Jersey’s Overseas Aid – the Mongolian Office

There are those who would cut Jersey’s Overseas Aid budget. There have been voices to that effect during the Senatorial Hustings. They are misguided. Jersey is not the centre of the universe. There are poor people in Jersey, but not half as poor as those that live in the sewers of Mongolia’s capital. These are the forgotten ones in the post Soviet space.

Whilst Jersey Finance Limited sets up new offices in the Far East to cater for the former Communist Bureaucrats and new rulers of countries like Mongolia dispose of the proceeds of mineral asset sales, another part of the Jersey state is assisting the poor to buy bricks and build schools, which those same rulers care not to provide.

Here we interview Jersey women Jilly Spruyt  and Ann Dove about their activities in Mongolia assisting the poor in projects funded by Jersey’s Overseas Aid budget.

This is the interview and another video made by Jilly in Mongolia.

Life expectancy for men in Mongolia is low primarily because of cigarettes and vodka.

For photographs by Richard Wainright taken in Mongolia see http://www.richwainwright.com/blog/foreign-assignments/mongolia-assignment-1/

I forgot to ask Jilly about elections and voter registration in Mongolia, but such democratic niceties can no doubt the enquired about on another occasion.  Interestingly the 2008 Legislative elections in Mongolia achieved a 74% turnout. This is impressive. It almost matches inversely Jersey's voter abstention. I wonder which one is the corrupt, oligarchic and authoritarian state?