Okay, I'm finally responding to the second half of Kathryn's questions (2006/10/30):
Yes, anyone can go to the opera... if they can afford it. It is indeed too expensive for average people to go regularly.
The main reason Dior was involved is because the director of the Opera and Ballet Theatre, the talented and lovely B. Sergelen (Segi), has been working very, very hard to make strategic partnerships in order to keep the theatre running. Segi told me that the daughter of someone she knows works for Dior and helped get the partnership. It's very expensive to put on as many shows as the theatre does (80 per season) and there is very little philanthropy in Mongolia. I wrote a story about this for the UB Post.
Though Mongolia was a communist country until 1989 and hasn't had much time to develop classes, it is far from a "classless" society. And from what I've read I don't know that even I'd agree that a communist society is classless but I'm open to hearing/learning from others. In Mongolia, you can see a difference between the rich and poor and I've heard that divide is unfortunately growing quickly. The financial situation here is quite dire. In addition, there are no social programs for the poor and disenfranchised and no personal responsibility among most well-to-do, or even middle-class, to do anything about it.
I've heard it explained like this: Mongolians have only just begun to have the opportunity to amass wealth. They aren't interested in giving it away. They base a lot of people's worth on what they own: if they have a car, the type of car they drive, the type of phone they have, and even their phone number! Sound familiar to anyone?
There is a city/country divide. People in rural areas have almost no access to services and, according to some, the education one receives there isn't as good. It is for this reason that so many people are leaving the countryside to live in or near the few proper cities that exist here (Ulaanbaatar, Erdenet, Darkhan, Choibalsan) causing vast environmental problems--Ulaanbaatar, "Red Hero", is better known as Utaanbaatar, "Smoky Hero", because of the thick smog--and major stresses on urban infrastructure.
I ask you, dear Reader, does a classless society exist? Is such a thing possible for humans in the face of the capitalist greed overwhelming the globe?
I read recently in Yes! Magazine's Winter 2007 Go Local issue an article about the alternative to capitalism and communism. It explained that right now people think the aforementioned systems are our only two choices, but that's not the case. The author, Ethan Miller, talked about creating a new definition of the economy: "We already inhabit different kinds of economic relationships. We have
our own forms of wealth and value that are not defined by money. Economies already exist that place human and ecological relationships at the center, rather than competition and profit-making." This truly inpires me and gives me hope.
