Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XX Number 4, April 2012
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, April 26, 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, May 8, 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, May 20, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion group. This
month we read "The Wayfinders: Why
Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern
World" by Wade Davis.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi All
Kathy is having a tough time dealing with the
recent passing of her mother, so we are writing
the column this month.
Last month's book, The Tiger's Wife, had a very
small discussion group, a bit surprising for such
a popular book. Most of our group was not too
thrilled with it, though. [I loved it! Joyce,
newsletter editor for this month]
Things have been quiet recently in AI-land,
except for the AGM in Denver, CO -- see the
separate report below. Joyce and I (Lucas) took
the train there, a 25-hour trip that involved
much reading, watching the great scenery and
good dining. Sleeping was a bit tough, though.
Downtown Denver turns out to be quite
attractive, with a dedicated pedestrian area and
some good restaurants.
Group 22 is skipping the Doo Dah this year.
Not only did inspiration for a creative entry fail
to strike, but it turns out that almost all our
active members are unavailable that day (April
28th). We'll try again next year.
Cheers,
Stevi and Lucas
Report on the 2012 AGM
by Lucas Kamp
The Annual General Meeting of AIUSA took
place on March 30 through April 1 in Denver,
Colorado. Joyce and I took the train, which
arrived quite late on the 30th, so we missed the
opening events (training and rally). However,
the sessions on Saturday and Sunday morning
were generally very useful and inspirational.
The opening remarks by AIUSA's new Executive
Director, Suzanne Nossel, were very interesting
-- she promises to be a forceful and effective
leader. The keynote addresses were by Robert
Ford, a recent ambassador to Syria, and the
three hikers who were detained by Iran for over
two years; all were very good.
The plenary session following was less
successful, I felt. In the first program block, I
attended the session on death penalty abolition,
which had some very good speakers, including
Troy Davis's nephew and his minister, as well as
the mother of Reggie Clemons, another death-
row inmate on whose behalf AI is currently
active.
In the second block, I attended the session on
campaign tactics, which was also quite
interesting. A highlight there was when Joe
Baker (a SoCal veteran whom some of us
remember from way back) described the
"conflict diamonds" campaign that AI did in
2001; Group 22 was active in that and I well
remember visiting jewelry stores in Pasadena
and grilling the employees about the
provenance of their wares. Apparently, that
campaign was quite a success and some
important agreements were subsequently signed
by de Beers and other companies. The voting
plenary on Sunday morning was quite lively,
though none of the resolutions struck me as
being of great significance.
In summary, I was pleased to have attended the
meeting and believe I learned some useful
things. The one downside was the frequent talk
of the financial problems that AI is going
through -- it is starting to get depressing! I hope
that we can pull out of this trough.
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday, May 20, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado
Pasadena
The Wayfinders
by Wade Davis
For May, we have selected The Wayfinders:
Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern
World by Wade Davis, an award-winning
anthropologist, ethnobotanist, filmmaker, and
photographer. Davis currently holds the post of
National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
Every culture is a unique answer to a
fundamental question: What does it mean to be
human and alive? Anthropologist and National
Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis
leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the
wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.
In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose
ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before
Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants
of a true Lost Civilization, the people of the
Anaconda. In the Andes we discover that the
Earth really is alive, while in the far reaches of
Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-
embracing philosophy of the first humans to
walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal,
where we encounter a wisdom hero, a
Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years
of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally we
settle in Borneo, where the last rainforest
nomads struggle to survive.
Understanding the lessons of this journey will
be our mission for the next century. For at risk is
the human legacy - a vast archive of
knowledge and expertise, a catalogue of the
imagination. Rediscovering a new appreciation
for the diversity of the human spirit, as
expressed by culture, is among the central
challenges of our time.
About the Author
Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the
National Geographic Society. Named by the
NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium,
he has been described as "a rare combination of
scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender
of all of life's diversity." In recent years his work
has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal,
Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New
Guinea, Australia, Colombia, Vanuatu,
Mongolia and the high Arctic of Nunuvut and
Greenland.
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and
filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology
and biology and received his Ph.D. in
ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.
Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum,
he spent over three years in the Amazon and
Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen
indigenous groups in eight Latin American
nations while making some 6000 botanical
collections. His work later took him to Haiti to
investigate folk preparations implicated in the
creation of zombies, an assignment that led to
his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The
Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an
international best seller later released by
Universal as a motion picture.
A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed
river guide, has worked as park ranger, forestry
engineer, and conducted ethnographic
fieldwork among several indigenous societies of
northern Canada. He has published 185
scientific and popular articles on subjects
ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian
myth and religion to the global biodiversity
crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs,
and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.
