THE ARTFUL DODGER

Dickens said it first but I say it last.  Darting and dodging around and through heavy traffic appears to be the number one outdoor sport in this city.  It is a game of bluff with drivers challenging pedestrians and vice versa.  The safest thing to do is start to cross with a small horde.  This usually causes the drivers to slow enough to allow an edgy traverse.  As I have been told, traffic lights are advisory only so let the traveller beware.

Tomorrow I have a 31/2 hike planned with a group of westerners at 10 AM.  However, the latest weather report says 70 per cent chance of rain all day tomorrow with a temp of 50 to60 F.  I am not eqipped to hike through rain so I will pass on this if that eventuates.  C'est la guerre.  More tomorrow.

AB & F STEAKHOUSE

Here the English teachers and I are at the steakhouse, another hole-in-the-wall spot where Mongolian beef steaks in large and small sizes are served.  We all drink beer here since the water and/or ice cannot be trusted.  What a great place!  The steaks on the other hand were lean and tough just like the cattle they came from.  This place is in a questionable part of town and getting a cab to and from here is difficult. I doubt if I get back to this haunt.  As for the sports part, the only thing on the tube was one of last year's hockey games.  When I asked if they could bring in the latest developments at the golf event in Indy, they wanted to know from which planet I had just arrived. These teachers are from Baltimore and England via Zimbabwe and seem acclimated to the city.  I walked for an hour after the dinner looking for a cab.  Finally a cabbie came by and I got a ride, but after ten minutes a tire popped and we all got out to fix it in the dark.  Mind you I had left the steakhouse before dark but by now the evening was on.  Fortunately, another cabbie came by and gave me a lift the rest of the way (about 45 minutes).  The traffic jams here are other worldly so one just has to relax and go with the flow as cars dart and cut back and forth and drivers honk and yell at each other.  And so it goes...

Street Scene on Peace Avenue

This is a street scene along Peace Avenue which is the main artery of the city that runs west to east.  The better shops line up around this raod.  Another industrious day...I met two different young reporters, both of whom had been sued for libel.  One I was able to resolve without much difficulty, the other not so fast.  The more troubling case involved the reporter known as Bolormaa who did an earnest investigative piece on human trafficking in Mongolia (it is a serious problem here). The reporter took statements from five young women who named a member of parliament as one involved on the Mongolian end of the trafficking.  Unfortunately, after the article was written the women all retracted as to his involvment due to whatever and a case was brought accusing the reporter of criminal libel. A case was also brought for criminal human trafficking so I will be advising that her case be continued until the major case is decided.  She has written statements from the victims but they never met the Mongolian fellow, only heard of his involvment.  I will talk with her counsel on Monday.  I am thinking that we ought to dig into the finances and cell phone use of the MP and see what that reveals (this might not be permitted here).  Also, re-interview the women and see what caused them to change their position. Just another day on a different planet.

Tonight I am going to the AB&F Sports Bar and Steakhouse on the other side of town.  I have been invited by the teachers that I met earlier at the hamburger place.  They say it is the only known such place in the city and enjoys a good reputation.  We shall see.

This is the road leading to the apt. 

My Apt. Building

My apt. is on the fifth floor left side.  Busy day at the office.  Met with defense counsel for Chulbaatar who was recently convicted of illigal privatization of a leading newspaper.  I will be hlping on the appeals.  He was a friend of former Pres. Enkhbaar who was also convicted on unrelated charges.  I plan to meet with him (Chula) in prison next week.  Also, I am now scheduled to meet the Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy on Sept. 11.  Tomorrow I plan to complete my outline for my hours of lecture to the judges.  Until next time...

The One Pound Hamburger

This was my meal, an American oasis in northern Gobi.

Dining Out American Style

Yes, I found one of the very few places in this city of 1.3 million that sports burgers and fries.  They never tasted better!  The hamburger filled the entire plate smothered with cheese, mushrooms and tomatoe.  The fries were also delicious.  This is sort of a hole-in-the wall place where I met two English teachers, one from Baltimore and one from England.  The English fellow just got engaged to a young woman from Framingham, Mass. and had dinner in Reading several weeks ago before they both came back over.  They will live in China after the marriage.  He says there is good money to be made in China if you teach English and speak good Mandarin which he does.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a busy day at the office.  We arranged for me to meet the defense lawyer for Chulanbaatar who was convicted of illigal privatization of a leading newspaper and is now on appeal.  He was one of the principal founders of GI and a close colleague of former Pres. Enkhbaar who was also convicted on unrelated charges.  Also, I was given copies of the latest anti-media decisonsbby the trial and appellate courts.  These decisons would easly be dismissed in the U.S. but result in convictions here.  The alleged libels were substantially true.  Here the defendant must prove that his published statements are true.  In the U.S. the complaining must prove the falsity to win (a huge difference in this rather arcane practice of law. I will explain all this in my lectures.

