Wise Monkey News is here to provide young people an opportunity to discuss the issues that affect their lives. We hope that, through your participation, this website serves as a forum for the development, exchange, and expression of ideas that will prepare us to assume our positions as the leaders of tomorrow's world. Have something to say?
Snap-shot goes unnoticed
by: Megan Molenda - printed on 11-28-2001
While talking with an aspiring middle-aged photographer, I learned the secret to becoming successful within that field -- if one is indeed aspiring towards the kind of success in which he or she would receive genuine recognition from others.
If you are among the many who simply see something beautiful and capture it on film, then you may be complimented with a brief expresion of admiration from others, but chances are that the feeling will quickly pass and the work will soon be forgotten.
One Child Policy
by: Ben Hays - printed on 11-07-2001
People pack the streets of China everyday from sunup to sundown. Bicycles fill the lanes with a steady blur of baskets and business suits. The sound of ringers is a constant melody, with the addition of a few mopeds thrown in for an offbeat. This is a typical day for Chinese people, who migrate to work through a sea of people. With China?s large population of over 1.2 billion, how could it ever change?
Population decrease has already begun when the Chinese government imposed a One Child Policy in 1978.
Uniting Eco-efforts
by: Kristina Koenig - printed on 02-20-2002
No college campus is perfect from the idealistic perspective of an environmentalist. Everyday, cans and paper are thrown away instead of recycled; paper products are used in excess; people rarely use double-sided printing; annual food waste from campus food services may be enough to feed some small 3rd world countries; faucets and showerheads leak and sidewalks are watered in a way that makes water seem like a endless resource; faulty heating systems create unnecessary wintertime saunas; lights and computers are left on 24 hrs/day; harsh cleaning chemicals and fertilizers are used and fed to our rivers; heavy machinery is used for building and landscaping; students drive across the street to school; non-native species are planted for aesthetic purposes ? the list could go on forever.
Coal plant threatens lives in Thailand
by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 04-10-2002
Progression and invention are two of those highly valued American ideas that permeate our culture, right up there with wealth and power. We are always looking for better ways of doing whatever it is that we are doing, and therefore we are suckers for anything new because "new and improved" signals progression, which is valued. With this in mind, it would seem that our old methods of doing things would become outdated and not even put into question, much less practice.
‘That’s the thing about Christmas in Ghana’
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 01-31-2001
It is an organic story, really. In 1969 two Peace Corps volunteers went to Ghana, West Africa. They taught English to the Twi-speaking children of villages called Aducrom and Laarte. They ate fufu and banku and redred and nkatiekwein. They did all the things that volunteers do: teach, travel, work, wander, laugh and cry. Of course, they couldn’t help but to love the kids they taught, love the work they did, and love most of Ghana in general.
State of the Union: The Empire Rolls Back
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 02-06-2002
"Let?s roll."
President Bush, at the climax of his State of the Union address, tossed the nation his latest attempt at a national catchphrase. Somehow ?let?s roll? is supposed to become this nation?s mantra.
Tired of fighting evil terrorists and rogue nations? Sick of seeing our young men and women perishing while bombing and shooting other nations' futures? Let?s roll.
Let?s roll onward, toward our place in history.