Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XXVI Number 6, June 2018
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, July 10, 7:30-9:00 PM. Letter
writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner
of Hill and California in Pasadena. In the
summer we meet outdoors at the "Rath al
Fresco," on the lawn next to the building. This
informal gathering is a great way for
newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty.
Sunday, July 15, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion Group. This
month we read a short novel, "My Cat
Yugoslavia" by Pajtim Statovci.
Note: We're taking a summer break and
won't have any Thursday monthly meetings in
July or August. Letter writing and book group
meetings will continue as usual.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone,
Welcome to summer, an educator's favorite time
of year!
LAUSD school year ended June 8th, for which
Alexi and Kathy are thankful...it's been a busy
year. I assume that Paula and Stevi will have the
summer off as well.
Amnesty Group 22 will not have monthly
meetings in June, July, and August but letter
writing and the book group will continue.
There's been a lot in the news lately about
border issues and immigration. Amnesty has an
action here on the issue of families who seek
asylum at the US/Mexico border being
separated.
https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/25820/action/1
Also see this article in the June 28 New Yorker
by Jonathan Blitzer: The Government Has No Plan
for Reuniting the Immigrant Families It Is Tearing
Apart.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-
desk/the-government-has-no-plan-for-reuniting-the-
immigrant-families-it-is-tearing-apart
Laura Bush wrote a Washington Post op-ed :
"Separating children from their parents at the
border breaks my heart".
https://wapo.st/2yh5MrB?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.
19957c3cbfd0
Kathy
Next Rights Readers Meeting
Sunday, July 15
6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena
My Cat Yugoslavia
by Pajtim Statovci
REVIEW
By Liam Hoare, April 28, 2017
[www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/04/18/pajti
m_statovci_s_my_cat_yugoslavia_reviewed.html]
In My Cat Yugoslavia, a Talking Feline Is Only
One Kind of Queer
By Pajtim Statovci
A man walks into a gay bar and there he meets a
talking cat. "I noticed the cat across the dance
floor," Bekim, the lonesome, dislocated narrator
of Pajtim Statovci's compelling and altogether
beautiful debut novel My Cat Yugoslavia, tells
us. "I had never seen anything so enchanting, so
alluring. He was a perfect cat" with gleaming
fur and muscular back legs. "Then the cat
noticed me; he started smiling at me and I
started smiling at him, then he raised his front
paw to the top button of his shirt, unbuttoned it,
and began walking towards me."
Bekim is the youngest son of a broken family
who, with his parents, came as a refugee from
Kosovo to Finland in the early 1990s. He was a
disturbed child who grappled with darkness
and nightmares. His father, Bajram, was violent
and once hired a Turkish imam to exorcise evil
spirits from Bekim's body. My Cat Yugoslavia
opens with Bekim as a twentysomething college
student cruising for a hookup online.
Meeting this sexy, snarky, spunky talking cat
changes Bekim's life. In spite of his cruelty-
"Gays. I don't much like gays," the cat reveals at
the bar, causing Bekim to wonder why he's
there in the first place-Bekim begins to tell him
everything about his life, where he had come
from, and what it's like to feel as if you're
always being scrutinized. It is fair to say Bekim
falls head over heels for this cat, and this
encounter-which leads to the demanding,
tempestuous creature moving in and then out of
his apartment-sets in motion Bekim's return to
Kosovo and an inevitable facing of his past.
Statovci, only 26 years old and himself born into
a Kosovar Albanian family that migrated to
Finland when he was only 2, has said that his
choice to insert a talking cat into My Cat
Yugoslavia was done "to explore stereotypes we
have about ethnic, sexual, and religious
minorities." By this, he not only meant that
animals tend to have certain characteristics or
qualities ascribed to them, but also that societies
create a kind of hierarchy of animals in the same
way as people continue to be distinguished and
oppressed on the basis of weakness or
undesirability.
This image of a talking cat within human society
is also a way of examining the displacement and
denigration that comes with being a Muslim
Kosovar refugee in Western society, and a queer
person in a culture with certain sexual and
gender norms. "Maybe it was because I left the
war and the destruction that followed it
somehow stole my personal history and inserted
another history in its place," that I wrote the
novel in this magical realist way, Statovci has
said. War and displacement "silenced my voice
and made me smaller, took away my right to not
be a part of the world that was being presented
to me, 'the world in ruins,' the right to define
myself outside the imagery that other people
had when they heard about where I came from."
Perhaps because this is a literary debut,
Statovci's magical realism and use of symbolism
can sometimes come across as heavy-handed.