Next week I am scheduled to meet Mr. Chlanbaatar in prison after his lawyer and I work on his appeal (I am advisoy only and will not formally appear).  We also worked out a rough agenda of other matters to address over the next 4 weeks, all subject to possible change. I will shoot you a pic of my meal at AB & F.  Also, I may get to do a 4 hour hike on Sunday into a valley and upslope forested area.  More on that later.  And so it went...

NAARA-1

This is Naara-1 who was mentioned in the previous post. She is the President of GI here in Mongolia.   She and I opened up the office this AM.  Her oldest grandchild is 15 and she speaks good English and even better Russian (I am told this).  She told me that for an ambitious woman in her early days someone who wants to do well needed to be educated in Moscow as she was.  She like all others here are truly fighting for free speech and free press every day and I am sure that their compensation is insubstantial by our standards.  She tells me that she wishes she was a young girl again because their democracy only came about because the Soviets tore down that damn Berlin wall in 19989/90.  She seems to be making up for lost time however.  English was discouraged as a language but once the wall came down there was a rush to do all things democratic.  I had a political science professor at I.U. that taught a course in geopolitics, i.e., that your countries ability to defend itself against other countries and shape its own destiny is primarily dependent upon your world location.  The U.S. is lucky to be separated by large bodies of water but his country was Chzechlslovakia (spelling?).  I look at Mongolia which is sandwiched between Russia and China and see a country that wants to control its destiny independent of those two giants and I hope it works out for them.  This is an evolving matter.

Globe International-UB

    
Here I am at the GI offices in downtown UB.  The woman on the left is Burnee who is a young attorney and Naara-2 who is the person in charge of the office and the head of GI in Mongolia.  I will also add a shot of Naara-1 who is in charge here. Naara 2 is the younger sister of Naara 1 and is in charge of setting up my agenda under Naara-1's guidance.  Burnee met me at the airport with Enkbar and they helped me get into my apt. and pay one month's rent.   She also has been able to procure a mobile phone for my use locally.

 I will give 4 hours of lecture to the judges (including the Supreme Court Justices) on Sept 23.  Naara is also setting up a lecture for me to give to one of the Univ. journalism schools in advance of the judges project.  Essentially, I will be giving all a summary of U.S. media and defamation law then comparing same to the international law of European countries as determined by the European Court of Human Rights.  I will also add in the human rights work of the U.N. since we were able to obtain a determination in the Chief Manneh case before that august body.  For complete info on that case which was tried in the ECOWAS Court in Abuja, Nigeria, I direct the reader's attention to my West African blog which is appended to my home page here.

The Chief Manneh case involved an editor of the leading newspaper in The Gambia who was forcibly removed by the military for criticizing its President Jammeh, a thuggish sort of chap who still makes headlines around the world for outdoing Idi Amin. 

I am back at the apt. now and wil soon get ready for dinner.  I have purchased cans of spaghetti with meat sauce and a Mongolian chili sauce which I hope is spicey.  Alas, there is no tabasco sauce in this country.  And so it goes...

My Kitchen/Dining Room

My Apartment

This particular pic is for my gr-daughter Gracie Peg who is doing well in her piano lessons.  Please note that my living room sports a Yamaha Baby Grand Piano in the corner. The stool seems perfect for her.  My landlady says she plays this piano often.  So Grace needs to come over here and show me how its done!   Also, I have cable-tv but only two channels are English speaking: (1) National Geographic and (2) BBC World News Asia.  Tomorrow I will take pics of the special people who are working for Globe Interenational and who make ISLP proud as its partner.  I worked this aftn on outlining fours of instruction I will give to Judges of the trial, appellate and Supreme Court on Sept. 23.  I will cover U.S. defamation and newsgathering law then European law in these catergories including  the European Court of Human Rights.   Also, I told Naara who is in charge that they can line up as many meetings as they can between me and defense attorneys and journalists and those alraedy convicted of criminal libel.  On behalf of the ISLP I want to do all possible things in my 30 days.

Leaving Indy-Sept 1

 
Here I am at the Indy Airport getting a final hug from my grandaughter Anne Conley Byron.  She escorted me there with Lynne for a goodbye until October as I now work my way west over northern Canada then Alaska and the Bering Sea then down to Inchon/Seoul, thence to Ulaan Baatar, a trip taking some 26 hours. As a matter of fact, I could see Kasba Lake in the Northwest Territories when I was over that part of Canada, a lake Mike Molony and I fished in 1976.  But I digress.  I arrived at my rented apt. at 1AM on Sept 3 (today) went to bed and awoke at 7:30 feeling good and unpacked and headed for the office downtown.  I live in an apt. on its top floor (the fifth floor) with no elevator which means climbing 10 flights of stairs.  The road getting into here is fractured at best and I must go helter skelter to find the main artery going into the city.  There is no heat here until Sept 15 according to the landlady but I do not thi nk that is a problem.  My next publication will show you my apt.