Travels in the Riel World

So the Winter Olympics are over. After two weeks of marveling at the physical feats of some of the world’s best athletes, it’s time to say goodbye to the skiers, snowboarders, speedskaters and bobsledders for another four years. Unless, that is, you happen to take in some World Cup or X-Games competitions. But fear not, for there are still ways for you to keep the Olympics buzz going.

If you’re a more sedate person and prefer to be an extreme sport spectator, you might want to check out one of the Halls of Fame in North America that are dedicated to some of the winter sports. I just published an article on this topic for Examiner.com. An excerpt:

Figure Skating Hall of Fame - Colorado Springs, Colorado: From Sonja Henie, Peggy Fleming and Dick Button to Katarina Witt, Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton, dozens of Olympic champions and all-time greats are enshrined in the Figure Skating Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The museum also features the world’s largest collection of memorabilia and films related to the popular sport of figure skating.

Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame - Ishpeming , Michigan: Michigan may seem like an unusual choice for the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, but the city of Ishpeming is where the National Skiing Association was first organized a century ago. This Hall of Fame focuses on Americans, but honors more than 300 individuals, from early pioneers to such recent Olympic champions as Picabo Street and Tommy Moe. The museum has 15,000-square-feet of exhibits, including a large collection of skiing memorabilia and archives.

On the other hand, if you want to be involved in some adrenaline-producing activities, then head over to this MSNBC story, which profiles a few of the world’s best activities for thrill seekers. O.K., so you won’t be matching wits with Shaun White on the halfpipe, but there are plenty of options here to get your heart racing.

Rock climbing, Yosemite Valley: They say Yosemite Valley is climbing mecca, with climbs coveted by “rock heads” far and wide, and a degree of difficulty that has necessitated many technical innovations. Even today, as the most demanding ascents have crumbled, aficionados still point to El Capitan, Yosemite’s 915 meter granite wall, as the planet’s greatest rock climb. Be prepared to self-rescue: it is illegal to camp at the base of any wall.

Zambezi Riverrafting, Zambia and Zimbabwe: The British Canoe Union classes this white-water run as an extreme Grade V: violent rapids, steep gradients, massive drops. One of the rapids is called ‘Oblivion’ and is said to flip more canoes than any other on the planet. Commercial operators like Safari Par Excellence operate on both countries’ shores. July to January serves up the best water conditions.

Running with the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain: Ever since Ernest Hemingway popularized the event, running with the bulls through the narrow streets of Pamplona has come to symbolize some kind of macho pinnacle. Bull runs start at 8 a.m. every day from 7 to 14 July; runners must enter before 7:30 a.m. Once you start running it is technically illegal to stop.

Whatever you do, enjoy! And see you in London in two years, or Sochi in four.

So there are 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, not to mention places to see before they disappear, festivals to experience, destinations for food and wine lovers, and much, much more. But what about places to ride your bike before you die? It’s not a new book, but it is the fun title of a quite interesting online article that I just came across on travellingtwo.com. There are some really great selections listed, so much so that you may actually want to dust off your bike for your next vacation. Here is a sample:

Along the Mekong in Cambodia: Angkor Wat might be Cambodia’s’s most famous attraction but when it comes to really seeing how the local people live, you can’t do any better than by riding your bike along the dirt paths that follow the Mekong River, through a string of small villages that rarely see tourists. What will you see? For a start, there will be more chickens and pigs on the road than cars. Lunch might be some sweet rice and coconut, steamed in bamboo over hot coals (the ultimate energy snack for a hungry cyclist) and the whole way you’ll hear the sounds of enthusiastic kids saying Sua s’dei as you pass. The rainy season brings the added bonus of endless local ferries over bits of flooded road.

Shiraz to Yazd in Iran: Want to feel like a cycling celebrity? Go to Iran. Yes, Iran. This is not the axis of evil but rather a country where passing tourists are regularly hauled into local homes to drink endless cups of tea, then stuffed to the gills with home-cooked delights, put to bed on fine carpets and sent off the next day with panniers filled to bursting with bread and sweets. Friendlier people? You can’t find them anywhere else in the world. Then there are the endless archaeological sites. They’re as glorious as anything you’d see in Rome, only mostly devoid of other tourists because so few people come to Iran these days. Don’t forget the scenery – a mix of mountains and deserts – and some of the world’s most gorgeous architecture. For beauty and tranquility, the tiled mosques of Iran, particularly in Esfahan, are unmatched.

