author: ctran1023 category: entertainment and stuff tags: date: December 22nd, 2008
author: ctran1023 category: berkeley madness tags: date: December 21st, 2008
FREE AT LAST. One month long winter break suckaaas. That said…
I know this is slightly out of date but I just wanted to comment on an email that Chancellor Birgeneau sent out last Tuesday. If you didn’t already know (meaning you live in a shoebox), California’s broke as heck and it just keeps getting worse. According to Birgeneau, the budget is going to be reduced by $30-40 million. While the email wasn’t particularly unusual (we will do our best to keep the quality of your education blah blah..) one tidbit caught my eye:
“We intend to avoid the practice of making cuts by simply allocating an across-the-board budget reduction of “x” percent to all vice chancellors, deans, and directors.”
Déjà vu, much? With the events of the EALC budget cuts last year in mind (read up on that here), I can’t help but hear the ominous organ music playing in the background. Reading between the lines, I predict that this means doing whatever necessary to protect the math and science departments while devastating the Ethnic Studies/Social Science departments that have been notoriously under-funded to begin with. Yes, we are in a massive recession and I wholeheartedly agree that cuts need to be made but it just seems that with cut allocations the administration begins deeming which types of knowledge are more valuable than others. Undoubtedly, the Berkeley’s sciences are renowned but Cal also boasts the best English and East Asian Language and Cultures departments on the West Coast.
So yes, nothing has been written in stone yet and I really hope my predictions are wrong but keep an eye out for future decisions. Also, the email said that our PG&E bill was 8 million last year??? I’m pretty sure we could bring that down a lot by being a bit more mindful of our energy usage.
peace|love|& christmas cheer.
author: ctran1023 category: around the world tags: date: November 22nd, 2008
Zarganar, a popular comedian and actor in Burma, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for criticizing the military government and being a part of a pro-democracy movement. The Myanmar courts said that he had violated the Electronic Acts. His stand up tapes have been banned because he often satirizes the junta in power. When a cyclone hit Burma earlier this year, he and other activist entertainers organized to give aid to victims. At that time he was temporarily detained for calling out the government on their slow response to the crisis.
Zarganar is not the only one who has been detained by the government. An incredible number of 100 pro-democracy activists have been jailed in just the past two weeks. Can you say messed up???
Report by BBC News
author: ctran1023 category: PEACE! tags: date: November 18th, 2008
At Berkeley we are known for the oddball tree-sitters, free thinkers, and weekly protests. After calling Berkeley home for nearly a year and a half, I admit that on several occasions I have thought that it was unnecessary that so much political action takes place on campus. Why was I being bombarded with fliers on racial equality or freedom of speech? Didn’t these people know they were preaching to the choir? Sadly, the violence that ensued last week over a difference in religion, ideology, and even race has shown me that we are far from conquering prejudice. And even in a place that touts intellectual innovation and progress, the rally for “Peace not Prejudice” is more pertinent than ever.
Yesterday evening I attended a community forum that aimed to address the concerns of students who were affected or just generally disturbed by the fight between members of the Zionist and Pro-Palestine groups. I was disappointed that there was very little constructive discussion on the specific incident and that the two hours was dedicated to a lot of finger pointing and heated remarks. The coverage of the violence has been nothing short of vague and the administration has responded much too slowly–an email four days after the incident will not suffice when the magnitude of the situation is so great. The divisions ran deep, although they were often aggravated by folks who clearly were not students, nor directly affiliated with the university. The take home message is that students feel unsafe on campus and that is not acceptable.
Despite all this, what does give me hope is that most of the people who came genuinely wanted to start a dialogue and reach a peaceful solution. I hope that we can see that while this specific situation must be dealt with justly, the student divisions need to end. Respectful discussion is more crucial than ever. As a Berkeley community, I hope we can find it in ourselves to recognize that we ARE bigger than this.
