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Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009
Courtesy photo googleimages.com Commerce and the city of Pailin, Cambodia officially began their partnership on Nov. 19. Students and faculty who put the partnership assumed it would not take place as quickly as it did.
Village joins wih Commerce CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
wa s s u r pr i s e d how quickly the process moved along and is thankful for t he cit y a nd Dr. La nce Rasbridge, a community services coordinator for t he Ref uge e O ut r eac h P r o g r a m a t Pa r k l a n d Hospita l, who a l ready
had connections with the Pailin region. “I k new event ua l ly we would get there, but I didn’t think it would be this semester,” DiGeorgio said. “I t h i n k Dr. Rasbridge helped with his connections at Pailin. The city passing that resolut ion and g iving us t he
green light to go ahead also helped a lot.” Rasbridge has worked with war refugees in the Dallas area for over 20 years, specifically with those from Cambodia. The countr y experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1975 and another wa r w it h Viet na m be -
tween 1975 and 1989. Rasbridge explained the effects of war are still e v ide nt i n C a m b o d i a, particularly Pailin. “Compared to ot her places i n Ca mbod ia, t his place really needs outside assistance,” he said. “There’s still a lot of land mines in the area
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and there’s still a lot of war refugees that ended up in that area because they were forced out of their homes.” H e we n t o n t o s ay Pailin was rich in resources, mostly wood and gem stones, before the war and has since lost control of those industries. Ra sbr idge sa id t h i s program could help restore the area’s potential. “I think with initiatives like this, the management of the resources still there is the wave of the future as well as small business opportunities,” he said. “It is a beautiful area, and the tourist industry potential is vast.” The object ive of t he sister-city project, according to Digeorg io is for b ot h Pa i l i n a nd Commerc e to b e nef it f rom cultural exchange. “ Th e u lt i m at e go a l would be to bring people from Pailin here to Commerc e, to have p e ople f r o m C o m m e r c e v i s it Pailin, and to really have that exchange,” she said. “It would be really great to have the governor and officials from Pailin to
me e t ou r c it y c ou nc i l and mayor.” Th rog morton said t his project is also a chance for the city and the university to cooperate and work toward a common goal. “These are t he k ind of projects that the city and the university need to work toget her on to help out one another with some common goals that we have,” Throgmorton said. “They (the university) want to see increased e n r ol l me nt, i nc r ea s e d programs, and that would de f i n it e ly b e n e f it t h e city also.” Christina Clay, one of the students in the Cambodia Service Learning Project, said the next step is making the initiative a true community project. “Th is class is goi ng to do an awareness day, December 1 and 2, and try to get the college a little more involved,” she said. “Next semester’s class is going to go to Commerce ISD and see if they want to exchange artwork between us and Pailin.”
Residents eliminate each other MEGAN CAREY ART SCENE EDITOR The Whitley Elimination game, which commenced on Nov. 4 at 12:01 a.m., is a hunter versus the hunted game, whose players include the residents and resident assistants of Whitley Hall. Not on ly is t h is t he first year of the game, but it is also the first time a game like this has been played in any of the campus’ residence halls. “The Resident Assista nts c hose t h is ga me, because it is a great way to help residents get to know one another,” Whitley Hall Director Jessica Gamez said. The ga me la st s les s
than one month ending on Dec. 1 or when there is only one player left. Out of 108 participants who signed up to play, only 104 part icipants picked up their initial target cards. Currently, as of Thursday, Nov. 19, t here are 20 players remaining in the game. “[The game] will have t wo w i n n e r s,” Ga me z said. “The first winner will be for the last resident standing. This means they are the last player in the game who has not been eliminated by any ot her players. The second winner will be the person who has the most elimnations throughout the game.” The process of t he
game is straightforward. All players have assignme nt c a rd s w it h t hei r target’s picture on them; once they eliminate their ta rget, t hey ta ke t hei r target’s assignment card. The people in the game are the players, the targets and the hosts, who organize the game and also participate as players and targets. Targets who get eliminated, or people selec ted by t he hosts, become enforcers who monitor the rules. “The purpose of the game is to be the ‘last man standing’, so to speak,” sixth floor resident assistant Junior Larry Walker Jr. said. The game safe zones Continued on theeastetxan.com
VALEN CHAVEZ / THE EAST TEXAN Nahid Ghani does henna for the Muslim Student Association during Arabian night. Henna was just one of the many activities offered during last weeks event.
Night brings intricate designs CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
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how to do the dance,” Edwards said. The belly dancer entertained the crowd by dancing with a knife on her head and bringing people from the crowd on stage to dance with her. “I like the way she got t he c rowd i nvolved i n her performance,” Chap-
l i n s a i d . “ T h e c r o wd wa s i nt e r e s t e d i n h e r and t he next t hing she would do.” Though ASI anticipated a high attendance with the food and the activities planned, they did expect the turnout would be this great. “We hope for this kind of turn out and I am glad to see that it happened,”
Sneed said. With all the diversity on ca mpus, ASI wa nt s events like this to be a constant thing on campus to showcase the cultures that are represented. “I feel that the events l i ke Arabia n Nig ht s should be brought to campus,” Magalhaes said.
Stop signs obscured by trees cause potential danger, tickets DUKE GLOVER STAFF WRITER Several stop sig n s around campus are obscured or completely hidden from sight. In a sample taken of the city in an area near campus, three stop sig n s were fou nd to be partly covered up by foliage out of 25 signs observed. One sign was completely covered and only visible from a few feet away when driving. “O v e r b y t h e K . A . house, I was d r iv i ng along and had to slam on my break s because t he sign was partly covered up by a tree,” freshman of the Arts and Sciences Col lege, Hugo Mac i a s said. “I was in the middle of the intersection before I noticed the sign.” It may be stop signs are not a high enough priority to city officials.
“There aren’t as many stop sig n s here i n t he s o ut h a s bac k h o m e,” h istor y professor Joh n C. Berg ma n s a id. “Up north there are four way stops at just about every intersection.” S o m e p e o pl e c l a i m i n a sma l l tow n l i ke this, stop signs are almost optional. “ I t ’s t h e s o u t h e r n culture,” Bergman said. “There’s a k i nd of self imposed moderat ion t o t h i n g s dow n h e r e, moderat ion i n a lot of things. I guess stop signs were included.” The Commerce police chief, Kerry Crews, said t h e t op ic of o b s c u r e d stop signs does not come up t here at t he stat ion very often. “We are aware of some of the problems,” Crews said. “We do let the city know where the stop sign
is at, and if it’s obscured. Then t he publ ic work s department will take care of it and trim the bushes back, or if it’s private property, they’ll talk with the owner.” The police station does not receive ver y ma ny complaints of obscured s t o p s ig n s , a c c o r d i n g to Crews. ”We do write several t ickets for people r unning stop signs, but rarely do they try and justify it with the stop sign being obscured,” Crews said. The police chief went o n t o s ay, i f a n y o n e knows of any stop signs in the cit y that are obscured, they should give the police station a call to report it. The number for the Commerce police station is (903) 886-1139, and city manager Dion Miller can be reached at (903) 886-1124.