version of that name which actually means "Red hero", a new name given by our communists back then, so it "stuck" to it. 

Anyways, apparently  we have not enough experiences how to run a city of that size. It is a shame, yes, so  I think that we need an excellent Mayor who knows how to do it. UB is a "small" city compared to major metropolitan cities like New York, Shanghai, Tokio, Jakarta, Delhi, Dhaka or Guangzhou, you name it, where tens of million people live. So for an experienced person, it should be a piece of cake to run UB. 

I wish I was the one who makes that decision, but unfortunately I can make only a suggestion. I don't think that our people in power will support this idea. It would be a shame, they would think. But I want to push my idea anyway and I want my readers to spread my word worldwide. Maybe somebody would like to volunteer to help us, even if not as Mayor but as a consultant or advisor. 

These  are the problems we face: 

1. Air pollution

2. Traffic jam

Air pollution

Especially in winter the air is polluted so bad causing all kind of health problems. Coal burning is the main cause in winter while High Particulate matter (PM 2.5) is the one in other seasons when it's warm. UB is not a clean city especially in so-called Ger districts (suburbs) where all dust and dirt come from, and smoke in winter.  

Traffic jam 

Statistics say that in UB daily about 700 thousand vehicles on the road, in average. The roads are scarce and not in a good condition. People in power are unable to deal with this problem. They blame drivers instead and use nothing but their power to forcefully limit the number of the vehicles on the road. They implemented a traffic restriction rule for vehicles based on the last digit of the license plates, that means today you can use your vehicle if the last digit of your license plate number is even (2, 4, 6 etc), but tomorrow you cannot use it because others with "license plate number ending in odd digit" will use the roads. You stay home or you can use public transportation to go about your business.  Another thing they enforced is that they set a quote for all cars allowed to be on the streets for UB and stopped issuing new license plates. So, you cannot get a UB number for your newly  purchased car unless it is a brand new one, and black market for license plates started to flourish. According to them, the total number of all cars allowed to be on the streets is exceeded by 55 thousand. 

I do think that our "best of the best" people of the governing body lack of knowledge, ability, sensitivity, intelligence, integrity, decisiveness and accountability.  The don't lack of greed, dishonesty, manipulation and are clever blaming others and being defensive. They like to give commands and they don't like to listen to others. 

So, please spread the word. Thanks a lot in advance. 

Leave my Great King - Genghis Khan alone

Chinggis (Genghis) Khaan

My King's name was mentioned in a quarrel between Israel's Prime Minister (labeled as a war criminal by International Criminal Court) Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. 

But before I get into the details, I wanted my readers to know that my King's name has been spelled wrong and pronounced incorrectly, and I wanted to correct it first. 

It is written in Cyrillic alphabet (which we adopted while we were galloping  towards Socialism :) ) as Чингис Хаан , and in Latin alphabet it spelled in most cases like Genghis Khan and pronounced it with a hard G, like in Garage. The correct spelling is  Chinggis Khaan, with hard Ch as in Chocolate and with a long "a" in Khaan. Khaan or Хаан in Mongolian means King. In English -speaking countries this name is mostly pronounced incorrectly, but in Germany they do it much better: Dschingis Khan with Dsch pronounced like J as in Jungle. More correctly would be like Tschingis with Tsch pronounced as Ch like in Chocolate. 

So, what did Netanyahu say?

"Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan without strength." (citing  a historian named Will Durant, to emphasize that power and ruthlessness should  dominate in conflicts) 

Araghchi accused Netanyahu of disrespecting Jesus Christ while praising Genghis Khan. Araghchi also described my King as one of the most violent figures in history. Let me just say to Mr.Araghchi: - You don't compare 13th century with 21st century! This is very dumb on your part! And don't you dare to talk ill about my King! 

"The worst slaughterer", you said? Let me remind you about what had happened and who started the war you were referring to.

Let me remind my dear readers that we are talking about 13th century events.  At that time there was a big empire called Khwarezmian Empire which consisted of large parts of present-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, the most powerful state in and around Persia. 

Shah Muhammad ll was the powerful ruler of that Empire at that time.    Genghis Khan sent him a group of merchants with a message that he was interested in friendly trade relationships with him. Genghis Khan sent 450 merchants with precious gifts for him, a cargo of a caravan which included 500 camels of gold, silver, Chinese silk artefacts, rare skins etc., but a Governor, related to Shah, of a town arrested all merchants on the charge of espionage and massacred all of them with the permission of the Shah Muhammad ll. The goods were seized and sent to the Shah. Remind you that earlier a small group of merchants from Khwarezmian Empire was  handled by Genghis Khan with respect and sent them back with various goods. So, a friendly trade relationship was established, so to speak. Nevertheless, the Shah let Genghis Khan's merchants killed and robbed. 

