I occasionally post articles from the UC-Irvine campus paper, New University. This week's edition has an op-ed by a student that I think is well worth posting. It has to do with the fact that the chair of the UC-Irvine Foundation, Hazem Chehabi, is also an honorary consul for the Syrian government in Orange County. I have written about this issue before. The article is by Erum Siddiqi
http://www.newuniversity.org/2011/10/opinion/ucis-disgraceful-connection/
I don't always agree with what I read in (any) student newspaper since they tend to be liberal. I do agree with this one. Of course, the position of honorary consul is different from regularly posted diplomats. They don't even have to be citizens of the country that appoints them. (Chehabi is Syrian-American.) Their job entails certain minor duties that cannot be covered in a certain geographical area due to limited resources of the concerned govenment. Yet, given what is happening in Syria today, to say nothing about what has been going on in Syria for decades under the Assad rule, I think it is unbecoming at the least to have anyone associated with this regime on the UCI Foundation-let alone be its chair.
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