My heart bleeds for poor Asashoryu! What wrong did he do in playing soccer with children back in Mongolia in the cause of charity? His excuse for returning to his native country was his need to rest from the ardor of sumo in Japan. A perfectly just excuse. Come on! For a sumo champion, playing soccer with children must have been an ideal way of resting.
The emphasis on "dignity" in this case is ludicrous when set against the humanity of playing soccer with children. One may well suspect that in the eyes of his superiors in the sumo world, the real fault of this outstanding yokozuna is that he is not Japanese. So he must be punished and humiliated in the eyes of the Japanese world. What a petty world it is!
peter milward
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