Genghis  Khan was  angry (who wouldn't),  but he managed his anger and made his last attempt to solve the problem through diplomacy. He sent a Muslim man, who used to serve for a previous Shah of Khwarezmian Empire, accompanied by two Mongol envoys to protest this act and requested to surrender that Governor to the Mongols. But the Shah refused, and killed that Muslim envoy and sent the two Mongols with their beards and mustaches cut off, back to Genghis Khan.  A grave insult!!! 

Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi

So, that was the reason for the Mongols to invade Khwarezmian Empire and take revenge. If Mr.Araghchi's feeling is still hurt and mad, he should blame first the Shah Muhammad ll and that Governor of town Otrar. They were the ones to blame for all the pain and suffering of the Persian people!  The "worst slaughterer", you said, Mr.Araghchi? We are talking about 13th century situation! Was there any "good slaughterer" at that time? Even in 20th century wars people were killed in millions! I mean, in times where the people were more "civilized" than in 13th century! Stick that in your head!

So, mentioning our King's name in any denigrating tone and meaning is unacceptable and insulting! And the current situation with Iran has nothing to do with us or Genghis Khan. I don't care what the war criminal has said about Genghis Khan, you shouldn't talk ill about him or us. We have been having hard time to survive because we were too weak, and were taken advantage of by other countries. It was also partly due  to the fact that we  could not be united like under Genghis Khan, but times will show that we can grow stronger. 

So, don't be a "scorner" and don't mock us. If you do so, you will be greeted with hate and dislike! And this is not good for a friendly relationship between our two countries, two nations, especially if you represent the country of Iran! So, be aware what you say about our Great King! I hope that this message gets to you. 

Urgently needed: A new UN

 

It's been a while since my last post couple years ago. Sorry for the delay. :) My topic this time is about UN. That's right, the famous and the only United Nations. As you know, the main goals of this organization are international peace and security, dignity and equality on our planet. 

Let's get straight to the point. UN failed to fulfill its goals, and therefore it must be dismantled and replaced  with a new  one. You know why and how it has failed. In case if some people are confused, I want to explain here.

Since the UN established in 1945, there have been 478 wars recorded, as of 2021. As of today, following  major wars are going on:

- between Ukraine and Russia (4 years already)

- Iran and US-Israeli coalition, 

- Myanmar civil war, 

- Israel-Palestine conflict, 

- Sudan's war  

- civil war in Mali. In total it comes to 484. If you divide 484 wars by 81 years (since 1945), that means we have roughly 6 wars every year.  Six wars!

UN was incapable of dealing with all the wars and maintain peace between warring parties. It is amazing that two permanent members of so called Security Council , which consists of 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members, namely US and Russia, started a war with Iran and Ukraine. 

Security Council is an important body of the UN and its primary goal is to maintain international peace and security, and is responsible for managing threats to peace, breaches of peace, and acts of aggression. Ironically or more precise, tragically,  two SC members have disregarded the very mission and  purpose of that body and initiated  very bloody wars. 

Russia started a full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 4 years of bloody war with hundreds of thousands casualties on both sides. US attacked Iran and threatening to erase the entire civilization there. It killed Iran's main political figures in power, and bombed and destroyed military objects. Before Iran war, USA has  kidnapped Venezuela's President Maduro in a special operation. Kidnapping a foreign leader? Is that allowed?

So, if SC members can commit war crimes and violate international laws, then other countries can follow their example too. China can easily invade Mongolia and nobody can do anything. What can US and Russia say to China? Nothing! China is just following the example of other SC permanent members! The Chinese claim that Mongolia is a "lost" land which "belonged" to them, which is a BS. Just like the Russian says that Ukraine was once "theirs", and they want to take it back.  

We know why any war cannot be stopped by UNSC. Each SC permanent member  has a veto power and if any of them uses that veto, SC cannot make a decision to  stop any wars. That is why this "Veto thing" must be taken away. 

A question arises from all these facts: What is the use of SC then? What is the use of UN? 

The UN was useless when Israel killed 160 school girls in Iran in one strike by bombing a school.   The UN was useless when Israel occupied Gaza and destroyed completely, killing 80 thousand Palestinians, 20 thousand children among them. The list can go on and on.

We should dismantle the current UN and establish a new UN with new rules and regulations. My version is this:

The New UN should have a different SC comprising of 5 member-countries from each continent, elected from the General Assembly.  No veto power. Any resolution of SC must be passed  by majority vote of its members. Simple majority. That way it will be easier to make a resolution to deal with any war or conflict. Any resolution must be  enforced by military or non-military measures. Besides, all nuclear powers must give up their nuclear weapons and destroy them. The world must be a "Nuclear weapon free zone". 

Any country which initiates a war, attacks another country must be punished severely and if necessary, it must be isolated from the world community.  The UN member countries must stop all types of cooperation and contacts with that country.  That warmonger country must be forbidden  to participate in any activities and events locally or worldwide, and every member of the new UN must refuse any type of partnership with that country. 

