Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XVIII Number 10, October 2010
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, October 28, 7:30 PM. Monthly
Meeting. Caltech Y is located off San Pasqual
between Hill and Holliston, south side. You will
see two curving walls forming a gate to a path--
our building is just beyond. Help us plan future
actions on Sudan, the 'War on Terror', death
penalty and more.
Tuesday, November 9, 7:30 PM. Letter
writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner
of Hill and California in Pasadena. This
informal gathering is a great way for
newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty!
Sunday, November 21, 6:30PM. Rights
Readers Human Rights Book Discussion group.
This month we read "The Blessing next to the
Wound" by Hector Aristizabal and Diane
Lefer.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone
Wow! I can't believe it's almost the end of
October ... the district merged East area nurses
with Central and moved us downtown to
Beaudry, a high-rise with 29 floors! I am racking
up the mileage (although not getting paid for it,
there is no funding at the moment) traveling to my
(now 20) schools. I still don't have a desk or my
computer set up and none of us have printers, but
we're nurses, we're flexible and know how to
improvise!! (ha ha). And you thought us public
employees weren't doing anything and had great
working conditions ....
Those of you who plan to attend the Western
Regional Conference take note that the venue has
changed from the SF Hilton to Hastings Law
School due to a labor dispute. We changed our
reservation to the Holiday Inn, as we really don't
want to cross a picket line!
Our November author, Hector Aristizabal, is
having a book signing at Vromans in Pasadena
November 12 at 7 pm. Everyone come out and
support Hector and Diane!
Con carino,
Kathy
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders@blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday November 21, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Boulevard
In Pasadena
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Hector Aristizabal was born and raised in
Medellin, Colombia when it was the most
dangerous city in the world. One of his brothers
was seduced by the power of crack cocaine and
another by the promises of revolutionary armed
struggle. Hector's path was different. He worked
his way out of poverty to become a theatre artist
and pioneering psychologist with a Masters
degree from Antioquia University, then survived
civil war, arrest, and torture at the hands of the
US-supported military. In 1989, violence and
death threats forced him to leave his homeland.
Since arriving in the US, he has won acclaim and
awards as an artist and also received a second
Masters degree, in Marriage and Family Therapy
from Pacific Oaks College, leading him to combine
his training in psychology and the arts with
lessons gained from life experience in his
therapeutic work. As an activist, he uses
theatrical performance as part of the movement
to end torture and to change US policy in Latin
America. His nonprofit organization,
ImaginAction, taps the power of creativity in
social justice programs throughout the US and
around the world as far afield as Afghanistan,
India, and Palestine for community building and
reconciliation, strategizing, and individual healing
and liberation.
Diane Lefer is an author, playwright, and
activist whose most recent short-story collection,
California Transit, was awarded the Mary
McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and published by
Sarabande Books. She is also the author of two
other collections -- Very Much Like Desire and The
Circles I Move In, as well as the novel, Radiant
Hunger. Her fiction has been recognized by the
National Endowment for the Arts, the New York
Foundation for the Arts, the City of Los Angeles,
and the Library of Congress. For 23 years she
taught in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont
College of Fine Arts and has been a guest artist at
colleges, writing conferences and festivals. She
has facilitated creative workshops for high school
students, adjudicated youth in lockup and on
probation, and children in the foster-care system.
Diane's ongoing collaboration with Hector
Aristizabal includes work for the stage and for
the page, and social-justice action workshops.
She is a frequent contributor of articles to LA
Progressive.
