Eyes on Nigeria: Human Rights Supplement to Transwonderland

This month we are travelling to Nigeria via Noo Saro-Wiwa's Looking for Transwonderland. While we are on tour, one stop definitely needs to be Amnesty International's Eyes on Nigeria website, particularly the interactive map which documents the location of oil spills, forced evictions, police brutality incidents and more. Also worth checking out are Amnesty's 2011 report The True 'Tragedy': Delays and Failures in Tackling Oil Spills in the Niger Delta and a press release from this month: Shell’s false claims on Niger Delta oil spills exposed,

A new report published today uncovers specific cases in which Shell has wrongly reported the cause of oil spills, the volume of oil spilled, or the extent and adequacy of clean up measures.

"Shell is being disingenuous about the devastation caused by its Niger Delta operations. This new evidence shows that Shell's claims about the oil spills cannot be trusted," said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Issues at Amnesty International.

New analysis from an independent expert found that so-called official investigation reports into the cause of oil spills in the Niger Delta can be "very subjective, misleading and downright false."

The report highlights systemic weaknesses in the way the cause of a spill and the volume are determined - with some significant errors in the volumes that are recorded as spilled.

The consequences for the affected communities are devastating and can result in them receiving little or no compensation.

Another important report regarding forced evictions was released this past August: If You Love You Life, Move Out! NIGERIA: Forced Eviction in Badia East, Lagos State,

By the end of the demolition, the Oke Ilu-Eri community, which forms part of Badia East, was razed to the ground and a part of the nearby Ajeromi community was also destroyed. At least 266 structures that served as homes and businesses were completely wiped out, affecting an estimated 2,237 households. Ataminimum, close to 9,000 people were affected. No alternative housing was provided by the Lagos state government and people were left homeless after the demolitions.

Finally, here is a short documentary about the oil spill issue. It contains a brief appearance by Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr., Noo's brother.

Rights Rhythm: Listen to Roma Rights!

Yesterday I posted about Amnesty International's concerns regarding discrimination against the Roma in the European Union as part of our larger discussion of Oksana Marafioti's memoir American Gypsy. It was just coincidence that we chose this book just as AI activists throughout Europe were coming up with creative ways to get the word out, but we always appreciate artful campaigns here at Rights Readers. So check out this video of Austrians hosting some gypsy street dancing and this one of a Belgian flash mob forced eviction drama in front of the European Parliament.

Best of all, Amnesty's Dutch activists have assembled a CD of Roma musicians from throughout Europe, Listen to Roma Rights, to support the campaign. The YouTube playlist above gives you some idea of the variety of music and also allows the musicians to talk about their own concerns for the Roma community. The mp3s are available on iTunes for download, however, if you think a physical CD sounds like a great gift for a musician-activist in your life, you may have to wait. The CD was released in May of this year, so perhaps some copies will arrive on a slow boat to the Amnesty USA Store later this year.

But how about something Russian to close out our discussion of our book about Russian immigrants? Did you know Yul Brynner also claimed Russian and Roma heritage? Enjoy!

Egypt Erupts Again: More from Amnesty and Alaa Al Aswany

Amnesty researcher Diana Eltahawy gives an on the ground report on the current unrest in Egypt in the video above, passing on concerns about impunity for police who commit human rights violations. If an action becomes available, we will pass that on.

This brought to mind that Alaa Al Aswany, activist and author of The Yacoubian Building has given a couple of interviews about the progress of the Arab Spring revolution that are worth your time. A short one from BBC Newshour here, and a longer podcast from Radio Open Source here. In a wide-ranging discussion, he talks about his public confrontation with Mubarak-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik during the uprising and dispenses advice for moving forward.

