20% goes a long way…
When I dine out, I typically leave a 20% tip. I’ve got a lot of friends in the service industry.
Starting today through Sunday, March 29th if you and your friends dine at Fajitas and ‘Ritas at 25 West Street in Boston (near Downtown Crossing; map) and bring along this brochure, 20% of your tab will be donated to Amnesty 133 and Get on the Bus.
Get on the Bus for Human Rights (GOTB) is an annual day of human rights activism and education organized by Group 133 of Somerville, MA and a small team of volunteer community organizers. Now in its fourteenth year, GOTB brings together upwards of 1,200 students and activists from throughout the Northeast to New York City to take peaceful action in support of human rights. GOTB embodies a keystone of Amnesty International’s (AI) mission to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave human rights abuses.
To me, GOTB represents the spirit of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) grassroots activism; it’s the largest volunteer-run AI event in the country. The event also fosters a great sense of civic engagement among its mainly high school and college-aged participants.
GOTB participants gather on the third Friday of each April to learn from a speakers panel comprised of experts, survivors, and people immediately impacted by human rights violations. Following the panel and letter writing activities, participants rally outside embassies, consulates, corporate headquarters and other locations related to the issues discussed in the panel, while a small delegation typically meets with diplomatic representatives.
You can find out about us and this year’s campaigns on http://www.gotb.org or follow our progress on the GOTB blog. Wanna experience GOTB yourself? Register and join us on the bus April 17th!
So come on down to Fajitas & ‘Ritas this week. What better way to celebrate a night out?! Good food, good friends, and guaranteeing a 20% tip to some dedicated volunteers.
Why we do what we do.
Yesterday the Tibetan Government in Exile released new disturbing video footage of Tibetans being tortured by the Chinese government.
View the footage here.
There were reports of torture following last year’s mostly peaceful protests in Tibet one year ago. However, this is appalling video record of it. Of course many things happen that are this bad or worse and they are never recorded and sometimes not even known.
I had the privilege to meet with Phuntsok Nyidron a few years ago. She is a Tibetan nun who was imprisoned under truly brutal conditions almost all of her life from age 14 to age 30. We spoke to her and told her of many of efforts that had been made to try and secure her release. She said in all seriousness, “Hearing stories about what people do for the Tibetan people makes my entire imprisonment worth it.”
I don’t know if many of us can even imagine what some horrible hours of her imprisonment were like, never mind over ten years, or what this poor young man in the video experienced for just trying to stop a monk from being beaten.
He was brutally beaten and tortured, and died at the hand of the Chinese government. HIs "crime" was just trying to stop the beating of a Tibetan monk.
As busy as any of us are, compared to this we have to find the time to write a letter, join a protest, or even send twenty bucks to some human rights organization working on it. Check out the Get on the Bus website for some things we all can do.
Fathi El Jahmi is what Amnesty International calls a “Prisoner of Conscience.” The original definition being “anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, color, language, sexual orientation, belief, or lifestyle so long as they have not used or advocated violence.”
Fathi El Jahmi, imprisoned in Libya for his peaceful political beliefs
Fathi’s is one of many cases we have worked on over the years, that have included individuals in Tibet, Chile, Turkey and the United States just to name a few countries. These cases help to personalize the work and to remind us that our efforts to stop systemic human rights violations involve real live human beings who are fundamentally just like us.
I have not met Fathi El Jahmi but I have met his brother who is a wonderful man and who derives great hope from Amnesty’s efforts.
We uses all kinds of methods to work on freeing prisoners, including public demonstrations, the traditional letter writing to government officials, and really anything that we can come up with. A new method is to create a cause on Facebook and one of our group members took the initiative to do so this week. Join Fathi’s Facebook Cause.
You can find out the latest news on Fathi’s health, his cases, and how you can take action on his behalf by subscribing to AIUSA’s Northeast Special Focus Case yahoo group.
Protect Journalists in Sri Lanka
Amnesty Group 133 members had a demonstration on March 6 in Davis Square in Somerville as part of a global vigil for the detained Sri Lankan journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam.
