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Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News Volume XXI Number 8, August 2013

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Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News Volume XXI Number 8, August 2013 Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News Volume XXI Number 8, August 2013 RIGHTS READERS UPCOMING EVENTS Human Rights Book Discussion Group Thursday, August 22, 7:30 PM. Monthly Meeting. We meet at the Caltech Y, Tyson Keep up with Rights Readers at House, 505 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena. (This is http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com 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. Next Rights Readers meeting: Tuesday, September 10, 7:30 PM. Letter writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner Sunday, September 15 of Hill and California in Pasadena. This 6:30 pm informal gathering is a great way for newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty! Behind the Beautiful Sunday, September 15, 6:30 PM. Rights Forevers Readers Human Rights Book Discussion by Katherine Boo group. This month we read “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo. Vroman’s Bookstore 695 E. Colorado, Pasadena COORDINATOR’S CORNER Author Bio Hi All Katherine Boo is a staff writer at The New Well we are in the throes of summer. School Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The started last week with a bang as those of us in Washington Post. She learned to report at the the nursing office were dispatched to middle alternative weekly, schools to follow up on students coming to Washington City Paper, school without the required Tdap vaccine for 7th after which she grade entry. worked as a writer and co-editor of The Rob and I got to spend a week in Seattle with Washington Monthly the cousins on my dad’s side celebrating 3 magazine. Over the birthdays (including my own!) the last week of years, her reporting July. I had never been there before. The from disadvantaged weather was great – no rain – and there is so communities has been much to see and do. awarded a Pulitzer I’m looking forward to reading September’s Prize, a MacArthur “Genius” grant, and a book selection. It has gotten great reviews. National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. The violence in Egypt has escalated, with recent For the last decade, she has divided her time clashes between Morsi supporters and the between the United States and India, the security forces resulting in over 600 dead and birthplace of her husband, Sunil Khilnani. This hundreds wounded. Find the latest info and is her first book. actions at the AIUSA website: http://www.amnestyusa.org/news TRANSLATORS Unnati Tripathi started Laura Brown has had a letter about Edward working for Katherine Snowden published in the LA Times: here’s the as a translator and link: researcher in April http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letter 2008. Three and a half s/la-le-0804-sunday-snowden-asylum- years later, Unnati had 20130804,0,6899599.story become Katherine’s trusted co-investigator Con Cariño, and critical Kathy interlocutor, helping to bring the stories of Annawadi residents to the page. Over those 1 years, she also took many photographs of a Three other women also helped Katherine with changing slum. Some of the more recent photos translation in the first half of 2008. Kavita are on this website. Mishra, an undergraduate at the University of Mumbai, helped interview residents of several Unnati has an M.A. in sociology from the slums in between the obligations of her University of Mumbai and is currently helping coursework. Vijaya Chauhan, a veteran the Indian Association for Women’s Studies educationist, spent a single day at Annawadi establish a digital archive. Previously, she and a second day watching Annawadi provided research and editing assistance on a videotapes, and in that brief time taught short documentary film, ‘Do Rafeeq Ek Chai,’ Katherine boatloads. Shobha Murthy was an directed by Rafeeq Ellias, and wrote a report on equally generous teacher when she took time madrasas in Mumbai for the Maharashtra State from her real work, running educational Minorities Commission under the supervision of programs for low-income Navi Mumbai Dr. Ranu Jain. An essay of her own, ‘The children, to help Katherine interview parents Precinct as Workspace: Snippets from and children. Conversations,’ was published in Zero Point Bombay: In and Around Horniman Circle, a 2008 anthology edited by Kamala Ganesh, Usha KIRKUS REVIEW Thakkar and Gita Chadha. Since 2009, she’s also In her debut, Pulitzer Prize–winning New Yorker been filming the annual Mahim fair in Mumbai. staff writer Boo creates an intimate, Her current intent is to make a short unforgettable portrait of India’s urban poor. documentary on the religious significance and Mumbai’s sparkling new airport and raucous beauty of the fair, and how it