The novel's construction-with Bekim's
narrative interwoven with that of his mother,
Emine-is not as sophisticated as it could be.
Still, My Cat Yugoslavia is inventive and
playful. It tells us a great deal about what it
might feel like to be an outcast twice-over, to be
at the bottom of the heap not just in one society
but two, to experience, as Bekim says, a
loneliness "so brutal that sometimes it felt as
though nobody knew I even existed."
My Cat Yugoslavia's is also elevated by the
quality of the writing (aided, to be sure, by
David Hackston's elegant translation from the
original Finnish). There is something truly
wonderful about a debut novel where the
sentences themselves are as beguiling, the
metaphors as imaginative ("its dry skin rattled
like a broken amplifier"; "his viscid sweat
oozing between my fingers like egg white"), and
the eye for detail as sharp as Statovci's.
As a portrait of a gay refugee, Statovci writes as
well about unemotional hookups-"He gripped
my wrist in his palms and pressed his thigh
against my groin, as though he was afraid I
might say something like I fancied him or ...
how I understand him"-as finding love:
I didn't answer. He glanced quickly out of the
window where the evening was beginning to
darken and turn red. What if I stopped loving
him or what if he could no longer bring
himself to say it, or what if he fell in love with
someone else or got a job on the other side of
the world? Anything could happen. He could
die.
..."Don't think too much. That's your
problem."
He moved his hand on my stomach; his
fingertips felt warm and soft and his skin
smelled of sliced almonds.
Then I said it too, because it would have been
sheer madness not to say those words to a man
like that.
At a time when there is a shortage of empathy
for refugees both here and in Europe, Statovci's
queer perspective on the search of rootedness in
My Cat Yugoslavia is wonderful and original-
and much welcome, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAJTIM STATOVCI was born in 1990 and moved
from Kosovo to Finland with his family when he was
two years old. He currently lives in Helsinki, where
he is studying comparative literature at the
University of Helsinki and screenwriting for film and
television at Aalto University School of Arts, Design
and Architecture. My Cat Yugoslavia is his first novel.
[www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2144539/
pajtim-statovci]
Security with Human Rights
By Robert Adams
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA REACTION
TO U.S.-NORTH KOREA SUMMIT
06/12/2018
According to President Trump, human rights
were discussed during the summit with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Francisco
Bencosme, advocacy manager for Asia Pacific at
Amnesty International USA, issued the
following statement:
"While we welcome news that President Trump
raised human rights at the summit, Amnesty
International urges the U.S. government to
continue to push for urgent reforms in North
Korea. Human rights should not be a footnote in
any engagement with Kim Jong Un, but rather a
crucial component in negotiations between the
two countries.
"There are no 'great winners' when North Korea
continues to commit systemic, widespread, and
grave violations of human rights, some of which
may amount to crimes against humanity. It must
close its prison camps, where up to 120,000
people continue to be held; protect freedom of
expression; and reunite families separated
through displacement during the war, forced
disappearances, or abductions."
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
Jerry Givens - Insight of an executioner
"Biggest mistake I ever made was taking the job
as an executioner. Life is short. Life only consists
of 24 hours a day. Death is going to come to us.
We don't have to kill one another. "
~ Jerry Givens - Virginia's department of corrections -
executioner from 1982 to 1999 who administered the
death penalty to 62 inmates, some by lethal injection
and some by electrocution.
Governor Brown: Grant Kevin Cooper a
Reprieve and Test the DNA
Governor Brown is completely within his
powers under the California Constitution to
grant a reprieve to Kevin Cooper and convene
an innocence review.
The evidence that needs to be tested has not
been subjected to advanced DNA analysis. The
same San Bernardino County law enforcement
offices that destroyed evidence pointing to other
suspects refuse to allow new, state-of-the-art
testing on the remaining evidence.
Please email Governor Brown at
governor@governor.ca.gov and make a follow-
up phone call to his office at (916) 445-2841.
Make sure to mention that you want to see a
reprieve for Kevin Cooper and that the evidence
should be tested using state-of-the-art DNA
analysis. You can also go to
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1265/p/dia/action
4/common/public/?action_KEY=23068 to
contact the Governor.
Recent Exonerations
Vernon Horn - State: CT
- Date of Exoneration: 4/25/2018
In 2000, Vernon Horn was sentenced to 70 years
in prison for murder and robbery at a New
Haven, Connecticut delicatessen. He was
exonerated in 2018 after cell phone evidence
concealed by police was discovered that showed
he was not involved.
Anthony Jakes - State: IL
-Date of Exoneration: 4/30/2018
In 1993, Anthony Jakes was sentenced to 40
years in prison after falsely confessing at age 15
to a murder in Chicago, Illinois. He was
exonerated in 2018 based on evidence that police
kicked and beat him until he confessed.
