Download - The Diplomat Spring 2009 Vol.2
the diplomat
delta phi epsilon newsletter april 2009
In this IssueSenior Profile:
Naomi Lew 2
DPhiE Banquet 2
Active Event 3
Life in England 3-4
Philanthropy Event 5
DPhiE Travels:
Barcelona 6
Lese Majesty in Thailand 7
Pledge Event 8
Political Cartoon 8
Spring 2009 President Rachel Whyte with last semester’s president, Aaron Ordower sporting his DPhiE attire.
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Greetings Delta Phi Epsilon, Alumni and Friends,
I can confidently say that this spring was one of the greatest semesters Delta Phi Epsilon has ever had. The semester began
with the initiation of thirteen wonderful new pledges in Febru‑ary. Later that same month, we ventured to Sonoma County for an overnight retreat on the Russian River. There, actives and
pledges got to know each other be@er while spending a weekend away from Berkeley relaxing in the great outdoors. At weekly meetings our goal was to leave members with a be@er knowledge of the career they want to pursue, and the skills they need to do so. We entertained many prestigious speakers such as, Courtney McColgan, the founder of Wokai, a microfinance lending plat‑form, and Manuel de Paz from the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant for immigrants and refugees. In weeks where we were not learn‑ing about specific career paths, we focused on professional de‑velopment and skills, such as peer‑led resume workshops, trav‑el advice, and international news updates. In April we hosted three campus‑wide events. Our active event, The World Series of World Culture, is still Cal’s only night of international trivia. Eight teams came out to compete in a ba@le of the brains for the title of team with the most international savvy. DPhiE showcased its charitable side, in hosting its second annual Art Aids Art Ben‑efit Dinner, which raised money for a South African Community Center that provides resources to families suffering the effects of HIV/AIDS. Our final event of the semester was an Oxfam Hun‑ger Banquet, to raise awareness about world hunger planned by the chapter’s most recent additions, the pledge class. In all, the triumphs of the semester reinforce the notion that we are a be@er, and more sustainable, Delta Phi Epsilon now than ever before. We have built on the traditions and practices already in place and I am proud to say that we are leaving behind some traditions of our own. I look forward to seeing where the coming generations of leaders and active members will take Epsilon chapter next year!
Fraternally yours,
Rachel WhytePresident, Epsilon Chapter
Nickname: Nomes, although no one in DPE calls me that.
Major: Political EconomyHow did you choose this major? I ask myself that question all the time. I love my major, but I sometimes wish I had been a math major.Which pledge class? Spring 2007Any memories of DPE youʹd like to bring up? Walking
home at 3am on a Friday night after Ex Comm had finished deciding on the pledges for the semester. The process took 6 hours, but it was 6 lovely hours with Ex Commites, pizza, and Blue Moon.Hometown: Champaign, IL. I guess thats more my birth‑place, but... thats ok.
Where have you been around the world? Unfortunately not many places. Mostly places in Asia like Hong Kong and Thailand.
Favorite place including food from there Hong Kong. Pine‑apple buns!ʺInterestingʺ tidbit about yourself: Hmmm... I listen to This
American Life when I go for a run, and sometimes I tear up during the emotional parts.
Who makes/made you who you are today? Everyone around me. Iʹm in the nurture camp of the whole nature v. nurture debate.
Any phobias? I have a fear of failure. Do you have any weird house remedies you use when
youʹre sick? Nope. None of that coin rubbing stuff thatʹs common in Vietnamese culture.
When you were li-le, what did you want to be when you grew up? Coach of the Chicago Bulls. Sadly, I donʹt forsee this happening anytime soon.Important characteristics in a boyfriend: Intelligence, confidence, and driveWhat or who do you find impressive? Self‑made entrepreneurs. People who start with nothing and build powerful, influential companies and ideas are incredibly impressive. Jim Skinner, for example, the current CEO of McDonalds: heʹs done amazing work in turning around the companyʹs negative image, and he started off flipping burgers in one of the franchises.
