Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XVII Number 1, January 2009
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, January 22, 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 February 10, 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, February 15, 6:30 PM. Rights
Readers Human Rights Book Discussion Group.
Vroman's Book Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado
Blvd., Pasadena. This month we read "This
Human Season" by Louise Dean.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone,
Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season
and are ready to enjoy the New Year! Robert and
I never made it to Corvallis, Oregon as the Pacific
Northwest had the worst snowstorm in 50 years!
Our flight to Portland was cancelled, so we had a
mini-celebration at home with Rob's brother John
and his family. We devoured a huge pot of
home-made turkey chili and cornbread. The
"Adams family" is planning to have a reunion
this summer, probably on the Oregon coast. We
got lots of rest, and I cooked a lot and read some
books!
I am very excited about our new President
Barack Obama, and what changes he will
bring ... I will be watching the inauguration at
work Tuesday morning and wearing my Obama
T-shirt. AI has some suggestions for Obama for
the first 100 days -- see this newsletter for more
info.
AI group 22 participated in the Doo Dah
parade, the spoof of the Rose Parade Sunday Jan
18, in Old Town Pasadena. The theme was
ending sex trafficking and slavery -- illustrated by
on the spot auctions of lovely "ladies" (guys in
drag) by mean looking "guys" in suits (women).
Not sure if the crowd got it, but it was really fun!
There should be photos on
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/ soon and also
on the rightsreaders blog
http://www.rightsreaders.blogspot.com/. Thanks to
Group 22 member Marie-Helene, her husband
Robert and their friends for this clever idea for
Doo Dah! Group 22 member Stevi has written
her thoughts about the parade in this newsletter
also.
Ann Lau, China activist and founder of the
Visual Artists Guild, was this year's thorny rose
queen. The thorny rose queen is the person who
was a thorn in the side of Pasadena this past
year. Ann was tireless in urging the Pasadena
city council to boycott the Rose Parade entry by
China and to make a statement regarding human
rights in China. Many of us have met Ann in
conjunction with AI 22's Chinese human rights
work.
Have a great new year!
ĮProspero ano nuevo!
Con carino,
Kathy
OBAMA'S FIRST 100 DAYS
15 January 2009
The inauguration of US President-elect Barack
Obama on 20 January 2009 will be accompanied
by widespread expectation of change. The world
will be watching and hoping for positive
outcomes on many different issues.
Ahead of his inauguration, Amnesty
International's new film First 100 days is asking
the President-elect to take concrete steps to
demonstrate his commitment to international
human rights standards, including in the context
of countering terrorism.
Since the attacks on the USA on 11 September
2001, the US authorities have authorized and
justified human rights violations in the name of
national security: illegal transfers and
detentions; enforced disappearance; torture and
other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The new administration and Congress must
break with the past. President-elect Obama has
already said that he will close Guantanamo and
end torture. We're not asking the impossible.
We have a checklist for President Obama's first
100 days in office. His first steps should be to:
„ announce a plan and date to close
Guantanamo
„ ban torture and other ill-treatment, as
defined under international law
„ ensure an independent commission of
enquiry in US 'war on terror' abuses is set up
These things are possible and you can help. Visit
www.obama100day.org today, sign the petition
and support the challenge for Obama.
Source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-
updates/news/obama-first-100-days-20090116
MY THOUGHTS ON DOO DAH
by STEVI CARROLL
As the young men, and Lucas, slipped into their
dresses, applied lipstick and rouge, and pulled
on their wigs, the rest of us got our assignments
and milled around checking out the Doo Dah
action. In front of us, a huge stogy rose up from
a flatbed truck and billowed smoke while a
number of guys with big ones puffed away in its
shadow. Behind us members of NORML (a
nonprofit lobbying organization working to
legalize marijuana, stop arrests of smokers,
provide educational research, and legal
information ...) assembled with the crew you
might suspect as well as the woman with one leg
in the wheelchair and the gaunt man with the
prematurely bald head on the mechanized
medical scooter, balancing his metal cuffed
crutch.
