Here’s a snapshot of the sublime landscapes that accompany us north of the 60th parallel. Witnessing such a sunset is magical. It’s like being nowhere but between two great frontiers that meet briefly at a special moment. Those two frontiers are Space and Earth. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful midsummer if relevant to your region.

It was on a Saturday afternoon in April 1978 when I was locked up in a police cell in Buenos Aires for forgetting my ID at home. The other mistake I made was to accidentally point my camera at the US consul’s home. When I reached the corner, two undercover policemen ran from behind and…

Did you know that one out of 35 people in the world is an immigrant, according to a 2004 United Nations study? In numbers, that translates to 175 million people (2.9% of the world’s population) versus 75 million (2.5%) in 1960. In the United States, the number of immigrants total over 34 million, accounting for…

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)