WEBVTT

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Today I want to start my talk

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with a story of my own bubble.

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When I say 'bubble', you might wonder
what is this and what I'm talking about.

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Almost more than 20 years ago,
when I was eight years old,

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I went to a local food market
with my mum and dad.

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It was a very cold winter day.

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We were driving our green Hyundai Accent
car, which was in trend at the time.

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My parents went into the market to shop
for groceries while I stayed in the car.

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I was sitting in the car
and listening to music, relaxing,

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not even paying attention to the cold.

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But there was a girl outside,
the same age as me.

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She had no hat or gloves
in that freezing cold weather

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and was holding a younger sibling
in those little hands.

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At first, I didn't pay much attention.

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I thought: "Okay, it's just
a poor girl standing there",

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and kept enjoying
the music in the car.

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But 20 minutes, 30 minutes passed.

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She wasn't simply
standing there, doing nothing.

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She was begging for money
from those who were passing by.

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Most of the people who were passing
seemed to be annoyed by her

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and walked faster to avoid interaction.

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Looking at this, I suddenly
felt uncomfortable.

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What has she done wrong

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to be standing outside in the cold,

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holding such heavy load on her tiny back.

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What have I done to deserve
sitting in a warm car,

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waiting for my parents to bring bags
full of food while listening to music.

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What is the difference between us?

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Why and how has this difference emerged?

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I felt so bad at the time.

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Looking back now, I think that

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perhaps, my choice of becoming
a social researcher

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was dedicated to understanding
this difference.

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Even today, the story
of the bubble still continues.

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Last year, I was standing
in a bank to transfer money

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when I noticed this poster on the wall.

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[Dear citizens, beware of theft!!!]

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Looking at that poster,

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I thought the bubble hasn't burst.

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The poster said:

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"Dear citizens, beware of theft!"

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What this poster shows is that

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we see this boy selling
magazines or gums

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as though he was a criminal.

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And people like us
with jobs and a decent life

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who can afford to go to a cafe
for a cup of tea

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should beware of these kids
and protect ourselves from them.

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This poster wasn't only
put up in this bank,

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but also in cafes, restaurants,
department stores and everywhere.

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How many of you have passed
by these posters?

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How many of us haven't noticed them?

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So the first question arising from this is

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why are we living in the kind of society
where a small boy is working at night,

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doing hard labour
and being called a thief?

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Second, why are we living in a society

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where we have to be cautious of children?

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I've tried this.

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Most people answer
these questions in similar ways.

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Because these kids' parents

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weren't able to succeed in their lives,

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so it's these kids' parents' fault.

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Let's imagine one
of these parents' name is Turuu.

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What we say about Turuu
is that he's lazy,

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he likes to live on social welfare,
he drinks a lot,

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he doesn't work hard enough,
also may be when he moved

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from the countryside to the city

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he didn't think through and so on.

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People may think in different ways.

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So by making these kinds of statements
we conclude that this person

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is living in his own bubble, not depending
on other socio-economic conditions.

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And because the individual is not
trying hard enough,

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we conclude that it's his own
personal problem.

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However, there are thousands, millions
and even billions of people in the world

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who live in similar conditions as Turuu.

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It would be wrong to assume
that this poverty exists

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because individuals like Turuu
are not trying hard enough,

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as if they wanted to live
in sub-standard conditions.

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On the contrary, let's imagine
that Turuu is a very successful man,

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and most of the members
of our society are doing well and

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succeeding in their lives.

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Here we conclude
that it's not just because Turuu is

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a hard-worker and an achiever
that he's doing well.

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Instead, our society is conducive
and has the right socio-economic

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conditions to make people successful.

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What this tells us is that we can't just
sit comfortably inside our own bubbles

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and judge another person
as isolated from the society.

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We shouldn't conclude
that the problem is just his own.

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Since this phenomenon [poverty]
is too common in our society,

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there should be something wrong
beyond what we can see.

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Now, what is the current situation of
poverty and people like Turuu in Mongolia?

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Is it similar to what we have imagined?

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Today there are 634,000 people
living in poverty in Mongolia.

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Poverty means not being able

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to afford their basic needs
including food.

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These are people who spend less than

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140,000 MNT [60 USD]
per month, as of 2014.

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Today, 20 percent of Mongolian
population is living in poverty.

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In fact, it's more than 20 percent.

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If we hypothetically increase
the existing poverty line

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by 50,000 MNT [26 USD]
from 146,000 to 196,000 MNT,

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then 40 percent of the population
would be classified as living in poverty.

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That means on top of the 20 percent
who are currently classified as poor,

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another 20 percent is living
in vulnerable conditions

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where they might fall
into poverty easily.

NOTE Paragraph

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As such in total 40 percent of us live
under vulnerable conditions today.

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Moreover, nearly 80 percent

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of Mongolian population spend

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less than 400 thousand tugrugs
[212 USD] per month.

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Only 20 percent spend
more than 400 thousand.

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Those who spend more than 400 thousand
per month are less vulnerable to shocks

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such as price increase and they have
more or less secure lives.

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The remaining 80 percent
are people who might be affected

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by various financial and personal crises.

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Let's look at another statistics.

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Today we say that our society
is free and equal,

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everyone can work hard
and achieve what they deserve.

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If we imagine our society as evenly
distributing income and expenses,

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wealth distribution should look like this.

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What do you think the current
situation is in Mongolia?

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The top two ladders
of the society altogether

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occupy 70 percent 
of the total expenditure in Mongolia.

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The remaining three ladders combined
occupy only 30 percent.

