Stephen Stromberg

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El gran campeón de sumo nacido en Mongolia, Hakuho, después de derrotar al entonces campeón Terunofuji en el Gran Torneo de Sumo de Nagoya para ganar su victoria 45 en los torneos, en Nagoya, Japón, el 18 de julio de 2021. (Kyodo News vía AP) (AP)

ReflexionesSocial

El campeonato se redujo a solo 20 segundos decisivos. Con 36 años, el indudablemente más grande de todos los tiempos acababa de regresar de una lesión y de una infección de COVID-19. Sus rodillas le dolían. El organismo rector del deporte parecía querer que se retirara. Frente a él estaba un hombre más grande todavía en sus veintitantos, también con algo que probar, con sus rodillas tan fuertemente vendadas que parecía que tuviera un yeso en cada pierna. Ambos hombres tenían récords perfectos en el torneo hasta ese momento. Golpearon la arcilla con sus puños y se abalanzaron hacia adelante. Se empujaron, abofetearon y forcejearon por todo el ring.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,  

Durante décadas los estadounidenses podían recordar a las generaciones previas con reverencia. La generación de la Segunda Guerra Mundial liberó a Europa y estableció un orden mundial liberal. La Generación silenciosa ayudó a reconstruir la prosperidad de posguerra y a luchar contra el comunismo internacional. Los “baby boomers” han tenido sus momentos, la mayoría hace ya mucho tiempo: marcharon en el Movimiento por los derechos civiles en Estados Unidos, alzaron la voz contra una la guerra en Vietnam, revolucionaron la cultura. Pero cuando sus hijos y nietos vuelvan la mirada a su legado, “reverencia” no es la palabra que se les vendrá a la mente.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,  

For decades, Americans could remember previous generations with reverence. The Greatest Generation freed Europe and established the liberal world order. The Silent Generation helped them build post-World War II prosperity and battle international communism. And the baby boomers had their moments, mostly long past: marching for civil rights; speaking out against an endless war; revolutionizing the culture. But when their children and grandchildren look back at the boomer legacy, “reverence” is not the word that will come to mind.

A new Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll gauged how U.S. teenagers feel about climate change. Nearly all — 86 percent — believe in the near-unanimous conclusions of the scientific community.…  Seguir leyendo »

Flames and smoke are seen billowing from the roof at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday. (Veronique De Viguerie/Getty Images)

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

“You still haven’t seen Notre Dame’s west facade,” we tease my dad. The first time my mom, an art historian and Gothic architecture obsessive, took us to Paris’s iconic cathedral, the front was covered in scaffolding, as workers were painstakingly removing years of accumulated grime, turning the brooding, dark gray stone so many shades lighter that it almost seemed white. My mom, my sister and I visited the lightened edifice years later. My dad had to work. We rub it in.

Uncovered were the 28 kings of Judah, standing in a dramatic row on the cathedral’s facade. Mistaken for old French monarchs, the statues were beheaded and removed during the tumult of the French Revolution.…  Seguir leyendo »

Police use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators protesting the construction of a fourth nuclear plant, in front of Taipei Railway station in Taipei April 28, 2014. (Stringer/Taiwan/Reuters)

MundoAsiaReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

Tackling climate change using all the technologies we have will be hard enough. Trying to do it while swearing off nuclear power would be plainly ridiculous. That’s the lesson from Taiwan, a densely packed island state with few natural resources and a rising aversion to reactors.

Taiwan “cannot really be picky about energy,” President Ma Ying-jeou told me in an interview this week. But the Taiwanese behave as though they can. Taiwan faces many constraints, some natural, some self-imposed, explained Chien You-hsin, a former environmental minister: Most people understand that greenhouse-gas emissions warm the planet, but they fear nuclear power, refuse to live near onshore wind turbines, insist that offshore wind platforms not disturb aquatic habitats and lack wide-open spaces for solar generation.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

In the eyes of many elite observers, the pro-democracy protesters occupying streets and plazas in Hong Kong’s business and political core are hopelessly naive. Though the city is mostly self-governing, Beijing has power over its political development, and the mainland’s ruling Communist Party is unlikely to accede to popular demands for unfettered democracy. Changing course amid the dramatic popular protests of recent days could encourage subversive ideas among Chinese citizens elsewhere. Rather than encouraging change, disorder in Hong Kong could confirm Beijing’s worst fears about loosening up.

But Hong Kong residents — a majority of whom want authentic democracy, polls show — need not lose hope and quietly acquiesce to Beijing.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

"Mom!" my 12-year-old yelled from the kitchen. "President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize!"

I told her she had to be mistaken.

This is ridiculous -- embarrassing, even. I admire President Obama. I like President Obama. I voted for President Obama. But the peace prize? This is supposed to be for doing, not being -- and it's no disrespect to the president to suggest he hasn't done much yet. Certainly not enough to justify this prize.

"Extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples?" "Captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future?" Please. This turns the award into something like pee-wee soccer: Everybody wins for trying.…  Seguir leyendo »