What we are expecting but never had from the Western governments is just to leave us alone. We are going to do our democracy for ourselves. But do not support the terrible dictators! That’s what happened with Mubarak. He has been supported by the Western governments for decades, right? Everybody knew what kind of dictator he was. But this question of ‘interests’ — he was ‘okay’; he was doing what Israel wanted; and there was another assumption that he was the barrier against Islamism; but he was not the barrier, he was the reason for the fanaticism in Egypt. That’s clear in my novel… The point here is that what we need from the Western governments is not to support Arab dictators any more…

Wikipedia suggests that another novel is forthcoming.

California Innocence Project: Join the March!

Hard-working anti-death penalty campaigners in California may still be nursing some disappointment at the outcome of the SAFE California initiative, but there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of death penalty abolition.  After all, who could have predicted Richard Viguerie and Bill O'Reilly would join the cause?  More seriously, Amnesty International cites seven significant steps toward abolition that were made in 2012 including abolition in the state of Connecticut.

Maryland may be next, and Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking) is on the case, linking Maryland's progress on marriage equality and immigration reform to death penalty abolition for the hat trick,

On the heels of an election that affirmed the Free State's desire for equal opportunities and protections under the law for everyone, we see a path to another victory for fairness and justice. It's time for Maryland to abolish the death penalty.

Maryland is on the cusp of putting an end to this failed experiment in orchestrated killing. Like the coalition that crossed faith, political, racial and economic boundaries to pass the Dream Act and marriage equality, a similarly strong alliance is emerging to end the death penalty and to replace it with a conviction of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

...

By willfully taking human life, the state imitates the worst of human impulses. Extinguishing a light, however dim, is never a path to greater illumination. Ending this unworkable, immoral, failed aspect of our justice system is the right thing to do. And now is the right time to do it. Maryland, let your light shine.

Urge your friends in Maryland to take action here.

Californians can study this new infographic from the California Innocence Project and reserve the dates for CIP's Innocence March this spring,

On April 27, 2013, the California Innocence Project will march from San Diego to Sacramento with clemency petitions for 10 of our clients who are innocent yet remain incarcerated. We invite you to join us at any of the 3 public walking days, or the rallies we will host along the way. Please read our client’s stories and come out to march with us!

Keep on walkin'!

Hector Tobar on Inaugural Poetry and Prose

Were you inspired by Monday's inaugural ceremony? One of our favorite authors, Hector Tobar (The Barbarian Nurseries) took a look at the craft of speechwriting prior to the event,

An important speech usually begins as a writing project. And what separates a good inauguration speech from a great speech is, more often than not, a lot of writer's elbow grease. Speechwriting, to paraphrase your old English teacher, is speech rewriting.

And then he debriefed yesterday with Los Angeles Times book critic David Ulin on the poetry and prose of the day, including Richard Blanco's poem "One Today". Watch: Inauguration 2013: How was Obama's speech?

               - all of us -
facing the stars
hope - a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it - together.

Are you ready for a little collective mapping? Here's a look at what Amnesty International would like to see on President Obama's second term agenda. And here's an action you can take today.

Write 4 Rights: Still Time to Wish Gao Zhisheng Happy New Year!

  

Another look back at 2012 with photos by Esteemed Reader Stevi of last year's successful 'Write 4 Rights' letter-writing marathon. We were especially pleased that this year's collection of actions included our Prisoner of Conscience, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. You can still take action on behalf of Gao and the other worthy cases-- info is here.

Interestingly, according to Radio Free Asia, it looks like Chinese activist and Sakharov Prize winner Hu Jia, who lives in Beijing, launched his own 'Write 4 Rights' style-campaign,

"Christmas is nearly here, and we should send a card to our brother who is imprisoned far away in the desert," Hu wrote, in a Tweet that was widely retweeted among the online activist community. 

"Even if Gao never gets to see them, the prison guards will, and that will increase their respect for lawyer Gao," he wrote. 

"This could lead to an improvement in his prison conditions," Hu said. "I have experienced this sort of thing myself." 

