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| Heading out under bright blue skies. |
Jargal, our fixer, read my last entry and told me she said Mongolians were now into mining, not money. It seems like the first is the way to the later, so maybe the sense is the same. But she told me there are many people who go out to areas left by the big mining companies and try to dig up the rests of any gold the big machines of the mining companies might have left behind. Because they go out with sacks hung over their back and thus look like Ninja turtles, they are called Ninja miners.
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| Offered vodka, but I perfered buttermilk tea. |
Today we visited a family of hearders. They seemed pretty well off with solar panels and satellite dishes on their yourts. Galbadrakh Dambiinyam's yourt was decorated with many medals for horse racing. He said he couldn't imagine a different life. "If things get bad here, I can go to the west of the country," Galbadrakh said confidently.
In a way Jargal and you are both right. Ninjas are not only after a possible extra source of income but also do it out of necessity as well as choice (quite a complex dynamic going on there - I recommend reading up articles/books by Rebecca Empson on this topic). But I believe indeed that money has become the new thing to seek: it has the power to create security there where social ties have disappeared because of the rush towards economic restructuring. Also, new money is being poured into the country by both the development agencies as well as the mining companies and this has lead to an explosion of luxuries where before there were none... and, as everywhere these days, it seems that material luxuries are addictive...
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