author: Denise Wong category: berkeley madness tags: date: September 16th, 2009
Yes, budget cuts are getting worse and worse. Yes, they affect you (sorry to all our non-Berkeley fans, but I’m sure they affect you too)! Given the increasing severity of things, here’s a calendar of upcoming events for you all to keep informed about potential cuts, fee increases, and how we can rally to protect services and programs that students need.
Calendar of Upcoming Events, Talks, and Meetings
- Wednesday, September 16
- “Sowing vs. Eating Our Seed Corn: The Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression Compared to the Schwarzenegger/Yudof Trajectory Today”: Wednesday, September 16, 4:00 PM, 575 McCone Hall. Gray Brechin, Visiting Scholar in Department of Geography; Project Scholar of Living New Deal Project
- “General Assembly of all UCB Students, Faculty, Staff and Community Members”: Wednesday, September 16, 4-6 PM, Multicultural Center in MLK Student Union. The purpose of this event is to have an open discussion about the budget crisis, fee increases, cutbacks, etc. in more detail before September 24th. It is designed to give everyone a democratic space to discuss the situation, to discuss what to do (not only for the 24th but also beyond). There will be another General Assembly called the evening of the 24th to debrief about the day’s events and to plan next steps.
- “Faculty Perspectives on the Current UC Budget Crisis”: Wednesday, September 16, 7:30-8:45 PM + discussion, ASUC Chambers, 1st floor of Eshleman Hall. Featuring Catherine M. Cole, George Lakoff, Chris Kutz, Alan Karras, Brian Barsky, Fiona Doyle, Ananya Roy.
- Student Worker Action Team (SWAT) Meetings: every Wednesday, 7-9 PM, 170 Barrows.
The Student Worker Action Team is a group comprised of students (grad, undergrad, visiting students), faculty (lecturers, ladder rank faculty, visiting professors), staff, and community members who have come together to fight the budget cuts and to fight for public education. They have organized townhalls about the budget cuts and are in the process of organizing and mobilizing for September 24th and beyond. Everyone and anyone is welcome to come.
- Wednesday, September 23
- “Ladder Rank Faculty Teach-In Panel About Budget Cuts”: Wednesday, September 23, 7-9 PM, location TBA (but likely in Pauley Ballroom).
- Thursday, September 24
- UPTE (University Professional and Technical Employees) Strike: Thursday, September 24, 7:15 AM – 5:00 PM, UCB and UC-wide. UPTE is asking that all members of the campus community support our Sept 24th strike by not crossing our picket line of the UCB campus. We welcome everyone to join us on the line in solidarity. The picket will last 7:15 to 5pm. From 12pm to 2pm we will move our picket to Sather Gate in support of a student, faculty, staff and community rally on Sproul Plaza which we encourage all to attend.
- UCB Faculty/Staff/Student Rally: Thursday, September 24, 12-2 PM, Sproul Plaza. Featured speakers and presentations.
- General Assembly for Students, Staff, Faculty and Community Members at UCB: Time and Location TBA. An opportunity to debrief about the day’s events and plan for the next steps.
- Saturday, September 26
- Defend Our Education: Saturday, September 26, 10-3 PM, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, Jack Adams Hall, Upper Level of the Cesar Chavez Student Center (Pablo Rodriguez, pabrodriguez@yahoo.com
EDIT: I feel badly for not including this, which would be quite obvious to include, but APAC (Asian Pacific American Coalition) is hosting an open workshop about how budget cuts will specifically affect the API community on campus on Sunday, 9/20 in 247 Dwinelle at 8:00. Please come if interested!
author: ttsang category: entertainment and stuff tags: creative, eggs, fun, madlib date: September 9th, 2009
This is the madlib that we came up with at our first decal meeting last week. I thought it would be epic to post it today because it’s 09/09/09 :)
This morning, I was awakened by the squeak of the platypus outside my window. As I ran out of bed, I thought to myself, today is a scintillating day. I was inspired to become a more active coal miner and get involved in San Francisco. The weather was excellent to hop down Sproul. I was on my way to Bancroft when I bumped into a shopping cart. “What’s this”, I thought to myself. The shopping cart was old and vomit green. I looked up at saw Rose slowly passing out newsmagazines and decided to take one for myself. But just as I was about to get my own copy of hardboiled, I saw another person twirling around with a magnifying glass.
“What are you looking for?” I suspiciously asked.
“I’m looking for trees. Have you seen any?” he responded.
