DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Y)cn..... thickly that a veteran herdsman got lost and perished walking right out­ side his home. Many animals froze and in the weeks that followed, as the snow and dirt hardened into an impermeable barrier, many more starved to death. Hopes of relief sprouted brief­ ly in May, when a rainstorm brou^ the pastures to life. Sg But the locusts followed. Frenzi^ hordes of them seeming to come from nowhere ate most of the eme^ Hundreds of families have alre^ ing grass. Little rain has fallen sineg then The summer was hotter than S >» lost everything. 50, his wifep' normal and more than 20 colossal Alatanqige, 43, and their three chil?;; dust storms have blown away muc dren are spending bored days at al" temporary site around their ger, t^ of the topsoil. For a brief time after the blizza^ traditional felt tent. They sold off the the travails of Inner Mwigolia at- g last of their sheep and goats, and t^s^r government fenced off their ruined; . tracted outside attention, and food* ;; pastures, one of many such areas aid from international donors has J now under protection to help the helped tens of thousands of famili^'^ grasses return. to avoid hunger. Still, some familie^ Theirs is one of 100 displaced fam­ their incomes slashed, have had tt^ ;; ilies that are scheduled to move into pull children from school ; a resettlement area on the outskirts Ethnic Mongolians account for a*; of Xilinhot, the prefecture capital. good share of the herders in this c^ With World Bank aid, the govern­ tral pastoral region, although dec-; *i ment is building 100 brick houses ades of migration into Inner Mong^ with cattle pens. lia by Han Chinese, the country’s ► Mr. Magjia tried to put the best dominant group, has left the Mong^, face on his family’s altered state. lians asmall minority in the prov-J^f “We’ll get by because I’m a jack of ince over all. all trades.’' he said. “I can slaughter In the current drought, the re- sheep. I’m a good singer, or I could sponses of ethnic Mongolian and even be a tourist guide.” Chinese herders have tended to di^<'; fer, said Zaorgetubater, the deputy;* chief of the county-level govemm^ in Abaga Banner. “The Mongol attitude is that you;; keep some animals until you have nothing left, because if you lose yo§r livestock you lose your way of life,?*’; he said. “I think for many Han it’s> more just an economic calculation^. Ms. Jibutsima, for one, is fearfu^ Sa few years ago, the family had 200 sheep and 100 cows. They are down ’,; to 100 sheep and 20 cows, and now ;<£ most of them must be sold to buy l^y for the remainder.

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