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More importantly, the lowest
ladder occupies only seven percent.

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We can see from this

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to what extent has
income inequality increased.

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So it shows that when we say
that Turuu is the one at fault,

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he is the one who has problems,

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we are thinking inside our bubble.

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Now, we should ask
why so many people are poor,

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why so much inequality has been
created in our society,

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and whether our explanations
to these questions are done

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inside or outside the bubble.

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I want to tell you three
most common answers.

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The first answer is that people are
unequal anyways

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which is human nature.

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But in contrast to this belief,
many studies worldwide and in Mongolia

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show that people almost
naturally desire equality.

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Nobody says I'm living in better or worse

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conditions than that person.

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Yet there is one condition
where we accept inequality.

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This is when the notion
about fairness is considered.

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Fairness.

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In other words, today Turuu
worked less than me,

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so he should earn less than me.

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I worked harder than him,
so I should earn more than him.

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It would be unfair if Turuu earns the same
as me even though he worked less than me.

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That's unfair.

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Unfortunately, our understanding
and interpretation about fairness

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is not always fair itself.

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Let me take a simple example.


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In India, the caste system

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allows most people to think
that it's fair that some people

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should be wealthy just because
they are deemed to be born

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from the head of the divinity,

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whilst others should be poor because
they were born from the foot of divinity.

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Is this fair? Not at all.

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The second commonly used explanation

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is that our country is poor,

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we are barely surviving.

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This is a wrong assumption.

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Our country is now
a middle-income country.

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Our economy has been growing steadily

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for more than a decade.

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Accordingly, the social welfare spending
has also been increasing.

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Yet Turuu or those poor
40 percent of population

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can't still benefit from this growth.

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So despite economic growth we are left
with a significant portion of our society

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living in or very close to poverty.

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Let's see the next example.

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Are poorer people indeed lazy

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and not trying hard enough
in their lives?

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To see whether it's true I want to take
an example of successful young people.

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Not long ago, I've been reading
some articles.

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Including those that were
also viral on Facebook.

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We are all very proud of the young
people who graduated or studying

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at Harvard or MIT, and share these posts.

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They are all outstanding.

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So quite a few of them were interviewed.

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I've read all of them.

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They were asked to share
the ingredients of their success.

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The common ingredients were

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"to dedicate yourself and work harder"

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or "good knowledge of English".

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We should be proud of these kids?

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(Applause)

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And now let's look
at the drivers of their success

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from a broader societal perspective.

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What we see here is that

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there are many factors
behind their success.

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At least these kids are healthy,

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they are studying in private schools,

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they don't need to look after
a sick father or mother,

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they can afford to pay
the tuition fee and so on.

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In other words, these kids
are already very close to success,

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and with a little hard work they can climb
to seemingly high points on our ladder.

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In contrast, those people
mentioned earlier

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who make up around 60 - 70 percent of
the population at the bottom of the ladder

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are not able to get to the same level
of the ladder if they work equally hard.

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Because their social
barriers are very high

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like the one we see here.

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So one might be asking,
what are these barriers?

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Why can't one work harder
and climb up the ladder?

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There are so many factors.

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For example, quality education
and health services.

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Because these people don't have sufficient
education, don't have necessary skills.

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Because they don't have skills,
they can't find job.

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They don't have work
then they don't have salaries.

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No salaries, no savings.

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No savings, no investment
in their own life.

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As such that person
is trapped into poverty.

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But today we, the ones
standing at the top of the ladder

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and inside our bubbles, are pointing down

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to the people who are at the bottom
and telling them to work harder

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as if we have ever worked ourselves out
of the situations they find themselves in.

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The main reason poverty
and other social issues persist is

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the big gap in society
and structural differences

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and I'm trying to show
this situation through this picture.

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Again, the story is not finished.

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We've just criticised people
from inside our bubbles.

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Our imagination about society is

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created only within
our limited social boundary.

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Looking at the results from this study,

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our own trust and cooperation with others

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is limited by our parents,
friends and relatives.

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In other words, we are still
operating inside a bubble.

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So what can we do to burst this bubble?

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Rather than just sitting here
and complaining,

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we should look for solutions.

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There are two things that need to be done.

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First, we need to remove
social barriers or, in other words,

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narrow the gaps in this ladder,

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so that those people at the bottom
can move up the ladder.

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We need to make social reform.

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But what is constraining this
social reform from happening is that we -

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the young people
who are the future of Mongolia-

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still remain in our bubbles, if we don't
burst them, this change will never happen.

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Let's reduce the height of the ladder
with the two arrows pointing

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and provide equal opportunity.

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Next, let's burst our bubbles.

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(Applause)

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This is a picture of a bubble

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where we blame or praise the individual

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and imagine the individual as isolated
from the rest of the society.

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We should become the young professionals
who don't blame the individual

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but rather who try to see the underlying
reasons and conditions for problems

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in a much broader way based on evidence,
research and using our intelligence.

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Then why should we burst our bubble
and what change can this bring?

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Like this picture
I'm showing you right here,

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we want a society where everyone
has an equal opportunity to move up there

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and reach success and a society
with adequate structure.

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The basis of creating this kind of society
is that we ourselves leave our bubble.

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All of us, to burst this bubble, like I
was trying to convince you earlier,

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rather than seeing Turuu
or someone else's success

00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:32.573
or failure through the matter
purely of personal effort,

00:15:32.573 --> 00:15:37.248
we should learn to ask ourselves

00:15:37.520 --> 00:15:39.917
do we have skills to see
the society as a whole?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)