Orion, I obviously missed something but when did you do your trek in Western Mongolia? Thanks for this interesting post.
Fritz Holt -----Original Message----- From: Orion Knox [mailto:orion-k...@austin.rr.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 1:11 PM To: TexasCavers Subject: [Texascavers] Off Topic-"The Story of the Weeping Camel" Geography lesson time. Mongolia which is the setting for the movie, is an independent country on the northern border of china and the southern border of Russia. It has had a long and interesting history which can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mongolia In more recent times from 1924 to about 1992 it was more or less part of the Soviet Union and much of its infrastructure was built during that time. With the breakup of the USSR, Mongolia developed a constitution in 1992 and is now a democratic country. The majority of the population is Buddhist although in far western Mongolia where the primary ethnic population is Kazakh, they are Muslim. The movie is in no way political. That is just the way life is in a nomadic culture. We did a trek in the Alti Mountains of Western Mongolia and also spent time in the Gobi Desert and had a chance to meet some of the nomadic families. They are a proud culture who resist the lure of moving to the big cities such as Ulaanbaatar, the capitol. Also they are no longer isolated from the outside world. Probably half the gers (yurts) we saw in the remotest regions, had a solar panel, car battery, satellite dish and B&W TV. Orion "Yeah but check out "The Story of the Weeping Camel". Same director and no English. How'd they get the camel to cry on cue? I dunno about you but both films made the life of nomads look awfully tough and barren to me. Sinister and evil? I felt sorry for those folks living without infrastructure and/or on the outskirts of decrepit concrete housing centers. Ddin't make me like the Chinese govmnt one bit. Maybe I enjoy a level of comfort and connectedness beyond that of the target audience?" Andy --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
