Troy Davis faces execution in Georgia in two weeks

We will be writing letters this Friday to ask for clemency for Troy Davis. You can help! Sign the petition on Amnesty USA's website.

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/dont-let-georgia-kill-troy-davis/

Troy Davis Information

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/cases/usa-troy-davis/watch-videos-examining-the-troy-davis-case?msource=W1108EADP01&tr=y&auid=9376725

Amnesty USA has created a four-part video series explaining the background of the Troy Davis case and the need for clemency.

My Fellow American

We will be viewing and discussing this short video at our meeting today, feel free to comment here or on their website!

http://myfellowamerican.us/

Maquiladora (film screening Thursday Dec. 2 7:30 PM) What is a Maquiladora?

A maquiladora (Spanish pronunciation: [makilaˈðoɾa]) or maquila (IPA: [maˈkila]) is a concept often referred to an operation that involves manufacturing in a country that is not the client's and as such has an interesting duty or tariff treatment. It normally requires a factory, that may import materials and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then "re-exports" the assembled or manufactured product, sometimes back to the originating country. A maquila is also referred to as a "twin plant", or "in-bond" industry. The principal examples of this sort of operation occur in Latin America, but also occurs in other countries in the world, that have adequate legislation. Currently about 1.3 million Mexicans are employed in maquiladoras.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquiladora

The Maze of Injustice

A link to the full report can be found here:

Human Rights Abuse in the USA

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/all/1

Well, I guess this answers the question of whether the FBI is still illegally spying on American citizens.

This week, a California college student named Yasir Afifi found a battery-powered tracking device on his car. His friend thought it was suspicious, and posted a picture of it online. Two days later, the FBI showed up at his house to collect the device that they claimed was "expensive." As Brian Alseth from the ACLU puts it, "It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian."

Flood in Pakistan

Photo Credit: journeyfish.com

If you were at the last meeting, you will remember that we decided our first action this year will take the form of a fundraiser to aid victims of the floods in Pakistan. The human rights aspect of the Pakistani crisis is underscored in these articles from the NY Times and the BBC:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/world/asia/24pstan.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10981230

"Nearly five million people have been displaced from the worst flooding ever recorded in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands are being housed in orderly tented camps set up in army compounds, schools and other public buildings, but thousands more are living on roadsides and canal embankments, spreading out mats under the trees or making shade over the simple rope beds they brought with them.

The town of Sukkur is overflowing with displaced people. On the edge of the town, a group of 15 families with scores of children are camped along the Dadu Canal. Their mood is edgy, and they race in a horde after any vehicle that slows in the hope that it bears food or assistance. One woman showed her fractured arm, the result of a tussle for food.

“People are looting,” said Shad Mohammad, 28, a shopkeeper and father of five, who came here after his town, Ghospur, was flooded 15 days ago. “People run after trucks snatching things. People come, sometimes the government comes, or charities with food. Sometimes you get something, sometimes not.” "

The Genocide Behind Your Smart Phone

Here is an informative Newsweek article about conflict minerals (similar to blood diamonds) that have been sneaking into supply chains for major technology companies in the US. As technology users, we should be concerned about where these materials come from; it seems they often come from Congo, and sometimes the money supports militia operations.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/16/the-genocide-behind-your-smart-phone.html

Activist in Residence from Ghana - Co-hosted by the Women's and Gender Studies and African and African American Studies Programs

The Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the African and African American Studies Program present Franciska Issaka, an activist, organizer, former elected and appointed government official from Ghana next week. She is the Activist-in-Residence for this fall and also the first speaker part of Dr. Irvine’s Women and World Politics Presidential Dream Course.

She is an inspiring and interesting figure with amazing experience. You can find the event on facebook. Please feel free to email, post, distribute, and encourage everyone to attend these awesome events.

Her schedule is as follow:

September 23 2.30pm Workshop “How To Change the World” lessons learned from everyday activism in Ghana, Traditions Room OMU

September 23 7pm Public Lecture “Realizing Women’s Rights in Africa: The Interface between Cultural and Universal Rights,” Scholars Room OMU

September 25 10am Breakfast “From One Activist To Another” meet and greet Franciska Issaka, a human rights activist from Ghana, Women’s and Gender Studies Lounge PHSC 531

Groovefest Fundraiser April 21st at 10pm

Groovefest Meeting tomorrow 7pm Union Food Court

Hey everyone,

There will be a Groovefest meeting tomorrow, Thursday, April 16th at 7pm in the Union food court. We may move to a classroom if it happens to be loud in there, just text me if you come late and can't find us.

