“There’s another disaster quickly uncoiling far, far away from Haiti,” writes guest blogger Konchog Norbu.
“It has no celebrity spokespeople, no mainstream news coverage, no Super Bowl mentions. But tens of thousands of people, and millions of animals, are right now in a daily struggle between life and death, and many have already lost. I’m speaking of our brothers and sisters — two- and four-legged — caught in the most catastrophic winter the country of Mongolia has seen in at least 30 years. It’s a cold hell realm right here on earth.”
Outer Mongolia. You can almost feel the cold just from the name, can’t you? Mongolia’s winters are some of the world’s most intense in any given year. I know; I lived there from 2005-9 as Director for a project to assist in Mongolia’s post-Communist Buddhist revival (for centuries, Mongolia developed a Vajrayana Buddhist culture just as dynamic and profound as Tibet’s, much of which was destroyed during Stalinist purges and ongoing suppression throughout the 20th c.). By January in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, the daytime temperatures rarely rise above 0F/-18C and by nightfall can plunge as low as the point at which Fahrenheit and Celsius converge: -40. In the countryside where Mongolia’s nomadic herders live in their round felt gers (the homes most know by the Russian word yurt) it can be much colder even than that. But at least it’s usually dry, relatively windless, and quite sunny.
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Mongolia: Tattered gers on frozen steppe
Then there are years like this one, in which the Mongols and their animals endure what they call a dzud. I very roughly translate this as “a winter that’s atrocious even by Mongolian standards.” Dzud is actually a double-whammy. It refers to an unusually dry summer that stunts the growth of pasture grass, keeping animals thinner and limiting what can be gathered for hay. Then a brutal winter hammers down, exceptionally cold (often down to -55F/-48C) with blizzards that bury pasture grass under an impenetrable blanket of snow. Meager stores of fodder are soon exhausted, and the freezing sheep, goats, cattle, yaks, camels, and horses upon which the Mongolian herders depend start to die. Quickly. And in almost unimaginable numbers.
As of this writing, Mongolian and international aid agencies estimate that more than 2 million domestic animals have perished so far in this dzud. Ten to twelve million died in the last disastrous episode ten years ago, and this dzud is regarded as far worse. Some fear that up to 20 million animals — half of Mongolia’s total herd — may succumb before tolerable weather arrives in late May.
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Mongolia: frozen animals on the steppe
The human toll is just as devastating. Scattered across a country as big as Western Europe, some 750,000 Mongolians’ livelihoods derive almost entirely from herd animals. A devastating dzud plunges tens of thousands under subsistence level, themselves risking starvation and illness. As in the last dzud, many families will migrate as economic refugees to the already grossly overcrowded capital. With no skills to apply to survival in an urban environment, desperation drives people to barely exist by picking through trash, begging (including even the smallest children, some of whom live on the streets even in winter), and prostitution. This degrading situation is often made even worse by domestically produced vodka that’s cheaper than milk.
Are there rays of light in this bleak scenario? There are. Since the previous dzud, many Mongolian aid agencies have developed, and international ones have established branches in Mongolia, to provide disaster intervention and longer-term relief to Mongolia’s struggling nomads and pastoralists. While the UN, WHO, and International Red Cross are active, I am recommending a smaller, but very effective, UK charity for any donations people wish to give for immediate disaster relief, called the Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal (CAMDA).
CAMDA has been on the ground in Mongolia assisting herders since the last major dzud a decade ago. Working on its own and in partnership with reputable organizations such as the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA), CAMDA primarily focuses on the veterinary health of horse herds—indispensable to the pastoral life—as well as introducing improved, affordable hay-gathering methods, and facilitating the digging and maintenance of wells in the grazeable areas of the Gobi Desert.
I know the Mongols as a proud and resilient people, deeply faithful Buddhists who are unstinting in their generosity to strangers. But there are times, like now, when too much is just too much and they themselves desperately need a helping hand. Please give what you can. Funds received now will go directly to providing fodder to the most desperate herders’ animals, fuel for their gers so their families can survive until spring, and any other aid that is necessary. Leftover resources will be used for CAMDA’s longer-term pastoral Mongolian development projects.
Hey Brother!
I've been reading your recent posts on this and I am glad that Shambhala Sunspace gave you some space to enlighten all of us on some topics that may be off of our radar.
I recently had some comments about the American "Tunnel-Vision" when it comes to practice and to current events. This is an unfortunate side-effect of our ego-centered and individualistic culture (I think).
Much appreciation for being their for us and reporting on things that get ignored.
Many Bows,
John
http://www.zendirtzendust.com
Thanks for this, Konchog. This is wonderful reporting, and I had no clue about this situation in Mongolia. Another thing to feel stupidly helpless about (I know that's not right, but it's how I often feel).
I hope we'll hear more from you on SunSpace.
Not your fault, Tanya. There hasn't been a peep in the major media. They're understandably preoccupied with Haiti, but I do wish they could juggle more than one thing at a time. However, it's rare to have a correspondent in Mongolia, and probably economically prohibitive to send a film crew. Sky News is really to be commended.
It's only because I monitor feeds from Mongolia and have a network of friends living there that I became aware. So thank you for whatever you can do to pass the word along. It really is a horrible situation, but quick relief will make it less so, for sure.
I should clarify for your readers some tiny confusion that's come up. CAMDA is a British charity. The JustGiving site that processes donations to them does so in British pounds. But anyone in the world can donate; you just have to be aware of the currency conversion (there are any number of free currency converter sites on the Web). As of today, 1GBP = 1.56USD. So if an American donor put '20' in the donation line, that's British pounds, and would show up on your card statement as $30 and change. Hope that's clear!
MONEY WILL NOT HELP.
