series aired on a Camel on the shoulder (Radio Suisse Romande) from 6 to 10 September 2010.
Ulaanbaatar: urban life in nomadic land
journalist Frederick Lavoie shows us the lives of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, between sedentary nomadic traditions and realities. Yurt lost in the endless moonscape, nomads on horseback bringing their animals scattered across the steppe. The romance of Mongolian life dream.
But since the fall of communism in 1990, the reality is far from rosy for descendants of Genghis Khan. Can no longer count on help from the state after a series of harsh winters, hundreds of thousands of nomads leave the steppe to plant their yurt in the suburbs polluted and unhealthy in the capital.
Result: in 20 years, the population of Ulaanbaatar has grown from 540,000 people to between 1.1 and 1.6 million according to estimates. Ironically, half the three million Mongolians crowded so today in the state capital of the world's least densely populated. At
hillside around a downtown socialist architecture, neighborhoods yurts constantly expanding surround the capital. In those dusty towns, young professionals dream of an apartment, study abroad or work in the Mongolian mining industry booming. Others see the city rather as a necessary step, hoping to quickly raise enough money to buy a herd and return to a nomadic life. If
Mongolian traditions die hard, despite rapid urbanization, the isolated Asian company is still surprisingly liberal. Uninhibited, young rockers with long hair inflame their audiences with their Western-inspired heavy music. In the crowd of skinheads are the Mongolian hello Hitler Recalling that if Mongolia is open, foreigners are not always welcome, especially if they come from threatening neighboring China. After two decades
post-communist relatively quiet Mongolian democracy still looking. Suukhbaatar the square outside the parliament building and a huge statue of the conqueror Genghis Khan, angry citizens braved the cold to remind the government of its unfulfilled promises.
1 / 5: Life yurt (listen or download the show)
Habit and well cared for hair, suitcase in hand, thousands of professionals cross at dawn the door of their yurt in the suburbs Capital unhealthy. Direction: downtown Ulan Bator.
Torbat a young social worker, dreams of a city apartment and study abroad. Meanwhile, he lives with his wife and baby Ankhtsetseg in a yurt equipped: fridge, TV, microwave, stove and ... aquarium.
born in the country, Torbat loves urban life easier and more diverse than his brother knows that pastoralists. But he hates the neighborhood of yurts, where the air polluted by smoke from coal and firewood is unbearable with the arrival of cold weather. He has put all his energy build a better life for her children, even sacrificing his own.
The guest: Gaëlle Lacaze
Ethnologue, a specialist in Mongolia. Lecturer in anthropology at the University of Strasbourg. Author in 2006 of the guide Mongolia: Land of shadows and lights Olizane editions.
Gaëlle Lacaze talks about yurts neighborhoods that surround the capital Ulan Bator, where there are hundreds of thousands of former nomads. She tells us about the extremely precarious living conditions, social dislocation and total lack of prospects in these suburban yurts.
2 / 5: Fragile democracy (listen or download the show)
In the intense cold of April 2010, more than five miles down on Mongols Suukhbaatar Square, central square of Ulan Bator demand the government resign.
At their head, Ouyang, 34, petite woman and hypercharismatique. Surrounded by towering men, the leader of the civil movement denounces the corruption of a government that has lost public trust as it does not fulfill its election promises.
Huddled in a tent on the square, the former journalist with eight companions triggers a strike hunger. Weakened, she talks about her ambitions for democracy in Mongolia still shaky, 20 years after the fall of communism.
Fourteen days later, authorities will forcibly detain strikers to the hospital.
Guest: Jacques Legrand
Jacques Legrand, professor of Mongolian language and literature, is now president of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO). He is the author of numerous books on history, culture and language of Mongolia, including a French-Mongolian dictionary (Monsudar, Ulaanbaatar, 2007).
Jacques Legrand tells us about the evolution he travels the country since 1967. It tells the upheavals of the fall of communism, the arrival of a market economy, the decline of nomadism and the discovery of immense wealth in the basement of Mongolia. The opportunity to listen to the sounds of the very special Mongolian language.
3 / 5: In memory of Genghis Khan (listen or download the show)
Swastika in the neck, nor be responsible Gansouren fascist or Nazi. It is nationalistic. As his time was his hero, Genghis Khan, the Mongol conqueror greater.
In a gym, where he teaches taekwondo, leader Khoukha Mongol (Blue Mongolia) speaks of his organization nationalist attacks against Chinese employers "disrespectful" and his great vision of unity for the Mongolian people. His wife Otguirid, weightlifting coach, explains the importance of sports to demonstrate the strength of his nation.
Guest: Françoise Aubin
Françoise Aubin is Research Director Emeritus at the CNRS and the Centre for Research on the Far East of Paris-Sorbonne.
She explains why Genghis Khan is a national hero in Mongolia while the West is always in the as a bloodthirsty barbarian. She tells us that Genghis Khan was and how he himself has built his legend.
4 / 5: Heavy Mongolian (listen or download the show)
This evening of celebration for the cult band Nisvanis. Mongolian rock pioneers, they celebrate leur14e anniversary on stage. Other younger formations come to honor them.
Amgalan, Nisvanis singer is all smiles. He remembers the early days when it was difficult to find instruments in Ulaanbaatar and that his music was inspired by Nirvana escape the crowds.
Sunny, leader The training Lemons, has struggled to make his parents accept her choice to become a rock musician, an occupation not pay very little in the Mongolian population. But today, with its little star, he appears regularly in China and Japan.
Ougui is the head honcho of the Mongolian rock scene. It is he who arranges all the shows. If being a rock star does not lead to capital in Mongolia, he was pleased at least that society is liberal enough not to try him for his long hair and her clothes gothic.
Guests: Gregory Delaplace
Delaplace Gregory, an anthropologist, is conducting a post-doctoral research University of Cambridge (Mongolia and Inner Asia Study Unit) in England, on the dead and the "invisible things" in contemporary Mongolia. Since 1999, his fieldwork in the capital and the north-west, with a population of nomadic pastoralists, have led to interest in subjects as diverse as the new urban practice of feng shui, historiography of collectivization and the Mongolian rap.
Delaplace Gregory is the author of "The invention of the dead. Burials, ghosts and contemporary photography in Mongolia," Northeast Asia Collection, Supplement to Studies & Siberian Mongols, Tibetan & Central Asian, Paris, 2009.
Delaplace Gregory talks about the rock culture in Mongolia, one of the only people to resist nationalism that followed the end of communism and the reconstruction of identity "purely" Mongolia. We present ultra famous groups as Mohanik or Tatar, their vision of Mongolian society, their demands in a country undergoing profound change.
5 / 5: Nomads in the soul (listen or download the show)
Each year, thousands of nomadic herders to leave life to settle in the suburbs polluted and unhealthy Capital. More by necessity than choice.
In one of the city still without electricity in yurts, Batchtolong leveled his newly acquired land, on which he lived with his mother Ningoui. Setter for the air conditioner 26 years, the city is a must. His dream: to buy a herd and return to live in the desert as their ancestors.
At 450 miles away, in the province of Bulgan, and Otgon Tomurbaatar not leave anything in the world for their harsh nomadic life. Even if they have lost half their herd during the harsh winter of 2010, television has taught them that life would be much better in the capital, where there unemployment, pollution and disease. In their yurt lost, at least they are "only to breathe the air" for miles around, pleads Otgon. The guest
: Tsogzolmaa Sambuu
Tsogzolmaa Sambuu organizes tourist trips in Mongolia including working with the Swiss Agency Area East and West. It gives us the latest news from the capital Ulan Bator.
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