Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XXI Number 3, March 2013
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, March 28, 7:30 PM. Monthly
Meeting. We meet at the Caltech Y, Tyson
House, 505 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena. (This is
just south of the corner with San Pasqual.
Signs will be posted.) We will be planning our
activities for the coming months. Please join
us! Refreshments provided.
Tuesday, April 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, April 21, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion group. This
month we read "From the Memoirs of a Non-
Enemy Combatant" by Alex Gilvarry.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi All
It's another beautiful day in the
neighborhood ... and I'm off! (Only because I'm on
call for jury duty this week of our Spring Break.
Obviously, I didn't have to go in today - let's
see about the rest of this week ... ) Also had a
few days off last week and Robert and I spent a
few days on Catalina Island. A nice change
from the usual frantic pace!
This edition features a new and (hopefully)
continuing column by Robert on homeland
security issues. Also check out the AGM report
by Joyce.
Last night, at my EFM (Education for Ministry,
a program thru the Episcopal Church) class,
someone mentioned a campaign called "One
Million Bones" designed to bring awareness to
genocide. Handmade "bones" will be displayed
at the Capitol Mall in DC June 2013. Each bone
made will generate a dollar towards CARE's
programs that work with survivors in Somalia
and the DRC. See this link for more info:
http://www.onemillionbones.org/
This sounds like a worthwhile thing Group 22
could do - what do you think?
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, April 21, 6:30 pm
From the Memoirs of a Non Enemy Combatant
by Alex Gilvarry
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado, Pasadena
BOOK REVIEW
Prisoner of Fashion
Alex Gilvarry's Debut Novel
By DANIEL ASA ROSE
Published: March 23, 2012
The humor in this first novel is nothing to laugh
at. Though you're not really supposed to get
that until you're nearly done.
That's because in the meantime you'll be too
busy snickering. "From the Memoirs of a Non-
Enemy Combatant," by Alex Gilvarry, tells the
story of Boyet Hernandez, a Filipino-born
fashion designer wending his way through the
flamboyantly fatuous world of Brooklyn
couture. The narrative crackles with satire, even
before Boyet innocently lands himself at
Guantanamo as the first detainee captured on
United States soil and decides to bring the place
a little flair by removing the sleeves from his
orange jumpsuit. The disjunction between Gitmo
and Prada is too delicious not to put a
sideways smile on your face.
You'll also be twisting a lip upward at the
Bellowesque brio of Gilvarry's language.
Consider the colloquial oomph of these opening
lines: "I would not, could not, nor did I ever
raise a hand in anger against America. I love
America, the golden bastard. It's where I was
born again: propelled through the duct of J.F.K.
International, out the rotating doors, push, push,
dripping a post-U.S. Customs sweat down my
back, and slithering out on my feet to a curb in
Queens, breathe. Then into a yellow cab, thrown
to the masses. Van Wyck, B.Q.E., Brooklyn
Bridge, SoHo, West Side Highway, Riverside
Drive - these are a few of my favorite things!"
And yes, you'll snort at the novel's footnotes,
many of which exist as supposed correctives to
the text of this diminutive inmate's "confession"
(in which he mis-attributes quotations to Coco
Chanel that properly belong to Nietzsche, for
example). Truly, you'll think, if the proverbial
knock in the night can happen to this sweet
Dummkopf, it can happen to anyone.
Which is precisely the point. For the real
purpose of the comedic bravura is not to amuse
you. It's to soften you up for the horror that
comes raining down in the final 50 pages, when
Boyet, so lately the toast of the runway, is
interrogated, humiliated and given a close-up
view of state-sponsored brutality. The mirth is
gone. Terror takes over. In one of our final
glimpses of the narrator - whom we've been
chuckled into feeling protective toward, even if
we never quite like him - "his hair is matted
down, he has been sweating, his face is gaunt
and his eyes are concave from lack of sleep. His
white shirt collar is stained yellow, either by
sweat or puke."
