9 of 30 - Saucy Politics in Practice

Bosnia-Herzegovina: So yesterday we had the culmination of IRE190 -- our group presentation on Bosnia-Herzegovina. For the class the seven of us were supposed to represent various officers in the US embassy to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), and be experts in that area about BiH. I was the group leader, the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM).
   On the morning of the presentation, two of the officers announced they had completely rewritten their reports the night before, causing me a certain amount of stress. Then our CIA station chief, a self described fan of the current US administration, described Bosnia as "an enemy of the United States because it is not sufficiently combatting terrorism." I wanted to shoot myself. Not because of disagreements I might have with the current administration, but because no one, not even this administration, goes around calling specific countries we are trying to work with our enemies.


Model United Nations: Today I met with the new Secretary-General of MUN, Mike White, and his girlfriend Under-Secretary General Nicole Quenelle for official SPAC mediated negotiations over the secretariat's objections to my bylaw amendment. They basically passed the buck for all previous abuses of power on former SG Catharine Myung and claimed that she had been more or less solely responseble for previous bad decisions that they did not dispute. The meeting was productive however and the amendment should be considered at the beginning of fall quarter.


Compare & Contrast: Returning home from this and contemplating these two events together it occured to me: the problem with Bosnia-Herzegovina is that many of the government officials act like Catherine Myung. Or conversely, the problem with MUN is that Secretary-Genral Myung acted like a corrupt Bosnian official.
   In Bosnia a High Representative is appointed by the UN Security Council with absolute authority to reverse BiH government decisions and even dismiss elected and bureaucratic officials to counteract the endemic corruption (As Ambassador Gelbard mentioned to me the other day, "lightning shoots from his fingers") . In MUN at UCD, on the other hand, Catherine Myung has had absolute authority to make irreversible decisions and to not leave her position even after officially resigning from it.


Connecting the Dots: In a letter to the editor that appeared in the California Aggie on June 7th, the ASUCD Executive Office congradulated itself for creating "Most fiscally responsible budget in recent history" (their own words). They begin: "This year, the ASUCD Executive Office faced the challenge of balancing the ASUCD operating budget in the face of a $33,000 deficit. Despite this potential setback, we were able to provide financial backing for the new Campus Outreach and Organizing Office." The next day Exec Office comptroller Devin Whitney was quoted as saying "With the deficit we had, Entertainment Council wasn’t going to be spared." So how much of its share of the deficit did Entertainment Council experience? A $30,000 cut.
   Am I the only one connecting the dots here and seeing that the ENTIRE deficit came out of Entertainment Council's budget?? (okay 91% of it)
   Later on in the same article: "Senators assure that the reductions the council faces are not being applied as a punishment, but instead will serve as a means to check what Kalfayan referred to as a 'mismanagement of money.'" If our ASUCD government officials are learning anything, its how to make euphemisms like the pros. Punishment = negative, "check on mismanagement of money" = good, punishment = "check on mismanagement of money."


Picture of the Day

   My livejournal update yesterday made the local paper. How's that for achievements in megabloggery!!