Month: June 2007

Some linguists warn that of the world’s 6,000-odd languages that are spoken today, about half will disappear by the end of the century. That means 300 languages become extinct in a year, or about six in a week. A BBC documentary posed an interesting question: When does a language become extinct? Is it when the…

Seen from The Americas, Europe looks like myriad of languages and religions with most of them having a score to settle for some injustice that took place recently or long time ago. In countries like Finland and the Baltic States, the main motive for independence was ethnic. The strife in the breakup of Yugoslavia is…

Para personas como los finlandeses, quienes alguna vez fueron una tribu nómada, y terminaron estableciéndose en este rincón mágico de Europa, el ritual de la despedida sigue siendo una parte importante de nuestra herencia cultural. Las despedidas se notan en todas partes de nuestra cultura. Hasta Väinämöinen, el mítico héroe barbudo blanco del Kalevala, parte…

I was very surprised to hear a while ago that the Argentinean government was breathing life back to the long-overdue Atucha II nuclear plant porject. Even if construction of the nuclear reactor began in 1981, Atucha II was never built. One of the reasons was its ungodly costs due mainly to delays. In 1988, some…

Brazilian state-owned energy company Petrobras chief executive Sergio Gabrielli reiterated the need for greater investments in Bolivia to keep up with future export commitments. While Brazil signed a 20-year agreement in 1999 and has the right to purchase up to 30 million cu m/d, the big challenge will be to supply Argentina from 2010 with…

I once stared at death straight in the eyes in a place I’d never imagined. My first impression of it was its luring beauty mixed with finality. I stood in its domain only briefly, in a forest that had been clearcut a few afternoons ago. It was a special forest since it had seen me…

…this is an interesting quote. Possibly it explains why citizens and country are two different matters. If people behaved in the way of nations do they would all be put in straightjackets. Tennessee Williams (1911-83)

Global world In the future, nations will turn into vague provinces; distant cities will become suburbs of a vast metropolis called Earth. Traveler A traveler feels a special type of contentedness and freedom at airports, harbors and railway stations because he’s in a land of nowhere — in a transit hall with a sense of…

It wasn’t too long ago when energy companies from Europe, United States and Canada came in droves to invest in countries like Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and others. Some of these countries were at the time opening up their economies to outside investment through schemes like deregulation and privatization. The reasoning was pretty simple: In…

Dear Arthur, May I call you by your first name? Even if we never met, because I wasn’t born when you lived in 1871-1920, I feel I somehow know you. You left a lot of clues about who you were: There’s the study on the Kaale Roma (Finnish Gypsies) and the travels you made, imaginary…