Hello Ladies and gentlemen,

We have had a fantastic year so far, and we have an amazing total raised of almost £2,500. We must however not let oursleves get complacent there is everything to play for. I think that we should aim not only to win, but to blow the competition out of the water……….(in a non-aggresive Amnesty approved way of course)

So here we go, this is for us all to post our event ideas and disuss them over the christmas holidays. Watch this space as I will be kicking it off with four….yes four event ideas.

Happy blogging, can’t wait to hear about your exciting event ideas!

Bake sale

Pub quiz

Abseil

Pool competition

Wine tasting

Bag packing

Carol singing

Selling hot drinks/toast after cheesy – barbecue?

Car boot sale

Film nights

Public letter writing/ christmas card event

‘Duck race’ – orange ducks? Guantanaducks? Child soldier ducks?

‘Friends of Amnesty’

Sponsored silence

Sorry for the lateness guys, but discuss!

Maybe I missed out on this article first time around (I put it down to being 14 at the time). However it’s now gone long enough to not look unobservant, and instead be producing a ‘modern classic’ for you to read.

As it’s about free speech and censorship it’s particulary relevant to what we’re doing right now, as long as you ignore that bit in their about David Blunkett.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200411080014

Send a mothers day card, care of Amnesty to the Tiananmen Mothers for mothers day on the 11th May:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/china/mothers.asp

 

If you haven’t already see this!

In our meeting on 6th May we had a guest speaker from LGBT Youth Scotland who informed us of an upcoming event on High street in Edinburgh called IDAHO. This event hope to campaign for LGBT human rights to be acknowldeged worldwide. This seems like a very exciting event, and if you can make it please go along and show your support for this cause. Amnesty International works to ensure the protection of all human rights, and we should gather together to help those who have experienced persecution for their sexual orientation. This event also links in with Amnesty’s policies on refugees, which was one of our biggest campaigns over the last couple of months. Many people have experienced problems attaining asylum in the U.K. and face being deported back to their own countries where they will surely be persecuted for their sexual oreintation. This event hopes to highlight these such issues on a Global scale, allowing everyone worldwide to stand together against persecution and stand for LGBT human rights.

This event will be host to lots of interesting speakers who work in the area of protecting and upholding the rights of the LGBT community, and will consist of activist workshops to help us devise interesting and innovative campaign methods to support this cause.

For more information visit- www.idahoscotland.org.uk

Behind the jump as ever.
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I would like to pose some questions; How much do you know? How much do you need to know? How much should we show you? These questions have risen from recent pictures we have been sent depicting the terrible outbursts of violence occurring in Tibet at this time. However from an activist point of view this issue is bigger than these pictures, it concerns every type of campaign we could embark on! The question is should we go all out and show the blood, guts and gore being shed across the world in the various acts of human rights abuses; or should we hand you a petition with a small amount of information for you to read? Should we give you pictures of various forms of torture being carried out worldwide, or should we merely allude to it in our publications and such? Can we embark on protests that actively depict acts of violence or should we merely suggest to you what type of suffering is occurring.

The issue is to what extent we can be explicit with what is happening to innocent people across the world. It has also been highlighted in the recent videos uploaded by Amnesty themselves. These videos though they are cleverly filmed still depict very explicit scenes of violence. Is this the form our activism should take? Some would argue that it is our duty to show the truth about the violence occurring world wide, and to ensure people across the globe understand the intensity of this violence. In this respect we then should be obliged to show the pictures we have received to our whole student body. By doing this we can highlight the full and truthful extent of the violent and murderous tactics being used by members of the Chinese Government and army against these innocent protesters.

However there is a counter argument that people do not need, and do not want to see such scenes of violence taking place. After all everyone has the human right not to witness violent and disturbing scenes, therefore we do not have the right to show such images to people who do not want to see them. The counter argument to that of course is that seeing such images is very different from witnessing them first hand. Allowing people to See such images can help individuals who are not confronted daily with such horror, to understand and acknowledge the damage occurring in their lifetime.

How explicit should we be in our campaigns? How much information and detail should we incorporate into our activism? If we show these horrific scenes of violence are we being Gruesome or Truth-some?