The Island of Tasmania in Australia:If touring cyclists go to heaven, they’d go to a place where the roads are smooth, the traffic is light, the views are stunning, the pies are always fresh from the oven and the camping is free. We can only conclude that heaven already exists and it’s on a small island south of Melbourne. Welcome to Tasmania or Tassieas it’s more affectionately known. Come here for the endless views of the sea, the numerous well-thought-out free campsites, the plethora of bakeries serving up tasty treats and the amazing wildlife. You’re sure to see a wombat or two, echidnas and maybe – if you’re lucky – a Tasmanian Devil.

There are seven more destinations in the full story - encompassing Oregon, Portugal, Kyrgyzstan and more - not to mention links to maps and route notes.

There is a lot of jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery on this planet and quite a few hikes that enable us to enjoy that scenery. But which hiking trails are the best? Which ones provide the most interesting experiences or the most incredible views? It’s not an easy question, but Julie Blakley tackled it recently in an article she wrote for BootsnAll. She came up with her list of the 10 best hiking trails in the world and managed to include destinations in nine countries and on five continents. An excerpt:

Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand- It is certainly no secret that New Zealand boasts some of the world’s most beautiful and dramatic scenery, which is why it’s not surprising that one of the world’s most spectacular hikes is located on these mountainous islands. While many people who hike in the Tongariro Reserve (a World Heritage site) on the Northern island stick to the one-day Tongariro Alpine crossing, the multi-day (2 nights and 3 days) Tongariro northern circuit provides hikers with a much richer and scenic experience.

Annapurna Circuit, Nepal - Any serious hiker or trekker dreams of going to Nepal to journey through the world’s most dramatic mountain landscape. While most hikers think of Kathmandu and Everest when they hear the word Nepal, the Annapurna circuit (which circumnavigates the Annapurna massif) not only has staggering snow-capped and rugged peaks providing for a spectacular backdrop, but the hike also offers trekkers great opportunities to see a wide range of natural and cultural diversity.

Inca Trail, Peru- Most people who know something about travel, know about the famous and world-renowned Inca Trail. While some of the more hard-core types out there may think of this amazing trek as cliché, the truth is that this trail is popular for a reason. Peru offers some of the most beautiful South American mountainous scenery and, while some criticize the trail for being over-regulated and too popular, Machu Picchu is a destination worth seeing and the hike along the way is sure not to disappoint, with plenty of scenic vistas and amazing views.

Check out her story for the entire list of 10 great hikes. What other ones would be on your list?

Brazil is a country that is mad for soccer (or football, as most of the world calls the sport). Now, that passionate love for the game has been permanently documented in a new National Football Museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. What’s unique about this museum is that it not only celebrates Brazil’s star players and team accomplishments, but it also pays tribute to the sport’s role in Brazilian culture, as described in this article in the International Herald Tribune.

The museum tells the story of both sport and country, where the national pastime has come to represent and inspire the multiracial, samba-loving soul of the people. In Brazil, stuffy European soccer was transformed into “the beautiful game” of magical passing and dribbling that has won the country world renown…

Another room pays homage to Brazil’s fans. They dance shirtless, beating drums to samba rhythms on huge video screens, with cacophonous surround sound that makes you feel as if you are among the crowd.

A sport for the masses is a theme throughout. In one room, a short movie recounts how soccer in Brazil morphed from a country club sport that was socially segregated during Miller’s time, into one that took on the evolving character of the racially mixed working class that was propelling Brazil’s industrialization.

The Chinese are proud to be hosting this year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing, and they certainly want the home team to perform well. But perhaps not too well.

There was an interesting cultural note in a recent Washington Post article about Chinese rooting interests in these Olympics. It seems that while the Chinese are proud of their nation’s growing might on the world stage, some of them think it’s a bit too soon - and too showy - for their athletes to emerge with the most medals this year. It’s typical for the Chinese to be self deprecating, and this reminded me of a Chinese-born woman who used to work with my wife. She was horrified at the thought of filling out a performance review for herself at work because it would be unseemly to be too self congratulatory.