So much for the gussied-up jumpsuit.
In many ways, this novel is a left-handed love
letter to America. Whether describing New
York's subway system ("a rubber band of sexual
tension, stretched and twined around the
boroughs, ready to snap") or the Bronxville
campus of Sarah Lawrence (with its "imposing
Tudor buildings magnificently lit" and "crisp
fallen leaves, like cinnamon and dried flower
petals"), Gilvarry shows that he cherishes a
country he clearly feels is at risk.
Even at the end, deported far from America,
Boyet pines for New York. Rain heard from afar
reminds him of "the screech of the Second
Avenue bus in the wet. . . . The clicking inside
the tin boxes that made the traffic signals
switch." It is a measure of the book's sense of
hope that for all the injustice meted out,
America still looks good from a distance.
Comedy, we're reminded, often has an ulterior
motive. Here the intention could hardly be more
serious - to scare the smirk off our mugs as we
enter Year 10 of Guantanamo's use as a prison,
with no end to the suffering in sight.
A version of this review appeared in print on
March 25, 2012, on page BR21 of the Sunday
Book Review with the headline: Prisoner of
Fashion. From the New York Times.
AUTHOR BIO
Alex Gilvarry is a native of Staten Island, New
York. He has been a Norman Mailer fellow and
has written for NPR's All Things Considered,
Vogue, the Paris Review Daily, and other
publications. He is the founder and editor of
the website, Tottenville Review, a book review
collaborative. From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy
Combatant is his first novel. He lives in
Brooklyn, New York.
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
Gao Zhisheng
by Joyce Wolf
In our previous newsletter I suggested that we
write Congressman Frank Wolf to say thank-you
for his recent commitment to adopt the case of
Gao Zhisheng, Group 22's own adopted prisoner
of conscience.
So at our March letter-writing, I brought a couple
of cards with wolf images to send to Rep. Wolf
to express our thanks. Hoping he had a sense of
humor, I signed my card, "regards from one Wolf
to another.
At the Amnesty AGM March 22-24 in
Washington DC, I attended a workshop on the
Tom Lantos Commission for Human Rights,
where one of the presenters was Kalinda
Stephenson, an aide to Rep. Wolf. And guess
what! She had with her my wolf card -- said the
Congressman loved it!
It was really great to see actual physical
evidence that letters we mail do get where we
send them! We'll look forward to coordinating
Group 22's work for Gao Zhisheng along with
Rep. Wolf's efforts in his behalf.
During the three years that Group 22 has
worked on Gao's case, we often felt that the
Chinese government was singling him out for
especially harsh treatment. This is quite true,
according to a recent article in the Epoch Times.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-
news/chinese-lawyer-in-exile-denounces-
gangsters-back-home-365311.html
SAN FRANCISCO - Chen Guangcheng,
the well-known, blind, Chinese lawyer and
human rights activist who now lives in
exile in the United States, was recently
given an award for his legal advocacy
efforts by overseas Chinese in San
Francisco, and took the occasion to list a
range of rights violations by the Chinese
regime.
"This is how you figure it in China," Chen
said. "The ferocity with which someone
has been persecuted is a question of
whether or not they're really having a big
impact in their human rights work. The
more on point, the bigger the impact, the
more sincerely you do it, then the
Communist Party will absolutely use an
iron fist on you. Gao Zhisheng is that
case."
We need to keep lots of mail arriving at Shaya
Prison for Gao Zhisheng. His birthday is April
20, so let's send birthday cards. Postage is now
1.10.
Gao Zhisheng
Shaya Prison
P.O. Box 15, Sub-box 16
Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 842208
People's Republic of China
REPORT ON AMNESTY AGM
March 22-24, Washington DC
by Joyce Wolf
This year the theme of the annual Amnesty USA
conference was "Use Your Power." I brought
back lots of material and actions, which I will be
sharing at upcoming Group 22 meetings.
