Curaçao: A small Caribbean nation at the biggest World Cup

Pablo Ferri | El Pais | Jun 07, 2026

The rhythm, the cadence, is hypnotic. The late-afternoon sun helps: scales flying off the fish flash in a silvery, summery gust. Three young men fall into a soft, steady rhythm — fish, knife, entrails — chop, chop! The day winds down at the pier, and Curaçao — this small, arid island off the northern coast of Venezuela, part of the former Dutch Antilles — now stands out as one of the best ideas conceived since the Big Bang; at times, it may also seem like the opposite: a Caribbean theme park for Europeans and Americans. But not now — it is a kingdom of physical well-being, a haven of tranquility, the soul of the slow world. Guts, scales, salt water, milky sun, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.

Of the three men, the biggest one works with his legs in the water, which is as clear as in fairy tales, despite the broth of livers, gonads, and intestines oozing from the fish.

“I’ve liked fishing since I was little. I also do carpentry, but what I like most is this,” he says. At 25, Ango Beers is a paradox on a global scale. While the world races forward and strives for more, he plays with light and a knife. He could have studied in Rotterdam or The Hague, like so many of his compatriots, but he chose to stay with the fish, his friends, and the sunsets. And soccer, his other passion. “This year we’re among the best in the tournament. Last week we won 3-1,” he says, happily.

The old world is dying - opinionated advice for c/o 2026 graduates

Jasmine Sun | Jasmine’s Substack | Jun 10, 2026

First, no nostalgia! The old world was bad. Those staid institutions and rigid hierarchies are not worth mourning. I went to a grinder high school and a grifter college. Both were mostly shitty and anti-human ways to live. Nothing makes you feel as compressed, quantized, and box-checked as AP season or the college application process. The notion that teens can smoke weed and skim Hegel for four years and have a cushy office job waiting on the other side was always doomed. Did new grad engineers have a God-given right to a $200k starting salary, while schoolteachers and paramedics grind for a fraction of the wage? There have to be better credentialing systems than one’s willingness to go into debt.

Prestige is a brain worm, and its shape changes all the time. Keep your identity small, and don’t fear starting over. The people who will win are those who can remake themselves again and again: to summit one peak, descend it, and then hike up the next. Know your fallback plans. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d go back to product, and if I couldn’t do that, I’d work in policy or comms. I also like to teach, host events, and lead group travel. I’d be a slow line cook, but could do that too. You must imagine yourself happy in any number of worlds. There is nothing “higher status” than excelling joyfully at what you do.

I have no solution except that real work has a feeling. I know the difference between reading a book and its summary, like athletes know when they’re pushing themselves in training versus phoning it in. The reason to write your own essays isn’t that Claude can’t do it better—it’s that writing is thinking and you shouldn’t wither away your brain. Use AI to get smarter and don’t let it make you dumb. There’s a cognitive equivalent to lifting heavy. Do it three or four times a week.