4 May 2004
Meeting
of Local Group #642
Amnesty International
Pizza Luce at
6:30 PM
PRESENT:
Richelle Caya, Nick Netland, Bret Thiele, Mayra
Gomez, Warren Howe, Leah Ovando, Diane Tran, Angel Cisneros, Katrina Karnes,
Laura Birnbaum, and Hal Bertilson.
AL-HUMSI MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL:
The
meeting with the Duluth City Council has been delayed.
Auburn Powell will notify us of a new date.
REPORT BY DIANE TRAN ON HER HUMAN RIGHTS
MISSION
TO
HAITI
. Diane Tran
(St. Scholastica) went to
Haiti
January 4-11 as part of a global justice foreign policy delegation and
global AIDS campaign. The purpose
was to lobby Congress to allocate
money to make it easier to get necessary drugs.
Diane reviewed the history of
Haiti
. The
U. S.
created a military dictatorship in
Haiti
. In 2001 the
U. S.
declared their election to be fraudulent.
The
U. S.
had
Interamerican development bank loans put on hold which forced
Haiti
to use one-half
of their greatly needed national reserves to pay off the bank. The
U. S.
gives money to
four major NGOs, but no money to the government. The standard of living for
Haitians is very poor. Their homes
have tin roofs. Air was really
dirty. It takes 25-30 minutes to
boil water so it is safe.
The
delegation met with a lot of individuals and organizations including a
liberation theology priest, Catholic relief group, Favillek (a women’s
organization for women who had been harmed), a microcredit organization, and the
first lady of
Haiti
. They met with a
farmer and a cultural anthropologist and physician.
The physician was a member of Partners in Health and had been in
Haiti
for 20 years
providing service in the central plateau. They
visited a health clinic. The next
stop was the
U. S.
embassy.
It was in a “lock down.” They
heard much different things from embassy staff than they heard in their earlier
conversations and tours. Their
driver, Alex, said “why doesn’t the
U. S.
drop a bomb on
us instead of killing us slowly.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Kerry house party was scheduled for May 22.
The local chapter conducted tabling at the Free Democracy Summit at the
Harbor
City
School
.
Last week we tabled at the Take Back the Night rally and signed up 15 new
people.
STOP
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CAMPAIGN:
Air fare
from the Twin Cities is needed to bring Bill Schulz to
Duluth
as the keynote
speaker. The Twin Cities Amnesty
groups will be able to fund his travel to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Hal Bertilson will see if the
First
Unitarian
Church
can help with
the fund raising. Bill Schulz will
likely be in
Minneapolis
on October 9.
Possible dates for Bill Schulz’ visit may be October 8 or October 10.
The local group could do a three-day human rights event with Bill doing
the keynote. Mayra could get films
for the event. Women’s Rights
organizations are interested in working with us locally.
Hal will contact Frank Jewell to see if Men as Peace Makers may be
interested in helping with the event. Dave
Stamps might be able to get Mitchell Auditorium for the event?
Our group is starting to grow and we may wish to consider division of
labor. The Stop Violence Against
Women Campaign has been extended to six years.
WEB PAGES OF THE
“NORTHLAND CHAPTER” DULUTH-SUPERIOR LOCAL GROUP #642.
Go to http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/usa/group642/
to see the excellent web pages for Local Group #642,
Our history, our actions, our meeting schedule, current actions and links
to Amnesty International-USA web pages are available at this url.
ADJOURNED.