Early arriving attendees had the opportunity to
participate in a rally for the Arms Trade Treaty
in Lafayette Square opposite the White House. I
was there just for a bit, long enough to be proud
of our enthusiastic young Amnesty marchers
with their signs and slogans.
Opening session Friday evening began with a
video about Archbishop Oscar Romero, who
was assassinated in El Salvador in 1980. In
observance of the Day of Truth and
Remembrance, there were tributes to several
other slain human rights activists: Anna
Politkovskaya (Russia, 2006), Munir Said Thalib
(Indonesia, 2004) and Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria,
1995). A moment of silence followed, during
which many in the audience held aloft cell
phones glowing with the AI candle.
Friday's keynote speaker was Mexican
journalist Lydia Cacho. She strode back and
forth across the stage with the microphone,
articulate, defiant, beautiful. She was not going
to let rape and death threats keep her from
continuing her work or from enjoying life to the
fullest.
Saturday's morning plenary included an
appearance by Hyatt hotel housekeeper Cathy
Youngblood, thanking Amnesty for moving our
meeting from labor-hostile Hyatt to the
Sheraton. Her website is www.hyatthurts.org.
Salil Shetty, AI Secretary-General, shared a
story about how AI was surprised to learn of
the existence of a local AI group in Egypt that
met secretly for 30 years during Mubarak's
regime. Released POC Htay Kywe spoke of his
imprisonment in Burma and told us he was "here
today because of You!" Three women from
Bahrain, Tunisia, and Palestine explained
current human rights issues in their countries.
I attended a program on the plight of trans-
migrants in Mexico and the dangers besetting
shelter workers such as Father Alejandro
Solalinde. Lydia Cacho made some penetrating
comments about the responsibility of US
policies for the rise of the Zetas and the narco-
state. Father Solalinde expressed hope that
Pope Francis would bring new emphasis in the
Church to issues affecting the poor.
Saturday evening plenary was devoted to LGBT
issues in Uganda and Cameroon. Whew -- what
a full day! And I have only mentioned a few of
the program events!
Voting on Resolutions started at 8 am Sunday.
There was a lot of debate, intense but polite.
Evidently the serious wrangling happened
during the Resolution Working Parties on
Saturday. We ended at 11:17, two minutes past
the deadline, with unanimous passage of an
Emergency Resolution that "this AGM pledges to
move forward as one, Board, members and
staff, to a healthy and vibrant AIUSA."
SECURITY WITH
HUMAN RIGHTS
by Robert Adams
The following is condensed from an article by
Zeke Johnson on the AI USA website:
"What Needs to Happen Next on Drones?"
What should happen next to make sure that no
person - US citizen or anyone else - is killed
outside the bounds of law with a drone or other
weapons?
1) The Obama administration must follow
existing law on the use of lethal force. The law
governing any state's use of lethal force -
whether with a drone or a gun or most other
weapons - already exists: international human
rights law and, in the exceptional circumstances
where it applies, international humanitarian law
as well. The US government must follow the
law.
2) The never-ending "global war" must end.
A central problem with the administration's
policy on armed drones and lethal force (and its
policy on Guantanamo for that matter) is the
idea that the world is a battlefield in a "global
war" between the US and al Qaeda and other
armed groups and individuals, and that only the
law of armed conflict applies, to the exclusion
of international human rights law. This "global
war" theory basically says to the world, we can
ignore your human rights when we see fit. To
change course, Congress should withdraw the
Authorization for Use of Military Force
(AUMF) and the administration should
withdraw this Office of Legal Counsel memo
by John Yoo that says the executive branch
cannot be constrained by the AUMF or other
laws passed by Congress.
3) The US government must recognize that
ALL people are equal in rights. As Archbishop
Desmond Tutu put it recently:
"Do the United States and its people really want to
tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that
our lives are not of the same value as yours? That
President Obama can sign off on a decision to kill us
with less worry about judicial scrutiny than if the
target is an American? Would your Supreme Court
really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave
Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as
you are? I cannot believe it."
