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?
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.
Argentina: More than an economic crisis
by: Santiago Montalvan - printed on 02-06-2002
I would like to explain, from an Argentinean point of view, what is really happening in my home country and why. Throughout my entire life, the country?s economy has had its ups and downs, currency devaluations, and many corrupt political leaders. Today?s economic crisis in Argentina is by far one of the most serious I have seen. It is sad to know that the only way Argentina makes into the news is because the country is falling apart and not because it is a beautiful place.
Where did hope go?
by: Hank Smith - printed on 02-06-2002
"Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He?s enjoying the wind and the fresh air ? until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.
"'My God, this is terrible,' the wave says 'Look what's going to happen to me!"
"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, 'Why do you look so sad?'
"The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn?t it terrible?'
"The second wave says, 'No, you don't understand.
Umatilla: A call for Congressional investigation
by: Jim McCandlish, J.D. - printed on 04-25-2001
A recent lead editorial in the Oregonian calls for an independent investigation of chemical agent leaks at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. This follows the Oregonian’s lengthy commentary piece which found the Army’s explanation of the September 15, 1999 exposure incident to be misleading and inadequate. Over eight months ago, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) asked the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct such an investigation.
Corporate world different from reservation
by: Stephanie Nichols - printed on 02-14-2001
I walk to the “bus barn” and hear the snow crunch beneath my feet. As the cold crisp South Dakota air touches my face, I feel alive and ready to begin the day. After fifteen minutes of warming up the school bus, I embark on my route, which will bring 65 children to school in one of the most remotely isolated places in the country, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. As I make my way across the reservation, the rising sun glistens off the morning frost that blankets these beautiful hills, and once again, I’m reminded that I’m privileged to be here.
Killing fields leave permanent scars
by: Jill Suart - printed on 02-14-2001
The pictures of emaciated faces and broken souls from the death camps in Nazi Europe are sadly familiar to most North Americans. And the history of Vietnam’s Communist takeover is still widely studied and discussed today. Yet there is a blank area in many of our minds where history is vague and images are few. That area is just east of Vietnam and two decades past the holocaust, at the Killing Fields of Cambodia.