Word: bator
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Inside a fenced government compound in the heart of Ulan Bator, Mongolia's capital, a traditional felt tent, known as a ger, rests on the concrete square. Inside the ger stands Mandakh Jiguur, 28, an artist who has abandoned his oils and watercolors for a higher calling: private enterprise. Spiritedly, he moves between the eight tables, pushing sausages, vodka and smoldering Mongolian hot pot on his customers. Jiguur heaves a sigh of relief that this day the authorities did not arbitrarily shut down his bar. "One day they tell you to stand up and start a business," says Jiguur...
Against that backdrop, the gains of Mongolia's revolution seem breathtaking. Prodded by Moscow and local reformers, the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party has gingerly embraced shinechiel (renewal), the local version of perestroika. Last March, Ulan Bator opened its doors to foreign investment after the government approved a law that guarantees unlimited and tax-free repatriation of profits for investors and joint ventures. The results seem promising. The Gobi Cashmere Factory already produces garments for Japanese and European markets, and Japanese, European and U.S. traders are talking about joint ventures...
...vogue: a nearly completed joint-venture hotel is named after Genghis Khan, and his visage adorns the label of a local vodka that is bottled / for export. An elaborate memorial to the warrior will soon be constructed in the capital. Meanwhile, the last of the Stalin statues in Ulan Bator has been dismantled...
...Communists, who have ruled for 69 years, enjoy access to state money, media and organizational apparatus. To offset those advantages, six opposition parties and groups have agreed to field common candidates in the elections. Even if Mongolia's first democratic exercise is fair, local and foreign observers in Ulan Bator predict that the Communists will win by a comfortable margin. Still, it would seem that the days of absolute rule are over...
Faced with a shrinking budget, the State Department could not justify the expense of opening an embassy in Ulan Bator. Neither could scores of other nations: 100 have diplomatic relations with Mongolia, but only 17 ambassadors are posted there. The U.S. will staff its embassy with a charge d'affaires and an assistant, who will work in an apartment leased from the Mongolian Foreign Ministry...