Summary: Mongolia is experiencing an energy shortage (likely because of drama with Russia), so we're expecting rolling blackouts throughout the city. I've also been making inroads with international relations practitioners and researchers in Mongolia who have shed light into the energy situation. Lastly, I made a bowl!
I guess it must have been a combination of search history algorithms and location tracking, but back in November, Google recommended me an article in Foreign Affairs magazine titled “Mongolia’s Search for a Third Way.” The article talked about how Mongolia can’t fit into the dichotomous framing of great power politics as either pro-America or pro-China. Even though Mongolia has great reason to align itself with America (its third neighbor), its economic dependence and landlocked status to Russia and China severely limits its actions. Making economic deals with America or criticizing Russia can invite punishment.
In fact, I'm actually feeling the effects right now. 90% of Mongolia’s energy comes from Russia, and very recently, Russia has limited its supply of oil to Mongolia. There are huge lines at petrol stations now. And just today, the US embassy emailed all the expats saying that starting tomorrow, we're going to experience temporary blackouts because Mongolia is facing an electricity shortage too. From talking with locals, I've heard that the official reason was that the electricity plant in Russia needs repairs, but many suspect that it's politically-associated retaliation. Whatever the reason is, they've already significanly turned down internal heating because our apartments are way colder. I do wonder when the situation will be resolved because it's -25°C outside, and the dorm walls can only do so much.
However, the best part about me coming across the article was that one of the authors was located in Mongolia. I've always had a hard time reaching out to people because I fear being a burden, but I thought, "Why not?" So, I sent him a message introducing myself, my thoughts on his article, and an invitation to meet. He responded so quickly and scheduled a time to have coffee this past week. He was genuinely one of the nicest people I've met here in Mongolia - not just sharing his insights on Mongolia's precarious geopolitical position but also generously connecting me to other practictioners in Mongolia.
Days later, I'm still just excited about how this is all happening because one of my biggest motivations for applying to this abroad program and working in Mongolia was to do exactly this - meet researchers and form connections with academics for possible future collaboration. At the end of our chat, he challenged me to gather the observations I've made so far living here, find a topic of interest in Mongolia, conduct research, and write about it for both Mongolian and international audiences. So, I decided that my goal in the next month is to come up with a draft of research writing on Mongolian geopolitics. We'll see how it goes.
For anyone who is interested in the article, here's the link: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/mongolia/mongolias-search-third-way
(I think you need a subscription for the magazine or register for a free article)
Last Saturday, I went to a pottery place with a friend. I've been living a very minimal lifestyle in my kitchen - my pot also serves as my pan, and I only have one bowl - so I thought having an extra bowl would be nice. Even though this was my first time using a pottery wheel, I guess was doing an exceptionally poor job because the worker had to take control. I didn’t need to know Mongolian to understand that she was appalled by my inability to spin and shape my bowl.
To add to the bowl, I decided to create a snake from clay that would wrap around the rim of the bowl. Unfortunately, the clay hardened by the time I tried to wrap it around the bowl, and it literally broke into 5 separate pieces. Fortunately, the worker was quite good at his job and helped me glue the pieces together to reassemble the snake. At the bottom of the bowl is my interpretation of Medusa, so that’ll be a fun surprise at the end of a meal. I'm going to pick it up next week once it's glazed. Then, I'll have a happy family of a pot, bowl, and a snake bowl in my kitchen.
I'm wrapping up the second to last week of my first semester teaching here. The students have been giving their final group presentations, ranging from topics such as the life of Malcolm X, the works of Plato, to the rise of TikTok. I've realized that as much as I've been teaching them, I've also been learning from them too.
It also feels quite surreal to be close to the frontline of East Asian geopolitics. This is a region whose conflicts I studied in a classroom back in America, but to be physically here and experience the very real, tangible consequences of geopolitics (energy shortages and retaliation) has augmented my understanding of the reality here.
Comentarios