"I was jailed between 2008 and 2011, and people sent me cards at Chinese New Year and on my birthday, including cards drawn by my kid," he said. "They all expressed real feeling, and ... for a while, the electrified fences all melted away."

I am so impressed that Hu Jia is taking this action-- I would think at no small personal risk. All the more reason for those of us who can do this simple thing with no thought of retaliation, should get writing. There's still plenty of time to send Gao a greeting for the Chinese New Year.

Just a reminder that additional pictures of Rights Readers and Amnesty International-Pasadena activities past and present can be found here.

Signatures as Powerful as Bullets

Want to do vent your frustration about our nation's gun culture constructively? You can start today by telling our leaders that you support the UN Arms Trade Treaty.  Here are ten reasons why we need a strong global regulations to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands:

1. 1,500 people are killed every day by conflict and armed violence. Deaths resulting from war, armed homicides, extra-judicial executions and excessive use of force by state security forces amount to over 500,000 per year or 1,500 per day.
2. There’s more international laws regulating the trade of bananas than weapons. Legal loopholes in the laws governing the trade of weapons enable states and corporations to sell guns, bullets and teargas to dictators and tyrants, who've then used them to kill and injure civilians. Weapons are often traded irresponsibly between countries, with little consideration of whether they’ll be used to commit human rights abuses.
3. 12 billion bullets are produced every year. There’s an estimated 875 million guns in the world right now, and about 8 million ‘light weapons’ (such as heavy machine guns) are produced each year.
4. Over 26 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes in fear of their lives due to armed conflict. This often pushes people further into poverty by restricting access to clean water and shelter, while increasing the likelihood of deadly diseases.
5. Child soldiers are being used in armed conflict in 19 countries. Tens of thousands of children are being used right now by governments in their armed forces and by non-state armed groups. These children are often armed using weapons irresponsibly traded by governments and private corporations.

6. 

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   For every death, there’s up to 28 serious injuries. It’s difficult to estimate exactly how many people are injured in armed conflict, past statistics indicate that as many as 28 people are injured for every person killed by weapons on battlefields.
7. Damage caused by weapons destroys infrastructure and perpetuates poverty. As well as killing and harming people, weapons such as missiles destroy vital infrastructure that people rely on in their daily lives -- such as access to food, water and shelter. This can push survivors into poverty.
8. 74 per cent of the world’s weapons are supplied by just six countries. In 2010, almost 3/4 of the world’s weapons have been supplied by six of the world’s most powerful countries: USA (34.84%), Russia (14.86%), Germany (7.43%), United Kingdom(6.57%), China (6.29%), and France (4%). All but Germany are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. By allowing the trading of weapons which are then used to commit or facilitate human rights abuses, these governments are permitting their use for repression, conflict, violence, and other human rights violations.
9. Systematic rape of women and girls can occur through the use of weapons. In conflict regions such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivore, and Sierra Leone, the scale of rape and sexual violence is staggeringly high. Many women and girls have been forced into sexual slavery by fighters, and many are raped at gunpoint. Women and girls are often the forgotten victims of armed conflict.
10. A strong Arms Trade Treaty could save hundreds of thousands of lives every year. During July 2012, world leaders came together at the United Nations in New York to decide on adopting legally binding international standards regulating the trade of arms between countries. While the final treaty was not agreed on, it brought us closer then even before to getting a strong Arms Trade Treaty with human rights protections at its core.

Google "arms trade treaty" and you will find yourself buried in an avalanche of conspiratorial links opposing the treaty generated by the National Rifle Association and it's allies. Why the fuss about this treaty which has no impact on domestic gun laws? From IHT:

Some American commentators and gun-control advocates have asserted that gun lobbyists get much of their funding from gun manufacturers who could stand to lose from an international arms control deal. 

The U.N. treaty might not dent U.S. manufacturers’ domestic market, but it would potentially impact exports that by one estimate were worth $336.5 million last year, making the United States the world leader. 