DPhiEBANQUET May 6 marks Delta Phi Ep‑silon’s Banquet at the Berkeley City Club. This bi‑annual event is a fantastic opportunity for students, alumni, and faculty to celebrate DPhiE’s success in developing members professionally for careers with the State Department and in‑ternationally. Banquet will also advance the current pledge class into active
members of the fraternity – an ac‑complishment not easily obtained. This year’s pledge class has worked diligently to host the OXFAM Hun‑ger Banquet in an effort to address the growing problem of hunger across the world. Pledge President Tiffany Wang remarks on the mean‑ing of world hunger. “[World hun‑ger] is a serious issue that doesn’t get enough media coverage. I’m re‑ally excited for our event!” This year, Delta Phi Epsilon has the honor of hosting Dr. Alan Karras, a popular International Area Studies professor known for
his fun teaching style and chal‑lenging classes. Before coming to Berkeley in 1995, Dr. Karras taught at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and the University of Ten‑nessee. Hired to start a world his‑tory curriculum for the Interna‑tional and Area Studies Teaching Program, he now serves as an edi‑tor for the Cambridge Dictionary of World History and, more immedi‑ately, is one of eight members of the World History Test Development Commi@ee for the College Board’s AP program.
SENIOR PROFILE: NAOMI LEW
By Krystal Lin
By Briant Carcamo
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For the second year in a row, Delta Phi Epsilon presented the World Series of World Culture, a world trivia gameshow modeled after VH1ʹs popular World Series of Pop Culture. On April 3rd, eight teams competed in categories as di‑
verse as World Languages, Science and Technology, Current Events, World Wonders, and History, with the winning team taking home three slick new iPod Shuffles. This semesterʹs Active
Event – which aimed to increase DPhiEʹs campus presence – revived the World Series of World Culture idea from the Spring 2008 pledge class event. Cindy Cheng, who as a pledge was instrumental in pu@ing
on the 2008 World Series, chaired this semesterʹs Active Event Com‑
mi@ee. The commi@ee put in a good deal of time planning for the event – writing questions, creating the powerpoint, and securing a spon‑sorship from Sufficient Grounds coffee – but near the end a host of is‑sues sprang up, from date changes to low team registration. Cindy ad‑mits not always being confident in the eventʹs eventual success. ʺI was pre@y sure it was going to be an un‑mitigated disaster but in the end we buckled down, pulled through, and put on a great event.ʺ
Participating teams came
from groups like Berkeley Quiz Bowl, Berkeley Model United Na‑
tions, and even a few with DPhiE members. The winners – ʺTeam Quiz Bowlʺ – had made it to the fi‑nal round in last yearʹs event, before being taken out by a duo of gradu‑ate students. Back with a vengeance this time through, Steven Pham, Yo‑gesh Raut, and Tyler Sheaffer put their wits on the line to take the top spot and bring home the prize. Despite the occasional Pow‑
erpoint glitch, this yearʹs World Series of World Culture went off smoothly, a credit to Delta Phi Ep‑silon at Berkeley. Any final words from Cindy? ʺSpecial thanks to De‑von, Kate, and the pledge class for making teams and helping us out!ʺ
DPhiE Brings Culture to Berkeley
Glory Liu:
Things I Wish I knew Before Studying Abroad in England Let me first get this out: I consider myself an organized, pre‑pared, and well‑travelled college student. Undoubtedly, there are some things I just can’t prepare for (like four inches of ice covering my driveway the morning I have to fly out of Missouri), but in most cas‑es—even in the most dire circum‑
stances—I am usually armed with a wad of extra money in my suitcase, passport copies, maps, a Greek dic‑
tionary, and a healthy stash of pro‑
biotic yogurt bars to ward off those nasty bugs. Last semester I was in Eng‑land and was no less planned than any other trip. I expected a very easy transition: I had lived in Lon‑don for a summer dance session before and visited several times on different occasions. I was looking forward to a relaxing and enlight‑ening semester abroad in my favor‑ite country, one which was—I as‑
sumed—not terribly different from the United States. Looking back, living and studying in London was the most rewarding and enriching experience I’ve had in my college career, but the challenges I faced that made it the experience I had were, by far, the most unexpected.