The current disaster in Mongolia is entirely man-made and is a result of the fact that herd numbers were allowed to grow totally out of control resutling in severe overgrazing leading to desertification leading to massive die offs during an entirely predictable drought (which come at least once every 7 to 10 years). Is it because Mongolian herding is photogenic and "romantic" that the concerned Westerners want to give money?
From the period 1921 to 1990, the number of livestock in Mongolia never exceed 23 million. In 2009 it was close to 50 million. Totally unsustainable. Worse was that due to the greed of government and the herders themselves, the number of goats (which are a major cause of desertification) rose about 400 to 500% higher than recommended levels for an ecological balance.
As compassionate practitioners we feel sorrow both for the animals (who have been unfairly bred and raised for human needs) and for the humans who went off the path of their ancestors who so well have taught the need to live in balance and harmony. BUT!! My confusion is: 1) These 50 million animals are raised for slaughter anyway: To die from starvation and freezing or to die in a slaughterhouse. What is the point in saving their lives ? 2) For the humans: To feel compassion for stupid behaviour. How much idiot compassion should one have for herders and a government who clearly knew this was coming?
Perhaps if the Mongolian Buddhist Sangha were to stop eating so much meat and using so much animal skin and fur, their prayers would make more sense.
My prayers go out for the souls of the animals of all ages and for the human children who are the innocent victims of this out of control human greed. MONEY WILL NOT HELP.
Noyon Bayar, sain baina uu? Thank you so much for your heartfelt comment. As I mentioned, I lived in your beautiful country for 4 1/2 years, and heard many of these complaints from my Mongolian friends and ex-pats working and living there. Overgrazing is a huge issue, and the types of animals grazed. So is how to apply the brakes on the sudden, runaway capitalism that has, predictably, benefited the few well-connected families and left so many lacking the basic conditions of a dignified life. I was there when the first Hummers hit the UB streets, right alongside the homeless countryside refugees picking through the trash for recyclable bottles to sell. I was also there to hear the Dalai Lama himself suggest to the Mongolian audience that it would be better to eat less meat. I hope this happens, and I hope your country's Buddhists lead the way.
But. I also hope you might agree with me that the moment when people's and animals' lives are in acute danger is not the time for a policy discussion. It's the time to help them survive the emergency, and afterward, when things are more stabilized, to address the deeper issues of the mixed blessing of foreign aid/intervention, pasture management, etc. As one of my teachers used to say, "When you see someone with a broken leg, you don't give them a lecture on karma. You help them fix their leg."
You guys are soon going to have a LOT of money rolling in due to your mineral wealth. I hope you use it wisely and gain a self-sufficiency that benefits all your society fairly.
I pray that the future time sees Mongolia prosper in all material and spiritual ways. Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе! (Mongolian New Year — Tsagaan Sar — is Sunday and that's a Mongolian New Year's greeting.)
"My prayers go out for the souls of the animals of all ages and for the human children who are the innocent victims of this out of control human greed."
I hope your prayers will be enough to see these innocent victims through the winter. I can't verify your analysis but would not be surprised to find that it is accurate, after all it's exactly what we in the west are doing to the rest of the planet. When it is our turn, (as it inevitably will be at some point in the future), I hope that there is someone to pray for our own innocent victims. I also hope that I don't hear someone in a more privileged position recommending that no action is taken to help them. If MONEY WILL NOT HELP, ask yourself SO WHAT WILL HELP?, and follow that. Don't write about it. DO IT.
Bayer has got his facts wrong. Yes, herd numbers have increased, but not to 50 million. It's around 43 million before current dzud after which it could well drop to half that according to Sky News..
Prior to 2000 the total was 33 million, with 10-12 million lost by 2004. Some 750,000 of these precious horses – hardly heavy pasture grazers.
UN stats (Dec 2008) state that 70% of all herders own 200 or les animals, with 50% 100 or less – this being the minimum viable number to basically support a family.
The largest increase was of goats for cashmere, to boost herders meagre earnings and escape the poverty trap. Many took out bank loans to purchase them, when, still in debt, the global markets crashed, reducing them once more to poverty level. Families were having banks foreclosing on ther debt by taking their animals as payment!
Mongolia's mineral wealth is still years away, but without its benefits filtering down to the 700,000 or so rural herders, they have two options. Slog it out against some of the most extreme elements in the world scraping by – if they are lucky – or migrate to UB to join the thousands of unemployed slum-dwellers, in an alien environment. What a choice !
Once the current emergency has been addressed, which will take money, around $400.000 according to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Foundation, means need to be found for the herders to earn an income that doesn't depend on them collectively having more animals than the land can support.
I'm involved in helping to set up and support a women's felt crafts cooperative at the Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve, working through the organization which has run argali sheep research there since the early 1990s, the Denver Zoological Foundation. The ultimate goal is for the herders to voluntarily reduce the number of livestock, particularly goats, that graze in the reserve, competing with the argali and ibex for forage.
Every time I've been to Mongolia (four times and next trip in July), I've found that sustainable land use issues are on everyone's radar. The question is how best to address them as the climate destabilizes.
While I really do understand and sympathize with Bayer's point of view, right now I'm waiting for word that people I know who live in and around Ikh Nart are ok and that any needed aid has gotten to them. This disaster is personal for me.
If you would like, you can "meet" some of them here: http://foxstudio.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/ive-ret…
and here: http://foxstudio.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/mongoli…
I post these links to put a personal face on what is happening in Mongolia. In three short days of meetings last July, these people became friends who I care deeply about. Mongolia will do that to you.
Finally, I would respectfully suggest that compassion without judgment is really in order at this point.
Konchog, now that the days are warmer here in Ulaanbaatar, and the dust storms have started to blow in ernest, can you give us an update on the situation?