Mongol TV

So Mongolian Radio and TV Studio (where I work...or don't work) is a harkening back to the 1950s. The building was built around 1967 by the communists, but nowadays it's too big for its own good. Women make up about 75% of the workers (or non-workers) there. Many are either secretaries or beaucracy clerks. Some of them are TV technicians. In each room, a whole lot of tea and coffee drinking is going on. A whole lot of newspaper reading is going on. A whole lot of Solitaire is played on the computers. And maybe 15% of the workforce is actually at work on something (editing video footage, typing manuscripts for TV commercials, typing written requests for United States visas, those sorts of things). On July 1st, Mongol TV loses its State subsidies and becomes a public television station. They also lose their monopoly of the airwaves. How do you say "Bon voyage, comrade" in Russian?

I have a bad feeling about it all. One of their largest studios is used for a talkshow program that is on hiatus until August. For now, it sits empty, waiting for a host. Mongol TV is for sure overstaffed and inefficient (they still pay Mongol artists to hand-draw cartoons on paper), so staying competitive in an ever-increasing crowded market would certainly mean the closing of the builiding. It would certainly require vast upgrades of technology (where would the money come from?). Just yesterday I talked with a video editor who lost all of her edits because a computer crashed. She was in the process of re-digitizing hours and hours of tapes.

What I predict is that Mongol public TV will only last a short while. They're studio and building will be bought out by a private company and MPBS (Mongol Public Broadcasting) will be no more.

But I'm cynical. And I have to be. I couldn't think of a more depressing place to spend a summer than in Ulaanbaatar. Millions of square miles of vast steppe is just a hop over some mountains, but I have to stay in UB. I'm developing a persistent cough because of all the pollution and dust. The food is uninspiring. Mongol drivers show absolutely no respect for human life or patience. Every day I see road rage. Walking on broken glass is a must, and I see women doing it daily in their high heels. I spend hours at a time all by myself in empty rooms. The Mongols baby me and escort me everywhere. All I want to do is see my girlfriend. Who could be cheerful at a time like this?

At least the children are cute. And everywhere. One smiled and waved at me from a bus. Another said "Hi" to me as I walked by. I said "Hello" back, and he parroted it to himself. These little things will soon take over the unpleasant things...