“Is the N.R.A. working for casual gun-owners, many of whom, according to polling, support tougher restrictions on gun ownership?” Lee Fang asked in The Nation this week. “Or is the NRA serving the gunmaker lobby, which is purely interested in policies that will promote greater gun sales and more profits? 

Despite efforts to debunk the misinformation put out by the NRA, even on Fox, it's going to take an enormous effort to amass a human rights movement counterweight in favor of a strong treaty that regulates the trade of all conventional weapons, including small arms, machine guns, bullets and tear gas and prevents the sale and transfer of weapons that could be used to commit serious human rights abuses. Please help us build a safer world today!

Podcast Pick: Ugandan LGBT Rights and Amnesty's Suzanne Nossel on Kojo Nnamdi Show

Kojo Nnamdi hosted an interesting discussion a couple days ago-- the first segment with Ugandan LGBT activist Julius Kaggwa talking about a bill in front of the Ugandan Parliament that would entrench discrimination and hatred against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. You can take action to oppose the bill here. Learn more about Amnesty International's campaign to decriminalize homosexuality here.

The second segment was an interview with Amnesty International USA Executive Director Suzanne Nossel which covered a range of topics, from the excitement of being able to host an event with youth activists during Burmese Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's recent visit to the treatment of accused Wikileaks conspirator Bradley Manning. Plus Pussy Riot, Guantanmo, Syria and more. (For the next few days you should be able to find the podcast for download from iTunes otherwise you will need to visit the website for audio or transcripts.)

Write for Rights Global Marathon 2012

Once again the Pasadena chapter of Amnesty International is gearing up for the global human rights letter-writing marathon-- Write for Rights. Every year activists around the world gather at this time to send notes of encouragement to human rights defenders and letters to governments requesting action on their behalf. Of course, our Loyal Readers write letters every month, but this is a special opportunity to work in solidarity with the organization's membership around the world in conjunction with International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10). Please join us!

Group 22 Write-A-Thon
Saturday, December 8, 2012 9AM - 3PM
Zephyr Coffee House and Art Gallery
2419 East Colorado Blvd
Pasadena CA 91107 (map)

Even if you can't make it, you can still pledge to write letters and participate online. We are especially pleased that our adopted prisoner of conscience, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is among the featured cases this year. In the video above, Gao's wife expresses her frustration at not being able to communicate with her husband. Even if you can't understand Chinese or the German subtitles, you can feel her emotion. (If I can find a version of the video above with English subtitles I will revise this post). The other cases are also very compelling, including a Bahraini activist jailed for a tweet, Missouri death row inmate Reggie Clemons, people of the Niger Delta affected by oil spills, and the jailed Russian musicians known as Pussy Riot. Read about them here.

Gangnam Style for Gao Zhisheng!

British sculptor Anish Kapoor, with the help of PEN, Amnesty International, and a worldwide network of artists, museums and galleries, takes up where Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei left off with the video above- "Gangnam Style for Freedom." Apart from the video being loads of fun as a celebration of free (and silly) expression, the end card signals the send up's serious side with a sadly long list of prisoners around the world who have been denied the right to express themselves. Not only is the Pasadena chapter of Amnesty International's adopted prisoner of conscience Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng included in the list, awareness of Gao's plight is the focus of Amnesty-UK's page for the video. You can also learn more about Gao and take action on his behalf here. In addition, please explore PEN's Day to End Impunity website which will feature 23 cases in 23 days of bloggers, cartoonists, poets, journalists and more who have been threatened for expressing their views beginning tomorrow.

Election Author Opinion Sampler

Voted already? I have, but I'm still pre-occupied with the election while awaiting the results and can't quite move on to other topics, but I'm tired of reading the same old predictable pundits. So just for fun, let's have a look at what some of our favorite writers have been saying about the issues and candidates:

Kwame Anthony Appiah (The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen) in the New York Review of Books on how our electoral choices shape legacies and lessons learned and at Think Progress about this election and racial identity.