(Source:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/b
ios/wade-davis/)
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
Gao Zhisheng
By Joyce Wolf
This month I have wonderful news: Group 22's
adopted prisoner of conscience Gao Zhisheng is
alive and well! Subjected to 20 months of
enforced disappearance, Gao reportedly began
serving a 3-year sentence in remote Shaya Prison
in December 2011, but no one was allowed to
contact him until a few weeks ago. Here is a
report from http://www.ChinaAid.org:
"(Shaya, Xinjiang March 28, 2012) ChinaAid
has confirmed that relatives of prominent
Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng
were finally allowed to visit him in prison last
weekend, putting to rest fears that the pioneer in
the growing Christian legal defense movement
in China had died during the two-plus years of
his forced disappearance into police custody.
Gao's older brother and his father-in-law were
permitted a half-hour meeting with Gao on
March 24 at the Shaya prison, in a remote part of
Xinjiang in far western China. They were able to
see each other through a glass window and
converse using a prison phone.
Gao's wife, Geng He, telephoned ChinaAid's
founder and president Rev. Bob Fu on Tuesday
night confirming the meeting and providing
details.
She said that her husband broke into tears when
her father told Gao, 'My health is greatly
improved now that I have seen you.' Gao, who
has disappeared into police custody several
times since 2006, was last seen by his family
members in April 2010 when he briefly
resurfaced after a previous long period of
disappearance. During that time, he gave an
extensive interview to the Associated Press, an
American wire service, in which he gave a
detailed account of brutal torture inflicted on
him by Chinese police.
Gao's wife said he looked fine during the
weekend prison visit, which was conducted
under the watchful eye of prison officials and
Public Security Bureau officials. The PSB
instructed Gao's family members not to talk to
the outside world about the visit. PSB officers
from Gao's hometown in Shaanxi province had
accompanied Gao's older brother, Gao Zhiyi, on
the entire trip from central China, a journey of
more than 3000 kilometers (more than 2000
miles) to Shaya."
According to the following press release at
http://www.freedom-now.org/news, AIUSA and
other organizations sent a birthday letter to Gao
Zhisheng. I suggest that Group 22 members
follow their example and also send birthday
greetings. We have already sent some cards and
letters of support to Gao, and none of them have
yet been returned as undeliverable, so let's
continue. You can use the text of the letter in the
press release as a guide. Postage is $1.05.
For Immediate Release: International Human
Rights Organizations Issue Letter to Gao
Zhisheng on his 48th Birthday
Washington, D.C.: Today, Freedom Now,
Amnesty International USA, Freedom House,
and the International Bar Association's Human
Rights Institute sent a letter, copied below, to
imprisoned Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng
in recognition of his 48th birthday.
Gao Zhisheng
Shaya Prison
Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 842208
People's Republic of China
Dear Mr. Gao,
We write to express our best wishes and support
on the occasion of your 48th birthday.
As a prominent rights lawyer, you fought to
protect the rule of law by representing some of
China's most vulnerable citizens. As a result of
this work, the government revoked your law
license and repeatedly detained you - often with
no due process whatsoever. In spite of this
pressure, you continued to risk your own liberty
and defend the rights of others. In recognition of
your work, the American Bar Association
awarded you its International Human Rights
Lawyer Award in 2010.
We are saddened by the fact that you are
spending another birthday imprisoned, away
from your wife and children. In light of your
recent reappearance, we can only hope that you
will soon be released and reunited with your
family.
Your courage and selfless legal advocacy are an
inspiration and example to lawyers around the
world and we wish you all the best on your 48th
birthday.
Sincerely,
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
Forty-three people were executed in the USA in
2011, down from 46 in 2010. During that same
year, Iran executed 360 people, Saudi Arabia 82,
Iraq 68, Yemen 41, North Korea 30, and China
an unknown number perhaps in the thousands.
We can notice that the USA is the only Western
democracy on this list of the top-executing
countries in the world. Suzanne Nossel,
executive director of Amnesty International
USA, told the AP, "If you look at the company
we're in globally, it's not the company we want
to be in: China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq."
While Rick Perry received cheers when he said
the 234 executions carried out during his time as
governor of Texas represent "a form of ultimate
justice", sixteen states and the District of
Columbia have abolished the death penalty and
as of this writing, both the House and the Senate
of Connecticut have passed an abolition bill.
Governor Dannel P. Malloy (D) has said he will
sign it. Those inmates who are already
condemned to die will still be eligible for
execution and future convicts who are sentenced
to life without of parole will be subjected to
"death row conditions". I haven't seen an
explanation of those conditions, but I'm thinking
that means, among other things, 23-hour
lockdown.
In 2011, legislators in Oregon issued a
moratorium on executions and have used this
time to study alternatives to the death penalty.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have also started to
study the application of the death penalty in that
state. Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire and
Washington have bills to end capital
punishment pending.
