Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XVIII Number 5, May 2010
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, May 27, 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. Special guest Emily
Fernandez of Fair Trade Pasadena will give a
presentation and bring samples of fair trade
products.
Tuesday, June 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, June 20, 6:30PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion group. This
month we read "The Right of Thirst" by Frank
Huyler.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone
This will be short and sweet as it is Monday
evening already and I'm still working on the
newsletter!
Although Group 22 members did not participate
in the annual Doo-Dah parade this year, we did
have a table at the Pasadena Earth Day Fair. Tons
of kids made cards decorated with stickers and
stamped designs to send to a Chinese prisoner of
conscience, Tan Zuoren , who spoke out against
the shoddy school building construction in China
that caused so many children to die in the May
2009 Sichuan earthquake. Thanks to Joyce and
Stevi for organizing this and to those who helped
at the table.
Amnesty members have the opportunity to staff
information tables for AI at local rock and other
music concerts. Read the article by Laura Brown
in this newsletter for details!
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, June 20, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Boulevard
In Pasadena
Author Biography
An emergency physician in
Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Frank Huyler is the author
of the essay collection The
Blood of Strangers as well as
the novel The Laws of
Invisible Things. He grew up
in Iran, Brazil, and Japan.
BOOK REVIEW
RIGHT OF THIRST
By Frank Huyler
Book Review from the New York Times:
Frank Huyler has said that being a doctor is "the
best day job that a writer can have." You can see
his reasoning. A doctor has access to material
other novelists might only dream of: dealing
intimately with strangers, encountering people at
moments of high drama, observing close-up the
interplay of flesh and spirit. And in "Right of
Thirst," Huyler the novelist shows many of the
gifts - observation, precision, tact - you might
hope for in Huyler the doctor.
The novel's narrator, Charles Anderson, is a
cardiologist in his late 50s, modestly successful in
his career but not in other areas of his life. The
book opens with the death of his wife after a long
illness. Charles has assisted in hastening that end,
though this is discreetly alluded to rather than
stated outright, and the whole episode is
described in spare, enviably efficient prose.
Stricken with grief and remorse - for the death,
for his inadequacies as a husband - Charles
attends a lecture on the plight of earthquake
victims and is inspired to volunteer for work in a
refugee camp.
And yet once there, high in a remote mountain
valley, any notion he might have of redemption
through good works begins to evaporate. The
camp is inadequately equipped to receive a mass
of refugees, who in any case show no signs of
turning up. Charles's attempt to recast his
mission, providing medical help to nearby
villagers, is sabotaged by fatalism and poverty.
Frustration is interrupted by drama: he amputates
a young girl's gangrenous foot, saving her life
while knowing that as a cripple she hasn't much
of a life to look forward to. Then the camp's
army-issue tents attract the wrong kind of
attention from neighboring hostile forces, and a
near-farcical flight ensues.
Although the country where all this takes place is
unnamed, it isn't hard to identify. In a literal
sense it is Kashmir, but in a figurative one it is the
shadowy territory known as Greeneland. With his
sense of failure, his detachment, his
stereotypically American habit of trying to solve
problems with money, Charles could walk into
any Graham Greene novel, no questions asked.
Greene-ish tinges are also noticeable in several of
the other characters - notably the jauntily
sinister general who tries to threaten Charles into
silence about events taking place in the mountains
- and in the novel's tone, which is not so much
disillusioned as determined not to entertain
illusions.
After a while, though, this tone starts to seem like
a disguise. "Right of Thirst" gives the initial
impression of being a deeply serious book, but
nothing in it is examined very deeply or very
seriously. Huyler's descriptions of externals -
landscape, weather, the operation on the girl -
are frequently marvelous, but at times he slips
into cliche (a helicopter hovers "like a dragonfly")
and his characters sometimes fail to talk like real
people. "Who are you, Charles?" his wife asks in
a remembered argument. "Who are you really?" I
don't know about you, but my marital rows
rarely get that existential.
