Recently asked NYU to plaease waive the $50 replacement fee for the diploma I had here in Cambodia which was regrettably eaten by termites (as described in earlier post)

Here’s their response:

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Dear Mr. Rosette:

Your request for a waiver of the $50 fee for a replacement diploma was reviewed administratively, and, I am sorry to say, denied. We don’t make money on replacement diplomas. The diplomas cost us money, and there are also shipping costs. Probably the biggest cost is wages paid to our employees, as it really does take a fair amount of time to process an order for a single diploma – it’s hard to say exactly how much time, but all told I think an hour would not be an exaggeration.

Sincerely,

Christopher James
Supervisor, Graduation Services
NYU Office of the University Registrar
7 East 12th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Tel. (212) 998-4803
Fax (212) 995-4587
Email: clj1@nyu.edu

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There you go…an hour to replace a diploma. Hmmm. Does this mean the staff gets paid $50 an hour?

Anyway also was shocked to find that my cell phone was stolen yesterday by a visitor, her name is Da, the surprising thing is I’ve known her for quite a while and she’s been over here manhy times to hang out: she’s a simple farm girl from Battambang, who recently went back up there to harvest rice for a month. She just came back.

It really shocked me, because I actually trusted her; I can only imaging that her mother, who had been sick recently, needed some money or medication desperatly, and so she took what she could, no matter what the consequences…

Here’s how to put it into context for yourself. Imagine a friend of yours, well you’ve known this person for say 6 months or more, they’ve been over to your place maybe 5 or six times before no problem, comes over to watch TV and hang out one day. Then this person suddenly gets up and walks out the room, you think maybe she’s gone to use the toilet, whatever.

But no: she’s gone, her cheap plastic shoes are gone, too. And so is your cheesy Nokia mobile phone which was sitting on your desk, and maybe a pile of a few dollars worth of Riel.

Huh. At first I was angry, but then I was puzzled and then sort of sad–for her. What the fuck man? Wil lshe ever have a decent connection with another foreigner like m yself…was it worth the $45 dollars (actually, $20, that’s what she’s get when she takes the phone to a shop to sell it back)

So for $25 bucks she gave up a friendship, a good connection with a good dude. Huh.

The scary part is, I trusted her. Now I don’t feel like I can trust the Khmer people so much, at least not in the city…too bad really, I think, as I’ve seen the place develop over this past almost two years, as I saw the number of Lexus landcruisers on the streets gow and mulitply, I’ve also seen the materialsm set in, and with that comes more crime, etc: the same bitter functions found in Western big cities, ala NYC.

More later, but I am at a crossroads here in Cambodia, think I will be making some kind of adjustment soon, not sure what that may be…