All economic ties must be cut off and if necessary the UN can  terminate it's membership. The  UN must use its military to stop the war if necessary and  fight that warmonger militarily to destroy it. 

Any country which violates international law, other country's sovereignty and attacks or invades other sovereign country, must understand that the whole world will stand against it and will fight if necessary. This is the only way to stop wars and conflicts, and prevent others from bullying the weaker ones. This is the justice. Rule of jungle should never be allowed to be implemented and practiced, otherwise the world will never see a peace, eventually it  will be destroyed by WW3.   

Post-communist Mongolia

Post-communist Mongolia hasn't changed a bit, politically and ideologically compared to the communist-era Mongolia. Unfortunately. Since 1990 it has a lot of time passed, enough for a better change, but no improvement at all. People say, South Korea has managed to become one of the top economies just in under 30 years! Or the Arab countries! How they turned a desert land to a paradise, using their natural resources? It depends all on how they run their country. Many post-communist countries don't do  well as they wish. There is no magic recipe for all. Every country's situation is different, the way of life, tradition, custom, mindset  etc. 

As for Mongolians, being nomads for thousands of years, it was hard to change the scenario and to try a different way of life. They used to listen to a leader who they believe can lead them the right way. Even tough they like  being as independent, they would obey a strong leader and follow unconditionally. We saw this in Mongolia's history when the Great king Chinggis Khaan (aka Genghis khan) led Mongolians to triumph in 13th century. 

Today we have to adapt a new way of how to live, or run the country, after we tried to reach the paradise called communism as Karl Marx and Lenin promised us, for 70 years. We dreamed 70 years until we collapsed. The generation, educated and brainwashed during that period is still alive and powerful, to hinder any new ideas. After communism collapsed, a new term called democracy was introduced and the majority believed that we finally got on the right track. But it doesn't seem to be the ideal one as we expected.  One must admit that the latter has lots of pluses compared to the previous one.

70 years of communism, plus 30 years of democracy equals 100 years of "commudemo". What a waste of time! The result? Look at us now! Every third one is labeled as poor. Statistically. People say, actual percentage of poor people is higher that the statistic. I am one of them. I drive a junk car of Japanese origin and I use a used old laptop. I have an old TV set brought from South Korea, found on the street. Maybe I am not the extreme poor one because I own a laptop and an old car, but that is only thanks to help from other family members, I could keep myself let's say at a "moderate" level.

 

 

 

 

MPP flag (Copy of French flag with red and blue stripes switched the sides)
 

Ironically, the current ruler is the Mongolian People's Party (MPP), the former communist party called Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP)-the only political party back in the communist era, which actually ruled most of the time since 1990 when we voted for democracy (many political parties, human rights, privatization, free speech etc). So basically, the wolf found a sheep skin and covered himself with it, pretending to be a sheep. And we saw it as sheep, too! (They removed the word "revolutionary" from their party name 'cause they didn't want to look like communists)

Besides MPP, there is one major party called Mongolian Democratic Party (MDP) which was "lucky" to defeat MPP just ones in the past elections. So MPP is the ruling wolf in sheep's skin. Forget about the other over 30 political parties in Mongolia, we can call them as preschool establishments.  Our wolf has revealed himself to us in many situations. No matter how hard they pretend, communist way of running the country is the only way they know. 

One example: To solve the traffic jam in the capital city, they decided to limit the number of license plates in the city to 730 thousand. No new number will be  given over that limitation. They want to hold the number of cars in check. They force us not to drive one day in a week based on license plate (LP) number ending digit. If your LP number ends with 5, you are not allowed to drive on Fridays. Sometimes they put in force a much tougher rule which allows you to drive only 3 days in a week, excluding weekends. This ruling is called "Even and odd number driving", which means you drive only on odd days (Mon, Wed, Fri) because you LP number ends with 5 (Odd number). In order to be fair, they regulate it so that even numbers can  drive 3 times week, in that case you "suddenly" drive on even weekdays, even if your LP license plate number's last digit is 5. :)

Wolf in sheep's skin

 

This one example shows that wolves in sheep's skin can not and do not know how to run a country. MPP's youth organization is called SDY Mongolia (Social-Democrat Youth) and that is where young wolves are being prepared as successors, communists to be precise. Their office is located in the headquarters building of MPP and they have a website. If you visit it at www.sdy.mn , you'll be surprised. I don't know whether it is a Mongolian youth organization or an US one. Maybe they don't care about the Mongolian youth but like to work abroad to take care of San Francisco youth?

 Weird, isn't it?

Anyways, let's continue with thoughts about what should be done in order to get rid of wolves and get on the right track. Yes, times have changed and so we are not talking about a supreme leader or King, but we need a society where responsibilities are met and laws are followed. Parliamentary system did not work out and that is proven in the past 30 years. It is not because Parliamentary government form is bad, but because it does not suit us. For a while anyway. We are not ready or prepared to use this system, yet. 