1. There is an unexplained ineffi‑
ciency about the Brits.
By Devon Peterson
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The organized queues for everything might give you a false sense of hope. When I first arrived at King’s College, I was somewhat disgusted by the inefficiency of the whole institution. Who really stands in a queue for two hours to click a bu@on that verifies your student information? And do you really not know your class sched‑ule until you find out from your departmental meeting a week be‑fore classes…all up on one sheet of paper? Was I really going to learn anything with just one hour of lec‑ture per day, four days a week? Especially not if lectures have no relationship with seminars. This is going to be a breeze, I thought. But, of course, the Brits would surprise me.
2. Studying abroad in England was more intense than studying a Berkeley.
I think this statement would shock most people. I am even
shocked. While most of my other study abroad classmates did find King’s a “nothing” compared to their home institutions, I found it extremely difficult to compare the “ranking” (as my British classmates tried to) with Berkeley. The British education system is completely dif‑ferent. There are far too many so‑cial, political, and cultural reasons
why, but I didn’t recognize them at first—I thought everybody had to be on par with America’s idea and method of higher education as far as I was concerned. So while I expected to be exploring London and leaving the country on vaca‑tions in my spare time that I wasn’t in lecture (which was a lot of spare time), I was actually in the library. Studying. And I never study in the library at Berkeley. And I enjoyed every mo‑ment of it. Taking classes on topics totally new to me was unbelievably refreshing, and having to write a re‑
search‑based essay every week for my history course did more for my writing and researching skills than any class I have ever taken at Berke‑ley. There was a sense of freedom that I never felt before even amidst the chaos of, “oh my gosh, I have a hundred lines of Homer to trans‑late and a paper on the Partition
of Africa due tomorrow!” There was something new to learn every single day, even if it was learning that there is a ton of academic crap that has been published that is clog‑
ging up the library. Or that I really want to return to England and pur‑sue a masters in 18th‑century Brit‑ish studies and the reception of the classical world. You can only learn that if you explore hard enough on your own.
3. …But you can exploit your stu‑dent status like never before.
This is something I think
every student should know‑ es‑pecially study abroad students. I could have saved hundreds had
I known earlier that virtually ev‑ery other retailer offers student discounts with a valid student ID. That means the dresses I bought at
Dorothy Perkins, the fountain pen from Ryman’s stationers, and the fuzzy pink hot water bo@le from Next...all 15% off. That’s a lot of money. Especially when you con‑sider that the value‑added‑tax was 17.5% when I arrived. Then when the recession officially “hit” and the pound dropped from 2.15 to 1.84 dollars to the pound over night,
AND the VAT was reduced to 15%, I went shopping!
4. Pubs are not a place where you go and drink. They are a change of lifestyle.
My idea of a pub before I lived in England was this dark, dank, smoky place with creaky old tables, bad food, too much alcohol,
and disgusting old men smoking fat cigars. But they’re nothing like that at all. Pubs will change your life. There are times when I just crave to sit in the cozy corner of a warm pub with a cup of tea or bramley apple crumble after a long day at school and watch the crowd change from the post‑work drink crowd of young men, to the family dinners, to the scruffy old men and their pale ales. There are times when I wish all my friends could have gone to a pub instead of a restaurant here in Berkeley so we weren’t fussing over the bill half an hour after the waiters wish we would have left. So if I said I really wanted to go to a pub later, I hope at least some peo‑
ple might understand.
5. The food can actually be good…if you know where to look!
I discovered this far too late. Yes, I ate raw salad and soup (that tasted the same no ma@er what the flavor) and digestives almost every single night at their version of the DC. And yes, those delectable li@le places called Pret‑a‑Manger and
EAT and Marks and Spencers gour‑met grab‑n‑go aisles are sickening
after the first week. But there is so much more! The Borough Market farmers’ market rivals the Ferry Farmers’ Market in SF, and pub food is the new comfort food (noth‑ing beats a good Sunday roast…even if it is a veggie one!)