Apparently, that attitude even extends to the Olympics. Here is the telling anecdote from Francesco Sisci in his Post story:

The Olympic Games aren’t just a show for me; they’re a family affair, and one that’s turning out quite differently from what I’d expected. I’m Italian, but I’ve lived in China for about 20 years. My wife is Chinese — and very patriotic — and my two daughters grew up here…So you can imagine my state of mind before these games. I thought we all had to be very patriotic — that is, pro-China.

But when my mother announced before the games that she hoped that China would win the most medals, my wife, Luoyan, looked at me as if my mother had said something inappropriate. “Well,” she replied, “I hope that China comes in second and America will be first.”

She’s not alone. There’s a sizable undercurrent of hope here that the United States will top the medal rankings…The subtle reluctance to win may also be related to China’s being host of the games; by coming in first, China would look like a showoff. It could also be part of an idea that sport stands for economic and political might, and China knows that it certainly can’t challenge American supremacy, at least not yet.

“It’s not our moment. It would be too ambitious and too unreal to be the first in the Olympics now,” said a friend of mine at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the country’s premier think tank. “Many people, even among the leaders, think like this.”

Baseball season begins today, with a season-opening game in Tokyo between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics. For American fans of these teams, the season begins at the ungodly hour of somewhere between 3 a.m. (West coast) and 6 a.m. (East coast). Still, it’s always an exciting day for fans, and the Japanese twist to the opener gives us a chance to look at some of the different baseball traditions in the U.S. and Japan.

One of the most interesting differences is actually the fan experience at the games. The Boston Globe has been following the Red Sox in Japan and notes that the Sox-A’s game in the Tokyo Dome will not be quite the same as a contest between two Japanese teams.

A good part of the Dome’s charm will be missing when the Red Sox play the A’s in the real games Tuesday and Wednesday. There won’t be thousands of well-lubricated, yellow-clad Tigers fans standing, clapping, singing, and cheering (while a band plays) when the home team is at bat. These guys have gym-class whistles, flags, Thunderstix, and signage.

The Globe is not exaggerating here. I was at a Japanese game in Tokyo a few years ago and I wrote about the experience in my book. Here is how I described the scene in the stadium:

The visiting team was up first and so were their fans, who engaged in a series of coordinated cheering, jumping, shouting, flag-waving, drum-beating, whistle-blowing, trumpet-playing mayhem. And, no, coordinated mayhem is not an oxymoron, but rather a quintessentially Japanese way of rooting for a team. The cheers we saw were all choreographed, loud and non-stop.

When the ballplayers switched from offense to defense after each half-inning, the other team’s fans rose and launched into their own organized pandemonium. The first set of fans politely gave way, since it’s not socially acceptable to cheer while the other team is batting. For the young students sitting behind us in their identical school uniforms, that meant it was time to return to their chopsticks and finish eating their boxed dinners. For many adults, it was time for a concession run to bring back noodles and sake. Or, even better, to order beers from the attractive young women who wandered the stands with lightweight kegs strapped to their backs.

Then, there was the entertainment sideshow. I was amused by the booming English-language rendition of “Who Let the Dogs Out” every time the visiting team made its final out of the inning, but most interesting was the “fifth inning sweep.” This was introduced by the public address announcer much as the seventh inning stretch is in a U.S. ballpark. While the grounds crew ran onto the field to do their normal sweep of the basepaths, some cheerleaders and the team’s mascot came out and danced to the song “YMCA.” After the basepaths were swept, the grounds crew joined in the performance, doing a choreographed dance number with their brooms! Yes, I thought, I can just imagine the groundskeepers at Fenway Park doing that.

Amazingly, the fans’ enthusiasm never seemed to waver. In the game we attended, the Nippon Ham Fighters took a 9-0 lead into the ninth inning. I should note that this contest was being played near the end of the baseball season and both teams were hopelessly out of the playoff race. It was the equivalent of watching two of the worst American teams competing during the last week of the season, with both clubs more than 20 games out of first place. Despite this, and despite the fact that Chiba Lotte was losing by nine runs, none of the Marines’ fans left the stadium and they remained just as loud and raucous in the ninth inning as they had been in the first.