What suits us is the Presidential system.  We want somebody, not a party or the majority in the Parliament to run the country. We want one Head, not many heads who then disappear and pointing fingers in all directions when we demand accountability. We want to see clearly who is responsible for what and this system grants a separation of powers which is exactly what we need. The Parliamentary system has a loophole which have been successfully used by our wolves to get unimaginable personal gain in the past. New-Mongols got so rich to fly oversees (US) to buy a gift, a fancy car to be precise, for his friend's son's birthday! Imagine that. 

I am not hopeful that this year's Parliamentary election will bring a change. Former communists will win again because they have lots of money to buy votes. And none of the political parties, big and small, want to change the current system, parliamentary system, because they know that it is very useful to get rich once they get chosen by the people. And MPP has made sure that the Constitution cannot be touched for some years, which means this system won't be changed for a while. They did it through an amendment to the Constitution. They play with the Constitution whenever is a change needed and whatever they want to change. 

So, any system change in the Constitution  seems like a dream. Don't know when this dream will come true. Until then we have to live with it, unless something magical happens. Sigh.

 

Why can't we live as one?

 

Why can't we live as one?

Too many things circling my mind. Don't know where to begin. Probably because it's not about one specific topic but about many.

Sometimes when I shut myself off from the surrounding world, I would wonder why we face so many problems in the world. There is a reason for every problem and once we know the cause it should not be difficult to solve it. But the question is if we want it. And it is possible if we only change the status-quo, i.e., how we run the world today.

Let's begin with the Man. Some say the Man was created by God. Others stick to the science believing our origin was the Monkey. Let me ask now: If we are all the Children of the God, why we hate each other? Or, if we are all descendants of the Monkey, then why would we dislike each other? We forgot where we came from, we forgot that we have the same roots, whether it is the Monkey or Adam and Eve. Although we are all related, we are changed in the course of our lifetime and look different, caused basically by the location of settlement. Different locations mean different conditions, way of life, and have metamorphic impacts. Instead of being thankful and enjoy our differences, we hate our different looking brothers. We wanted to look all exactly the same, just like the cows. Why? Don't you like burgers, pizza, sushi, schnitzel, tacos and so many different sweets?

Unfortunately, the Man is so “stupid” to judge others for their appearance, lifestyle and/or just for being “different”. Man even goes so far that he/she is “better” or “superior” than the others. Here comes the racial hatred.

Let's go back to the question of how the Man has become so different. Like I mentioned earlier, it was caused by the region they inhabited. In short, Africa is hot, and man was “burnt” to black. It is a tough challenging environment where Man had to be fit to survive. The result: They are physically dominant the others. The environment wouldn't allow any chance for them to care about scientific and any other progressive development. It was about survival. So cruel.

The white “monkeys” in the other hand found a place like paradise where their skin turned soft and bright. The environment offered them the most pleasant condition to settle down and work on any possible development. Physically they grew bigger compared to “yellow monkeys” but soft and fragile in comparison to African man.

The Asians, addressed as “yellow monkeys”, are the “smaller” stature of the Man and that again is the outcome caused by the environment and lifestyle they lived. They had to be agile and small. Depending on the lifestyle, sedentary or nomadic, they differ a little bit among themselves, but in overall they are similar. Nomadic ones are bulkier and tougher than the sedentary ones.

So racial hatred would be one reason for not tolerating each other, which causes confrontation of different kind. There are other reasons beside the skin color, not to like each other: religion and politics.

Just like we have three different colors of skins, there are three main religions which divide the world. Religions with different names but all worship so called God. There are enough proofs in the world history that religion caused wars and hatred, so accept it. Although any religion speaks for peace, there is no liking each other, not even slightest tolerance.

The same for the politics and geopolitics. Different political views and ideologies split people nationally and internationally.

In the animal world it looks different. The animals have no racial issue, no political party membership and no religions. So basically, they live in peace. We would have had peace if the evolution has had us not converted to Man. We would have had been living in peace with our cousins, modern-day monkeys.

Let's put aside the fantasy for now and exam the real world today. For all the reasons mentioned above, mankind suffered a lot. Still suffering. Back in 1945, we created the UN, to regulate and fix worldwide problems, to unite all the nations under one world community but unfortunately it failed. So many wars and conflicts since then, and the UN was not able to fix the problem. The thing is that so called “big powers” are trying to dictate the rest of the world by using the so-called Security Council at the UN where they make decisions as they please, for the rest to follow. All other members of this organization are “the sheep” and the SC is being “the shepherd”. Shepherd has the almighty nuclear weapon while others are not allowed to have it. SC is talking about nuclear-free world, but they are not willing to get rid of own arsenal. They have a special status and privilege. They can attack others for whatever reason and the rest can't do anything. Latest example is the Russian invasion. The world is helpless because Russia is one of the SC members. How can one talk about peace and friendship?