Walter Mosely (Little Scarlet) opines at The Guardian: 'He was like a surgeon given a rusty scalpel'

Stephen Kinzer (Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds) in a talk at Northeastern University offers foreign policy advice to the candidates: 'Precisely because we are so powerful, the U.S. desperately needs a more humble attitude as we consider how and whether to intervene around the world'. Video of the complete lecture here.

It can't be too surprising that the preferences of most authors we have read lean Democratic, but there is at least one exception -- Mary Ann Glendon (A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), a registered independent who is an adviser to the Romney campaign: 'The population is divided, families are divided; it’s like the Civil War when some wore blue and some wore grey and (they) were often brothers.'

Philip Gourevitch (The Ballad of Abu Ghraib) at The New Yorker on Syria, Sandy, and surviving disaster: 'The storm we’re now riding out is beyond any government’s control, but the response to it is not.'

Junot Diaz (Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal), who made an eloquent case for the importance of a motivating story in critiquing Obama's State of the Union a couple years back, thinks the president has the edge at the moment,  'But as far as the level of storyteller is concerned, I have a far clearer sense of who Obama is during this election, than I do at all of Romney'.

Amnesty International USA put out a bingo card for the debates highlighting human right issues the presidential candidates should be asked about and discuss. Sadly, many of these topics did not get their due. I know I would have liked to hear a stronger human rights narrative from both candidates. You can still play human rights bingo with Amnesty while you await election results, with each square offering up the chance to inform your elected representatives of some human rights priority. Get started on our human rights agenda today.

Amnesty Has a Day in Court

I
In the deluge of Hurricane Sandy coverage you might have missed that the Supreme Court was in session to hear Amnesty International's challenge to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, Clapper v. Amnesty International USA. This argument was just to establish "standing" and not on the merits of the law itself.

Amnesty (represented by the ACLU) argued that they have standing to challenge the law’s constitutionality because human rights advocates, journalists and attorneys, rely on confidentiality in international communications with victims of human rights abuses and government officials. The Obama administration claims that groups like Amnesty don’t have standing in the case because they can’t prove that they are subject to surveillance. But how can they prove such a thing when the information about who the government monitors is secret and the process of surveillance is designed to be undetectable? From AI's statement:

The Obama Administration, under the guise of a war on terror, has tried to ban judicial review of the constitutionality of the law that in 2008 expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 casts a wide net that is ensnaring individuals who are not suspected of wrongdoing and infringes on their rights. The government’s Catch-22 argument that no one has standing to challenge this program because no one can prove that they have been targeted must not be allowed to immunize this far-reaching wiretapping regime from legal review. 

So how'd it go? Blow by blow argument summary is available at ScotusBlog. Adam Serwer's verdict at Mother Jones:

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in the past has been a key swing vote on war on terror cases, said attorneys for suspected terrorists would be guilty of "malpractice" if they talked on the phone with their client with this statute in place. It's often hard to know where the justices stand based on oral arguments—but they seemed at least somewhat sympathetic to the ACLU's argument that the law made life more difficult for the plaintiffs.

So far so good. Here's hoping we make it over the "standing" hurdle so the full statute can be put to the test.

Hector Tobar Visits Rights Readers!

Book discussions don't get better than this! Congratulations to our Loyal Readers (especially mastermind Stevi) for luring author Hector Tobar to our discussion The Barbarian Nurseries. The novel is both layered with complex characters and at the same time covers quite a bit of Southern California terrain, exploring issues of family, race, class, immigration, culture, media, justice and more (see this post for more). Stevi shares,

Not only did we learn that the
Torres-Thompson children are based on Hector’s own sons and daughter, but that the gritty, very real people and descriptions come from Hector’s experiences as a reporter for the LA Times. He is a writer who enjoys his characters, their experiences and the settings in which they find themselves.

