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?

Beer, wine, cigarettes and other dispatches from Spain

by: David Miller - printed on 02-28-2001

My flight from Portland to Madrid, Spain had a layover in Newark, New Jersey. As I had four hours to spend in Newark, I bought a premade, mushy Philly-steak-and-cheese sandwich and sat down to collect my thoughts. I was on my way to Spain to spend the next four months studying there, in Spanish, all in Spanish. It wasn’t like I hadn’t ever traveled before, I had. I wasn’t worried about that. It was the 15 credits of college courses .

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Peace through oil

by: Dawn Hunter - printed on 11-03-2000

With the recent suicide bombing at an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip, President Clinton's legacy as a peacemaker between Palestine and Israel is clearly at stake.

With the abundance of press coverage, one is led to believe that this is but another climactic moment in the drama between the Palestinian people and Israel. Yet, another October in the not so distant past also shines as an important moment in the struggle for Palestinian independence from Israel.

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Thinking about Golden Rice

by: Annie Senner - printed on 04-24-2002

Basic calories or enhanced vitamin intake: What is our first priority? A site visit to a poor resettlement community is Zambales Province, Philippines

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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.

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Ancestral Voices: Rediscovering two cultures in ruins

by: Ben Muse - printed on 09-11-2002

In the thick, green jungle of the Peten region of northern Guatemala lies one of the great cities of the worldÂ’s memory; Tikal, once a bustling city with towering pyramids housing the bones of deified leaders and a burgeoning acropolis, sits half excavated form the decay of the jungle.

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The Gift of Conscience: A Blessing and a Burden

by: Candace Cook - printed on 03-28-2001

When considering military service from a Christian perspective there is a tendency to dichotomize between pacifism or nonviolent resistance and military participation. In fact, Christianity has historically considered both positions licit at various times.

The Jewish people viewed fighting for a just cause as acceptable, and God would be with the people in the fight. The early church, from the death of Jesus until the advent of Constantine in 312 CE, was largely pacifist however, and martyrs like Maximillian of Theveste died because they refused to don the military garments of the legions.

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