Charles himself is curiously shallow: you never
get a clear sense of what it was in his marriage he
feels so guilty about. His feelings on other matters
are often so nuanced you can't work them out,
and for all his talk of remorse, his encounters tend
to end on a note of self-justification. There's
material for comedy here, if only Huyler had
spotted it. In the end, "Right of Thirst" serves as a
reminder that one quality you don't necessarily
look for in a doctor is essential in a novelist:
imagination.
Robert Hanks is a freelance critic based in London.
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
GAO ZHISHENG
By Joyce Wolf
Group 22 has now completed the process of
adopting Prisoner of Conscience Gao Zhisheng
(pronounced Gow Jir-sheng). He is a human-
rights lawyer who was detained by the Chinese
authorities in February 2009.
We received Gao's case file from the AI
Individuals at Risk program on March 26. At that
time Gao's whereabouts were unknown. A few
days later, the New York Times published an
article stating, "Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese rights
activist who has been missing for more than a
year, has resurfaced near his hometown in
northern China." The article reported that Gao in
a brief telephone conversation said that he was
fine, that he had been sentenced and released
from custody.
Two weeks later in an interview with Associated
Press in Beijing, Gao said that he was giving up
activism and wished only to be reunited with his
family. (His wife and children have been in the
U.S. for about a year.) On May 1 the New York
Times reported that Gao had again disappeared.
"Associates said Mr. Gao failed to return to a
Beijing apartment on April 20 after spending
more than a week in Urumqi, the capital of
western China's Xinjiang region, where he had
been visiting his father-in-law. Mr. Gao had
telephoned his father-in-law as his plane left
Urumqi, saying he would call upon his arrival
in Beijing, they said. That was his last contact
with the outside world."
There's a lot of mystery and confusion
surrounding the story of Gao Zhisheng, but one
thing is quite clear: China is attempting to
intimidate lawyers who take up human rights
cases. See, for example, AI's public statement
concerning Liu Wei and Tang Jitian, two lawyers
who just had their law licenses revoked.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/02
2/2010/en
"These lawyers constitute an important part of
the weiquan ('rights defense') movement,
which is using Chinese law to protect rights of
individuals. Like other human rights
defenders in China, these individual weiquan
lawyers have been harassed, assaulted, kept
under surveillance and prosecuted for
protecting the rights of others."
Another lawyer in China who has suffered
retribution for his human rights work is Wang
Yonghong, who defended Cong Rixu, an
imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner whose wife
is now in Pasadena and has attended Group 22
meetings. For more information see her blog at
http://tianlu.blog.epochtimes.com/ (scroll down
for the English if your Chinese is a bit weak).
Let's get started working for Gao Zhisheng. AI
suggests writing to the Director of the Beijing
Public Security Bureau:
MA Zhenchuan Juzhang
Beijingshi Gong'anju
9 Qianmen Dongdajie
Dongchengqu
Beijingshi 100740
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Letters should call for the authorities to:
- release Gao Zhisheng immediately and
unconditionally;
- guarantee that he will be free from any kind of
torture and ill-treatment;
- order a full and impartial investigation into
allegations that Gao Zhisheng has suffered ill
treatment in detention, including beatings and
inadequate access to medical treatment and bring
those responsible to justice;
- allow peaceful work by human rights
defenders, and also exercise of rights to freedom
of assembly and expression, in line with their
international commitments.
GROUP 22 MEMBERS ROCK ON WITH PETER GABRIEL
By Laura G. Brown
Two Pasadena AI activists answered organizer
Kelly Giles' plea to work the Amnesty table at the
Peter Gabriel concert May 7 at the Hollywood
Bowl. Vincent De Stefano and Laura Brown
reached out to concertgoers before, during, and
after the concert, urging them to sign petitions on
behalf of prisoners of conscience. According to
Giles, the actions for prisoners in Tibet, Myanmar,
Laos, and Eritrea garnered a total of 817
signatures from Peter Gabriel fans, with the Tibet
action attracting the most interest. In that case,
Buddhist monks and nuns in Tibet are being held
in terrible conditions in Chinese-run jails.
Peter Gabriel has long been a friend of AI. He also
sponsors his own project called Witness, which
gives video cameras to crusaders against political
abuse. Gabriel helped found the group nearly 20
years ago, and it now works in more than 60
countries bringing previously unrecorded voices
and images to decision makers' attention,
according the to the group's website.