Currently, Hector’s working on two more books, one a historical novel about the trapped Chilean miners and another about a man who wanted to write a novel so he lived the life of a novel but was never able to write the novel. Both books sound like they are right down our Amnesty alley.

Yes, I feel certain this is not the last time we will be reading this author's books, and meanwhile, we strongly recommend this great novel which is both thought-provoking and fun to read! The novel has already won the California Book Award for fiction this year and congratulations to Hector who just became the most recent recipient of UC Santa Barbara's Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature. Well-deserved!

Louise Erdrich, The Round House and the Violence Against Women Act

A few years back we enjoyed reading and discussing Louise Erdrich's Tracks. Her latest book The Round House, which has already been nominated for a National Book Award, looks like a book we may want to be talking about in the future,

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. 

While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.

In this Chicago Tribune interview, Erdrich explains:

This is the first time I've written a book that was at once about human relationships, and yet very political, so I would encourage readers to look at the end. (An afterword discusses the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which aims to reduce violence in tribal communities, and includes references to organizations working to advocate for Native American women.) When I started the book, I had the knowledge of this tremendously agonizing situation that is a truth on reservations, but as I wrote the book, it became an interior, psychological drama as I lived this boy's life. He was with me all the time.

When I heard about the book, I immediately thought of Amnesty International's 2007 report Maze of Injustice: Sexual Violence Against Indigenous Women in the USA and our work to pass the Tribal Law and Order Act. Untangling the jurisdictional 'maze' is an on-going process and will be helped by reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Voice your support for VAWA here.  Read the whole Trib interview for more and Minnesota Public Radio and NPR also have great audio interviews with the author. I especially like this quote via NPR: "Revenge is a sorrow for the person who has to take it on. And the person who is rash enough to think it's going to help a situation is always wrong." I am really looking forward to reading this book for a deeper understanding of these issues.

Authors Speak Out on Immigration

I thought I'd share this clip from Junot Diaz, (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) currently on a book tour for his latest novel, This Is How You Lose Her. He was asked about the politics of immigration and the DREAM Act, which provides an opportunity to gain legal status for undocumented students who entered the country before the age of 15, have been physically present in the United States for at least five years, graduate from high school, and/or complete at least two years of college or military service. Take action for the DREAM Act here.


As I am sure many of my Loyal Readers know, President Obama implemented the so-called mini-DREAM Act, allowing temporary relief to undocumented young people.  Edwidge Danticat writes,

There is a powerful photograph of a group of undocumented young people—DREAMers—lying in the sand in Miami, their joined bodies spelling out the words “DREAM ACT NOW”, as if hoping to be seen from the heavens.

“DREAMers” are just what they sound like: bright, hopeful, and optimistic young people. They came here as children and have spent most of their lives in the United States. Yet they have remained in legal limbo, with the specter of deportation hanging over their heads. ...

Earlier this year, the Obama Administration granted relief from deportation to between 800,000 and 1.7 million DREAMers and made it possible for them to try to find work and/or get an education. This new policy can be reversed at any time—especially by an administration that is hostile to immigration—and can leave DREAMers back in limbo, back in the sand.

Danticat wrote powerfully about the failures of our migrant and refugee policy in Brother, I'm Dying. Still on the case, check out her more recent New York Times editorial on immigrant detention here.

Finally, this month we are reading Hector Tobar's The Barbarian Nurseries, a novel layered with rich portraits of the immigrant experience in America. Tobar has also written a nonfiction book, Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States, so it's not surprising that he has insight to offer on the plight of young immigrants in the video below.

To learn more about how immigrants' rights are human rights and how you can get involved in supporting the DREAM Act and opposing abuses of immigrants in detention visit Amnesty International's campaign page.