Also, for those of you over 21, don't forget we are having a fundraiser show at the Deli next Tuesday, April 21st at 10pm - JonBear Fourtet, The Whiskey Trio, and Penny Hill solo, $5 at the door, all proceeds go to paying our exorbitant bills.

For those of you who didn't get to make it to the "Peace Not Prejudice" film festival last night, you should check out the video we made, up on our new youtube channel, www.youtube.com/ouamnesty. If I have time I'll post some highlights from Rosa's speech there soon.


See you soon,
Sarah

Handprint Mural for Stop Violence Against Women Campaign

Max, Tom, and Will outside of Second Wind after the April 4th fundraiser.

Updates, Meeting this Wednesday 4/1 8:30pm

Hey Guys,

Just a reminder we'll be having a work meeting for the State Conference this Wednesday, April 1st at 8:30pm at my house (816 S. Lahoma Ave.) to put together the conference materials and chalk the sidewalks for the statewide conference. (Bring your chalk!)

"Don't Look Away" Violence Against Women Panel Discussion
We will be making a short announcement about our State Conference at the panel discussion that is this Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. It is also likely we will be allowed to have a table, so please try to make it to this event. It will be a really interesting panel and a great opportunity to let people know about our conference.

Web Updates
We've made a lot of progress on the internet! The Groovefest website is up (www.groovefest.org) and both the Amnesty and Groovefest myspace pages got a redesign (www.myspace.com/ouamnesty, www.myspace.com/normangroovefest). Also, there are new pictures up on our flickr site - go check yourselves out! www.flickr.com/ouamnesty

Publicity for State Conference
There are fliers below for both our state conference and our fundraiser concert. We will have printed copies available on Wednesday but feel free to print some out before that and post them anywhere and everywhere. Also, if you frequent any departmental buildings (i.e. political science, honors college, etc) please ask if they would be willing to send out publicity for our event to their mailing list.

Election Results
Congrats to our 2009-2010 Officers, now in training!
President - Anna Przebinda
Vice President - John Best
Treasurer - John Goetzinger, (fall) Katie Knutter
Secretary - Cacie Thomas
Fall Groovefest - Sarah Warmker, Elliot Hale
Spring Groovefest - Katie Baker
Urgent Action Coordinators - Mady Ohs, (fall) Cindy Woods

As always, call/text/email if you need anything!

Sarah

2009 Oklahoma State Conference Flier

Meeting and elections this Sunday, Lots of Updates

Hey Everyone,

Our next meeting will be this Sunday, March 29th at 7pm in the Associates Room of the Union. We will be electing new officers for the 2009-2010 school year.

Elections
New officers will take over their roles effective immediately, so that we can make sure our transition to next year is a smooth one since many of our current officers are studying abroad next year. Whoever becomes the group coordinator can also apply for my job with Amnesty as an SAC (Student Activist Corps leader) for Oklahoma. Also remember that the officer positions are flexible and ultimately the group decides how responsibilities are distributed! If you want more info about positions, email okamnestyinternational@gmail.com.

Big Event
If you signed up to do Big Event 2009 this Saturday, don't forget that tomorrow (Thursday) is the last day to register in Beaird Lounge of the Union between 9:00am and 4:00pm. Bring your student ID! If you want to fill out the forms to speed up the registration process you can print them off at bigevent.ou.edu. On the day of the event, Cassie Ketrick from OU Web Communications will be coming along to make a video for OU's official youtube channel (www.youtube.com/universityofoklahoma). Email Chris Schroeder (schro87@ou.edu) if you have any questions about Big Event!

Don't Look Away: Violence Against Women and Human Rights in Oklahoma
The Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Xenia Institute are hosting a Panel Discussion on Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm in the Sandy Bell Gallery at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. See the flier for more details.