He then explained that he was an investigative plumber, looking for the latest scoop on Asian American democracy to report on. Then the girl with the tools and newsmagazines came over and said, “Why don’t you check out hardboiled! It’ll meet all of your needs.”
Since I only like my eggs raw anyways, I decided to check it out and it was a lot of fun! :)
The end.
author: elainechen category: around the world tags: date: September 7th, 2009
Photo from LA Times
I know this is somewhat old news, but I just read this article written by Euna Lee and Laura Ling about their experience in North Korea and China. They recall the moments/research they gathered right before they got captured, their detention, and eventual release. The article goes into detail about what they discovered about the North Korean human rights travesties, specifically online sex trafficking. If you don’t know anything about North Korea besides ridiculous missile threats and the crazy dictator “Kim-something something” then you really need to read this article.
The line that stood out to me was this: Our motivations for covering this story were many. First and foremost, we believe that journalists have a responsibility to shine light in dark places, to give voice to those who are too often silenced and ignored.
This really humbled me and reminded me what a journalist’s purposes is. It’s not just to write snarky articles and have your name bolded in a byline. As an Asian American alternative newsmagazine, hardboiled can also contain articles and support writers that want to shed light in the dark places and give voices to the voiceless. Instead of just being a compilation listing off news that has Asian Americans in it, hardboiled should be that publication which showcases the news that doesn’t get covered and gets pushed aside.
What do you think?
author: Denise Wong category: Asian American studies, ignorance tags: date: September 6th, 2009
Asian boy: So I’m fucked for this class cuz I don’t study.
Asian girl: Why are you taking it?
Asian boy: I need an International Studies course for L&S.
Asian girl: And you’re taking Japanese!? Why don’t you take like, Asian American studies or something?
Asian boy: No, no, that’s stupid. That’s not useful at all. The other options were like…[scoffs derisively] Global Poverty…
- Overheard at Berkeley (by myself)
I really, REALLY hope that I am not the only one thorougly disgusted by this exchange. This is particularly so because Berkeley is the epicenter of ethnic studies, and yet there still exists a pervasive, deleterious notion among APA students that Asian American studies is essentially a bullshit subject. Our shared racialized history is quintessentially what distinguishes us as a community. To deny one’s self this knowledge (let alone dismiss it as being “not useful at all”) virtually affirms the existing hierarchy and outcasts one’s self from the Asian American community’s collective advancement. Even more saddening is the relation between these incidents and my hypothesis that APAs’ ignorance (and as apparently evidenced above, our INTENTIONAL ignorance) of this history contributes directly to such distressing problems as Asian-on-Asian racism, violence, and other self-inflicted detriments that our community faces.
Discussing this earlier today with my friends Mike and Joy, I was faced with the question, “So, did you curse him out? Did you kick his ass?” I fear that my failure to do so cements my complicity with this destructive mentality.
Anyway, buddy, good luck passing Japanese. I’m sure you’ll hella need it, dumbass.
author: ttsang category: berkeley madness, college tags: 1st meeting, decal, fun date: August 31st, 2009
What are you doing this Wednesday at 6?
If you are free, come to our first decal meeting in 20 Wheeler! A decal is a class you can take at Cal that’s run by students. There will be baked goods, discussion, and fun :) We will be giving an overview of hardboiled, both the publication and the decal, and providing a little taste of our purpose in the larger community.
So come on by and check us out! :)
author: elainechen category: berkeley madness tags: date: August 29th, 2009
Mine was highlighted by tabling/flyering for at least five hours, sweating through my shirt because it’s so blazing hot, and going into an Asian American Studies that ended up having no professor assigned! What an adventure. Comment here with stories of your own first three days into Fall 2009!
author: ctran1023 category: entertainment and stuff, is this news? tags: date: July 19th, 2009
Ok. Consumerism = evil. BUT I have to say that my heart skipped a beat when I was perusing the aisles of Target and found “Ni Hao, Kai Lan!” merchandise dominating the kids’ section. Heck. Yes.
For those of you who aren’t up to date on your Nick Toons, Ni Hao, Kai Lan! is the Mandarin version of Dora the Explorer. Thanks to Dora, shows that promote biculturalism have become more popular. Kai Lan is not only adorable but she’s one of the few rising Asian AMERICAN cartoons sans martial arts and probably the only Asian American cartoon for a 2-6 demographic.
You can check out the merchandise here (Consumerism is less evil when your dollars go towards bolstering the new face of bicultural media, I swear!) And you can check out my article on Kai Lan from a couple issues ago here (<– Read: shameless self-promotion — definitely kidding).
Enjoy!