When the game was over, the Ham Fighters’ mascot ran onto the field and bowed to the fans, while confetti shot out of the upper deck and rained over the spectators. It was as if the team had just won the league title. Dramatic music blared from stadium speakers, a pedestal was set up on the field, and two of the star players came over and were interviewed live while the team’s fans stayed to watch and cheer.

Or, if you’re interested in cultural differences in how the players perform and train, the Globe also has that covered with an intriguing look at the Japanese Little League.

When the coach spots something he doesn’t like, he barks at the offending player, who instantly removes his cap and stands rigidly before bowing in acknowledgment of the message being received.

There is constant chatter from the players, who yell, “Koi-Koi” (”C’mon, c’mon)” and make other sounds, virtually indistinguishable even to a native speaker, but that are designed to help promote wa, which means unity and team spirit…

These are the values that penetrate to the youngest levels of Japanese baseball. Critics say the Japanese approach stifles creativity and individual expression, but these kids show a mastery of fundamentals that would embarrass some big leaguers.

Ariyasu said he tries to teach his players patience (”nintai”) and discipline (”choubatsu”). These are principles he learned as a youth studying judo, and from his father, who served in the Japanese navy during World War II. “It is a style,” he said, “almost like the samurai spirit.” 

I came across an interesting recent blog entry on Blog Critics Magazine in which Terence Clarke reminisced about a two-decade-old journey to Nicaragua and what he learned about that country and its love affair with baseball.

“Baseball is a poem,” my companion said. I looked out the bus window….My companion’s sentiment was similar to one that both John and I had noticed among the Nicaraguans in general. Whenever we asked one of them what he did for a living, the answer was almost universally, “I am a poet.”

Putting aside for the moment that at the time it was almost impossible to make a living in Nicaragua…it still seemed unusual to us that so many Nicaraguans claimed to be poets. It’s well known in the United States that writing poetry will make you no money at all. So John and I figured that maybe the Nicaraguans were simply acknowledging that fact, and that, since there was no money anywhere in Nicaragua, maybe poetry was as good a profession as any.

But that was an insouciant observation on our part, because baseball and poetry in Nicaragua have in common one very important element. The heart itself is best expressed by baseball and by verse. The two make the soul sing in that country, equally so, and they do not alternate. Both express the same emotional infusion of earth, water and light. Both bring forth the same artistic flower.

Our group played a game of baseball against an all-star team of farmhands in the town of Boaco…Afterwards we were honored at a fiesta on a ranch outside town. The farmhands had all been invited, and there was a smattering of dignitaries as well, including the nurse at the local clinic, who was holding a baseball in her hands when we met.  She explained that she had loved the game all her life, and was overjoyed that we had come all this way to play against her neighbors here in Boaco.

At first John and I didn’t know that she was the local nurse, because when I asked her what she did, she replied, “Well, I’m a poet.” Only a few minutes later did we discover her medical leanings.

But I took the opportunity to tell her that many, many Nicaraguans had told me that they were poets. Did she know, I asked, why there were so many poets in her country?

“Of course, señor,” she replied. Her eyes fluttered. Her hands caressed the baseball. Smiling, she took in a hurried, excited breath. “It is because Nicaragua is a poem.”

There was an interesting article recently in the International Herald Tribune about Shamila Kohestani, a young woman who spends part of her life as a 19-year-old student at Blair Academy in New Jersey and the other part as the captain of the fledgling women’s national soccer team in Afghanistan. Hers is a remarkable journey from oppression under the Taliban to a symbol of hope for Afghani women.

In world religion class, Shamila Kohestani is neither the adolescent who defied the Taliban in Afghanistan nor the symbol of liberation who shared the stage with stars from Hollywood and sports at the 2006 ESPY Awards. She is a teenager whose lips move as she takes notes, and whose list of words to look up grows each minute, each hour and each day.

Some of her classmates at Blair Academy know that Kohestani, 19, is the captain of the Afghanistan national women’s soccer team. Some are aware that she is Muslim. Most know her only as the striking young woman who is eager to stock her iPod with any kind of music they recommend.

