Isak

Twenty Years Ago Today

... The first hole was broken in the Berlin Wall, cutting through a city and a continent that had been too long divided into "East" and "West." The Wall was one of the twentieth century's most destructive metaphors.

Today, the site of the Brandenburg Gate is a beautiful  pedestrian plaza marked by large openings ... inviting people to pass through. Fascinating comparison photos can be found here. For an overview of how the Berlin Wall came to be--with amazing, heartrending footage of how it affected Germans in the days soon after it was built--look to this excerpt from a BBC/CNN documentary on the Cold War:

Chris Abani: On Stories and Narrative

Making my way through TED's incredible collection of ideas is like sinking both my hands into a treasure chest, gold and jewels spilling between my fingers. The latest discovery? Chris Abani, a novelist and poet who has been imprisoned three times in his native Nigeria (he now lives in L.A., writes books, teaches, and runs Black Goat Press). Speaking to TED in 2007, Abani speaks about how language isn't a "mirror" of the world in which we live; language is the material creator of the world. "Everything, all of this, is story," Abani says. "And it's important to know that, or we become ... ahistorical."

It is a personal, sincere, and often quite a funny talk.

 

Acts of Art

Below is the trailer for a half-hour documentary made about the Prison Creative Arts Project, which I've been fortunate enough to be associated with for ten years now. The film, "Acts of Art: The Prison Creative Arts Project," is by Katherine Weider and was broadcast on PBS stations. While it features the visual arts aspects of the project, it also embraces theater and writing. Weider, I understand, is now working on a follow-up film.

Quick Hit: A Book in Solitary

R. Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom, writes in The Washington Post about being in solitary confinement in a Virginia prison when a stranger slipped a book under his door.

Following Up: Birthing in Chains

 

I wrote an article last month, shared here on Isak, about the shackling of pregnant women in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers. We're talking about shackling that even happens during labor and delivery, people. There is no snuffling around the issue: it is a plainly brutal practice with very little to justify it.

Well, I'm pleased to follow up on that sordid fact with wonderful news. Gov. Paterson of New York appeared last week at a demonstration outside of his Manhattan office. He pledged to sign the legislation now before him that would ban the use of shackles on pregnant inmates during labor and after delivery. This is huge: New York looks to become only the fifth state in the U.S. to make shackling wholly illegal, joining Illinois, California, Vermont, and New Mexico.

Cheers and thanks to the many, many people who have been following this campaign, supporting it, moving it forward, and winning it, many of whom were kind enough to share their stories with me. I am awed.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, Reporting

In celebration of the fact that journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling are finally on their way to Los Angeles via former President Clinton's private plane, it seems worth taking a look at the international reporting they did for Current TV before the North Korea debacle.

It turns out that there are no videos featuring Lee's work; she was on her first assignment in March when she was arrested. Ling, however, has been reporting for awhile. Frankly, I love her stuff.  She brings such candor to her explorations of the world, and a willingness to look hard at everything that comes before her. She inspires me as a journalist.

Give your attention to one of Ling's special reports, "Narco War Next Door." It was recorded one month before she was incarcerated in North Korea--the last piece she submitted.

I was also intrigued by her feature on Las Vegas. For lighter (and briefer) fare, I was charmed by Ling's piece on an Amazon tribe.

UPDATE: This video of Ling and Lee at the beginning of their long journey home made me tear up. Honor your (honest, on-the-ground) journalists, people!

BREAKING NEWS: Journalists Freed!

It looks like today's negotiations went well: the major media outlets are reporting that journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been pardoned and will be coming home!

From The New York Times:

According to Reuters, North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA, reports that Kim Jong-il, the country’s leader, has granted the two American journalists a “special pardon,” on Tuesday, which releases them from detention, following a meeting with former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang on Tuesday.

From BBC News:

"Kim Jong-il issued an order... granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labour," the official North Korean News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement.

Thank you to all of you who followed the plight of these journalists, who signed petitions, attended vigils, and generally did what you could to agitate for their release by making sure that they weren't forgotten.

More updates forthcoming, as the good news continues to break.

UPDATE #1: On Twitter, @LiberateLaura notes that, "August 5, 2009 is local time-date of Ling-Lee's announced pardon. Same date Nelson Mandela began 28-year prison sentence in 1962."