6. Look right, then left. Or is it left, then right?
I still don’t have this one down. If it weren’t for friends, I’d be dead (many times) by now.
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I began my trip to Spain by ge@ing hopelessly lost. Dropped off at Plaça Universitat in Barce‑lona, I thought I would easily find my way with the map I had drawn myself, but I failed to understand that the li@le alleyways that could barely fit a Mini Cooper actually counted as streets. Eventually, my travel buddy (my boyfriend) and I found the hostel’s building, but we were confused when, upon en‑try, we saw nothing but the insides of an old apartment building. We rang the bell on the second floor and a li@le gray‑haired lady in an apron emerged with an equally confused look on her face. “Buscan el hostal?” she asked. “Está arriba, arriba!” Embarrassed, we hiked up one floor to find our sparkling double room waiting for us.
Our hostel was in a “color‑ful” neighborhood. This working class neighborhood was full of Turk‑ish, Arabic, Punjabi, and Filipino restaurants, indicative of the new waves of immigration into Mediter‑ranean Spain. Clothes hung from the apartments and groups of youth wandered the streets. Though the neighborhood was a bit dangerous, I enjoyed how ethnic it was: I got a yummy samosa for a euro, and saw some really creative graffiti. Barcelona is a swirling mix of cultures, which is apparent in every facet of the city. Our grun‑gy neighborhood, El Raval, lies in contrast to the luxurious Passeig de Gràcia, a street lined with couture fashions and behemoth banks. Food offerings include donner kebabs, McDonald’s, traditional Catalán
cooking, and of course tapas, tapas, tapas. Architecturally, Barcelona is home to Roman walls, gothic cathe‑drals, and the stunning work of the Modernistas. Even in terms of lan‑guage, Barcelona is at best a blur. The official languages is Catalán, a mix of Spanish and French, but everyone also speaks Spanish and to my surprise, English. And even though I am Chinese and Japanese in origin, people did not stare at me
and call me “china” or say “kon‑nichi wa” as they do in other parts of the world, which I appreciated greatly. We decided to devote day one to Ciutat Vella, the old city, which includes vestiges of the Ro‑man empire, the city’s catedral, and much gothic architecture to be en‑
joyed. But first we walked down
Sunday April 19th brought another successful collaboration with jericho! comedie, a campus improv theater group. Under the direction of Philanthropy Event coordinator Ning Ma, DPhiE members joined hands to host a benefit dinner and show with all proceeds going to Art Aids Art, a non‑profit organization assisting women in children in AIDS‑affected South Africa. DPhiEʹs philanthropy commi@ee booked the venue at Berkeley Hillel, publicized the event, handled ticket sales, and organized shopping and cooking for the delicious dinner which consisted of pesto parmesan pasta, garden salad, garden salad, sauteed zucchini, and a dessert of cookies and ice cream.
The semester‑long process culminated in an enjoyable comedy show. This time the performance in‑cluded special guests from UC Davis, Birdstrike Theater. Due to the success of the event, DPhiE was once again able to raise hundreds of dollars for those in need in South Africa.
Another Successful Philanthropy Event!
