A refugee in exile
Photo courtesy of Vinh Dao
While in state prison, Kosal Khiev jumped out of bed from a terrible nightmare. The 32-year-old former Santa Ana resident woke up in the middle of the night, washed his face and looked at himself in the mirror. He saw his younger, more jubilant self, masked by the hardened reality of his adulthood, reflected in the image before him. Khiev asked himself, “Is this it, man? Is this all you’re going to become? Am I going to die with you, here?”
Although Khiev was ready to turn his life around after his 14-year prison sentence, little did the Cambodian-born refugee know, he would be transported and dropped off permanently in a country he had never known.
Khiev was born in a refugee camp on border of Cambodia and Thailand. His family was escaping the brutal genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which led to the deaths of more than 2 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.
SQE ends hunger strike
Photo by William Camargo/The Daily Titan
Students for Quality Education (SQE) ended their hunger strike after 10 consecutive days. According to a SQE press release, the 12 students ended their deliberate starvation after media coverage led to California lawmakers responding to their cause.
The demands of the group were to create a five-year freeze on tuition increases, eliminate all housing and car allowances for all 23 campus presidents, rollback executive salaries to 1999 levels and an extension of freedom of speech on all campuses.
SQE met with Chancellor Charles B. Reed on May 4. Reed responded to its demands, by saying, “Your demands … are not possible.”
On May 7, CBS-2 News broadcasted the story “Investigation Reveals Questionable Spending by CSU Chancellor’s Office,” which contrasted the SQE’s hunger strike with the lavish spending on food by the Chancellor’s Office.
CBS reporter David Goldstein uncovered records of $766,890.32 charged on CSU credit cards last year, leading the chancellor to be confronted about the expenditures.
In response to the CBS News report, Senator Ted Lieu sent a letter to the chancellor and the station calling for Chancellor Reed’s resignation. According to SQE members, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has invited the group to meet in Sacramento.
CSU Chancellor Reed rejects hunger strikers’ demands
Students for Quality Education (SQE) hunger strikers and their supporters met Friday with Chancellor Charles B. Reed, General Counsel Christine Helwick and Systemwide Police Chief Nate Johnson in Long Beach.
SQE started a hunger strike Wednesday after Chancellor Reed and the CSU Board of Trustees did not respond to their demands relating to quality higher education. There are currently 12 students participating in the hunger strike on six CSU campuses, including Cal State Fullerton history graduate student David Inga.
The demands were to create a five-year freeze on tuition increases, eliminate all housing and car allowances for all 23 campus presidents, rollback executive salaries to 1999 levels and an extension of freedom of speech on all campuses.
Reed told the students he had 45 minutes to listen to their concerns. The students presented their demands and the reasoning behind them. Students said the board has increased tuition by 318 percent since 2002, leading to high student debt and other students not being able to afford basic expenses.
“Your demands … are not possible. You are focusing on the wrong group of people,” Reed told the students at the meeting. “You should be focusing on the Legislature and on the government because that’s where the resources come from.”
“I don’t particularly like the decision to raise tuition, but the reason that we’ve had to raise tuition is because the Legislature and the governor haven’t given us the money to able to offer the classes and sections that you want,” Reed said.
CSUF student participates in hunger strike
David Inga (front, center) singing during the hunger strike kick off on May 1 at Cal State Fullerton
Students for Quality Education (SQE) officially began their hunger strike Wednesday. The students are starving themselves of food in response to the CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed and Chair Bob Linscheid’s failure to engage in direct dialogue with students over their demands.
David Inga, a history graduate student and the only California State University Fullerton student participating in the strike, plans to engage in deliberate starvation along with 11 other students from six CSU campuses.
SQE presented four demands to the CSU Board of Trustees March 20. They gave them about 30 days to sit at the table to discuss four demands: Create a five-year freeze on tuition increases, eliminate all housing and car allowances for all 23 campus presidents, rollback executive salaries to 1999 levels and an extend of freedom of speech on all campuses.
Orange County celebrates May Day
Orange County residents marched in the streets of downtown Santa Ana during a May Day protest organized by the Orange County May Day Coalition. The same day, Students for Quality Education (SQE) at Cal State Fullerton started preparations for the upcoming hunger strike commencing on six CSU campuses.
About 300 demonstrators, including activists from Occupy Santa Ana and Irvine, walked through the streets with colorful signs and chants that addressed a broad range of recent controversial issues. The issues in question included police brutality, obtaining driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants and tuition increases in higher education.
The coalition consisted of various social justice groups such as Chicanos Unidos, DeColores Queer OC, El Centro Cultural de Mexico, SEIU United Service Works West and the OC Peace Coalition. Protesters chanted “Education, not deportation!” and “Si, se puede!” as they weaved through the busy streets.
The coalition group used eye-catching signs and music during the protest to draw supporters in. About a half dozen demonstrators sang protest songs in Spanish and English, with many of the participants joining along.
CSUF students ‘Unite to Rise Above Apathy’
Santa Ana-based spoken word artist and poet Abraham Medina
The Eighth Annual Social Justice Summit was held at Cal State Fullerton with over 600 attendees on Saturday. The free all-day event organized by the Volunteer and Service Center featured speakers and workshops with the theme “Unite to Rise Above Apathy.” Over 50 student volunteers facilitated 24 workshops during three sessions led by campus professors, community activists, artists and students. The hour-long workshops featured discussions and presentations about the most pressing social justice issues today.
