The Culture of Tonga

Tongan archipelago has been inhabited for more than 3,000 years

Europeans arrived in the late 1600's

Indigenous Tongan culture changed significantly with the arrival of more Europeans (traders and missionaries) in the 1800's

• Today, Tongans have spread to many parts of the world, usually to find work: United States, Australia and New Zealand = Tongan diaspora
• diaspora = a spreading out of a people from their original homeland
  
• Many Tongans operate in two different contexts: 1) the traditional Tongan way = anga fakatonga and 2) the western/modern Tongan way = anga fakapalangi


• Tongans learn both sets of rules and when it is appropriate to switch between them

NO on Proposition 4

Prop 4 requires that a teenage girl obtain parental consent before obtaining an abortion

I strongly disagree with Prop 4 because I believe that a woman, no matter what her age, has the right to make decisions about her body and her health. Of course, is pro-abortion, but the government should not have the right to control a woman's body and what she does with her body. If we increased the education of birth control in our schools and educated our young women about their bodies and their options, we wouldn't have so many of them faced with this decision in the first place. Also, making it illegal for young women to have abortions will only push them into unsafe and unsanitary situations where they will be putting themselves in grave danger for botched procedures.