Jean Dorval - State: NJ
-Date of Exoneration: 4/30/2018
In 1996, Jean Dorval and Duquene Pierre were
sentenced to 60 years in prison for murder and
aggravated assault in Union County, New
Jersey. Pierre was acquitted at a retrial in 2016
based on evidence that he and Dorval were out
of state at the time of the murder and in 2018,
the prosecution dismissed the charges against
Dorval.
Marquis Jackson - State: CT
- Date of Exoneration: 5/3/2018
In 2000, Marquis Jackson was sentenced to 45
years in prison for murder and robbery at a New
Haven, Connecticut delicatessen. He was
exonerated in 2018 after cell phone evidence
concealed by police was discovered that showed
he was not involved.
David Robinson - State: MO
- Date of Exoneration: 5/14/2018
In 2007, David Robinson was sentenced to life in
prison without parole for a murder in Sikeston,
Missouri. He was exonerated in 2018 based on
evidence the real killer had confessed and two
jailhouse informants admitted they falsely
implicated Robinson.
Rosean Hargrave - State: NY
- Date of Exoneration: 5/14/2018
In 1992, Rosean Hargrave was sentenced to 30
years to life in prison for the shooting of two
corrections officers in Brooklyn, New York. He
was exonerated in 2018 based on evidence that
the lead detective had fabricated evidence in
other murder cases.
John Bunn - State: NY
- Date of Exoneration: 5/15/2018
In 1992, John Bunn was sentenced to seven years
to life in prison for the murder of a corrections
officer in Brooklyn, New York. He was
exonerated in 2018 based on evidence that the
lead detective had fabricated evidence in other
murder cases.
Dontia Patterson - State: PA
- Date of Exoneration: 5/16/2018
In 2008, Dontia Patterson was sentenced to life
in prison without parole for a murder in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was exonerated
in 2018 because police and prosecutors had
concealed evidence implicating the real killer,
and his defense attorney had failed to fully
investigate the case.
Freddie Joe Lawrence and Paul Jenkins
- State: MT - Date of Exoneration: 6/1/2018
Freddie Joe Lawrence and Paul Jenkins were
each sentenced to 100 years in prison for
robbery, kidnapping, and murder in Montana
City, Montana. They were exonerated in 2018 by
DNA tests that identified the real killer.
Johnny Tall Bear - State: OK
- Date of Exoneration: 6/11/2018
In 1992, Johnny Tall Bear was sentenced to life in
prison for murder in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
He was exonerated in 2018 by DNA tests which
showed that the witness who identified him was
mistaken.
Source: The National Registry of Exonerations
http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/
Stays of Execution
June
21 Clifton Williams TX
Stay granted by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals on June 5, 2018 to permit Williams to
re-litigate his claim of intellectual disability
under Moore v. Texas. The Texas courts had
previously denied his claim, applying the
"Briseno factors" that were declared
unconstitutional in Moore.
27 Angelo Fears OH
Rescheduled for October 17, 2019 by
Gov. John Kasich on September 1, 2017.^
^ On September 1, 2017, Ohio's Governor Kasich
issued a statement and an updated execution
schedule, which changed the execution dates for
19 of 26 condemned prisoners who
had scheduled dates between September 2017
and September 2020. The execution schedule for
these 26 prisoners now extends through April
2022.
Executions
No executions this month. (HOORAY!)
Take Action - Robert Van Hook
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
¥ Opposing the execution of Robert Van
Hook, and calling for his death sentence
to be commuted;
¥ Noting that the trial court did not hear
the full mitigating evidence of the
defendant's abusive and dysfunctional
upbringing and the impact that this had
on his life, mental condition and
conduct;
¥ Explaining that you are not seeking to
excuse violent crime or to downplay the
suffering caused.
Contact this official by 18 July, 2018:
Governor John Kasich,
Riffe Center, 30th Floor,
77 South High St.
Columbus, OH 43215-6117, USA
Email:www.governor.ohio.gov/Contact/Contac
ttheGovernor.aspx
Twitter: @JohnKasich
Phone: (614) 466-3555
Salutation: Dear Governor
If you take action, you can let Amnesty USA know at
https://www.amnestyusa.org/report-urgent-
actions/. Be sure to note that this is Urgent Action
116.18
It is so important to report your actions because AI
USA records the actions taken on each case--letters,
emails, calls and tweets--and use that information for
their advocacy.
GROUP 22 JUNE LETTER COUNT
UAs 21
POC 6
Total 27
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.