Until recently, they had no idea of what Kohestani has endured in her short life. The music that they take for granted is a luxury to her; the classwork they grumble about is a privilege.

When you have been deprived of both from age 8 to 13, as Kohestani had, this prep school in the woods of New Jersey is as perfect a place as exists on earth.

“With no soccer, there would be no school, and no hope,” said Kohestani, whose smile attests to the fact that hope is one thing she has in plenty now…

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, Kohestani and her six sisters were virtually confined to their small home in Kabul. They were not allowed to attend school or work, and when they appeared in public, they had to be covered in a burqa…

Kohestani said she was beaten for not wearing her burqa properly. “I threw the burqa off and ran,” she said. It was with the same determined abandon that Kohestani became one of the cornerstones of women’s soccer in Afghanistan.

Most people are likely not familiar with the name Sania Mirza. Nor should they be, really, since she’s an Asian female tennis player who has of late been ranked about 30th in the world singles rankings. In short, she’s an excellent tennis player, but she’s not exactly Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams.

In India, however, it’s a different story. She is the best female tennis player ever to come out of India and is ranked #1 in Asia. This status has brought her tremendous popularity in her homeland, but also a surprising amount of criticism. It’s difficult, after all, being a feminist icon and a short-skirt-wearing tennis player in a very traditional and conservative society.

Sania Mirza, the most successful tennis star in India, has announced that she has no desire to play in her country any more after a string of controversies that have exposed her to months of negative publicity…Mirza’s immense popularity has brought with it intense and often hostile scrutiny from fringe religious groups and from India’s newly aggressive television and print media…

Ramachandra Guha, a historian, argued that it was a reflection of “the rising power of bigotry and intolerance in Indian society.”

“Male chauvinists have taken exception to her dress; religious bigots have protested a picture that has both her and a mosque in the same frame; jingoists have exploded at the (purely accidental) closeness of her feet in another frame to the national flag,” he wrote in an article for The Telegraph, a newspaper in Calcutta.

Mirza is one of India’s few female sports stars. Her talent and charm have won her advertising contracts and trouble in equal measure since she broke through to the top 40 in 2005, the first female Indian tennis player to achieve such a ranking.

Winter is baseball season in the Caribbean and Latin America. According to this report in the Christian Science Monitor, that makes it an excellent time for a trip to that region, where the game is often played for the sheer joy of it.

Baseball season isn’t over; in fact, it’s just begun – in Latin America, that is. There, baseball is a winter sport, and the months of December and January are the perfect time for planning a trip to follow the local action in the Caribbean.

Just as jazz, the original American musical art form, has been exported throughout the world, so has baseball. Within Latin America, baseball leagues are found in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela…

Baseball in the Dominican Republic is actually a purer form of the sport than fans now see in the US. The professional game is played as it was in the early and mid-20th century, when it was considered America’s national pastime.

Players are accessible at the baseball stadium. “You are closer to the field and the players, compared to a game in the US,” says John Lenihan, an auto industry executive who has traveled from New Jersey to Santo Domingo to watch Dominican League baseball. “You can walk down to the dugout and talk to the players.”

A few months ago, I linked to a unique story about females in Thailand who had taken up kickboxing. Now, it seems, according to this Associated Press article, young women in Afghanistan are trying to shatter more gender barriers by taking up the traditional sport of boxing.

The boxers belong to a new generation of Afghan youth, challenging stereotypes that persist five years after the fall of the Taliban. They train in a room in Kabul’s main sports stadium, a venue for public executions during Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

Boxing is helping them gain confidence and self-respect, the girls say. Their goal: to be Afghanistan’s first women’s boxing team.

“Many people are trying to stop us from participating in sports by saying it is not good for women,” said Shabnam, 15, who uses only one name.

“But I think if you are interested in doing something, you should avoid listening to what people think about you. Sports is a way out of violence for Afghanistan.”

The Red Sox won the World Series!

That’s big news in our house and we watched all of the Series games. But what is a sports fan to do when a long-planned trip abroad happens to conflict with your favorite team’s playoff run? Alexandra Pecci just wrote an article for the Boston Globe that describes the experience she and her husband had in bonding with other Red Sox fans this past week during their time in Rome.

