Today is important for Mongolia because it is election day for the president. Currently, there is a democratic as president and my sister Dana hopes that he will be re-elected. Not everyone feels this way. Older people do not see significant positive changes between the current government and the old socialist ways. To further this significant governmental restructuring, Republican ideals have been around for approximately 80 years but Democratic views are new to Mongolia. My sister talks about what a big change it has been for people (mainly the older population) to adjust to democratic ways because it is so new and people don’t really know what Democracy entails.
Before 1990, the government was socialist and goods were imported from Russia. After 1990, importing goods from Russia stopped and the only goods that were always accessible in grocery stores (Delgore means store) were salt (Avs) and flour (gorrill). Russian run factories were sold to people who were unable to successfully run them and many of those medium to smaller size factories closed. Candy, clothing and other goods were no longer being produced in Mongolia. Leftover machinery from closed factories were sold to China because at the time they were buying irons and metals.
As of current the big exports of Mongolia are Cashmere, coal and iron. However, Mongolian factories are also starting to produce clothing, and other goods that used to be produced by Russia.
Governmental affects education. Tomorrow, Mongolia will find out who their new president will be and I am interested to see how these changes will affect my work with the youth of this beautiful country!
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