Seems, Mr.Sebastien Blanc could not find any other better story to file. Well, he had to file something and get his payment from the news agency. What are good stories to file? Mining boom. Oh, well. travel to Gobi takes time and too long. Too tiring. Is there any other easy story that can easily persuade editor to run his stories and make his arrival to Mongolia meaningful and allow him to earn something? He must have thought like this, i assume.
He quickly checks the internet for latest news on Mongolia. Street children, ninjas, mining, poverty, prostitution, Mongolians hate China, blah blah, poor herders, Mongolian culture is dying, millions of animals died in harsh winter disaster known as Zud blah blah.
Seems all these topics have been re-written and re-filed again and again by the global media since 1990s.
I should write something that can catch eye of the readers instantly...Sebastien is thinking and adamantly reading all Mongolia-related stories on the web.
Then, Sebastien finds out that couple of years ago, British media such as Guardian and Reuters run stories on Mongolian so-called Neo-nazis. "Gotcha", he said. " i will find these guys and interview them and report this". After flying in Mongolia, Sebastien find thems and arranges interviews with them and files his story. He sees the story is run by many international news outlets and gets happy. Voila.Definitely, it was good choice to write about Mongolian neo-nazis, he feels encouraged by his success.
The story is very typical. Couple of standard boring paragraphs like "Mongolia's mining boom has brought the vast, sparsely populated country immense wealth but also inequality and ecological damage, and now fringe ultranationalist environmentalist movements are emerging in response" and "herders have roamed Mongolia's steppe for centuries, while the country only threw off the Soviet yoke after decades of domination, creating fertile ground for a mix of communal land rights and nationalism that can turn into unashamed racism" are included in the story.
Then Sebastien goes to key points of his story. Damn, hateful Nazis-turned environmentalists who allegedly blackmail mining companies operating in Mongolia. He carefully selects key quotes from the individuals he interviewed. Average reader feels that Mongolia is a dangerous and lawless country roamed by Neo-nazis-turned-environmentalists and they attack foreign mines which pollutes the environment.
The first paragraph" A silver swastika hanging around his neck, Boldbaatar Gombodorj points out his targets on a map of Mongolia like a World War II commander: little flags representing foreign mining firms that he and fellow "eco-Nazis" accuse of destroying their country" was the key paragraph. Sebastien knew this.
From this, the average reader would get the impression that these Mongolian neo-nazis attack foreign mining firms as they carefully marked location of companies on the map.
What the reader would not understand from this story is the neo-nazis groups operate on the fringe of Mongolian society. Mongolia is a free, democratic country. Freedom of speech and expression is fully exercised. Anybody can criticize any officials and say what they want. We curse and criticize the lawmakers of our parliament day and night. "76 stupid people who are selling the country to foreigners" is like a daily mantra for Mongolian people. Nothing surprising. It is ok. It is democracy. I have seen the neonazi youth. They were less than 10 people in most of the cases.
There are neo-nazi groups in many countries of the world. USA has racist group KKK. Unless they bomb or kill other people, they don't make news. They can talk and curse what they want during their gathering and drinking binge. They don't make much news. Nobody takes them seriously.
Same in Mongolia. These so-called Neo-nazi groups like a like cult or fan club for some youth. They like to catch attention by wearing nazi uniforms and wearing the swastika. Nobody takes them seriously. If they attack a foreign mine, local police will immediately jump on them and they will be in trouble and has to pay for damage or end up behind bars. Mongolia has many problems. It is trying to fix these problems. It is not a perfect country. It is trying to become a country ruled by law and free of corruption and social ills. This was not shared by Sebastien. I think he knows this.If he tried to write this, maybe his editor would have had rejected his story. Maybe, he has no choice. He has write something. Right?
Only international media reports on Mongolian neo-nazis. Local media does not report about them as it is not news-worthy. The fringe groups wants local news coverage. However, nobody takes them seriously.
Only guys like Sebastien writes about Mongolian neo-nazis. Seems, Guardian, Reuters, AFP are voice of Mongolian fringe groups. Oh, well, Neonazi story catches attention of average dumb readers outside of Mongolia. So, that's the only rationale behind this story.
Neo-nazis in Mongolia are not news-worthy. How often do you read stories about local bikers club? I bet not often unless they violate laws and do something like recent NY attack on SUV driver by bunch of bikers including an undercover police agent.
I want to shout to editors of western media entities "don't run this kind of stories. They don't represent whole picture. These neo-nazis don't represent the whole Mongolia. They are there, we just can't disband them. They also have right to exercise freedom of expression. They have right to wear swastika. Swastika is not banned in Mongolia. There is no law against wearing this symbol. You can't portray Mongolia as being infested by neo-nazi groups and youth".
Good job, Sebastien. You earned your money. Now i wonder what will be next story of Sebastien? I bet he did not come to Mongolia just for this one story. He has to file several more stories to justify his expense of coming here. Maybe street children, homelessness in UB, herders affected by Mining and lost their livelihood, ever expanding Ger district, human trafficking.... you name it..... There are many topics. Please welcome to use them as average reader wouldn't know how these topics have been re-packaged and re-run many times by the mainstream media.
Ranted by Shagai,
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