PLANS FOR “GREAT WALL OF MONGOLIA” FINALIZED
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
July 14 2008
Ulan Bator, Mongolia – The Mongolian government has announced that plans to build a massive wall along the border with China have been finalized and will begin implementation in September of this year. Prime Minister Sanjaagiin Bayar spoke to the world media today and answered questions about the long in development project.
“It is a fundamental part of our nation’s future. We have long stood with China and her wall shadowing over us, and it is now time that we stood up and take our place in destiny. The Mongolian people are a great people with a great history and it is time that we remind the world of that fact.”
The wall will be built in parallel to the Great Wall of China, at a distance of approximately one kilometre. Built from modern materials, the Mongolian wall will also stand approximately one foot higher than its Chinese cousin. The project will take approximately ten years to complete.
Already the government has had to begin defending the plans to construct the multibillion dollar wall in the heavily impoverished nation. With a per capita GDP of only $2,900 USD, the nation that at one point ruled half to known world now struggles with high unemployment, significant debt, and heavy reliance on foreign imports. The government has rebuked such criticism, stating that the wall will not only provide a great sense of national pride for the Mongolian people, but also act as a major tourist attraction, a largely untapped source of revenue in this agricultural based economy.
“We understand that this is a significant investment, but he feel that this is an investment in the future of our nation and our people,” continued the Prime Minister. “We seek to restore our people’s pride in themselves and the world’s pride in us.”
Some in this large but sparsely populated nation (July 2007 estimate, 2,951,786) are not as enthusiastic as the leadership. The People’s Front of Mongolia has long been opposed to the plan. The group’s leader Muunokhoi Gurragchaa spoke with Scrape News.
“With the problems that our people face day to day it is totally irresponsible for the government to be wasting money in such a frivolous way. That money should be spent on infrastructure and education, not on reviving some old rivalry from a thousand years ago.”
Indeed, that has been the major international criticism; that the country is reacting to the construction of China’s wall, which of course was originally constructed to keep out raiding Mongol hordes. It has led some to derisively call the country’s Prime Minister Bayar Khan.
“There is something to be said for taking pride in one’s history,” one critic from China. “But that was a long time ago. Reliving or reviving the past is not going to feed people.”
When asked for a reaction, the Chinese government merely shrugged.
