Ganhölög
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990047
Name: Ganhölög
Parent's name: Tserennadmid
Ovog: Zaya-Buyant
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1973
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: Manlai sumyn ITH-yn darga
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Manlai sum, Ömnögovi aimag
Lives in: Manlai sum (or part of UB), Ömnögovi aimag
Mother's profession: veterinarian
Father's profession: teacher
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
politics / politicians
work
democracy
environment
keepsakes / material culture
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
socialism
state
democracy
climate
teaching job
toponym
To read a full interview with Ganhölög please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 080811B with Ganhölög
Ganhölög discusses a broad variety of topics: work ethics in socialism and today, politics, the state, teaching job, what is wrong with democracy in Mongolia, climate change, NGOs, and toponymic changes in his aimag. In his view, in the socialist period people understood their job as their duty, whereas today job is seen as a source of income. Especially bureaucrats from government and MPs are preoccupied with using their position for mercantile purposes only. Today the state is not the state it used to be, and state policy is dysfunctional. No wonder, then, that corruption became endemic. In the socialist past dargas were proper dargas, irrespective of their position in the bureaucratic hierarchy. They were all equally respected, and lived better than ordinary workers. In contrast, today dargas at the regional level live worse, and have less authority.
According to Ganhölög, democracy brought nothing good and positive to Mongolia, though it began correctly. Because democracy was implemented wrongly, the following happened: People lost their trust in the state, privatisation was carried out wrongly, many factories were forced to shut their doors, the whole economy is now dominated by the Chinese, theft, immoral activities and disorder became widespread. The weakening of state control and the fact that people were left on their own have had a negative impact on men: men started drinking vodka. As of climate change, Ganhӧlӧg says that the deterioration of nature in his aimag must be directly linked to global warming.
In the past the names of places were mostly Tibetan. In socialist times toponyms in general reflected the physical appearance of places, as in Tsagaan Tolgoi ‘White Hill’, Ulaan Tolgoi ‘Red Hill’, and so on. Today many places are named after individuals who live there.