REVIEWS
"Here we have a 'must read' as the military base
at Palanquero, Colombia is taken over by the
United State Air Force. Hector personifies the
suffering of the Colombian people. But the
biophilic love of life overcomes the necrophilic
love of death and power, as the victims of torture,
the victims of crass and brutal violence, elevate
their suffering by seeing the world through eyes
that have not yet been born." -- Blase Bonpane,
Director, Office of the Americas
"This aptly titled book draws a spiritual path to
transcend physical and psychic wounds, whether
they come from political persecution, domestic
abuse, gang violence, exile, or poverty. In this
remarkable and powerful personal narrative,
Hector Aristizabal portrays his own
transformation -- from a torture victim to a
spiritual guide strong enough, artistic enough,
and, ultimately, blessed enough, to lift other lost
souls into the light." -- Sue William Silverman,
author, Fearless Confessions and Because I
Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You
"Psychologist, internationally known actor,
human rights activist. Any of these vocations
could be a life's work but Hector Aristizabal's
life's work encompasses all three. Here is an
intimate view of his coming of age in the complex
and violent society of Medellin, Colombia, and
how his experiences gave him insight and
compassion faced with the complex and violent
society he found as an immigrant to the U.S. I
have witnessed just a small part of his work:
bringing hope and healing to those who -- like
him -- are survivors of torture. This book now
offers his dramatic story along with his powerful
ideas of healing, art, and advocacy to a wider
audience." -- Jose Quiroga, M.D., founder and
medical director, Program for Torture Victims
Hector Aristizabal grew up in the barrios of
Medellin, Colombia, where he and his siblings
had to use all their wit, wiles, and wherewithal to
survive poverty, the ever-present allure of cheap
drugs and very dangerous money, and the
endemic violence from leftwing guerrillas,
rightwing death squads, cocaine cartels, and the
armed power of the State. As a young actor and
psychology student, Hector was seized by the
military, held in secret, and tortured. He survived
and went on to find meaning in his ordeal as he
channeled his desire for revenge into nonviolent
activism both in his homeland and during
decades of exile in the United States.
While challenging the State-sponsored causes of
much suffering in the world, Hector reached out
to some of society's most marginalized -- at-risk
and incarcerated youth, immigrants, and many
others -- using his theatrical skills and
psychotherapeutic training to help people shape
their own stories and identities. He sought to
understand his own identity as well as that of one
brother who was a revolutionary and another
who was gay -- and how his belief in personal
integrity and political freedom might square with
the realities of a country under the yoke of toxic
ideologies. Hector was forced finally to examine
his own motivations and commitments, and begin
to heal his own gaping wounds.
Shockingly honest, heartbreaking, and vibrantly
told, The Blessing Next to the Wound is a
passionate and evocative memoir that, amid
enormous suffering and loss, is a full-throated
affirmation of life.
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
GAO ZHISHENG
By Joyce Wolf
Group 22 has committed to work on the case of
human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (pronounced
Gow Jir-sheng). Gao disappeared for a year after
he was detained by police in China in February
2009. He reappeared for a few weeks, but has
been missing since 20 April.
The Asia section of the Amnesty blog posted an
article on 18 October titled "Human Rights
Activists in China Locked Up for Speaking Out".
Along with recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu
Xiaobo, Gao Zhisheng is one of the imprisoned
activists featured in the article.
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/asia/human-rights-
activists-in-china-locked-up-for-speaking-out/.
An October 23 report in Asia.news.yahoo.com
states, "The brother of missing prominent Chinese
rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng said Friday he had
travelled to Beijing to ask police about his
sibling's whereabouts but was turned back
without any news." Gao Zhiyi is quoted as
saying, "I came to Beijing to find out his
whereabouts and to report his disappearance. The
Beijing Public Security Bureau told me they
needed two months to investigate and verify this
issue."
We last wrote to the Director of the Beijing Public
Security Bureau in July. Perhaps it's time to do so
again and add our voices to Gao Zhiyi's inquiry
about his brother. Here is a sample letter that you
can use as a guide. Postage is 98 cents.
MA Zhenchuan Juzhang
Beijingshi Gong'anju
9 Qianmen Dongdajie
Dongchengqu
Beijingshi 100740
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Dear Director,
I am deeply concerned about Gao Zhisheng
(___), a Beijing-based human rights lawyer
who was detained in Shaanxi Province on
February 4, 2009. His current whereabouts has
been unknown since April 20, 2010.
Although Gao was named one of the top 10
lawyers in 2001 by China's Justice Department, in
2005 the government revoked his license and sent
him to jail for three years, during which time he
reportedly was tortured. I respectfully urge that
the authorities open a full and impartial
investigation into allegations that Gao Zhisheng
suffered ill-treatment in detention, including
beatings and inadequate access to medical
treatment, and bring those responsible to justice.
Thank you for your attention to this important
matter.
[Your name and address]
STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
By Cheri Dellelo
Yale Pledges Yell Rape Chant
The Yale fraternity DKE is under fire for a
pledging ritual. It's not what they did, but what
they said. Sometime in the past few weeks, the
pledges of Delta Kappa Epsilon's Phi chapter
marched through Yale's campus chanting rape-
trivializing phrases such as "no means yes, yes
means anal." in the area of the campus where
most of the first-year female students are housed.