UPDATE #2: MSNBC reports that Clinton's visit to North Korea to negotiate the release of Lee and Ling was "only the second visit to Pyongyang by a former U.S. leader. Jimmy Carter traveled to North Korea for talks with Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994 in a groundbreaking meeting during a time of similar tensions."

Only the second visit ever, people. My god.  Actually, the key word there was "former U.S. leader." Madeleine Albright, as Secretary of State, met with Kim Jong Il in October, 2000. Until today, she was the last American official to meet with Kim.

UPDATE #3: There won't be any delays: Ling and Lee will leave North Korea on Clinton's private plane.

UPDATE #4: The families of the journalists have released a statement, which reads, in part, "We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms."

Bill Clinton Meets With Kim Jong Il to Advocate for Reporters' Release

As has been widely reported, former President Bill Clinton is trying to use his influence for the freedom of Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. While North Korea was in the midst of experimenting with nuclear weapons, the pair of journalists were sentenced to twelve years of hard labor, ostensibly for sneaking into North Korea and engaging in "hostile acts."

Clinton, whose visit was kept quiet, met with Kim Jon Il earlier. According to the Associated Press:

The Korean Central News Agency reported late Tuesday that Clinton and Kim met in Pyongyang and that Clinton "courteously" conveyed a verbal message from President Barack Obama.

The report says Kim expressed his thanks, and that the two shared a "wide-ranging exchange of views" during their talk.

And that's about as detailed as we're getting, folks. The White House, too, isn't releasing any statement on Clinton's visit, as it's considered a solely private mission.

I want Clinton to succeed.

Marjane Satrapi:"I Must Go Home to Iran Again"

As the news out of Iran spirals horrifically, graphic novelist and film director Marjane Satrapi continues to use her talents as a storyteller to reveal what's true and beautiful--this time in an op-ed headlined "I Must Go Home to Iran Again."

Today I read somewhere that “the velvet revolution” of Iran became the “velvet coup,” with a little note of irony, but let me tell you something: This generation, with its hopes, dreams, anger and revolt, has forever changed the course of history. Nothing is going to be the same.

From now on, nobody will judge Iranians by their so-called elected president.

From now on, Iranians are fearless. They have regained their self-confidence. ...

... And I’m convinced this is just the beginning.

From now on, I will always say: Once you leave your homeland, you can live anywhere. But I refuse to only die in Iran. I will one day live in Iran...or else my life will have had no meaning.

Satrapi, you recall, partnered with filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf in presenting a document to Green Party MPS in the European Parliament that they contended was proof that Mir Hossein Mousavi won the most votes in the Iranian presidential election.

Birthing Chains

My new article is out with RH Reality Check. As I talked to people about the shackling of pregnant women in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers, as I researched and caught up with amazing recent news, my jaw was permanently dropped.

From my article:

Shackling usually happens when pregnant women are transported from one facility to another-when a woman is transferred to a new prison, for example, or when she's taken to a hospital for medical care. Reynolds herself was shackled around the waist during labor. She knows others who were subjected to a black box placed between their wrist and belly, which keeps the arms in front and facedown. Shackling also happens around ankles in transport vans and in wheelchairs, while breastfeeding, and while in neonatal nurseries, Reynolds said.

To date, 46 states have no legislation that restricts the shackling of pregnant women in prisons, jails, and detention centers, leaving the practice to the discretion of individual facilities. Illinois, California, Vermont, and New Mexico prohibit it entirely, though, as the Cook County case reveals, implementation of anti-shackling policy can be patchy.

Non-federal facilities are exempt from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons policy that, in October 2008, barred the shackling of pregnant women, "except in the most extreme circumstances." This policy is in alignment with the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. ratified.

This is a particularly timely issue. Right now, Texas and New York are waiting for word from their governors on legislative bills that bar shackling. There are newly-filed lawsuits against the Cook County (Chicago) jail and Washington state from former inmates that charge for harm done while being shackled while pregnant and birthing; Cook County's case is particularly egregious because it's in one of the few states that restricts shackling. And we are awaiting word on the hearing on the shackling case of a woman in Arkansas before the 8th Circuit Court.

UPDATE: Hey New Yorkers! Your state is on the verge of being the fifth to ban shackling, thanks to a bill with nearly-unanimous legislative support. This Thursday, there's a rally to urge Governor Paterson to sign it into law. Go, learn, speak up, and then tell me all about how it went!