There is an independent group within ASCE involved in anti-corruption. ASCE Global Principles for Professional Conduct that might warrant consultation on this issue.
Regards, Harold Sprague
> Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:58:54 +0530
> Subject: Re: Being Outspoken
> From: leisuresoul.avi@gmail.com
> To: seaint@seaint.org
>
> Dear,
> May be I misunderstood your post as a hate message
> sent to you. We listen to all this buzz of corruption in my country
> 'India', so i would not be much amazed or disbelieve you particularly
> on this aspect of corruption. Corruption is a problem with civil
> engineers usually but USA is popular for its ethics code ie. Code of
> conduct and being truthful towards your company and branch but many
> time this is not done. I have not went through deeper problems of
> Civil engineers as of now but I am sure the S Curve looks a little
> awkward which may be due to two reasons-
> (a) Due to some engineering difficulties regarding foundation etc
> (b) Second is the reason which you are giving.
> Being here in India, I cannot straight away say which option is
> correct or wrong. But people like you and all engineers there can at
> least ask questions to authorities and its on people like you to tell
> the world about it .
>
> Regards
>
> On 11/13/09, Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl <astaneh@ce.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> > Dear Avi: I am sorry that I can't understand what your post is trying to
> > say. Dr. zzzzz has sent me the nice short e-mail complementing my speaking
> > out about this unbelievable corruption in Seismic Advisory Board of Caltrans
> > which , in my opinion is the root cause of all these problems with the Bay
> > Bridge and now a fatality. Why are you asking Dr. zzzz to "Maintain a
> > decorum" ? And why are you asking me to "reveal his name to Seaint for
> > some kind of action"?. What are you talking about? He has written a nice
> > letter to me. Why "some kind of action should be taken against him?
> > Besides, if he wanted to have his name revealed he would have posted the
> > note on Seaint instead of sending me privately. How can I violate his
> > privacy and reveal his name? I think you may have misunderstood the hate
> > mail case in my post. The hate mail I received was from someone else and
> > that e-mail was turned over to Berkeley police (I had typed in my post
> > "Campus mail" instead of "Campus police". Please let us focus on preventing
> > a few in our community such as members of the Seismic Advisory Board of
> > Caltrans from destroying fine reputation of so many structural engineers ,
> > who are doing their jobs honorably and with public safety in mind.
> >
> > It is very simple: Seismic Advisory Board(SAB) of Caltrans was created
> > after Loma Prieta quake to be an "independent " watch dog overseeing and
> > approving Caltrans seismic designs. For first four years and under
> > Chairmanship of the late Professor Housner, the SAB did exactly that. But
> > after that the former Chair Dr. Penzien and the current Chair Dr. Frieder
> > Seible , who is the Dean of School of Engineering at San Diego and almost
> > all members of SAB started receiving multi-million dollar contracts from
> > Caltrans for research and consulting in a non-competitive basis. In essence,
> > The Chair and members of SAB were getting money from Caltrans to do
> > consulting, then presenting their work to Caltrans only to be presented to
> > themselves for approval. Believe me such a corrupt system , in our
> > professions results in someone getting killed and the someone may have been
> > the truck driver killed on the S-curve of Bay Bridge.
> >
> > Let us keep the focus on eradicating this corruption and saving lives.
> >
> >
> > Best wishes.
> >
> > A. Astaneh
> >
> >
> > Subject: Re: Being Outspoken
> > From: Avi Sharma <leisuresoul.avi@gmail.com>
> > To: seaint@seaint.org
> >
> > Dr zzzzz
> > I am really feeling bad about this one now. You can say
> > to this extent is something that is out of limit. I think you should
> > have read something about the prof you are saying this. He is a real
> > Civilian !! If you had guts then you would have come a general message
> > through seaint. I am not against you but the point I am trying to make
> > is about a decorm of place you are in. This is not orkut/fb, this is
> > something serious and something of our branch's concern.
> > Just one message, Maintain a decorm !!
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Prof Astaneh,
> > Please reveal his name to admins atleast
> > for some kind of Action.
> >
> >
> >
> > ******* ****** ******* ******** ******* ******* ******* ***
> > * Read list FAQ at: http://www.seaint.org/list_FAQ.asp
> > *
> > * This email was sent to you via Structural Engineers
> > * Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) server. To
> > * subscribe (no fee) or UnSubscribe, please go to:
> > *
> > * http://www.seaint.org/sealist1.asp
> > *
> > * Questions to seaint-ad@seaint.org. Remember, any email you
> > * send to the list is public domain and may be re-posted
> > * without your permission. Make sure you visit our web
> > * site at: http://www.seaint.org
> > ******* ****** ****** ****** ******* ****** ****** ********
> >
>
>
> --
> Avi Sharma
> 2nd Year
> Department of Civil Engineering,
> SRKNEC, India
>
> ******* ****** ******* ******** ******* ******* ******* ***
> * Read list FAQ at: http://www.seaint.org/list_FAQ.asp
> *
> * This email was sent to you via Structural Engineers
> * Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) server. To
> * subscribe (no fee) or UnSubscribe, please go to:
> *
> * http://www.seaint.org/sealist1.asp
> *
> * Questions to seaint-ad@seaint.org. Remember, any email you
> * send to the list is public domain and may be re-posted
> * without your permission. Make sure you visit our web
> * site at: http://www.seaint.org
> ******* ****** ****** ****** ******* ****** ****** ********
Windows 7: Unclutter your desktop. Learn more.