Red Sox fans were everywhere. They were at the Trevi Fountain tossing pennies over their shoulders, waiting in line for gelato, climbing the Spanish Steps. When we checked online Monday morning to discover that the Sox were headed to the World Series, it was as much for the fans we knew we would run into that day as it was for ourselves. Brian had become a Red Sox Nation ambassador, an envoy spreading the good word in a foreign land. He was duty bound to know the score.

There were even fans at the Vatican. Outside, a group of people hooted and pumped their arms in the air shouting, “Yeah, Red Sox,” as they passed. In Saint Peter’s Basilica, in front of Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” two older fans hooted a quiet cheer. And for the duration of the Vatican tour, our guide called us simply “Red Sox.”

At first we were surprised at the number of people in Rome who cared about the team. But if Rome is the Eternal City, then maybe the Sox are the Eternal Team. They inspire love and loyalty - and loathing - that runs so deep, fans carry it with them wherever they go.

It’s not a surprise that the U.S. National Basketball Association is trying to develop more of a foothold in China…

In a move certain to highlight the growing importance of China to both the National Basketball Association and the sport, the N.B.A. plans to announce … the formation of a Chinese subsidiary. To head it, the league has chosen Timothy Chen, chief executive of Microsoft’s China operations and one of the best-known business executives in China.

What is interesting, though, from a cultural perspective, are the lengths that businesses like the NBA and Microsoft are going to in order to learn how to do business in the Chinese culture. This is an excerpt from a recent story in the New York Times business section:

Microsoft’s big task has been to persuade China’s central, provincial and municipal governments to crack down on pirated software and respect intellectual property rights; the N.B.A.’s challenge has been to win government agencies’ approval for arena construction and to persuade television stations owned by local and provincial governments to join national broadcasters who already carry N.B.A. games.

David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, said that these challenges helped make Mr. Chen the best contender for the job. “It wasn’t just about intellectual property; it was his experience in navigating difficult governmental and business issues,” Mr. Stern said in a telephone interview…

For Microsoft, Mr. Chen’s departure presents a challenge. Before his arrival, a succession of executives had cycled through the top China job but had little success in forcing the Chinese leadership to get even government agencies to use licensed copies of Microsoft software.

Mr. Chen abandoned a strategy that relied on litigation and public criticism in favor of close cooperation with the central government and much more investment in Chinese software companies.

They are two things that just don’t seem to go together. The gentle Thai female and the vicious sport of Thai boxing. But according to this story, female participation in Thai boxing is a growing phenomenon despite the fact that these same women are expected to behave according to the deferential traditions of their culture when they are not in the ring.

“To be a good girl,” says Pannipa Chaiyated, a demure 13-year-old, “you must have manners, speak politely and help with the housework.”

That’s when she’s not slugging her opponents in the ring.

In a country where femininity is highly prized and girls are often told by their parents to be discreet, obedient and gracious, female boxing is now a surprise hit…

With its roots in military training, Thai boxing, or muay Thai, is a rough sport that can make Western boxing look courteous.

The sport was once known as nawa arwut, literally “nine weapons,” because the goal was to teach soldiers that even if they had no knives or guns they could use two hands, two elbows, two knees, two feet and their head to battle their enemies. The rules have evolved: boxers are no longer allowed to head-butt their opponents and are also barred from biting, spitting, pulling hair, poking at the eyes and sticking out their tongues. But a well-placed knee to the kidney or a kick to the head or neck is fair game - and encouraged.

Muay Thai has for years been popular among martial arts enthusiasts worldwide, both women and men, and has been adopted by the gym crowd for its disciplined workout regimen. But it is only in the past few years that the sport has taken off for girls and women in Thailand, partly because a slowing economy has tightened belts and girls are lured by the cash they receive for fighting.

And yet, when the fight is over, it’s a different story…

Maintaining femininity is a serious concern for many of the Thai girls who fight, says Pariyakorn, a bejeweled and delicately built woman who comes across as someone who might worry that her manicured nails might break if she put on boxing gloves…

“In the ring I have to fight and do my best as a boxer: I kick, I punch, use my elbows and knees like a boy,” said Pannipa, the 13-year-old boxer, after a fight where she gave her opponent a bloody nose but got a fat lip in return. “Once I get down from the ring I become who I am - a girl.”