Amnesty International Releases Report on Immigrant Rights
Amnesty International USA just released a report about detention of immigrants called "Jailed without Justice." The keynote speaker for our statewide conference, Rosa Clemente, recently became Amnesty International's campaign director for immigrant rights, and she will be talking about some of the things in this report at the conference. You can find more info on Amnesty's website here.

Statewide Conference
As you all know, we are hosting the Oklahoma Statewide Amnesty International Conference at Sarkey's Energy Center from 9am-4pm on Saturday, April 4th. The registration form is attached, please fill it out and send it back if you plan on attending, even if you are a volunteer. If you want to volunteer the day of the conference but you have not been assigned a task yet, just reply to this email - we have a few more things left to cover, especially on the day of the event.

Videos needed - Peace Not Prejudice Film Festival
The Muslim Student Association has invited us to participate in a "Peace not Prejudice" film festival. We need at least two volunteers to use handheld video cameras to film our statewide conference and interview a few people during our state conference, also so that we can send this documentation to our AIUSA field organizer, who will be unable to attend our conference because of a scheduled surgery. If the videos are good, we might be able to get them on OU's youtube channel as well. Let me know if you're interested in doing this - we have cameras you can use. If you want more info about this, email okamnestyinternational@gmail.com.

As always, call/text/email me if you have any questions.

See you soon!
Sarah

Updates and Meetings this weekend

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your work on getting information for our state conference. I know some of you have had trouble getting calls back from your contacts. Ultimately, if they don't call you back by Friday, don't worry about it, we can always go with what we already have.

In light of an city ordinance passed a few weeks ago that requires us to do a substantial amount of paperwork for Groovefest, we will have a Groovefest planning/Board meeting on Sunday, March 8th at 5:30 in the Associates Room of the Union, prior to our 7pm State Conference planning meeting in the same room. This is a lot of work so we will have food at this meeting (fruit, veggies, and pizza). Please try to make it to one if you can't stay for both.

We are making good progress following our timeline, thanks guys for all you do.

Sarah

Reminders

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to remind you all of a couple of things - we need to have those phone calls made by Wednesday at the latest. I have attached the minutes from Sunday's meeting in case you need a reminder of what you signed up for.

For contacting food vendors - when you make contact, you should send an email to okamnestyinternational@gmail.com with
1. The name of the business/group you talked to, including the individual you talked to
2. Their contact info, and
3. What they said they would/could do (or not)

Remember to let them know that we would include their name/logo in all promotional materials for the event.

Also, there will be an event tonight that you should try to make it to if you can:

A Night for the Women of the Congo
TONIGHT, Tuesday 3/3
7-9 pm
Meacham Auditorium in the Union

After the presentation, documentary, and vigil, we will also have t-shirts and handmade bags made by Congolese survivors of rape for sale. The money raised goes directly back to the women of the DRC to aid in their recovery. T-shirts are $10 and bags are $20.

Come make a difference for the Women of the Congo. Hope to see you there!

General Meeting March 1, 2009

Introduction
Meet and Greet/Sign In

Old Business

• Valentine’s Day Fundraiser - We raised $166, see photos at www.flickr.com/photos/ouamnesty
• Budget
• Vagina Monologues – tabling

Elections
Set Election Dates for next year's officers (March 29th, 7pm)

Groovefest
“Human Rights Here and Now”
Sunday, April 26th, 2009 in Andrews Park (201 W. Daws)

State Meeting
Draft Workplan & sign up for tasks

Urgent Action Network
Sign Letters for UA cases

• Weapons in Gaza
• Women in the DRC
• OPIM in Mexico

Added Items
Groovefest Vendor Prices


Close Meeting
Next meeting will be a State Conference Planning Meeting - Sunday, March 8th at 7pm, location TBA

News and Updates - lots of events this week!

Hey everyone,

There are a lot of events coming up this week that I wanted to let you know about. First off, we will be having a Groovefest planning meeting today at 2pm in the Will Rogers room of the Union (next to the food court). Our next General Meeting will be Sunday, March 1st at 7pm - location TBA.

Creating for the Women of the DRC
For this week's V-day events, the Norman Women's Collective will be putting together an installation piece in the South Oval for the women of the DRC. They are meeting today at 5pm at 783 Debarr (aka "Universe City") to work on the project. "Please bring art supplies, glitter, all kinds of paper, fabric, boxes to make into cell phones and laptops, canned food cans, and creative ideas about creating the following: Bricks of "gold", "silver", and other "metals", diamonds and gemstones, flowing water, and lumber/timber."