In response, the Yale Women's Center
immediately issued the following statement --
"This action by DKE has made public that they
see rape as a joke or, worse, something they
support. That these calls may have been made in
jest should not distract from the fact that they
incite violence." Jordan Forney, DKE president,
predictably made a public apology,
acknowledging that his fraternity's actions
demonstrated "a lapse in judgment and [were] in
poor taste." The Yale Daily News published a
controversial article that made light of the assault
and discredited the Women's Center, with
statements such as, "Feminists at Yale should
remember that, on a campus as progressive as
ours, most of their battles are already won: All of
us agree on gender equality. The provocateurs
knew their audience's sensibilities and how to
offend them for a childish laugh. They went too
far. But the Women's Center should have known
better than to paint them as misogynistic
strangers and attackers among us, instead of
members of our community. . . ." I find it difficult
to believe that a newspaper on a campus "as
progressive as" Yale's would fail to realize that
rape is never appropriate joke material and that
rapists are often not strangers but people we may
know, "members of our community."
UN-Backed Troops 'Murdering and Raping
Villagers' in Congo
UN-backed Congolese troops have been accused
of murdering and raping villagers and looting
homes in the area in which rebel militias carried
out mass rapes two months ago. In August,
details emerged of the mass rape of 303
civilians -- 235 women, 13 men, 52 girls and three
boys -- in 13 villages in the Walikale area in the
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Even in
eastern Congo, which has been described as the
"rape capital of the world," such numbers are
extraordinary. The UN -- which had a base 20
miles from the scene of the attacks -- admitted
failing to protect the victims. It now faces further
embarrassment because it provides logistical
support to the Congolese army, which stands
accused of compounding terror inflicted by the
Rwandan-led FDLR rebels and the Congolese
Mai-Mai militia. In response to the mass rapes,
the Congo president, Joseph Kabila, ordered a
moratorium on mining in the mineral-rich area and
sent thousands of army troops to reassert
government control. The UN is being urged to
impose sanctions against a Rwandan Hutu rebel
commander over the mass rapes. Sanctions could
include a financial freeze and a travel ban.
(Congo's eastern provinces are under siege by
Rwandan Hutu insurgents and Mai-Mai militia
who have lingered in the vast, mineral-rich zone
since Congo's 1998-2003 war.)
International Community Broadens Efforts to
Help Victims of Human Trafficking
The United Nations has estimated that more than
2.4 million people are currently being exploited as
victims of human trafficking. Every year,
thousands of women and children are exploited
by criminals for forced labor or in the sex trade.
No country is immune. Almost all play a part, as
countries of origin, transit, or destination.
Recently, the Group of Friends against Human
Trafficking, a coalition of 20 countries, held its
first ministerial meeting in New York to step up
efforts against modern-day slavery. The Group
has played an important role in supporting the
United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat
Trafficking in Persons. Adopted by the General
Assembly in July 2010, the Plan urges
Governments to take coordinated, comprehensive
and consistent steps to combat such trafficking
and to adopt a human rights-based approach.
The Plan called for the setting up of a United
Nations voluntary trust fund for victims of
trafficking, especially women and children. The
fund would help Governments, as well as
intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, to protect and support victims of
human trafficking so that they can recover from
their physical and psychological scars. It would
also afford them legal and financial aid. UNODC
is currently working towards the establishment of
the fund.
The African Union Declares 2010-2020 the
African Women's Decade
Heads of state and government gathered at the
XII Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the
African Union on October 15 and declared 2010-
2020 the African Women's Decade. The main goal
of the Decade is to enhance the implementation of
commitments related to gender equality and
women's empowerment. The vision is that the
activities undertaken during the Decade will
result in tangible positive change for African
women at all levels. Under the theme,
"Grassroots Approach to Gender Equality and
Women's Empowerment," the Decade
emphasizes a bottom-up approach to
development. The African Union looks forward
to women and entire communities seizing
ownership of the Decade and using it to mobilize,
to work with their governments and to build
institutions that will contribute to the
achievement of the objectives of the Decade. The
Decade should is also intended to be an
opportunity for sharing good practices, lessons
learned, and effective strategies to promote
gender equality and women's empowerment.
Women in Liberia: Fighting for Peace
Documentary
Last month, I mentioned a documentary called
Women in Liberia: Fighting for Peace that follows
the epic journey of five Liberian women after the
war in their county. I thought there were going to
be screening dates or DVDs made available, but I
wasn't able to find any information to that effect
on the AI website. However, I was able to find
what appears to be the entire documentary on
YouTube. It's only 20 minutes long. Please take a
look when you have a few moments --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61jNG5gnq9M.