Being a girl not only means helping with the housework, Pannipa said. She has absorbed the sense of deference traditionally taught to girls in Thailand: she fills a visitor’s glass during meal time, she speaks softly and bows while clasping her hands together in a traditional Thai gesture of respect several times during an interview.

Lorena Ochoa has made her mark as the top women’s golfer in the world today, capped by her recent victory in the Women’s British Open. In Mexico, though, she is known not only for her golfing exploits but also for how much she is trying to give back to her home country. This article does a nice job of putting into context where Ochoa came from and how much Mexico still influences her worldview and her charitable efforts.

There are two Mexicos, it is often said, and on the northeast outskirts of Guadalajara is a prime example of the one that drew the short stick. Bouncing along a deeply rutted dirt road that passes through the middle of a barrio known as La Coronilla, a passenger is jarred by the scenes of abject poverty: an open-air meat market where hanging beef and poultry carcasses draw flies in sweltering heat; an emaciated horse struggling to pull a cart; small stucco houses with roofs of corrugated metal. The bleak, baked-out backdrop evokes the depressing footage of a Middle East war zone, except that these wary inhabitants are mestizos.

“These are the people that try to escape to los Estados Unidos because they have nothing,” says the driver, Guadalajara social worker Pedro Merino, as he wrestles the steering wheel through a rough turn. But as the car rolls haltingly down a steep hill to a dead end, a majestic canyon that drops some 2,000 feet to a green valley floor is suddenly revealed. So is a simple but just as surprising steel and concrete building whose windows and balconies are perched on the cliff’s edge. It’s an elementary school called La Barranca, the place Lorena Ochoa, the world’s best woman golfer, has focused her deep desire to help and give back.

Employing an experimental curriculum aimed at breaking through Mexico’s extreme class divisions, La Barranca charges no student more than $20 a month, and most far less. The school day opens with 45 minutes of exercise, stretching and meditation designed to put kids in a calm state they reach too rarely in their often chaotic home environments. The school emphasizes theater arts as a way of tapping into creativity that is too often repressed. The children frequently learn songs containing their lessons in order to better retain knowledge. They also practice judo as a way to channel latent anger and aggression and foster self-control and self-esteem.

Each day, a group of neighborhood mothers gathers to cook breakfast and lunch for the children in the school kitchen. At night, the classrooms are used to address the widespread illiteracy problem among adults in the barrio, as well as for community workshops on parenting, drug and alcohol counseling, and domestic violence prevention. The panorama of the majestic canyon is always present, a subliminal reminder—along with benefactor Ochoa’s accomplishments as the first Mexican athlete to achieve world No. 1 status—of possibilities.

Ochoa got involved in La Barranca after she started the Fundación Lorena Ochoa upon joining the LPGA Tour in 2003. “People said, ‘No, Lorena, it’s too soon, you are too busy, too young, you don’t have enough money, you don’t know what’s going to happen,’” the 25-year-old says in accented but articulate English, a language she did not begin to learn until her late teens. “I said, ‘I don’t care, I want to do it.’ Somehow, I just knew the thing would work, and it did.”

The sport of soccer appears to have achieved - if only temporarily - what politicians have failed at, which is to unite Iraqis across sectarian divisions. The underdog Iraq national team pulled off an improbable series of upsets, defeating Vietnam in the quarterfinals, South Korea in the semifinals, and then three-time champion Saudi Arabia in the championship game to win the 2007 Asian Cup. The team, which includes Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, had Iraqis of all types celebrating in the streets after the championship match. As the NY Times reports:

The bare statistics will record that in the 71st minute of a soccer tournament 5,000 miles from Iraq, a Kurd from Mosul kicked a ball onto the head of a Sunni from Kirkuk, who ricocheted it into the goal to secure a 1-0 victory for Iraq over Saudi Arabia on Sunday in the final of the 2007 Asian Cup.

