Mongolia Focus

@mongoliafocus.bsky.social

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Commenting on developments in contemporary #Mongolia and announcing new blog posts offering such analyses. mongoliafocus.com with >900 posts since 2011. @dierkes.bsky.social posting here.

"Überhaupt, wer diesen Zaa-"
Book cover. Mongolia - Travelling with a Sheep Irene Martin | Peter Fischer. Cover shows a rusted bus, sitting on the ground, no wheels, apparently integrated into a fence.
Hindomaru Japanese food. Sorry of a wood cabin look.
Sukhbaatar Square in the middle of Ulaanbaatar. Photo taken from one edge of the square, looking west. Grand facade of government house would be to the right. In the background: done higher and a construction carcass. A group of about 20 people assembled between Sukhbaatar statue and government house entrance. Some small placards, a microphone.
Photo of Ulaanbaatar sidewalk. On the paving stones, there are rectangular stalls in white paint with the image of a stand-up scooter, a sit-down scooter and a "P". In the frame there are six stalls. In the background, roadside greenery, still winter- brown.
Screenshot of three hosts in an online recording "studio". From right to left: Anand, Dolgion, Julian. We all managed to look at the camera and are kind of smiling. Julian's hair is crazier than the others'. Photos show mercifully little of the background.
Graph of all five subindices included in VDem as democracy indicators. Generated at https://v-dem.net/data_analysis/CountryGraph/. Here, time restricted to 2010-2025. All indices take downturn in second half of 2010s, notable uptick from 2024 to 2025.
Academic Freedom Index through 2025 for Mongolia.
Screen shot of Spotify notification for new episode of our "Great State Mural" podcast on Mongolia's energy crisis.
Photo of book testing on a keyboard. Book title: A Song for the Horses - Musical Heritage for More-than-Human Futures in Mongolia Author: KG Hutchins
Foto des Vortragenden vor einer Folie die das Manuskript der Verfassung von 1960 zeigt.
Foto von Textabschnitt. "Nachdem die SED gegründet worden war, warb die Bürgermeisterin [...] für diese Partei, deren Mitglieder auf ihre Lebensmittelkarten eine größere Zuteilung von Fleisch bekamen, mit den Worten: 'Wollen Se Fleesch? Immer rin in die Fleeschpartei!'"
Ein Poster in einem Schaukasten. In der Mitte, im Fettdruck "Exkursion" Darüber das Foto eines Hirten in einem fliederfarbenen Deel vor einer Kamelheerde. Darunter Listen von geplanten Exkursionen nach Kirgistan, Kazakhstan und, ja, in die Mongolei.
Tengerton Ensemble spielt mongolische Musik. Selbstverständlich Pferdekopfgeige.
Screen shot of website of Mongolian Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry. Under "News" an empty tile that says "Nothing found"
Screen shot of report on NSO website
Inner book cover of "The Historical Writing of the Mongol Invasions in Japan" Judith Vitale Published bz the Harvard University Asia Center Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2024
Graph of Academic Freedom Index 1990 to today. China starts very low (0.17) and really doesn't move very much to end up at 0.07 in 2024. By contrast Mongolia and Russia, becoming much freer 1990-1992. Russia starts a gradual decline in 2000, dropping more rapidly from 2008 to approach China's score today (0.21). Mongolia remains much freer longer, starting a graduate decline in 2019 to remain far above its neighbours (0.7).
At some Ulaanbaatar intersections there are now strips of light embedded in the sidewalk. The photo shows a green strip in the foreground while the partly visible strip in the background (perpendicular direction) is red with some people waiting behind it.
Selfie, in the background a tourist camp of gers.
Photo for showing of The Stranger. Caption "If you come having read it - great. "If you come without reading it - even better"
1kg jar of "Khaan" brand of money.
Clear blue sky over Government House in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolian flag flying over Government House in background. Honour guard in their very fancy blue-red uniforms in foreground. Three flagmasts flying Mongolian flag to the right. Small crowd watching at fence set up behind honour guard.
8 25cm or so long, 5cm wide strips of LEDs, currently light in green, though you can see red set in the background. Set in sidewalk with tactile tiles, bumpity for edge of road, lines for safe walking toward crossing.
Screen shot showing IShowSpeed with Long Song singer, all dressed up.
Over time graph showing five components of index: campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, freedom of research and teaching, institutional autonomy. All five graphs declining since 2019, though not uniformly. Steady decline: academic exchange and dissemination, research and teaching, academic and cultural dissemination, autonomy. Campus integrity fluctuating.
Similar graphs as previous post, here showing academic freedom index from 1970 to 2024 for Asia and the OECD. Obviously, graphs much smoother than country graphs. Asia and the OECD see a steady rise throughout the period until around 2009 (with an OECD jump in 1990) and similarly steady decline until today. Mongolia scores have been close to OECD since the 1990s.
Three graphs from 1970 to 2024 for Argentina, Mongolia and Portugal. Academic freedom in Argentina goes up quickly after 1982 with the end of military dictatorship. It drops in 2024 from 0.97 to 0.69 With the beginning of the democratic era, academic freedom index for Mongolia goes up in the early 1990s, never quite reaches level of ARG and POR, but declines more slowly from 2019 on. Portugal's score rises rapidly after the end of the Estado Novo, from 1973 onward. Steep decline from 2023 to 2024 (0.93 to 0.72).
Image shows six charts of data for Mongolia from 1900 to 2024. Graphs flat until democratic revolution in 1990, the huge jump up with some decline in recent years. Total score shown as 0.70. Seemingly steepest decline in "Academic and Cultural Expression" since 2017.
Overtime graph form 2000 to 2024. From highest to lowest: Electoral democracy Liberal democracy Deliberative democracy Egalitarian democracy Participatory democracy All five moving largely in parallel. Values comparison 2018 vs 2024: Electoral democracy 0.65 to 0.5 Liberal democracy 0.54 to 0.39 Deliberative democracy 0.53 to 0.39 Egalitarian democracy 0.49 to 0.35 Participatory democracy 0.36 to 0.25 Little change until around 2019 when all five start declining.
Photo of travel section. Headline: Auf dem Eisplaneten, On the Ice Planet. Image shows two small Landcruisers parked on ice, lakeshore in the background.
Screen shot showing UN General Assembly votes on Feb 24, resolution "Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine" showing 93 in favour, 18 against (including U.S.), 65 abstentions (including Mongolia).
Foto, Seite 57 in der Süddeutschen vom 4./5./6.1. Ganzseitiger Artikel Fotos von Kashmirziegen, Schals und Schaufenstern.
Screenshot of video recording of Pres. Khurelsukh addressing the UN General Assembly. He is standing at the lectern, reading from a piece of paper, but looking at the audience at the moment that I took this screenshot. He's wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and a patterened subtly purplish tie as well as a Mongolian flag lapel pin.
Photo of signposts for trails on Chingeltei mountain in Ulaanbaatar. These trails were new this summer (as far as I could tell). There are three destinations each pointing to the right and the left here with distances from 0.3km to 6.9km. The background to the signs is dominated by pine trees.
Photo shows a mini-plane of some kind that has flags for the DP attached to the outside of the wing.