Our September Book: The Devil and Mr. Casement by Jordan Goodman

This month, we are reading The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness by Jordan Goodman. Roger Casement is a fascinating historical figure who we have encountered before (in Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost and Peter Robb's A Death in Brazil) who is also the subject of Mario Vargas Llhosa's most recent novel, The Dream of the Celt. It's a wonder there hasn't been a biopic starring, say, Daniel Day-Lewis about him, though there is really too much drama for just one film, just as there is too much to cover in one book. Although this book concentrates on Casement's investigations of the exploitation of indigenous peoples by rubber barons in the Amazon, there are a couple of enjoyable ways to get a thumbnail summary of his entire life. One is to listen to the ballad below, but if you have a little more time you can listen to the radio drama The Dreaming of Roger Casement (download via iTunes) from RTE (Radio Ireland).



I wish I could provide a little more background on Jordan Goodman or an interview about his book but I have hit a dead end on that front. There are still a few resources on the internet to supplement our reading, however. You can actually page through Walter Hardenburg's 1913 report "The Putumayo, the devil's paradise; travels in the Peruvian Amazon region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein."  Here's a very brief film clip of Casement and a newsreel about his state funeral in Ireland almost fifty years after his death.  RTE also has a program in which a panel speculates "What if Roger Casement had not kept a diary?" (download via iTunes). An Independent 2011 news story of interest, "The Mystery of the Missing Amazonian Rubber Slaves" traces the fates of Omarino and Ricudo, the two Indians Casement brought back to England,

"We are sent far, far into the forest to get rubber, and if we do not get it, or if we do not get it quickly enough, we are shot," Omarino told the Daily News, a popular national newspaper founded and edited by Charles Dickens. "London is very wonderful, but the great river and the forest, where the birds fly, is more beautiful. One day we shall go back."
The men did make it back to South America in the end, but the last known record of their whereabouts shows them separated from their homes by thousands of miles of thick rainforest.

I tend to think of the movement for corporate responsibility in human rights as a relatively new development so this book was very instructive in showing that human rights activists have been seeking justice, not just from governments, but from businesses for more than a hundred years. Unfortunately, the descendants of the Putamayo Indians are still facing environmental threats brought on by corporate exploitation of their resources. This Survival International article compares the Roger Casement story to the current illegal trade in mahogany, which we read about in Ted Conover's The Routes of Man. Jordan Goodman notes the exploitation of the Putumayo by the oil and gas industry.  You can learn more about the current struggle by watching the documentary, Crude  or check out Amnesty International's corporate accountability program, their specific work on Chevron in Ecuador, a success story for indigenous rights in Peru, and an action you can take here.

Negotiating to a Strong Conclusion

(source)
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Two back-to-back headlines popped up in my RSS feed recently and gave me a chuckle:

The Millions : 47 New Ways to Bid Arms Goodbye
Historic Arms Trade Treaty in the Balance

So the first is actually about the release of a new edition of Ernest Hemingway's classic novel of love and war in World War I, A Farewell to Arms, which includes 47 alternative endings. And the second is from Amnesty International and concerns world leaders now meeting in New York to negotiate the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty which will prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of tyrants and child soldiers,

But if the $60 billion arms trade industry has its way, the Treaty will be watered down and ineffective.  Detractors, like the NRA, are drawing false connection between the arms trade treaty and the 2nd Amendment to protect the lucrative weapons industry have even taken to the Internet spreading misinformation to stop the treaty.  Don't let powerful lobbyists stop the US from supporting a strong Arms Trade Treaty.  

After you've taken action towards a favorable conclusion to the treaty  negotiations, if you're still curious about those other endings there is more here. I think Hemingway negotiated the right ending to his novel. It's going to take a lot of pressure from all of us to get a strong agreement that will stop the arming of human rights abusers.

Free Dhondup Wangchen

 I just had to share this beautiful animation from Amnesty International - Portugal in support of Tibetan filmaker Dhondup Wangchen,

Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen is serving a six-year prison sentence in China for "subversion of state power" -- simply because he dared to speak out about Tibetan human rights through his filmmaking. Demand his release now!