Burning candles shed light on hate
Photo by Anibal Ortiz
A group of about 30 students held a candlelight vigil for Trayvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi at Cal State Fullerton. Students withstood chilly and windy weather to engage in honest discussions about race and prejudice in the United States.
April 11 was designated by activists as the national day of action for justice for Trayvon Martin. The timing was impeccable as George Zimmerman was arrested on second-degree murder charges by a Florida special prosecutor the same day. The self-appointed neighborhood watch captain had admitted to shooting 17-year-old Martin, but had not been arrested. Although Martin was unarmed, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was the reasoning behind releasing Zimmerman after questioning.
A little ‘Love’ goes a long way in Santa Ana
Jeff Jun (right) hands out candy to volunteers
Every day for the last 23 years, Jeff Jun gives out lollipops to his laundromat customers, giving them a reason to smile as they graciously accept the treat.
For the past two years, Jun has partnered with Laundry Love and given the community much
more to smile about.
Nestled in the heart of downtown Santa Ana, his nondescript building with the lettering “Lavandería,” makes it look like any other laundromat in Orange County. However, once a month, Jun’s laundromat becomes a place for emotional connections and spontaneous dance parties through a community effort called “Laundry Love.”
Laundry Love Santa Ana strives to create regular opportunities to help people who are struggling financially by assisting them with their laundry. When organizer Scott Overpeck came to Jun with the idea, he was compelled to say yes.
“Humans can’t survive without other humans,” said Jun. “We need to help one another.”
Anyone who has lived without a washer or dryer might know the laundromat experience: Bring enough quarters and detergent, and then sit and wait two or more hours for clothes to wash and dry.
But for those less fortunate in Orange County, laundry is both a logistical problem and financial burden. Many of the homeless drift from shelter to shelter receiving donated clothes, without the money or means to wash them.
Anti-police brutality protests staged in Anaheim
Hernandez's son Zahid at a demonstration on March 10
Two separate demonstrations took place over the weekend protesting Anaheim Police officer-involved shootings.
More than 100 residents of an Anaheim neighborhood took to the streets Saturday night in a march from Ponderosa Park to an alley on Wakefield Avenue where 21-year-old Martin Angel Hernandez was shot by police March 6.
The incident was the fourth officer-involved shooting in Anaheim this year. Last year, there were four officer-involved shootings total.
A dozen Anaheim Police officers wearing ballistic helmets were on the scene. Four officers were at the far end of the alley and eight were standing on the side closest to the memorial. Some demonstrators shouted expletives at the officers and others stood silently facing the police car holding a sign that read, “Stop Police Violence!”
CSUF group seeks to end corporatization of education
Photo by David Le
Students for Quality Education (SQE) chapters held rallies and actions all across California Thursday to protest budget cuts and rising tuition costs. The event on campus was subdued compared to actions at Cal State Los Angeles, where about 300 protesters demonstrated. With the Women’s History Month kick-off event as a backdrop, the SQE chapter at Cal State Fullerton handed out fliers to educate others about upcoming actions in front of the Humanities Building.
Carie Rael, member of SQE and a history major, said chapters of the group plan on having a presence at the next California State Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach, March 21. According to its website, SQE currently has chapters on 16 out of the 23 CSU campuses.
While flyers handed out by SQE students on campus cite budget cuts and tuition increases as the reasons behind the downgrade of quality education in the CSU system, another focus of the statewide group is the corporatization of the CSU system and the privatization of higher education in the state and across the country.
“I absolutely think the Cal State system is becoming corporatized. It’s been happening since the 1980s with the rise of administrative power … followed by the lessening of full-time faculty where tenured faculty is at a stand still right now,” said Rael. “Administrators are looking at (education) more like a corporate model. Instead of hiring more educators and teachers, we’re hiring more administrators who are like the managers in a corporate office.”
She said although college degrees are beneficial in a competitive job market, finding and getting a job should not be the only function of higher education.
Stop Stealing Our Cars premieres in Santa Ana
Brightly painted yellow and red signs danced down the streets as a mass of protesters made their way through the avenues of Santa Ana during a May Day protest last year.
Larger than life puppets, carried on the shoulders of over half a dozen demonstrators, represented students and workers. The most notable image — a large photographic cutout of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, with a sign, reading “For Sale: Santa Ana,” beneath him.
The protest was just one of the actions documented by Orange County independent filmmaker Jose Luis Gallo in Stop Stealing Our Cars.
On Saturday, over 130 attendees viewed the bilingual documentary during two screenings at El Centro Cultural de Mexico in downtown Santa Ana.
The film is about the struggle of activists attempting to change a DUI checkpoint tow policy. Members of the community argued the checkpoints were found to not be netting drunk drivers, and were instead towing the cars of unlicensed drivers and charging massive fees.
The film featured activists from the Orange County May Day Coalition who fought against a policy they said unfairly targeted low-income and Latino families in Santa Ana.
The documentary, a nearly yearlong effort depicts a tightly-knit group of determined activists tirelessly pushing for change at Santa Ana City Council meetings and attending multiple Public Safety Committee meetings late into the night.