Journalist JS Tissainayagam who has been imprisoned without a charge
He has been detained now for a full year. There were demonstrations around the world and our local chapter, with help from the Boston Firefly Project (Group #709), did our part as well. The biggest demonstrations were in London and can be read about on the BBC news.
JS Tissainayagam has been held without trial. The Sri Lankan government’s treatment of journalist has been heinous. Recently one of the top journalists in Sri Lanka Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered in cold blood, presumably by the government.
These abuses are the equivalent of the US Government arresting Tom Brokaw without cause and murdering Morley Safer. Join us for calling for the release of J.S. Tissainayagam. Take action now at AIUSA’s website.
Amnesty 133 Members Demonstrating Support for Protection of Journalists in Sri Lanka
Tibet 50 Years Later: Presentation and Discussion about Human Rights in Tibet on the Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising
Please join us this week for the March meeting of Amnesty International Local Group 133, featuring a screening of the 2008 Tibetan documentary, Leaving Fear Behind.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Amnesty International Northeast Regional Office
58 Day Street, Suite 409
Somerville, MA 02144 (Two blocks away from the Davis Square stop on the Red Line)
As part of our March meeting, Group 133 Co-Coordinator Rick Roth will help us understand the current state of human rights in Tibet. We will watch Leaving Fear Behind, the documentary at the center of Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen’s arrest. Wangchen has been held by Chinese authorities since last March. His case will be highlighted at Group 133’s upcoming Get on the Bus for Human Rights event (www.gotb.org), where we will call on China to unconditionally release Dhondup Wangchen. (For more information about the film, please go to www.leavingfearbehind.com.)
The first half-hour of the meeting will be dedicated to letter writing on urgent human rights issues.
We hope to see you there!
Human Rights Now!
Local Amnesty chapter 133 members with Grace Akallo (center)
Human Rights Now! Amnesty 133 is a local chapter of Amnesty International based in Somerville, Massachusetts which started in 1975 in Arlington, MA.
We are just regular folks (all volunteers) trying to make a difference in the world. It sounds corny, but that is what we do. We are going to post on things past, present and future. We do what we can when we can.
We have done everything from staging a Human Rights Festival in Boston that had 5,000 people in attendance to setting up information tables with a couple of volunteers. To the right is a photo of Anna, Grace and me.
Anna (on the left) is our Get on the Bus Coordinator this year (www.gotb.org) which is an amazing day of action on April 17 which you are all invited to join in on. Last year we had about 1,500 activist go to NYC and stage protests and attend a speaker’s panel. Please join us!
Grace Akallo (www.gracegirlsoldier.com) is in the center. Grace Akallo graduated from Gordon College near Boston, Mass. She was abducted by Ugandan rebels at the age of 15 and is now serving as a spokesperson and activist for peace in northern Uganda.
October 9, 1996, Ugandan rebels called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacked St. Mary’s College, a girls’ boarding school in Aboke Town in northern Uganda, abducting 139 girls, including Akallo. The school’s deputy headmistress, Sister Rachelle Fassera, followed the rebels into the bush and pleaded for her students’ release. The rebels released 109 of the girls back to her, but kept Akallo and 29 others.
Akallo and her schoolmates were marched into southern Sudan, where the LRA was based. The rebels gave her a gun and taught her how to assemble, disassemble and clean it. They told her when she got hungry enough, she’d learn how to shoot it.
Akallo was abused and forced to commit atrocities against civilians and her own fellow captives. She witnessed the fate of two children who had tried, unsuccessfully, to escape. They were brutally murdered in front of her.
Seven months later, Akallo found herself caught in the crossfire of a battle. Literally dodging bullets, she fled. Eventually, she found a small group of children who also escaped. They walked three days, living on soil and leaves before they found a group of villagers who cared for them and helped them return to northern Uganda.
Akallo finished her secondary education at St. Mary’s. She later transferred from Uganda Christian University in Kampala to Gordon College near Boston graduating in May 2007
Grace is the kind of person we work with, in this case to stop the enlistment of child solidiers.
We meet the second Tuesday of every month at 58 Day Street in Davis Square, Somerville at 7PM. You can write to me if you are interested at rick@amnesty133.org, We welcome hardcore activist, the curious, and the occasional volunteer, all are welcome.