Behind our Amnesty banner and the SLAVERY
IS NOT HISTORY, YET! banner, our hustlers
trafficked our women to those on the sidelines
while 'THE LAW' turned a blind eye. Some
women were kidnapped into service; Lucas got
pulled from the crowd. Sign carriers sent our
message out to the spectators. As we walked,
many in the crowd applauded and shouted out
respect for AI. As I gave a woman one of our
bright pink info cards, she said, "I contribute to
Amnesty." One of our best handouts, in my
opinion, is a bookmark with the articles of the
Declaration of Human Rights on it. My favorite
targets for these were the kids. With even the
little ones, I'd say, "I bet you have a book. You
can put this bookmark in it." One guy who
looked about 13 told me he doesn't read. I told
him then for sure he should have a bookmark
because he's just the kind of guy who needs to
read. Most of the parents seemed pretty happy
someone was pushing reading. I finished the
parade empty handed: YAY!
Marie-Helene, Robert, Dan, Brooke, and their
wonderful friends did another great job in
planning, organizing and executing this event. I
get a giant kick out of working with them.
Their energy and creativity not only give me a
charge, but they also, to use a recently overused
but nonetheless true word, hope for the future of
our country and our world. Thanx, kiddos.
I think it's okay for me to speak for everyone who
participated: We had so much fun.
January 19, 2009
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday, February 15, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Boulevard
Pasadena
"This Human Season"
By Louise Dean
Parallel Lives Among Tumultuous Times
A review by Yvonne Zipp
Literature is full of midlife crises, but few
characters have as good a reason to indulge as
Kathleen Moran. The mother of four has nothing
but contempt for her alcoholic husband, who
likes to boast about his imaginary exploits at the
corner pub; her part-time job is drying up and
money is tight; one of her children is in prison for
killing a police officer; and there's a giant hole in
her living room ceiling where a soldier put his
foot through it while searching her home. Said
home is located in Belfast in 1979, and her son is
a member of the Irish Republican Army.
This Human Season, Louise Dean's second novel,
is set during the run-up to the hunger strikes in
the Maze prison that killed 10 strikers and were
part of a worsening wave of terrorist violence
during Northern Ireland's 30-year "Troubles." The
bleak, grimly funny novel is the story of two 39-
year-olds, Moran and one of the prison guards in
her son Sean's H-block, and gives new meaning to
the phrase scatological humor.
John Dunn spent 22 years in the British Army,
including three tours in Northern Ireland. He
figures this has been ample training for life as a
guard. The smell is the first indication that he
may have underestimated his new line of work.
As part of the "dirty blanket" protests, IRA
prisoners striking for a return of their political
status smeared their own excrement all over the
walls of their cells. A strong stomach is a
requirement for his job. (It's also a requirement
for readers of this book. After a few chapters, I
wanted to hit the showers.)
The two protagonists' only connection is Sean,
and their story lines never intersect. Instead of
cobbling together fictional contrivances, Dean
draws parallels between the two that strengthen
each half of the novel. Both are preoccupied with
their teenage sons (Dunn has a boy Sean's age
whom he's never met). The bathroom is the only
peaceful place either can locate -- Kathleen hides
in her soap-scented one at home, while Dunn
locks himself in a stall at work to cry over the
brutalities he witnesses every day.
Dean, who is English and who conducted
extensive interviews for the novel, is
dispassionate in her portrayal of both sides of the
conflict. There are plenty of crimes to go round,
as well as plenty of humanity. She also nails the
profane camaraderie of the prison guards as well
as she does the kitchen-table talk between
Kathleen and her neighbors.
When Dunn starts work he has almost nothing in
common with the Metaphysical poet of (almost)
the same name. He fell in love with Northern
Ireland during his time as a soldier, a fact he
calls his "guilty secret."
Dunn signed on at the prison because he was
used to following orders, and the pay was good.
(It had to be, since the IRA was targeting
guards).
In the Army, "there was no personal point of
view. There was agreement and silence and both
meant agreement in any case. By being there, by
wearing the uniform, you were in agreement with
it all. You were a fool if you put it on and you
were not."
But after a few days in the Maze, Dunn starts
philosophizing -- an uncomfortable feeling for a
man who readily admits that he isn't "deep."
"Was killing educational? Perhaps briefly, as a
generation is brief. The young sowed horror in
their springtime with high hopes for the crop and
it rotted down through a long summer. They
harvest grief in the autumn of their lives. And
did they believe, even as they held their
grandchildren, that there would be an end to it
all? After a hard winter killed what was left of
them off, it came again, this human season, this
springtime of hatred."