As we know here in California, the SAFE
California campaign has an initiative on the
November 2012 ballot to make life without
possibility of parole the harshest sentence and to
convert the sentences of present death row
inmates to life without of parole, with work
when applicable and payment of restitution to
the victims' families as part of their sentences.
The Science of the Death Penalty
A study sponsored by Tides Foundation, the
Proteus Action League, and the National
Institute of Justice found that the available
research on the death penalty "offers no useful
information for policymakers." After reviewing
dozens of other studies, this panel of
independent experts found fundamental flaws
in them. For one example, none of the studies
took into account the possible effect of penalties
other than death. "The key question, the report
says, is whether capital punishment is less or
more effective as a deterrent than alternative
punishments, such as a life sentence without the
possibility of parole. Yet none of the research
that has been done accounted for the possible
effect of noncapital punishments on homicide
rates." Another area of weakness is that prior
studies made unsupported assumptions about
how murders would perceive and respond to
the threat of capital punishment.
While better designed studies may give insight
into whether or not the death penalty has a
deterrent effect, they will take time to carry out
and will be difficult to create. To read more
about this report, go to "Current Research Not
Sufficient to Assess Deterrent Effect of the Death
Penalty" at
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/n
ewsitem.aspx?RecordID=13363.
Perhaps the studies Oregon and Pennsylvania
are undertaking will be steps in the right
direction.
SAFE California Campaign
The SAFE California Campaign would like
people to throw house parties to raise funds for
the November election. Even though I'm always
up for a good partying time, I wonder if we
want to have a physical one or call this plea a
virtual house party and show our support. Let
me know, if we'd like to party down somewhere
and let's plan away.
If we cyber party, we have a couple of options.
To donate online, go to
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/p/sal
sa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY
=8141.
If you'd rather use snail mail, donations can be
sent to
SAFE California Campaign Headquarters
237 Kearny Street, #334
San Francisco, CA 94108
The website says we must include a contributor
card that can be found at
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/imag
es/SAFE CA Contributor Form.pdf.
Thomas Arthur: Stay of Execution
Thomas Arthur is a 70-year-old death row
prisoner in Alabama who recently received a
stay of execution from a federal court. He was
sentenced to death for the murder of Troy
Wicker in 1982. For more than 25 years, he has
been on death row and has had four previous
stays of execution. He is not seeking executive
clemency but rather maintains his innocence
and continues to request DNA testing of crime
scene evidence.
Clemency for Daniel Greene
Daniel Greene was sentenced to death in
December 1992 for the stabbing death of
Bernard Walker. Mr. Greene was scheduled to
die April 19, 2012, but on April 17, he was
granted clemency and will now serve a sentence
of life without parole. This is the fourth death
sentence the Georgia Parole Board has
commuted since 2002.
Stays of Execution
March 2012
18 Briley Piper South Dakota
29 Tommy Arthur Alabama
April
12 Garry Allen Oklahoma
Carey Grayson Alabama
Executions
March 2012
20 Larry Puckett (35) Mississippi
Lethal Injection (3 drug)
22 William Mitchell (61) Mississippi
Lethal Injection (3 drug)
28 Jesse Hernandez (47) Texas
Lethal Injection (3 drug)
April 2012
12 David Gore (58) Florida
Lethal Injection (3 drug)
18 Mark Wiles (49) Ohio
Lethal Injection (1 drug)
20 Shannon Johnson* (28) Delaware
Lethal Injection (3 drug)
* volunteer - an inmate who has waived
ordinary appeals that remain at the time of his
or her execution
GROUP 22 MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UAs 25
POC 2
Total 27
To add your letters to the total contact
lwkamp@gmail.com.
MORE LETTERS AND CARDS FROM
PASADENA EARTH FESTIVAL
Group 22 had a table at the Pasadena Earth and
Arts Festival on April 14. Kids and a few grown-
ups decorated 57 cards for Tan Zuoren, some of
them real works of art.
Tan Zuoren is a Chinese environmental activist
who was arrested in 2009 after he tried to
publicize the number of children that died
during the Sichuan earthquake and the
corruption behind substandard construction that
contributed to their deaths. He is now serving a
5-year prison sentence. The AIUSA China co-
group provided us with his prison address so
we could send cards of support.
For the Niger Delta action to Shell Oil we got 32
petition signatures and 12 letters signed. It's
not too late Ð you can still ask Shell Oil to "Own
Up and Pay Up". Go to www.amnestyusa.org or
click http://tinyurl.com/72hyxjc.
Many thanks to Candy, Lucas, Paula, Carol and
Jim, Kai, and Stevi for staffing the Group 22
table. Thanks also to Veronica, who initiated
Group 22's participation in Earth Day events
over 10 years ago at the Arboretum, and to
Martha, who expertly coordinated Group 22's
Earth Day events in following years.
--Joyce
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code C1-128
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com