My dream? The UN must be dissolved and created as new. The new one should not have a SC or any other privileged body, and any decision should be made by voting of all members. The majority should rule. Any party whose wrongdoing is blamed by majority should be punished by disconnecting it from the rest of the world community immediately, economically and politically until it corrects mistakes made and pays damages it caused. Since the world community is very much dependent on each other, isolating the bad guy can be the effective problem solving. No need of UN peacekeeping forces. All UN members are equal and must participate to decide on any global problem by voting. All nuclear weapons must be destroyed.

Territorial disputes must be cleared also by the majority at the UN. If we do it so, the world map might have to be drawn anew. In short, the world becomes a peaceful planet and the nations, big and small, rich and poor, will be friends and there won't be any fighting, anymore. Any military coalition must be disbanded too.

The common rule must be written anew, and all members should follow it.

Sounds like a letter of 5-year-old to Santa Claus, right?

Lastly, I want to ask: Why can't we live as one? Remember Scorpion's song, “Under the same sun”? We all live under the same sun and walk under the same moon. We have one only planet. Our life is short, so let's enjoy our short life and live in peace.

"Middle finger" award recipients

 

Khurelsukh Ukhnaa

New Year's speech by the President of Mongolia, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa,  has been ignored by many Mongols (intentionally changing the TV channel) in protest of his unsatisfying job as President. Even though his position should be considered as symbolic as described in  the Constitution, and his power is very limited, many Mongols see this position very powerful and influential.  Mistakenly. In reality, he is a symbolic figure. 

Yet, he received a middle finger from the people of Mongolia, excluding of course the hardline fans of his party, the Mongolian People's Party (MPP), where he is from.

Zandanshatar G.

The second person who was awarded with the honor to receive a "middle finger" is the Speaker of the Parliament, Zandanshatar Gombojav. He is also from the MPP which is the ruling party now. The middle finger is the rating for his job as the Speaker and for the Parliament as a whole where the MPP represents the majority (62 seats of 76). 

The third person who is "lucky" to get this "middle finger award" was the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Oyun-erdene Luvsannamsrai, who is alumni of the Harvard Kennedy school (Wonder where he got the 70 thousand dollar tuition though. was he so rich?). Although he graduated a prestige school, he lacks experience and enough skills to run a government.

Oyun-erdene L.

Especially, his choices of people for important Government positions (ministers) has been not welcomed by the people. He picks people of very young ages for those positions which require not just a diploma of "western" education but lots of life experience and sufficient career background. In short, he hires "green horns" just because he or she graduated in the west and is  a member of his party. The consequences are fatal: his choices have been criticized by the public for their actions and decisions made. And laughed at. 

Overall, all three (and their party) have been harshly criticized for their actions, policies, and the results from them.  MPP is a former communist party, so there was nothing better to expect from it. Former communists cannot run the country, despite their claim becoming a social-democratic party. So, the new year 2023 will be a hard one for them, and I doubt if they can survive and hang on until the next election in 2024. Probably, they can, since they have become very rich in the past, so, money is the power, right? You can buy the poor people easily, for money, as they used to do in the past elections. We'll see.  

Is there any hope?

What is going on in Mongolia? Usual picture. Some tiny demonstrations and arrests of those who spoke ill of the Government. One of the publicly well-known persons named Ch.Munkhbayar has been arrested and locked up. He has been very critical of the Government's policies, especially of those related to China. 

Ridiculously he was prisoned on charges of spying against China! Never heard of a country which charges own citizen for spying against a third country. And this charge is not even legitimate. Another funny excuse from the former communists to shut up one of its opponents. Remind my reader that the former communist party is currently in power in Mongolia, thanks to the last fraud election results. 

This party, named Mongolian People's Party (they removed the word "Revolutionary" from its official name) has been ruling for over 20 years since 1992, but things gotten worse. They can't run a country. They claim to have become a Social-democratic party now, but you know, you better never trust the communists. 

What we need is a system change! Parliamentary form of Government does not suit us! We need to change it and choose the presidential form of Government. 

I think the choice depends on the culture, tradition and lifestyle of the people, whether to choose the parliamentary or the presidential form of government. Mongols are nomadic people in origin and tend to like to have more a sole leader as the "boss" than a group as ruler. We like to see a responsible leader who's head can be "cut off"  if things go wrong.  In parliamentary system there is no such a leader who can be held accountable in the end.

Our current system of governance (parliamentary form of government) has been used by ill-fated people who got into the Parliament at any cost, to enrich themselves and take advantage of  it only for their own good. The downside of this system- no one can be held responsible and accountable- has been used to avoid any charges yet do whatever they please to make profit, using their positions and influence on executive branch.

I believe that the parliamentary form of government is more suited to people who have a sedentary culture and a tradition to make decisions   collectively than being ruled by one leader. 