The Vagina Monologues
The Women's Outreach Center will be hosting the 2009 edition of the Vagina Monologues at OU. We will be tabling at the Vagina Monologues this Monday and Tuesday (February 23rd and 24th) from 6-7pm in the hallway in front of Meacham Auditorium. We still need volunteers to sit at the tables and help get the supplies from my house to the events. It would also be great if someone could help writing Urgent Action letters on this issue. "Suggested donation of $5 with personal care item for Women's Resource Center or $7 without. The Vagina Monolgues will be preceded with a performance of "Still That Girl" by Ella Rhodes. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. For more info visit www.vday.org"

Women's Studies Activist-in-Residence
This week Igballe Rogova, the Executive Director of Kosova Women's Network, will be visiting OU as the Women's Studies Activist in Residence. The Women's Studies department is hosting a series of events around her visit:
Wednesday, February 25th 7pm-9pm: "Calling the Ghosts" Film, a story about Rape, War, and Women in the Balkans. This event will be held in the Women's Studies lounge in the Physical Sciences center 530.
Thursday, February 26th 10:30am-12pm: Symposium lecture "Europe's Newest State: Women's Organizations, Democratization, & the Politics of Peace in Kosovo" OMU Scholars Room
Thursday, February 26th 2pm-3:30pm: Workshop with Rogova "From One Activist to Another: learning lessons from activism around the world" OMU Weitzenhoffer Room
Thursday, February 26th 5pm-7pm: Reception Honoring Igballe Rogova - Recognition of Igballe Rogova as the WS Activist-in-Residence 2009 OMU David L. Boren Lounge
Friday, February 27th 9am-11am: Breakfast with Rogova - a personal breakfast with an international women's rights activist. Women's Studies Lounge, Physical Sciences Center 530.

"Intelligence and Torture" Panel Discussion
The Center for Middle East Studies & International Programs will present a panel discussion, "Intelligence and Torture" with Staff Sergeant Eric Maddox, author of "Mission: Blacklist # 1" and panelists Dr. David Edger and Dr. Christopher Howard. The panel discussion is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, February 26, 2009 from 4:30pm - 5:30pm in the Gaylord College of Journalism library. "Join us in an open discussion with Staff Sergeant Maddox about his key role in the capture of Saddam Hussein and the controversy between violent and non-violent interrogation methods." The panel will be moderated by Dr. John Fishel.


Thanks guys and see you soon! As always, call/email if you have any questions

Sarah

News and Updates

Hey everybody,

We've got a lot going on so here's the latest:

Groovefest Theme and Call for Artists
We will be having a brief meeting tomorrow (Thursday February 12th) at 7pm in the Sooner Room of the Union to vote on the theme for Groovefest and finalize our call for artists so that we can start publicizing that this weekend and get those fliers out ASAP.

COSO (Council of Student Organizations) Meeting
Anyone interested in taking on a leadership role in Amnesty next year should try to attend the COSO meeting tomorrow from 5-7pm in the Associates and Regents Room of the Union. It is mandatory for student organizations who want funding from UOSA (which is our main source of funds!). They will be talking about the budget process for getting funding from the school, among other important logistical things.

Valentine's Day Fundraiser
Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help with this fundraiser, it looks like it's going to be great! We will start setting up at 11am so if you want to be part of the set up crew show up then and I might even make you breakfast. Anyone bringing things to sell should try to arrive between 1 and 1:30 so we can have all the tables set up by 2. If anyone has extra folding tables or tablecloths and could lend them for the day, we could use a few more. We have some craft supplies for DIY valentines but if anyone has extra glue/paint/paper etc and would like to donate we could use more of that as well.

High School Visits
We got a last minute invitation to give a presentation at Norman High School today. Will and I talked to a group of about 25 students about Amnesty and invited them to come to our events and start a chapter of their own if they're interested. A couple of students from the Young Democrats and Global Awareness clubs asked if we would be willing to also give presentations to their groups, which usually meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If anyone is interesed in coordinating these visits let me know.

As always, email/call/text me if you have any questions.

Sarah