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?

Bringing Democracy to the land of Mao

by: Christy Scheuer - printed on 11-28-2001

Dr. Jianli Yang, who spoke at the University of Portland on Thursday, November 15, has been officially charged as a traitor by the Chinese government. In 1989, Dr. Yang helped to lead the Chinese democracy movement, which culminated in the student rally in Tiananmen Square in which 30 students were killed for speaking out against communism in China. Consequently, he was exiled and placed on a list of 49 dissidents who are strictly forbidden to return to China.

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Defining the Environmental Goal

by: Meghan Molenda - printed on 01-23-2002

As I passed the curb and saw the rejected bins of recycling that sat in front of my house, I had to think for a moment about what it actually means for me to be an environmentalist.

I get the label all the time especially on trips back to my hometown, but it is one of those labels that has harsh connotations.

Most people are kind of weary using the word "environmentalist" because it has a particular stigma based on an entire set of beliefs, values, and political stances that go along with that word.

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Deforestation, our two-faced friend

by: Nicole Ulacky - printed on 10-10-2001

The snowball of events that has caused our current planetary environmental condition was started long ago. It has been handed down, generation to generation, only to grow with each successive passing. We can thank our parents and grandparents, and grandparents’ grandparents, and all of those before them, for throwing us into a phase of environmental degradation that is nearly unfixable. To say the least, the environmental problem facing our generation is of enormous proportion.

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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.

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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.

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Movies Galore!

by: Claude Pomerleau C.S.C. - printed on 02-06-2002

I don?t recall a Christmas/New Year cycle with so many entertaining and challenging movies, domestic and foreign. Vacations are usually twilight zones when it comes to movies. Not this year.

First, the political thriller "Lumumba." It only lasted for a few weeks in December, but it is showing this week at PCC?s Cascade Festival of African Films. It?s a moving political biography of the first Congolese leader after independence from Belgium in 1960.

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