The question is only whether or not our  political parties (over 30 now) are willing to do it. The answer is no. They all swear that the current parliamentary form needs to be "improved" and "democratized". So there is no hope. The only hope is that the people understand it and fight for it. They need to flood the streets and demand that change. 

The question is, again, if the people can do it. By tradition our people have no experiences or knowledge of how to fill  streets.  It is about being consistent and accept sacrifices.  I think all this is too strange and foreign to us.  So there is no hope, again. Sad.

   

Mongolia is divided on Ukraine

Today's topic is Ukraine. Russia is attacking it's neighbor- Ukraine. The whole world is condemning the aggressor. Dictator-countries like North Korea, Syria, Eritrea and Belarus stand with the Russian. 141 countries voted against Russia at the UN. 

Russia says, they defend those Russians in Ukraine whom the Kyiv  regime treated as second class citizens and even killed many of them. There might be some truth in that claim, but the way Russia is handling it, is wrong. Totally wrong.

It's like Mongolia is attacking China with an excuse that minority ethnic Mongolians living in China suffer the same faith and treated the same way by the Han Chinese, like Russians living in Ukraine.  One of the minority groups in China- Mongolians have been treated so badly in their home territories. They have been jailed for speaking out, forcefully moved from their places, discriminated against and lastly, striped of rights to be taught some classes in their own language in schools. 

If Mongolia interferes and enters China to defend and protect Mongols living in China, China would not like it, and all hell will break loose. Mongolia is not capable of doing it anyway, someone might laugh. It is not about being capable of or not, it's about principles. Mongolia has no right to be involved in this issue.

Or another example:  Let's assume that Mongolia's Government  treats  the Kazakh minority so bad that they revolt. They even want to be independent and ask for help from neighboring Kazakhstan. And what should Kazakhstan do? Aid the revolting Kazakhs, or even enter Mongolia to conduct some "special operations"?  Hell, no! 

In both examples above, the victims are the minorities (Mongols, Kazakhs) who are happening to live in countries where the majority nationalities are different (culture, lifestyle, language etc) than those minorities. The same applies to those Russians living in Ukraine, to whom came Russian army to "protect and defend". 

In all these cases, this is a "domestic" issue, and any foreign country has no business to be involved in this matter. That is the principle, and it should be respected and followed by any power, no matter how big or small that power is. 

This suppression and discrimination problem should be addressed by any means other than a war or military conflict. The UN and other international bodies are invented for that, but one should admit that unfortunately they don't have the power as we wish, to fix such problems and keep the world in peace. 

Even so, big powers should refrain from using their "muscles" but instead must use their "brains". Russia's action is a  very bad model for "small fishes" and other powers. 

Now, let's talk about how this war affects Mongolia as a country and how Mongolians perceive it.  In general, this war affects us badly. As a country, we are "sanctioned" too. Why? We are a landlocked country, with only two neighbors: in south with China and in north with Russia. If Russia is sanctioned, any land and air connections with the West are cut off because everything goes   over Russian territories. Plus, Russians impose restrictions on products and foods exports to Mongolia. So, we have "sanctions" from both the West and the Russian Federation. What is left is China.

If Mongolians show support for Ukraine and condemn the war, Russia may become upset and stop supplying with energy and petroleum products. That would be the main concern, especially for those who support Russian action, although our official position on Ukraine-Russia issue has been neutral, with being one of the 35 countries abstained from UN vote on Ukraine. So, Mongolian citizens are divided.

Those who support Russia say that we should stand with Russia because Russia is our guarantee for independence, and because Russia insisted that Mongolia should be independent after WW2, persuaded the other powers to accept it. Especially, when China wanted to "keep" Mongolia (even though pre-PRC and non-Chinese empire was collapsed) claiming that Mongolia "belonged" to China. (Mongolia was never a part of China except they occupied for a short time in 1920's). 

There is a truth in there that Russia (or Soviet Union, to be precise) was the only power to speak for our independence, and we should be thankful for that, no matter what their intentions were.

Maybe they wanted a "buffer-state" between them and China and did not want to border with China directly in the south, who knows. Since then, Soviet Union and Mongolian People's Republic were close partners, and many Mongolians still have very deep sympathy towards Russians. 

The other part of Mongolians condemn Russia's action, and claiming that today's Russia is not the same we know back then, like Soviet Union. Russia has changed, we say. They are not friendly to us anymore , as they used to, even though there has been regime changes in both countries since 1990. Russia has become more "bully", so to speak. And that is proved by their action against Ukrainians who actually are their "relatives" by root with almost same culture and language! 

Anyways, that was a short view of how it looks like in Mongolia during this complicated times when the whole world seems to be affected as well by this Ukraine-Russia war. Hopefully, it ends soon and everything goes back to normal. Hope that Russia's President  Putin thinks twice before every decision  he makes. It is sad that Russia has ruined its reputation and made so many "enemies". Being isolated and feeling hostility from the world are not promising and healthy signs which will hurt Russia in the long run.    I don't think that Russian citizens would want  to have a "Robinson Crusoe type" of lifestyle in the future.    