Rather than philosophy, Kathleen relies on
gallows humor, cigarettes, and alcohol to get
through daily life in a war zone. The novel's
ready wit offers a lifeline to readers, even as it
does its characters. To get back at the British
soldiers who search their purses, Kathleen and
her neighbor buy the bags that have the most
zippers and stuff each compartment with
sanitary products.
When the soldiers search her house, ripping up
the floorboards with a crow bar and vowing not
to leave until they find guns, she tells her 13-
year-old, "Liam, show the man your water
pistol."
Kathleen's friend Roisin cleans house for one of
the few Jewish families left in Belfast. "I wish I
was a Jew," she tells Kathleen. "I said to her I
might become one myself, just for the peace and
quiet."
This Human Season builds to a climax in
December, which finds Dunn celebrating
Christmas with his son for the first time, while
Kathleen must endure the first of many without
hers.
Dean offers her characters a measure of grace,
but alert readers know that the novel ends just as
the Troubles began an even more devastating
phase. A certain amount of knowledge of history
is helpful, since while Dean provides some
background, she isn't writing a treatise of either
how the Troubles began, or how life in Belfast has
improved immeasurably since the 1980s.
This Human Season is about dispassionately
dissecting both sides of the divide, and doesn't
extend forward in time to the days when that
chasm will finally be bridged. It's a rare case
where a reader can look to the real world for an
ending that is happier than the fictional version.
From Powell's Bookstore Review-a-Day, originally from the
Christian Science Monitor, Feb 2007.
About the Author
Louise Dean was born in Hastings, East Sussex
in June 1970; she grew up in Kent and went to
Cranbrook Grammar School.
She received a BA Hons. in History from
Downing College, Cambridge University in 1991,
focusing her studies on 'Sexual Deviance in the
Victorian era'. As she says in her website
biography, "Not many people have spent a whole
month on masturbation in the university library.
A good interview warmer I found."
She ended up working for the consumer goods
giant, Unilever, as a brand manager "squeezing
margins and losing millions by mismanaging
sales promotions" before spending a year in the
advertising industry in London. In 1995 she
moved to Hong Kong "to try and sell revolting
things to mostly good people." After that she
spent six years in New York, four in France and
produced three novels and three children.
DEATH PENALTY UPDATE -- ZAMBIA
Fifty-three death sentences commuted in Zambia
16 January 2009
Following the commutation of the death
sentences of 53 prisoners to custodial sentences
by the President of Zambia, Amnesty
International renewed its call for the government
to join the worldwide trend towards the abolition
of the death penalty.
"We are encouraged by the commutation of these
sentences by President Banda. The next move
should be to take all the necessary steps to end
capital punishment and bring about legislative
changes to abolish the death penalty in Zambia"
said Amy Agnew, Amnesty International's
Zambia campaigner.
The decision to commute the death sentences
was announced by the Vice-President, George
Kunda, in a statement released in the capital
Lusaka on Tuesday.
"His excellency the President, Rupiah Bwezani
Banda, has pardoned and commuted sentences
of 53 prisoners on death row at Mukobeko
prison, Kabwe, to terminable custodial sentences
or life imprisonment pursuant to Article 59 of the
Republican Constitution," Mr Kunda was
reported to have said.
Article 59 of the constitution states that the
President may inter alia "substitute a less severe
form of punishment for any punishment
imposed on any person for any offence."
In Zambia, the death penalty is provided for
under various offences. Despite the fact that
Zambia has not executed anybody since 1997, it
unfortunately did not vote in favour of UN
General Assembly resolution 63/168, in
December 2008, calling for a moratorium on
executions.
In August, 2007, President Mwanawasa
commuted the death sentences of 97 prisoners
who were on death row to life imprisonment.
As of today, 138 countries have abolished the
death penalty in law or in practice. The continent
of Africa is largely free of executions, with only
seven of the 53 African Union member states
known to have carried out executions in 2007:
Botswana, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia,
Libya, Somalia and Sudan.
Source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-
updates/news/fifty-three-death-sentences-commuted-
zambia-20090116
LETTER COUNT
December Write-a-thon: 126
January UAs: 24
Total: 150
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