subtly surrounding luxury hotels welcome visitors to illuminates the tensions and possibilities of the the globalized, privatized, competitive India. city. Across the highway, on top of tons of garbage Mrinmayee Ranade was the first translator to and next to a vast pool of sewage, lies the slum work regularly on this project. In the first half of of Annawadi, one of many such places that 2008, she joined Katherine in Annawadi and house the millions of poor of Mumbai. For more several other slums, than three years, Boo lived among and learned helping to draw out from the residents, observing their struggles and individuals’ stories quarrels, listening to their dreams and despair, with sensitivity and recording it all. She came away with a detailed precision and portrait of individuals daring to aspire but too remaining often denied a chance—their lives viewed as an unflappable even in embarrassment to the modernized wealthy. The mob scenes. Her author poignantly details these many lives: deepest sensitivity Abdul, a quiet buyer of recyclable trash who was to the domestic lives and choices of women, wished for nothing more than what he had; particularly those who were balancing work and Zehrunisa, Abdul’s mother, a Muslim matriarch family responsibilities, as Mrin herself does. among hostile Hindu neighbors; Asha, the Fittingly, she is now the editor of Madhurima, a ambitious slum leader who used her weekly women’s supplement for the Bhaskar connections and body in a vain attempt to Group’s Divya Marathi newspaper. escape from Annawadi; Manju, her beautiful, intelligent daughter whose hopes lay in the new Mrin earned her B.A. degree from the University India of opportunity; Sunil, the master of Mumbai and previously worked as a reporter scavenger, a little boy who would not grow; and editor for many English- and Marathi- Meena, who drank rat poison rather than language publications, among them the Indian become a teenage bride in a remote village; Express, Navashakti, Maharashtra Times, and Kalu, the charming garbage thief who was Times of India. As a researcher and translator, murdered and left by the side of the road. Boo she’s assisted journalists from the BBC, The brilliantly brings to life the residents of National Geographic, The Guardian and Annawadi, allowing the reader to know them elsewhere. She’s also taught reporting and and admire the fierce intelligence that allows editing at Wilson College, V.G. Kelkar College, them to survive in a world not made for them. and Rai University. The best book yet written on India in the throes of a brutal transition. 2 PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE DEATH PENALTY NEWS Gao Zhisheng By Stevi Carroll by Joyce Wolf Billy Slagle Group 22’s August action for imprisoned The Ohio executioner’s needle was robbed of its human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, our kill on August 4 when Billy Slagle hanged adopted prisoner of conscience, was a bit himself. Mr. Slagle was scheduled for execution unusual and quite enjoyable. We joined on August 9. His appeal for clemency had been Amnesty groups around the world to support denied; although, litigation in the courts continued. and encourage his family by sending birthday greetings to his son Gao Tianyu, who will be ten Mr. Slagle was sentenced to death for the 1987 years old on August 27. murder of Mari Anne Pope, his neighbor. The current prosecutor of Cuyahoga County supported clemency for Mr. Slagle as did one of the Ohio Supreme Court judges earlier in 1992. In 2006, a federal judge issued a strong dissent in the case because of prosecutorial misconduct that had infected the trial. One of parole board’s members who voted for clemency July 16, 2013, Letter-writing at Caltech August 13. Lucas, Noor, Joyce, wrote, “Slagle’s age and immaturity at the time Stevi, Laura, Ido. Not pictured: Alexi, who took the photo. of the offense significantly mitigate his sentence Robert, Kai, Wen, Sylvia and Amber arrived after the in this horrible crime. Evolving standards of photo was taken. decency as well as medical, scientific, and The action was initiated by Amnesty’s Hong sociological studies suggest that a penalty as Kong office and brought to our attention by final and irrevocable as death should not be AIUSA’s China country specialist. It was imposed upon an individual who, like Slagle, suggested that Gao Tianyu would especially like retained the capacity for significant maturation to receive cards from children. Huge thank- and change at the time he or she committed the you’s to Group 22’s kid contingent (and their crime. Slagle’s capacity for maturation and parents)! Noor, James and Lucas Romans change at the time of his offense is evidenced by his positive institutional adjustment.” worked at home and created their own colorful card with messages and a photo of themselves. Mr. Slagle was 18 years old at the time of the Sylvia and Amber and their mom Wen made murder.
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