What we gonna do?

What we need is a Presidential system!  We chose the wrong one. We can't go on with the current so called Parliamentary system any longer! Mongolia likes to brag to be a democratic country since 1990, right? Unfortunately, in reality it is not, but on paper, yes. Yeah, sure, Parliamentary system is a democratic system, but why is it not succeeding in our case? Two reasons: 

1. For Asian people, especially ones with nomadic culture and life style, the Presidential system suits much better than the Parliamentary one. They love to have and follow a leader.

2. It's too confusing for a nation which has  been poorly educated , especially with regard to different types of political systems, and this has been misused by immoral and greedy people, called politician. 

The Parliamentary system allows us to have: 

- so many (so far 35 parties registered) political parties which would divide the population.   A nation divided 35 times cannot go in one direction. 

- one President who is  just a symbol and does nothing but hand out awards and sign some orders, and has no power over Government. 

- one Prime minister who is in control of his victorious party which makes the majority in the Parliament. If he angers his own party MPs, and does not satisfy their wishes, he can be gone very soon. It happened many times.

- one Parliament which "sleeps" together with the Government in one bed, hence no separation of powers. Very weak one because even a pig can be chosen as candidate for an election  by his party if he donates enough money to his party.

- Judges who are picked by the President and the Parliament, hence they serve for their bosses, but not for justice. 

The result? No separation of powers and checks and balances. Misuse of power happens often. Passing a law to meet their personal needs and gain is also common. Corruption flourished. People are basically divided in two classes: poor and rich. By latest study it says 84% of the population is poor, 15% is in the middle, and 1% is rich. 

95% of all bank savings belong to only 5% of all  account holders who are the rich ones (oligarchy, politicians). Many  businessmen and businesswomen  became "politicians" because they smelled the opportunity to increase their profit by being in the power (to get a tender for large projects, or to influence others to get a favorable decision for his/her business, etc.). 

All this proves that our choice of Parliamentary system was wrong. Maybe it was not intentional at the beginning, but now, after 30 years of "experiment", we see the consequences. Poor voters don't know what is going on, and does nothing but being mad and frustrated. They  asking why we have to live so poor, but don't know the answer. They demand all kind of stuff from the President and blaming him for not doing a good job, because they don't know that the President has nothing to do with it. They should blame the Prime minister but many presume that  the President is the powerful one, mainly because of  above mentioned reason. They have something in mind that the President should be a powerful figure, like a King!  That is maybe a traditional mindset. 

The Mongols were powerful and flourished when they had one Leader. I don't think we want autocracy but we want to be clear in who is in charge, and we want a leader who is not some kind of party's boss. We want to choose our leader by ourselves. We want democracy and separation of powers. We want independent judges who are not  somebody's  pick. We don't want to be ruled by useless political parties. 

Divided Mongols always went down and were defeated, so we must be united, hence all these political parties should be thrown in the garbage can. Pig-headed party members would say, without a political party there is no way to run a country, but I think it should be. At least we should not have that many parties and if we can change the Constitution for Presidential system, then those parties will disappear like a weed because the Head of the Government (the President) will be chosen by the people, and by law, the President must  not be a party  member. 

Unfortunately, because of the reason Nr.2, it is difficult to persuade voters and make them fight for a change. Plus, the propaganda by those in power has always some influence on them. It is hard to make a change in such a situation like ours, with uneducated voters and many parties led by rich "gangsters". What is your suggestion to get out of this mud? Tell me. 

Racism - deal or no deal?

Let's talk. Straight and honest. I am an Asian and there's been lot of going on lately regarding the people of the same race as I am. As many of you may guess, I am talking  about hating Asians. I must say that hatred towards Asians did exist long before Covid pandemic, and it became only worse because of that pandemic. Now Asians are harassed, attacked and killed everywhere in the world. Even in a country like the USA where everybody is immigrant or descendants of immigrants, representing every race and skin color, except the natives, of course, things look far worse. In Europe and other continents Asians are facing the same problem. 

As rumors say, the native Americans actually came from Asia some thousands of years ago and settled down in America making it home. It is scientifically even proved that there is a genetic connection  between native Americans and Asians, a prove that a migration happened back then.  Check this out: Oldest genetic link

If we believe this (who doesn't believe in science but DT?) , people of Asian descent were the first one who set foot on this continent, and therefore have the right to be called as the first settlers. All others, whites and blacks, joined much later.

So, for whites or black folks who say to us "Go back home", I wanna say that we were here first, and you are the one who should  go back where you came from, be it Europe or Africa. I wanna say one thing to all black folks in the US: You shouldn't be hating us!  Asians didn't bring you guys to America as slaves and tortured you for centuries. Even today, think about who is discriminating you because of your skin color! Not us! So, why do you hate us? If you hate us, we will hate you back!  Is that what you guys want? Is it not enough to be treated like you used to be, by so called "superior white race" and you want turn us against you too? I want that every person of African descent read this and think about it, seriously.

