Chinggis Reimagined

Someone who has gone far, literally and figuratively, in nomadic searches, is Tim Cope. His book and documentary, "In Search of Genghis Khan", is about as complete of an exploration of the nomadic essence by the settled, Western mindset as it is possible to find.  This bear found that some of the most subtle observations were made deep into the video, and it helped greatly in understanding the extent and behavior of the grassland/horse/man connection among nomadic peoples, something often written about, but hard to get a handle on in the abstract.

Cope rode solo from Mongolia to Hungary through the the steppe, discovering connections between all the various nomadic peoples along the way, as well as how things changed when he arrived in Europe.  If this bear had been a freer spirit twenty years ago, he might have dreamed of such a journey himself.  But all credit goes to Cope for actually living and achieving a difficult and arduous goal. 

Now, Cope's experience is a useful waypoint in orienting the bear toward the future.  Finding a true, authentic, historical nomadic essence of the past is an admirable, but chimerical goal.  And Cope has done the work, so that we don't have to, in some sense.  Instead, we can work on developing a Mongolia of the mind (also discussed in an earlier post) where liberation is possible in a more than material sense, and the Secret Mongols of History can have their say as well. 

Время, вперёд!

Secret Mongols of History

Well, the Secret History of the Mongols gets most of the press, along with some other variant Secret Histories,

but NJ Kpopper would like more attention to be paid to the Secret Mongols of History. Because, just as with any people, there are many Mongols obscured from general acclaim who are nevertheless making their mark and shaking the foundations of the world as much as any butterfly flapping its wings could.

There are also many Mongols out there who are "passing" as something else in society. Most people would probably never notice that, but it pays to take more time to listen.  If people did, they would find Mongols, Tatars, Tuvans, even Naimans and Merkits, all nomadic souls seeking freedom under the constraints of a sedentary society . The reader is probably shaking her head, saying "He only wanted us to listen to him rave!"  But, "Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"

Golia "junket"

One of the upsides of talking about Mongolia all of the time is that your true friends will get the hint and start bringing you Mongolian stuff.  So NJ Kpopper recently had the pleasure of sampling Golia vodka, a very smooth, premium drink, tasting as good as its marketing description telling of sextuple filtration and water from pristine mountain lakes. [Note this is not a PP - product placement!]

A bit of Googling goes a loooong way for the curious, so it was soon revealed that the presence of this vodka in the US was the product of a plutocratic romance.  According to an interview with the owner/distributor...

"It starts like this — my good friend was working in Hong Kong as a

trader, and he decided to take a junket to Mongolia. He went up on a

tour and fell in love with his tour guide, who happened to be the

Mongolian government administrator’s daughter. They got married, and

like 12 years and two kids later, he ends up owning half the country."

http://www.thedailymeal.com/goats-grains-interview-golia-vodkas-david-solomon

So, is this a cute story, or by consuming this vodka am I contributing to the wealth of a second Gulnara Karimova (Googoosha)?  The tale is a bit ominous, I am afraid.  So perhaps commenters will enlighten us and inform us if this tasty drink should be set aside for ethical reasons.  If falling in love leads to business success, is that an automatic indictment for insincerity?  Can't always be so, can it?

Idols

What does it mean to want to wear someone else's face, image, or brand on your shirt?

*

The very word "idol" has been stripped of its historical connotations of idolatry, but if one does believe that there is no higher purpose to be distracted from, as most bears do, is there still a problem with this kind of image appropriation?  What does it even signify?  And what are the limits of the permissible in an age of instant internet reproduction of images?  Is this just algae floating on the surface of consciousness, or does it have deeper roots?  Certainly it reflects some kind of urge.

*60% of NJ Kpoppers' idols pictured.

Japan production

Japanese quality control has produced an extraordinarily high percentage of the world's most reliable products - cars, cameras, cups, nail clippers....  Buy Japanese often equates to buy troublefree.  Certainly buying a Japanese product after the breakage of a Chinese copy is considered wise.  But if one's own Toyota breaks down, does that all change?  Is it time to start looking for signs of Japan's decline, and the next big thing.  Or is it some kind of cosmic anomaly?