WORLD Radio Rewind

LEIGH JONES: This is WORLD Radio Rewind: a 10-minute review of some of our news coverage and features from the past week on WORLD Radio. I’m managing editor Leigh Jones.

First up, going to college. Or maybe not. On Tuesday’s program, Caleb Bailey reported on the reason why more and more young men are opting out of higher education.

CALEB BAILEY, REPORTER: For as long as he could remember, Tony Schnotala had one dream.

SCHNOTALA: From a really young age, I wanted to be a veterinarian. That was the only option, I didn't see myself doing anything else.

During high school, Schnotala took a class called education for employment. It allowed him to shadow a vet, work in the clinic, and attend agricultural conferences. And that’s when he realized he didn’t want to be a vet after all.

So, he took a few other employment-related classes in hopes of finding a new career dream.

SCHNOTALA: But as time went on, and I got closer to like starting college, as the summer went on, and it was like, All right, we're getting ready to start. Then I kind of started leaning away. I was like, man, I think I need a break from school.

Michael Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. He says the U.S. emphasis on higher education has been especially hard on young men.

PETRILLI: We just don't have as many young men graduating with the academic skills that would allow them to succeed in college as we do young women. When you wait until the end of high school or into college, I just think it is too late.

Petrilli says the over-emphasis on getting a college degree means those who could succeed in a trade are left without any direction.

PETRILLI: And, you know, what if instead, we had taken some of those students who, you know, maybe didn't have the strongest academic skills, but had other skills that might be respected in the workplace, you know, and help them certainly starting in high school get access to high quality vocational training, that might be a better route, than this notion that, you know, let's just push everybody into an academic track.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Caleb Bailey.

LJ: Next up, the crisis in Lebanon. On Wednesday’s program, Onize Ohikere reported on the country’s energy and economic woes. And she explained why they pose a special threat to one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Last week, Boutros Wehbe sat inside the Beirut office of the Christian ministry Horizons International. The power was out again, and his phone battery had only 20 percent left. He had no idea when he could charge it next.

WEHBE: We haven't experienced this situation even during the war, the Civil War. So the situation is miserable. Really it's miserable.

Hourlong blackouts are already common in Lebanon, a country that has battled an economic crash since 2019. But earlier this month, the barely functional Zahrani power plant shut down for the entire day. Lebanon partially restored electricity a day later, but that did little to resolve the larger problem.

Darren Duke is a senior research fellow at The Philos Project, a U.S.-based group that advocates for Christian communities in the Near East. He says nearly 80 percent of the Lebanese population lives in poverty.

DUKE: That means only two out of every 10 people you see on the streets are living above the poverty line, that's a that's a very substantial percentage of the Lebanese population.

Amid so much upheaval, many people who can are leaving the country—including Christians. Darren Duke says that puts an important gospel foothold in jeopardy.

DUKE: This is a very ancient Christian community in Lebanon. They were established in the year 406 A.D. And the greater dream of Lebanon has always been that Christians could live there in peace, and practice their faith as a religious minority in a sea of Muslims. And if the Christian community is snuffed out, because of these dynamics, that will be a shame.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

LJ: Next, the kidnapping in Haiti. On Thursday’s program, Myrna Brown talked to Dr. David Vanderpool, who runs a hospital in Haiti. He explained how the country’s lawlessness has affected vital mission work.

BROWN: Lots of churches in the United States send groups to Haiti for short-term mission trips. How has the ongoing instability changed that work in recent years? And how do you think this kidnapping will affect it in the near future?

VANDERPOOL: Well, we used to take teams down—American teams. We have stopped. We stopped in 2019 because of the violence. And I would highly recommend—I cannot emphasize this enough—there is no reason for an American team to come down here at this point. It's just extremely dangerous. The State Department has a rating system for countries according to their safety. The worst being a level four. Haiti is a level four and has been so for quite some time. And really, Americans have no place—short term missions have no place coming down here at all.

BROWN: You’re saying the government is not able to provide protection or security at all to aid groups?

VANDERPOOL: Not at all. There's absolutely no protection offered. The Haitian government is completely unable to do that. The police are often complicit with the kidnappings. They are also very understaffed. The American embassy has a skeleton crew here. They have no support services for rescue, search and rescue, there at the embassy. And the State Department has made it very clear that they don't want to be in the business of rescuing American citizens in Haiti. So you're completely on your own. And that's not a place you want to be when you have an armed, heavily armed gang that you're coming up against.

BROWN: Okay, Dr. David Vanderpool has been our guest. Doctor, thanks so much!

VANDERPOOL: Thank you so much. Have a good day.

LJ: And finally, filling jobs. Our post-pandemic economy has created an unusual disparity: 8.4 million people remain on unemployment roles despite 11 million job vacancies. On Thursday’s program, Bonnie Pritchett dug into the potential long-term impact.

AUDIO: [DOOR OPENING, BEEP, PANTING DOG]

BONNIE PRITCHETT, CORRESPONDENT: Ginger, a rather portly but friendly English Bulldog, trots into the cozy gift and clothing boutique just ahead of her owner, Betty Walker.

Walker owns the shop called Gingersnaps. It’s one of six, old, refurbished early 19th-century wood-frame houses joined together by a common front porch that invites customers to peer in windows and amble in and out front doors.

WALKER: We've been in business at this location for 11 years. So, it's always done very well…

The last 18 months challenged Walker’s entrepreneurial know-how. But she drew from her decades of business experience to keep the League City, Texas store open and profitable.

But one unexpected economic glitch has her frustrated and puzzled.

WALKER: So lately, because there were a lot of people that would rather take unemployment and stay at home. Not interested in exposing themselves to the virus. Afraid of that. Some just don't want to work. That's why when we've never run into this before. This is the first time I've seen where it's hard to hire somebody…

E.J. Antoni is an economist with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

ANTONI: So, the question is, why on earth is this happening? And unfortunately, most of the reasons seem to be self-inflicted.

Evidence points to the supplemental government assistance available during the pandemic. Antoni and his colleagues crunched the numbers.

ANTONI: What we found was that for the typical family of four, right, two parents are unemployed out of work. And two children in that household, you can get the equivalent of a $100,000 annual income worth of government assistance

Back at Gingersnaps, Betty Walker says her four employees are sufficient. And she remains optimistic.

WALKER: I think we as Americans work our way through all this. You know, if you're an entrepreneur, you still have the positive thought that you can pull it all together. And I do think I'm very positive about businesses now. You know, I think we've gone through the worst storm of it.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett in League City, Texas.

LJ: That’s it for this edition of WORLD Radio Rewind. We’ve posted links to each of the stories we highlighted today in our transcript. You can find that on our website.

Next week, we’ll take a trip to Europe to find out how Germany’s new government could affect its relationship with the United States. And we’ll examine the worst kinks in the supply chain. Here’s a hint: You might want to start checking things off your Christmas list now. For the latest news, features, and commentary from WORLD News Group, visit wng.org. For WORLD Radio, I’m Managing Editor Leigh Jones.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.