As to white people, who think that they are "superior", I just want to say that nobody is "superior" to others. All three main races, or people of skin colors, have own deficiency and advantages. Let's see. Asians are of smaller physical built compared to other two races. The reason may be multiple:  food, environmental, lower bone mineral content, life style etc. I think the "bigger guys" from those three races are  the Africans. They are taller, and more muscular. The whites or so called "Caucasians" (or the Europeans) is in between. Of course, there are short and tall ones in every race, but  generally it is in that order.

"Small eyes" or as our white and black races love to call it as "slit eyes", is also one of the "reason" why our "friends" hate us. They like to mock a lot about it. Well, a small body needs a small eye, right? In proportion, you know what I mean?  Bigger bodies, bigger eyes. But then, bigger eyes have own weaknesses: they tend to collect more dirt, get "sick" easily, and can't see things far away. In short, big eyes = big problems.  They might look "cute" but it's just a look. What’s the use of “bigger” eyes if you can’t see far away?

Blacks tend to have more eye diseases compared to whites and Asians.

One other difference: Asians have bigger brain than Europeans and Africans. How can “whites” be “superior” if they have smaller brain compared to Asians? Larger brain contains more neurons and processes information more efficiently. The size? Asian brain was in average 1415 cubic centimeter (cc), European was 1362 cc, and African brain was 1268 cc in size.

No intelligent person can deny that this "superior" thing is a bullshit. As you can see, no race is "perfect." For Europeans (or Whites) who claim that White race is superior to others, let me give some facts which would prove that's not the case. The whites like to claim that they are/were the civilized race compared to others.

If you want to talk about the civilization, then  you should know that it started first in what is  today Middle eastern region, way back many thousands of years. And  there are three well- studied ancient civilization  like Egyptian, Indian and Chinese.  The most hated Chinese was  one of the four  oldest civilization of the world and has the longest continuous history with 3500 years of written history.

The white race was way far behind when Middle Eastern region flourished and the Chinese were busy inventing  gun powder, paper, compass etc. Read more here. The reason why the earliest civilizations became stagnant and fell behind the western civilization has many factors and this would be a great theme for a dissertation for anybody who deals with that kind of subject. So I wouldn't go into details about it because I am not an expert. My opinion is solely based on logic and my understanding. 

The western civilization started much later but had a steady forward moving and progressed to that point where it became the dominant one in the world. I am sure that early civilizations had significant influences on western civilization too.  Now that the western civilization has became the magnet for all others,  many people especially from not so developed or poor places, want to immigrate to those European countries and America,   where they are harassed, discriminated and labeled as uncivilized and trash, by the "superior" white race. Ironically and sadly, those who are the descendants of slaves, our African American friends, are  happily joining their former "white masters" to hate Asian people. How is that possible? Did they forget where they came from and what they went through? 

Now the Asian countries have overcome the stagnation and moving forward to compete with the West, successfully. Americans love Japanese cars and other products and China became the second largest economy of the world. Koreans, Singaporeans, Indians and others chasing after.

Mongolia is far behind being one of the super strong economies but we made a name in the world history as well. Do you know that the largest empire was the Great Mongolian Empire? It was the largest contiguous land empire in the world history.  Who doesn’t know the name Chinggis Khaan (well-known in the west by the wrong spelled name-Genghis khan)?

So, racism and hate will bring to nothing. Any person is not born as racist. Racist person is a product of that particular society and surrounding environment. Racist person is a home-made product. Any racist person, be it “white”, “black” or “yellow”, has become a racist thanks to his/her parents because his/her parents were racist. That means if you are speaking ill about others at home when your kids are present, your kids will do the same and become ones just like you when they grow up. 

“Thanks to” the COVID, home-made racists openly bully at schools and kindergartens just like their parents taught them. Asian kids and students are being harassed and bullied more than before the pandemic started. Every Asian kid is being “classified” as “Chinese” and blamed for COVID. Ironically in the US which is a new country made of immigrants, hatred is on the rise. 

Without putting a serious fight against racism, the humanity will suffer forever. We need to start with the youngsters and do something so that they can grow as real humans. Basic steps would be proper teaching at kindergartens and schools. Kids should know that they will succeed and be happy if they accept others and peacefully coexist with others. They need to be taught that every race is equal and peace is only possible if they love each other. These kind of philosophy can be taught by parents who are smart and intelligent, from the day one when kids start to crawl. 

This racism issue can be kept at the lowest level when we work successfully with our future generations no matter what color of skin we are. Racism is in every color. So everybody needs to think about it. Otherwise the world will be not a place to live peacefully side by side, but a hell which is not a place you want to be. We are on this only one planet and we don’t want it to be destroyed. Racism will destroy it in the long run, one way or the other, if we neglect this racism issue.