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?
Will the EU open the gates to Turkey?
by: Casey O'Connor - printed on 02-20-2002
Since the Republic of Turkey?s creation in 1923 by Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, the pursuit of Western-style modernization and prosperity has never been easy. Coups, violence and political assassinations have plagued the state, which straddles Europe and Asia. Currently, Turkey is trying to move one step closer to western integration by attempting to become the first majority Muslim nation to gain membership in the European Union.
Do animals feel pain?
by: Peter Singer - printed on 11-07-2001
Excerpted from Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, 2nd
Edition, New York: Avon Books, 1990.
Do animals other than humans feel pain? How do we know? Well, how do we know if anyone, human or nonhuman, feels pain? We know that we ourselves can feel pain. We know this from the direct experience of pain that we have when, for instance, somebody presses a lighted cigarette against the back of our hand.
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 With this in mind, it would seem that our old methods of doing things would become outdated and not even put into question, much less practice.
Tribal treaties
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 10-10-2001
Without being there, it’s hard to picture. There were some fifty-seven chiefs, headmen and delegates with names recorded phonetically: Pee-oo-pee-u-il-pilp, Wat-ti-wat-ti-wah-hi, Kole-kole-til-ky, or with names translated to Spotted Eagle, Red Wolf, George and Jason. And there were eleven U.S. delegates, politicians and translators, whom was named James Doty, another, William Craig,all eleven had names like that.
It's time to stop short sighted policies
by: Ryan O'Connor - printed on 04-11-2001
The environment has no checkbook. Polar bears cannot vote. The ozone is unable to write an incensed letter to the editor.
Given this it is remarkable that two of the three major presidential canidates in last fall’s election were considered friends of the environment. A stark change from any previous election—last year’s campaign featured discussion of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming, tax credits for polluters, the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the horrible symptoms of our nations addiction to fossil fuels.
Getting in touch with your world
by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 09-12-2001
It was 9:15 on Friday morning and I was on my way to logic. I was traveling by foot on one of the many cement pathways that lead the majority of us to our places of thought, learning, confusion, or whatever one would classify exactly how we spend our days on the bluff. Since I was getting closer and closer to being late for the first class of the day I decided to veer off from the normal flow of traffic and blaze a trail of my own through the freshly manicured grass that lies between Mago and Franz.