DPhiE Travels: Barcelona By Anela Chan
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La Rambla, the city’s famous main thoroughfare, which reminded me of a European Telegraph Avenue. Besides a swarm of tourists, we passed over‑priced sidewalk restaurants, people dressed as statues,
stalls selling trinkets, and
sketch artists. At the end
was the crystal blue Atlan‑tic, reached in just twenty minutes time. While walk‑ing through Ciutat Vella, we passed a protest in Plaça Jaume, though I could not comprehend what it was about. Then, five minutes later, I encountered the city’s elderly dancing the sardana, in which they hold hands in a circle and do a li@le step dance. While the youth in Bareclona are perhaps pas‑sionate and revolution‑
ary, the elderly seem full of whimsical joy. The next days were for Antoni Gaudí, the fa‑mous Catalán architect who exemplified the Moderni‑sta movement, a turn‑of‑the‑century Catalán architectural movement that sought to shake the
foundations of architecture, mov‑ing away from traditional styles. First we made the obligatory visit to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s spec‑tacular work‑in‑progress cathedral, found in the contemporary area of L’Eixample. I couldn’t help but be impressed by Gaudi’s soaring col‑umns that looked as if made out of
dripped sand, the front façade de‑picting scenes of the Passion, the
colorful baskets of fruit on the tops of the towers, and the columns in‑side resembling branches, culmi‑
nating in flowers. Later we would also see Parc Güell, an interesting
mix of nature and roman columns, strange curvatures, and crushed
ceramic mosaics. As an architect,
Gaudí was interested in creating a balance between the organic and the rational in all his work, creating
such forms as the parabolic arch, mimicking shapes found in nature.
Later we would also see the serene, aquatic Casa Batlló, which contains no straight lines, and the quirky La Pe‑drera, with the most bizarre of roofs. Of course, my favorite part about Spain is the food. Aside from the Spanidards’ bizarre fascination with ham, particu‑larly cured ham (à la prosciut‑to), which appears in basically every meal, Spain is definitely a gastronomically interesting place to visit. While in Barce‑lona I had traditional Catalán sturgeon in cider, bocadillos
(basically bague@e sandwich with your choice of meat), pa‑ella, and a whole range of in‑teresting tapas (small plates), such as fried artichokes, bell pepper stuffed with cod pu‑ree, shrimp and clams, fresh sardines, and tostas, vari‑
ous meats on top of bague@e toast. But the best part: wine was the same price as water! After three days, I was sad
to leave Barcelona, a place as cos‑mopolitan and diverse as my heart would ever desire, but it was on to Madrid to get a glimpse of Spanish Spain. In three days we had already learned to orient ourselves, and we no longer felt lost among the city streets, but rather at home.
Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, his unfinished
Modernist cathedral in the L’Eixample district
Left: The roof of Gaudi’s
La Pedrera. Right: A tapas plate
of fresh sardines
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Lese majesty, the crime violating majesty or an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state, has virtually van‑ished since the disappearance of the absolute monarch. However, some countries to this day such as: Thailand, Morocco, and Brunei, still have these draconian laws in place. In Thailand, the presence
of this law serves only to hinder democracy, but also bu@resses the ongoing political conflagration that is engulfing the nation. Since 1908, laws regarding lese majesty have been in the crimi‑nal code as well as being enshrined in every constitution the Kingdom of Thailand has ever had. Article 112 declares, ʺWhoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen or the Heir‑apparent, shall be pun‑
ished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.ʺ The constitution is however vague in what constitutes “defamation or insult.” It is inter‑esting that laws exist to protect the king from criticism when in 2005 during his birthday speech, King Bhumibol Adulyadej declared, “ac‑
tually, I must also be criticized…I am not afraid if the criticism con‑cerns what I do wrong, because then I know.” The king and mem‑
bers of the royal family have also never invoked lese majesty; rather cases have been brought forward by outside sources and have even‑tually been pardoned by the king. Various cases exist throughout Thai history that show what acts consti‑tute lese majesty. In 1995, French‑man Lech Tomasz Kiseilewicz was accused of commi@ing lese majesty when he made a derogatory re‑mark about a Thai princess while on board a Thai Airways flight. The man was immediately taken into custody when his plane landed in Bangkok and was detained for two weeks. The Frenchman would be later acqui@ed after writing a let‑ter of apology to the king. In 2007, Swiss national, Oliver Jufer was convicted of lese magesty when he spray‑painted several portraits of the king while drunk. Oliver was sentenced to 10 years but was later pardoned by the king. These acts are trivial when compared to the
accusations by Thai politicians in‑voking charges of lese majesty for political reasons.