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
BY STEVI CARROLL
The death penalty continues. October 10 came
and went, but we here in sunny SoCal were
unable to join in any of the anti-death penalty
activities. Because of location difficulties, All
Saints Church was unable to host an event. While
we may not have been physically present, many
of our hearts were in attendance around the world.
We - the State - do continue to execute, but we -
Amnesty members - also have some bright spots
shining out there.
Albert Greenwood Brown, Jr.
Last month we were waiting to hear whether
Albert Brown would be executed or not here in
California. In what seemed to me to be a weird
series of events, we were told a judge in Marin
County ruled the ban on executions still stood.
Then that was not the case. As the time for his
execution neared, Mr. Brown was asked to decide
if he wanted the one-drug injection or the three-
drug death via needle. This reminded me of the
'go cut a switch for your beating' request some
people from my mother's generation faced. Mr.
Brown refused to make a choice. As the days
moved on, we were told the expiration date on
the drugs passed so the execution was again on
hold. By the first week of October, supporters of
the death penalty could give a sigh of relief as we
were told that the State had restocked the death
chamber shelves with the key execution drug.
And Albert Brown? He may meet his fate in 2011.
From the AIUSA website
Drug Company: Stop Using Our Product for Executions
Death Penalty, United States | Posted by: Brian
Evans, September 24, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Hospira, is the lone US company that
manufactures sodium thiopental, the anesthetic
used in all lethal injections (both the three drug
and the new one drug methods). Today, the
company sent a letter to all states urging them to
stop using the drug for executions.
According to Ohio's The Dispatch, which
obtained a copy of the letter, Hospira vice
president Dr. Kees Groenhout wrote:
Hospira provides these products because they
improve or save lives and markets them solely for
use as indicated on the product labeling. As such,
we do not support the use of any of our products
in capital-punishment procedures.
There is a worldwide shortage of the drug, which
is due, according to Hospira, to "manufacturing
issues," so its continued use for killing, rather
than for its intended medical use, is especially
abhorrent. With an execution scheduled in
Georgia tonight, and many more scheduled
through the end of the year, it remains to be seen
how the states, including Ohio, will respond, or, if
there is no response, what legal action Hospira
could take.
Source:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/drug-
company-stop-using-our-product-for-executions/
Upcoming execution: Jeffrey Landrigan
October 26, 2010, Jeffery Landrigan is scheduled
to die in the Arizona death chamber. Two items
are interesting in this case: evidence not used in
his trial and the drug to be used in his execution.
Mr. Landrigan's lawyer had never handled a
death penalty case before and did not introduce
mitigating evidence. This evidence included his
organic brain damage from fetal alcohol
syndrome, abuse at the hands of his adoptive
mother, and a 1998 report from a
neuropsychologist who concluded he was severely
impaired. The judge who sentenced Mr.
Landrigan to death now says that if she had been
aware of this evidence she would have had 'no
choice' but to call for leniency.
Then there are the drugs that will be used on
October 26 to execute Mr. Landrigan. Arizona
has "acquired the execution drug sodium
thiopental from a non-FDA approved source."
By this time next month, we will know whether or
not Mr. Landrigran has been executed. For an
online action, go to
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/adv
ocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&
template=x.ascx&action=14856.
Does the death penalty make us safer?
Back in the day of 2008, Jeanne Woodford,
former warden of San Quentin, made it clear that
the death penalty does not make us safer. The
money used for the death penalty in California
("in excess of $200 million-a-year more than
simply condemning people to life without the
possibility of parole") could be better spent
dealing with the societal problems that lead to
homicides and solving homicides thus taking
murderers off the streets. As warden of San
Quentin, Ms Woodford presided over four
executions and after each one did not believe the
world was a safer place. She also noted that in
no way is she soft on crime, but she would rather
we use our resources to fight crime both before
when youngsters are mistreated, abused and
neglected and after when pursuing criminals.
Ms. Woodford concludes her 2008 article with,
"To take a life in order to prove how much we
value another life does not strengthen our society.
It is a public policy that devalues our very being
and detracts crucial resources from programs that
could truly make our communities safe."
To read the entire article, go to
http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=294.
Is the Death Penalty 'cruel and unusual'?