I asked Giles about his role in the Amnesty
actions at local concerts, and he said: "My
informal title might be something along the lines
of 'Southern California volunteer coordinator for
Rhythm n Rights', which coordinates all of
Amnesty's tabling opportunities with a lot of
great, socially-conscious bands." Rhythm n Rights
is coordinating efforts at the Sting concert in June,
and also for the next leg of U2's tour.
When asked how AI activists and music lovers
could assist in Rhythm n Right's outreach, Giles
said:
"We typically do not find out which tours
Amnesty will be tabling until about a month or
two before the actual concerts. On average, I
would say that Amnesty usually gets invited to
table anywhere from 8 to 12 shows a year, and
that I am usually lead volunteer for at least half of
those shows, either in LA or Orange County. For
example, besides Peter Gabriel this past weekend,
I will be lead volunteer for Sting in Orange
County next month, and there is a good chance I
will be lead volunteer for both Santana in July
and Dave Matthews Band in August."
Interested in acquainting the public with
Amnesty's important mission and collecting
scores of signatures on urgent actions? Not to
mention drinking in the glorious strains of your
favorite rock group's music on a warm Southern
California night at no extra charge? Contact Kelly
Giles at kellyab3@gmail.com.
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
May has flown by and the death penalty
continues alive and active in the United States.
First the good news for one death row inmate.
Richard Smith (m)
On 19 May, the Governor of Oklahoma
commuted the death sentence of Richard Smith to
life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole, accepting the state Pardon and Parole
Board's recommendation to him to do so. Richard
Smith had been due to be executed on 25 May.
Stays of Execution
Stacey Johnson, Arkansas; Melbert Ford, Georgia;
Marlon Kiser, Tennessee; Richard Tabler, Texas;
and Jack Jones, Arkansas have had stays of
execution for now.
May executions
The following individuals were executed in May:
Kevin Varga, Texas, May 12;
Michael Beuke, Ohio, May 13;
Billy Galloway, Texas, May 13;
Rogello Cannaday, Texas, May 19;
Paul Woodward, Mississippi, May 19;
Gerald Holland, Mississippi, May 20; and
Darick Walker, Virginia, May 20.
Scheduled executions for the end of May include
John Alba, Texas, May 25 and Thomas
Whisenhant, Alabama, May 27.
Upcoming in June
Ten executions are scheduled for June. One
person, Ronnie Lee Gardner (Utah), has requested
and been granted to be executed by firing squad.
Mr. Gardner has been on death row for 25 years.
According to an Amnesty Urgent Action, both the
father and the fiancee of Michael Burdnell, the
murder victim, are on record, through sworn
statements, that they do not want Mr. Gardner
executed. Amnesty quotes Mr. Burdnell's father
as saying, "I do not believe Gardner should be
executed. I do not believe my son, Michael
Burdnell, would want Gardner to be executed. I
do not believe Gardner should be executed
because I do not believe the murder was
premeditated. Gardner himself had been shot and
his shooting my son was a spur of the moment
reaction. Furthermore, I do not believe Gardner is
the same person today that he was in 1985. My
son was a caring and generous person who tried
to help others. It would not have been in his
nature to condone Gardner's execution. He would
not have approved of it at all."
An online Amnesty action on Mr. Gardner's
behalf is available at
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advoca
cy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&templ
ate=x.ascx&action=14271
Troy Davis
An evidentiary hearing for Troy Davis is
scheduled for June 23, 2010. Information about
Mr. Davis' case and action opportunities are
available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-
penalty/troy-davis-finality-over-
fairness/page.do?id=1011343
Web Links
Martha sent us a couple of interesting links to
check out:
http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/2010/05/iachr-on-
death-row-phenomenon.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/20/MN2J1DF46L.DTL
I know that the death penalty continues around
the world, too, and we often write on behalf of
these individuals; however, for me, action in my
own country is so important. Since the US
reinstated the death penalty in 1976, over 1,200
executions have been carried out.
MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UAs 10
Total 10
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