In the wake of the political storm that unraveled during 2006, deposed Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra and his political op‑ponent Sondi Limthongkul filed charges of lese majesty against one another. In fact, one of the reasons for the Thai military ousting Thak‑sin in a coup in 2006 was because of lese majesty. This is one of the shabbiest tricks in modern Thai
politics to accuse your opponents of disloyalty to the king. In the current political climate, it then be‑
comes impossible to judge the sup‑posed offenses, as the press cannot explain them properly without the possibility of being accused of re‑peating the crime. How can debate and criticism occur when the threat of jail looms at the sight of the most trivial offenses of lese majesty? Thailand cannot be a true democra‑
cy when laws that restrict freedom of speech and press are present and utilized at whim as a political weapon.
The Reign of Draconian Law: Lese
Majesty in Thailand By Derrick Metriyakool
Congratulations Fall 2009 ExComm
President Melissa Ng
External VP Mary ChesusInternal VP Lorenz Noe
Membership VPs Terri Harel and Tiffany WangTreasurer Marie CollinsSecretary Meghan Mize
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The Spring 2009 pledge class took an interactive approach to its Pledge
Event with its Oxfam Hunger Ban‑quet, which took place on April 24th at Haas Clubhouse. After planning for weeks since their induction into Delta Phi Epsilon as pledges, the
thirteen newest members of the Epsilon chapter a@racted a sizable crowd for a free meal and a lesson about world hunger. Having hosted such a ban‑
quet before, pledge class president Tiffany Wang brought the idea to the table. The pledge class unani‑
mously agreed on the concept since they wanted to emphasize humani‑tarianism with their event. The planning process proved challeng‑
ing since the event relied on food donations. Yet, with the persever‑ance of the pledges, they were able to get a $750 grant from the Ethnic Studies department, which rent to‑wards the room rental, and food donations from La Mediteranee, House of Curries, Cactus Taqueria, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s. The Hunger Banquet proved
an interesting and meaningful event for the guests that a@ended. As guests arrived at the Haas club‑
house, they received either a pink, yellow, or blue card and were seat‑ed accordingly. The majority of the guests who had received the pink cards were seated on the floor, rep‑resenting the worldʹs Low‑Income citizens. The 30‑40% who had re‑ceived the yellow cards were des‑ignated the Middle‑Income group,
who have basic necessities but lack access to good health care, educa‑
tion, and other luxuries. Finally, the handful of the lucky guests who had received the blue cards had the
privilege of representing the High‑Income citizens of the world. The guests felt the pain of circumstance when the Low Income groups were served only salad and rice, the Mid‑dle Income group a meal of salad, rice, and chicken, and the High in‑
come group was treated to yummy fare from House of Curries and La Med. By no individual choice, many guests had to experience rel‑ative ʺhunger,ʺ demonstrating the
plight of the worldʹs unfortunate poor who were born into poverty. To demonstrate the fact that 70% of the worldʹs hungry are women, all female guests were served last. Seniors Ingrid Budrovich and Ashley Elles emceeʹd the event, explaining facts about world hun‑ger. Pledge class members also de‑
livered lines dramatically about the growing problem of hunger, which is not due to lack of resources but lack of accessibility. They also pre‑sented videos from Oxfam Inter‑national, which told stories about starving children and mothers in
Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The videos also suggest‑
ed solutions for grassroots ways to solve hunger, such as giving farm‑
ers fair prices for their crops so that they may expand production. President Tiffany Wang commented, “As with every orga‑nization, there are always some bumps in the road when it comes to pu@ing on an event. but I’d like to think that our pledge class came
out stronger than ever.”
Pledge Event Takes Humanitarian Twist with Oxfam Hunger Banquet
Diplomat Staff
Editor-in-ChiefTerri Harel
Newsletter CommitteeBriant Carcamo
Anela ChanKrystal LinGlory Liu
Derrick MetriyakoolSinead Toolis
By Anela Chan
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