By Thuy Nguyen

HO CHI MINH CTY, Vietnam – This past summer, teenagers in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, flocked to join the Red Flamboyant Campaign (RFC), a volunteer organization of high schoolers whose goal is to work for the good of the community.

“I think all students in Ho Chi Minh City have heard of it,” said Kim Anh, an 18-year-old graduate of Tran Phu High School. The RFC is directed by the Youth Union Central, a popular Vietnamese youth organization, and was named after a kind of flower representative of education in Vietnam. With 12,000 teachers and students joining in one month, the RFC is indeed expanding rapidly, as Anh suggests.

By Kenza Moller

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – In 1977, South Korea began researching a public health care plan, Lincoln Sampong, a historian, said. It wasn’t until 1989, after 12 years of planning, that the program was finally inaugurated. Sampong said this is exactly what needs to go into the formation of a health service.

However, the Dominican government has formulated a public health care plan in less time than that, and does not seem to have thought through all the kinks before instating it.

Faced with the volatile situation in Pakistan, we felt it was important to publish this story on the emergency written by a PEARL reporter. However, the name of the reporter, and the last names and school names of the youth interviewed for this story, are being withheld to protect their identities.

Pakistan -- On Nov. 3, Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf declared a State of Emergency, suspending the Constitution, framed in 1973, and issuing a new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). The basic rights of Pakistani citizens -- freedom of speech, assembly and press -- stood suspended.

With the political situation changing every day, Pakistani youth are putting across their concerns over the developments affecting their homeland. Many are not pleased with the emergency.

"It is so distressing that a man put the future of a whole country at risk just to strengthen his rule," said Usama, an 18-year-old student. "I want to see Pakistan as the most prosperous country in the world, but these situations are big hurdles," added Ibrar, 18. "I wish things like this did not need to happen."

By Kenza Moller

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The morning of October 28 was unusually rainy for a tropical Caribbean country, but most Dominicans didn’t question it. The wind was cool and refreshing, weather that’s always welcomed in the muggy city of Santo Domingo.

However, by 4 p.m. the same day, the rain strengthened, banging down like pellets on the roofs. The wind hissed through windows as shutters rattled against one another.

By 9 p.m., a merely rainy day had developed into a full-fledged tropical storm by the name of Noel, and satellite pictures showed billows of clouds enveloping the entire island.