When the cold war ended, a friend of mine, Daniel, who was a principal partner in a firm based in Bethesda, Maryland, a firm called Development Alternatives International, headed off for Estonia. His firm acted as a consulting firm to help people in former Soviet nations figure out how to do business.
His next trip was to Mongolia.
Now, what on earth could you possibly advise people in Mongolia about?
It wasn't like the fall of the Soviet Empire affected the sheep herders in their yurts much.
"Mongolia's got cashmere," Daniel said simply.
It turns out Mongolia provides 60% of the world's cashmere, which grows on special goats, who can live on the grassy plains of Cashmere and thrive there, in fact and they have multiplied to such an extent they have virtually denuded the grasslands to the point everything else is starving out.
With global warming and with exploding herds of cash pelt cashmere goats, the winds are sweeping across once grassy plains and whipping up dust storms.
The herders told NPR reporters they realize the damage their goats are doing, but it's their only cash crop. China taxes everything coming out of Mongolia at the border, but for some reason does not tax cashmere, so that is to Mongolia what poppies are to Afghanistan.
The Mongolians can see the collapse of their environment staring them in the face, but they can't give up the cash.
Welcome to our world, Mongolia.
So, one of his early clients was a guy in Estonia who ran a huge dairy farm which produced literally tons of butter and tons of milk and meat every year and when Daniel arrived at the farm he asked to see the balance sheets. They had no idea what he was talking about. "You know, you've got expenses on one side and income on the other." Again, blank looks.
"Well, look," Daniel said, "You have all these cows, right? Now I don't know much about dairy farms, but I assume you need to feed these cows something. And feed costs money. So where do you record that cost?"
"Oh, no, it costs nothing."
"What do you mean?"
"It just arrives on Tuesdays and Saturdays, by train, from Moscow."
Well, of course, once the wall came down and Estonia was no longer a Soviet state, that train from Moscow was not going to keep arriving twice a week.
Now, what on earth could you possibly advise people in Mongolia about?
It wasn't like the fall of the Soviet Empire affected the sheep herders in their yurts much.
"Mongolia's got cashmere," Daniel said simply.
It turns out Mongolia provides 60% of the world's cashmere, which grows on special goats, who can live on the grassy plains of Cashmere and thrive there, in fact and they have multiplied to such an extent they have virtually denuded the grasslands to the point everything else is starving out.
With global warming and with exploding herds of cash pelt cashmere goats, the winds are sweeping across once grassy plains and whipping up dust storms.
The herders told NPR reporters they realize the damage their goats are doing, but it's their only cash crop. China taxes everything coming out of Mongolia at the border, but for some reason does not tax cashmere, so that is to Mongolia what poppies are to Afghanistan.
The Mongolians can see the collapse of their environment staring them in the face, but they can't give up the cash.
Welcome to our world, Mongolia.
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