China has detained hundreds of Tibetans for peacefully exercising their human rights or for taking part in protests since 2008. Recently, Tibetan activists have set themselves on fire in protest of restrictions on basic freedoms and punitive security measures. The Chinese government has responded to the protests with mass arrests, imprisonment, and possible killings by security forces.

Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B and has not received the medical treatment he needs. It has been difficult to obtain reliable information about his condition.

Please call on the Chinese authorities to release Dhondup Wangchen immediately and unconditionally.

You can watch Dhondup Wangchen's film, Leaving Fear Behind here. Thematically, it's an excellent fit with the book we are reading this month, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis, about language and cultural preservation. You can take action on this case here.

Still Healing in Liberia

I'm sure many of our Loyal Readers thought of Helene Cooper, New York Times reporter and author of a memoir, The House at Sugar Beach, about growing up in Liberia when they heard the news about conviction of Charles Taylor, ex-President of Liberia for war crimes. In today's paper she relates the stories of how Taylor's trail of brutality tore apart the lives of her sisters Eunice and Janice and the reactions of her relatives upon hearing of Taylor's fate. The conviction was for Taylor's actions in Sierra Leone and Cooper remarks,

It was in Liberia that Mr. Taylor campaigned for president using the slogan “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him anyway,” in a telling acknowledgment of the psychological damage a pointless war can inflict on a country. It is in Liberia that, almost a decade after Mr. Taylor was driven from the country, men and women today are trying to turn former child soldiers into functional people.

There are dizzyingly complex reasons Mr. Taylor was tried for what he did in Sierra Leone, instead of Liberia, many of them involving the effort to keep the hard-won peace that now exists between factions in Liberia. I know this. I just hope that when history books recount this first head of state to be convicted by an international court since Nuremberg, they remember Liberia.

Amnesty International has issued a press release calling for additional prosecutions, reparations and more attention to war crimes in Liberia.

By the way, Janice Cooper, a physician was featured by PBS Newshour in a report last year. She returned to Liberia as project lead for a mental health initiative supported by the Atlanta-based Carter Center and Liberia Ministry’s of Health and Social Welfare,

Cooper recently paid one of her weekly visits to Monrovia Central Prison, where the mental health program has launched a groundbreaking initiative to support prisoners. The prison was so overcrowded and dirty it was singled out by Amnesty International [see report] for human rights violations. Cooper and her staff have converted a cinder block building there into a small, modest mental health facility where prisoners can now attend psychotherapy sessions and meet with family members.

Read the article to learn more about why mental health is such an urgent need in this struggling nation. Let's hope bringing Charles Taylor to justice will help heal a few more scars.

The Best in Web Activism

Amnesty International USA's website has been nominated for a Webby award in the Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit category.  You can help them win the 'People's Voice' award by voting here. I think the recent redesign of the AI site well deserves an award, but we are competing against the Girl Scouts and no one can overwhelm an online poll like pre-teen girls, so get busy!

By the way, a clever ad campaign (see video below) for AI-Sweden has been nominated in the Interactive Media: Rich Meda Non-Profit/Educational category which has the wallpaper on your cell phone unlock a cell door when you "slide to unlock" the gadget. You can vote for them too. (AI Germany had a similar ipad ad which prevented the user from "swiping away torture" --see that demo here.)

I love exploring the best in innovative online activism via the Webby Award recommendations. I need help casting a vote in the Activism category. Who doesn't love a plucky small town campaign to save a library (Book Burning Party)?Or take the challenge of SPENT, a game that forces you into experiencing the hard daily decisions of a homeless person. The Breathe Project is helping Pittsburgh improve it's air quality and CounterSpill is a useful adjunct to some of the books we've read about environmental disasters like Voices from Chernobyl and Earth Odyssey.  And I thoroughly enjoyed the entire 20-minute grizzly-bear-eye view of the Canadian Rockies offered up at  Bear 71.  Which do you think should win? Get any creative bursts from these inspirational sites for your own activism?