4) The "kill court" idea must be rejected. If
"global war" thinking hadn't permeated so
much of the way the US thinks and talks about
how to deal with the threat of terrorism, the
proposal by some to establish a special pre-
strike "kill court" for US citizens would
immediately be rejected as a non-starter that
misses the point. Such a court would be
fundamentally unfair and mean that the US
government was breaking the rules for when a
state can use lethal force. What we do need is
to ensure independent and impartial
investigations in all cases of alleged
extrajudicial executions or other unlawful
killings, respect for the rights of family
members of those killed, and effective redress
and remedy where killings are found to have
been unlawful.
5) The administration must tell the truth and
Congress must conduct oversight. The public
has a right to know when the Obama
administration thinks it can kill. President
Obama should publicly disclose the secret
drone memos with only the redactions truly
necessary, as well as the facts about who has
been killed. Congress must play a stronger role.
More hearings in Congress are needed, with
survivors of drone strikes and independent
experts in human rights and international law.
You can help:
Send this message to President Obama, your
Senators and your Representative.
(http://amnestyusa.org/drones)
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
Maryland: 18th State to abolish the death penalty
Hooray - Hallelujah - Right on - Amen
March 15 was a big day in Maryland as the
House of Delegates passed (82-56) a bill to
abolish the death penalty - for future crimes.
The five people who are currently on death row
are not affected by the legislation. Governor
Martin O'Malley did said, "I've felt compelled
to do everything I could to change our law,
repeal the death penalty, so that we could focus
on doing the things that actually work to reduce
violent crime." The five inmates on death row
may still be spared.
Five other states recently abolished the death
penalty: New Jersey, New York, New Mexico,
Illinois and Connecticut. And stand by, even
the great execution state of Texas is re-
considering the death penalty.
To thank Governor O'Malley, go to
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/ad
vocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b
=6645049&aid=519485.
Can the times be a-changin' in Texas?
A March 20 editorial in the Dallas Morning
News, "With death penalty bans gaining steam,
what's next for Texas?" , discusses Maryland's
recent abolition of the death penalty and begins
with, "There should be no debate that evolving
standards of decency mold the justice system. If
that were not the case, Texas judges could still
hang horse thieves." While Texas is far different
from Maryland, the number of abolition states
does make the writer wonder how Texas cannot
move in that direction.
A UT-Texas Tribune poll last year found that a
majority of Texans continue to favor the death
penalty, but now a number of bills that will
influence death penalty cases are before both the
Texas House and Senate. Perhaps even Texans
can change; although, April has seven executions
scheduled country wide and six of them are in
Texas.
One sentence in the editorial sums up the death
penalty:
"At best, the death penalty is selectively used
state-supported retribution, which has no place
in a civilized society."
To read the entire editorial, go to
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorial
s/20130320-editorial-with-death-penalty-bans-
gaining-steam-whats-next-for-texas.ece.
SAFE California Rises Again
SAFE California took a little break after last
November's Proposition 34 defeat and is now
ready to rock 'n' roll again. The organization is
asking Californians for suggestions for how we
can move forward to get rid of the death
penalty in our state. To send your ideas, go to
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/p
/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12740.
One Thing That Deserves the Death Penalty
Recently on Facebook, Upworthy posted an
Amnesty International video showing the one
thing that does deserve the death penalty. To
see this video, go to
http://www.upworthy.com/the-one-thing-
that-actually-deserves-the-death-
penalty?c=ufb1.
Stays of Execution
Date scheduled for execution
March 2013
6 Edward Schad Arizona
Executions
March 2013
6 Frederick Treesh Ohio
1-drug lethal injection
12 Steven Ray Thacker Oklahoma
3-drug lethal injection
GROUP 22 MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UAs 13
POC 4
Total 17
To add your letters to the total contact
lwkamp@gmail.com.
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code C1-128
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research
and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses
of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom
of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination,
within the context of its work to promote all human rights.