I'd never thought much about what might make a
punishment fill the bill of cruel and unusual
according to the 8th Amendment. According to
an article on the AIUSA website, the fact that
since 2004 nine out of 10 counties around the
country have NOT employed the death penalty
might just bring the cruel and unusual into
discussion. Below is a map of those counties that
do go for the DP and all the blank space for those
that do not. Our great 'liberal' state of California
is right up there with the southern USofA.
Source: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/
DNA evidence frees Jerry Hobbs
In Illinois, Jerry Hobbs had been in prison since
2005 until DNA evidence showed that he did not
murder his eight-year-old daughter and her nine-
year-old friend.
Cameron Todd Willingham: an innocent man executed
In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed
for the death of his three children in a house fire.
The case against Mr. Willingham was founded on
what was labeled "junk science," but Governor
Rick Perry, Texas, went ahead with Mr.
Willingham's execution anyway. Presently, Gov.
Perry has delayed a court hearing into this case.
Should Mr. Williams be found to have been
falsely executed, this will be the first time an
official in Texas, the nation's most active death
penalty state, will admit someone was wrongfully
executed.
Source:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/texas-court-
inquiry-begins-exploring-whether-executed-man-
was-innocent
Fate of Two Iranian Women
As far as I can tell after searching for information,
Zeynab Jalalian and Sakineh Mohammadi
Ashtiani, mentioned in last month's newsletter,
are still alive. For an interesting article on women
and punishment, go to Damsels in Distress: Using
Victimized Women as Political Ploys, The
Huffington Post,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beenish-
ahmed/damsels-in-distress-
using_b_772202.html.
Noble Laureate Elie Wiesel speaks out against
the death penalty
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel will address the death
penalty at Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Connecticut, on October 26, 2010. Professor
Wiesel spent his teen years in Auschwitz where
his mother, father and sister died. The lecture at
Wesleyan will be the first time Wiesel has spoken
out against the death penalty. His lecture is titled
"Building an Ethical Society: The Death Penalty
and Human Dignity."
In an article in The Middletown Press, Professor
Wiesel is quoted as saying, "With every cell of my
being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose
the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe
any civilized society should be at the service of
death. I don't think it's human to become an agent
of the Angel of Death."
For any of us who have read Professor Wiesel's
writing from his autobiographical Night onward,
we know he has intimate knowledge of the Angel
of Death used by the State.
Source:
http://middletownpress.com/articles/2010/10
/22/news/doc4cc1b03a6195e729464675.txt
Executions
September
23 Teresa Lewis Virginia
lethal injection
27 Brandon Rhode Georgia
lethal injection
October
6 Michael Benge Ohio
lethal injection
14 Donald Wackerly Oklahoma
lethal injection
21 Larry Wooten Texas
lethal injection
Executions Stayed
September
29 Albert Brown California
Gov. Schwartzenegger granted a one-day (up to
45 hrs.) reprieve from 12:01 AM on Sept. 29 until
9:00 PM on Sept. 30 to allow more time for
appeals on the method of execution. U.S. Dist.
Ct. Judge Fogel stayed the execution further to
allow time to review the state's new execution
protocol and for the supply of a lethal injection
drug to be renewed. The state Supreme Court
said that review of new execution protocols did
not have to be completed before the state's
supply of lethal injection drugs expired, thus
further insuring a stay of executions until 2011.
October
14 Gayland Bradford Texas
Stayed by Justice Antonin Scalia to give
Bradford's lawyers more time to file a full appeal
on the constitutional issues surrounding his
conviction and sentence based on claims that
Bradford is mentally disabled.
16 Jeffery Matthews Oklahoma
Federal District Court judge cited the utter
confusion on the part of the state in deciding
which sedative drug to use as part of the lethal
injection. Matthews stay was continued until
Nov. 20, at which time a new date might be set.
19 Kenneth Hairston Pennsylvania
20 Cletus Rivera Pennsylvania
20 Roderick Nunley Missouri
Federal District Court issued a stay to decide if
Nunley was entitled to a jury for sentencing. State
is appealing the stay.
21 Jerry Chambers Pennsylvania
Life Without Parole
September
28 Gaile Owens Tennessee
Sources:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/upcoming-
executions#stays
And
http://www.internationaljusticeproject.org/cale
ndar.cfm?MonthChange=Backward&LastDate=1
0/22/2010&Action=ShowCalendar
MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UA's 19
To add your letters to the total contact
lwkamp@gmail.com.
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code 5-62
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com