Thursday 26 May 2011

After talking to International Officer

     Today there was a meeting between me and the Director of International Office, she asked me to tell her the situation of the story again, and she said that this blog had been spread so fast that almost the whole university already knew, and the rector of the university paid a great attention into this issue. Well, I didn't expect this to have such a great impact.
     Anyway, she felt very sorry for what I have experienced and the whole situation. Both the chairman of Asset | Economics and Stefan Leeffers felt very sorry for me and regretted their behaviors, and Stefan knew that he made a mistake. Therefore there would be a meeting between  Asset|Economics, Stefan Leeffers ,International Office and me next week. I hope we could talk this through, and just get this thing over after so many days.
     To tell again, for those who are attacking me on my blog or anything, save your time, this is not the platform for you guys to fight against each other. And thank you so much for all the people who helped me, supported me these days!

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Update of the situation

     First of all, thanks for all your passion to reply my blog to say your opinions, no matter it is positive or negative.I intend to let people know the story and tell their opinions to give me feedback on this so that I can hear more voice from everywhere about the issue.
     I respect all your opinions but never intend to let people fight against their countries,nationalities or generalize one race or another with anyone's culture.As I said in the introduction of myself on my blog, I hope the world can embrace the entire human race and be a nice place. There should never occurred any different treatments because of your RACE,NATIONALITY,SKIN COLOR and GENDER.
     So far the Director of International Office has read my blog and one officer from IO willmeet me this week to hear my story and she said that as a university, they are willing to learn from their mistakes and and undertake some steps to solve the problem, so this is a good news!
     I hope everything will go well, and thank you all!

Friday 20 May 2011

A story about the discrimination and racism from a Dutch student association against international students

     The story happened during April,Easter, 2010 when I, as a committee member of Asset | Economics Study Tour committee, traveled together with 20 people, in which the majority are Dutch. The first day when I arrived there I was already sick due to the 12 hours' trip of the bus and a cold breakfast at 6 o'clock.The second day I told a committee member that I didn't feel good so I would not go to the trip that day. In the afternoon, I met four girls in our group including two Board members of Asset | Economics in Prague Square which was only several hundred miters away from my hostel, and when they asked how I was, I told them that I was still sick, had fever still and I bought some medicine.
       That night,there was a party,but since I was sick, I stayed in bed but couldn't fall asleep.At around 2 o'clock, two Dutch girls who were my roommates in the hostel came back and they started to talk loudly.Meanwhile, I heard one girl said to the other in Dutch, translated into English, meaning"this girl sleeps in bed the whole day, that is stupid, stupid!"Then she started to say something about Chinese which I didn't understand in Dutch. Apparently, there was only me in that room, so she meant me. After they took a shower, I told her to be quiet but she didn't want to but in the end agreed. And then I told her that I didn't go out because I am sick Then she replied so easily that"Oh, really? Someone saw you in the city center!" "I went to buy some medicine", I said.Surprisingly, she said" What a good excuse!"Then I told her that if she didn't believe me, I could show my temperature to her, after that, she stopped saying anything.And I told her that next time, don't say anything bad about me or Chinese people in our back!She replied straightly that" I'm saying that now in front of you!"Then she denied she said anything about me in my back or anything about Chinese the whole day.Until she said" I only said something in Dutch moments ago",I replied"Yes!I meant that!!"Then she didn't dare to say more.But why did she think I wasn't think even though I already told people that I was, she didn't have sympathy but being rude all the time.
    However, this is not the end, after a while, more people were back, then Michelle told something to another Dutch Stefan Leeffers probably about the quarrel between me and her,then Stefan Leeffers said in Dutch " Chinees...Spleetogen", which means that "Chinese...slanted eyes". Michelle laughed with him after these words were spoken out.There were also another three Dutch people in the room and two Chinese including me, but no one stopped. To make it worse, he was saying that when he was sitting opposing the direction where Yu and I slept(both Chinese), when he made this racial slur, nobody stood out to stop him, but either silent or laughing.Isn't this racism?Isn't this discrimination?How could he do that when I was sick sleeping in bed?Isn't this mental abuse adding to the fact that they were doing so to a sick person?
    The next day,the whole group was shocked when they heard the story about me that I went to hospital that day, and then they believed. Suddenly, the chairman from my committee agreed to let me leave the group by plane but not by bus with them, and I could sleep in another room since my room was too noisy and I would get some money back where I didn't spend. Compared to their rules not allowing me to do this or that, these were all done because they now really believed that I was sick and didn't want to have responsibility taken if my illness got worse!
    During the trip,nobody except Yu and Caroline cared about my sickness until they saw the proof from the doctor, even my committee members said a lot of things about Chinese in their rooms (it was heard by my boyfriend since he stayed in a room next to them unfortunately) by always starting the sentence of "Chinese...", other Dutch did the same thing when I was seeing a doctor even in front of another Chinese girl!To add to it, another Dutch guy came to Yu and another American girl to say that "You should feel honored that we 17 dutch people speak English for you".
    The discrimination is not only shown in this trip, but during the time when the committee was planing the trip, no one responded the e-mails from Chinese members (Yu and I) , however, when Dutch members sent something, they replied quite fast.Plus, when the Dutch committee members didn't do their responsibilities, they never blamed.
     After the trip, I posted the racism and discrimination accusation of Asset|Economics on Facebook, then Asset | Economics Chairman invited me for a talk.She said she never spread the rumors about me not being sick, and they told people that I went to buy medicine, and probably Michelle said those to me because she thought on her own way. But couldn't you explain how I looked that day? I looked quite sick on my face, and you could convince them that I was sick. When talking about my committee, she thought that Chinese people work differently than Dutch people, you only focus on your own part, but do not involve with the group.However, as far as I know, even during a project, some Dutch people would do the same thing to split the task and help each other when it is needed, so why SEPARATE Chinese from Dutch?How much do you know about Chinese? How many Chinese students have you known?She not only had different opinions from me but was also protecting her own group and separated races again!Moreover, why didn't they tell this different opinion beforehand?
     When talking about the racial slur of "slanted eyes", she didn't regard this as racism or discrimination, and thought that saying something starting with "Chinese" is not that bad. I would say, you only call a person where she's from instead of her name when you already know the person for around a year in the back is irrespective and rude!So far Asset| Economics asked me to remove my facebook status accusing them of discrimination and they claimed me "blackmailing" them when I e-mailed them that I would only remove if Stefan Leeffers apologized to me or the chairman criticized him in front of the people who were in that room.Up untill now, they think they didn't discriminate Chinese and there's no racism done by the organization!They never apologized to me for the racial slur and have done NOTHING with it, but only want me to shut up with no apology.
     As an international student, I thought that the international office would help in this case, however, instead of helping me,the person that international office gave me the contact for forwarded my e-mail to the chairman of Asset | Economics.Even after I asked some opinions from the lady, she called the chairman again to tell the situation!And she asked us to deal with this ourselves!
     So far I am so disappointed with what Asset | Economics have behaved and to announce here, I want my justice back!If any of you have any suggestions, please comment on this blog!I need support and help!

PS:For those who think "slanted eyes" is not a racial slur, or it is not offensive,check this out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs


Furthermore, update of the story has been posted.I am not as furious as  I was when I posted the story,and there doesn't need to have new comments to be against anyone. What I want is just to tell the story, get your opinions(so far it is enough) and get the apology of which I deserve, not fighting against each other by commenting on the story.Thank you!