What weeping, shouting, horn-honking, flag-kissing, Kalashnikov-firing Iraqis will remember is that their team, known as the Lions of the Two Rivers, overcame virtually insurmountable sporting and societal odds on Sunday to vanquish the land of the Two Holy Mosques. It was one of the few unifying moments in the recent history of a perhaps fatally disunited country.

Taking its nickname from the waterways of the Tigris and Euphrates that gave ancient Mesopotamia its name, the Iraqi team — prevented by the threat of terrorism from training on its own soil and, perhaps, even returning to it — was a little-favored underdog. It had never reached the final of the soccer tournament that its opponent had won three times, making victory over a wealthier and better-prepared regional rival all the more satisfying…

“Our happiness depends on these guys who played in Asia; I wish they would come and take over the Parliament, for they are the ones who really represent us,” said Murtada Sabbar, as he danced around the inside of the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad waving a handgun in celebration.

While the jubilant crowds remained wary of the bombers and gunmen, many hailed the team’s achievement as a victory, however temporary, over those intent on reducing Iraq to chaos and misery.

It’s opening day for baseball season in the United States. Every newspaper just did some form of a preseason preview and a few of them used the occasion to discuss the internationalization of baseball, particularly with more Japanese players now joining a large contingent of Latin Americans on team rosters.

The Hartfourd Courant looked at the history of baseball in Japan and why the sport seemed to fit well with Japanese culture.

Conditions in Japan, meanwhile, formed near-perfect conditions for baseball to become the national game. The Meiji period, a time of modernization and acceptance of ideas from the West, was in full swing and the elite universities were looking to athletics as a tool for training.

“They considered martial arts,” said Kelly, “but with martial arts, there was too much emphasis on the individual. It didn’t teach the right lessons. Baseball has the one-on-one confrontation of the batter and the pitcher, similar to sumo wrestling, and yet it is a team game, which involves the sacrifice of the individual for the team.” …

“Baseball is viewed as an opportunity and a way to show fighting spirit handed down from `Bushido,’ which is the code of the Samurai warriors,” Hillman said. “It is also very much a team sport and that fits into this culture, especially in the sacrificing one’s individual stats for the good of the team.”

And one topic in a Boston Globe article was the impact of Japan’s group-oriented culture on the sport:

“They’re a far more humble people than we are. They’re not encouraged to be independent. They’re encouraged to follow rules. There’s a saying, ‘The nail that sticks up gets beat down.’ If you’re an individual, you wouldn’t play on the high school team. They push teamwork, being the same, to the point where they wouldn’t allow a star, if different from everyone else, to be on the team.

The 2007 World Cup of Cricket is currently being played in the Caribbean. The sporting event is not getting much coverage in the U.S., not surprisingly, especially with March Madness going on. Shashi Tharoor, a diplomat and writer who recently published an op-ed column about his passion for cricket, says he is resigned to the fact that the sport will not catch on in this country.

… friends of mine in New York are already planning a World Cup party at the home of an expatriate with a satellite dish. The party will be attended by a raucous group of Indians and Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Brits, Australians and Zimbabweans. But of course there will be no Americans.

What I found more interesting about Tahroor’s op-ed, though, are the points he makes about the sport of cricket and the cultures that are most passionate about it.

In any event, nothing about cricket seems suited to the American national character: its rich complexity, the infinite possibilities that could occur with each delivery of the ball, the dozen different ways of getting out, are all patterned for a society of endless forms and varieties, not of a homogenized McWorld. They are rather like Indian classical music, in which the basic laws are laid down but the performer then improvises gloriously, unshackled by anything so mundane as a written score.

Cricket is better suited to a country like India, where a majority of the population still consults astrologers and believes in the capricious influence of the planets — so they can well appreciate a sport in which, even more than in baseball, an ill-timed cloudburst, a badly prepared pitch, a lost toss of the coin at the start of a match or the sun in the eyes of a fielder can transform the outcome of a game. Even the possibility that five tense, hotly contested, occasionally meandering days of cricketing could still end in a draw seems derived from ancient Indian philosophy, which accepts profoundly that in life the journey is as important as the destination. Not exactly the American Dream.

His piece is a fun read. And, if you are by chance interested in knowing more about the Cricket World Cup, you can read about it here.