Hi to my readers!
This month may see sporadic or fewer posts due to the fact that we're moving, and I think everyone knows what that is like! :-)
Jennifer
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Mummification Museum Lectures restart
Hurrah
Just talked to Mansour Boraik and the lectures start next Saturday at 7pm. The first speaker will be Donald Ryan. These lectures are free, everyone is welcome and they are held at the Mummification Museum
Just talked to Mansour Boraik and the lectures start next Saturday at 7pm. The first speaker will be Donald Ryan. These lectures are free, everyone is welcome and they are held at the Mummification Museum
Luxor Corniche Development and Chicago House
Talking to Ray Johnson it would appear that the volume of protest has made people think a bit more about the proposal. NOT change their mind as yet so please keep up the momentum it does seem to be making a difference.
Here is the email again
Here is the email again
It has come to our attention that a new development program is about to be launched in Luxor by the Government of Egypt that focuses on the east bank Corniche Boulevard. The goal is to double the width of the Corniche to alleviate traffic congestion, create a pedestrian walkway along the Nile, and establish a four-kilometer touristic zone along the riverfront between Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple. If the current plan is implemented this zone will be at the expense of most of the buildings presently along the Corniche boulevard, most of which will be demolished or cut back to accommodate the widened street. Exceptions are the Luxor Museum, which will only lose its front parking area, and the University of Chicago's headquarters in Luxor, Chicago House, which will remain where it is, but will lose its entire front garden area to the new street.
It is hoped that the Luxor City authorities will reject this unecessarily extreme plan for a less radical approach that is also being discussed.
Building the riverbank outward would allow room for a widened Corniche but still preserve the buildings and gardens presently along the Nile that give Luxor so much of its charm and character.
Slated for removal are several older gardens: one part of a military club, one in front of a mosque, and another in the front of a Coptic Catholic rest house. The historic Chicago House garden in particular would be a terrible loss. Over 75 years old, its 24-meter palm trees and dozens of trees and flowering bushes were donated as cuttings from the botanical gardens of Cairo and Aswan in the 1930s, and are unique in Luxor. Two rows of royal palms along the front walk imitate the 14 open papyrus columns of the great Colonnade Hall of Luxor Temple, and symbolize the archaeological preservation work this institution has accomplished in partnership with Egypt for over 84 years.
It may not be too late. Comments in support of a less radical plan for the Luxor Corniche can be sent to the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif:
questions@cabinet.gov.eg
Death row survivors call for moratorium
AUSTIN—A group of death row survivors called on the Texas Legislature on Friday to halt executions in the nation's most active death penalty state and establish an innocence commission to free other wrongfully convicted inmates.
"There have been some innocent people that have been executed right here in Texas," said Clarence Brandley, who spent nine years on death row in Texas before being exonerated in the murder of a Conroe teenager. "But the politicians are not going to say that."
Brandley was joined at the state capitol by 19 other men who had been released from death row in various states. They want the Texas Legislature to declare a death penalty moratorium while experts examine how capital punishment is carried out in the state.
Former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap said Texas, which has executed 419 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty, has the "most efficient death machine in the free world."
Millsap, who once supported capital punishment but now believes he probably sent an innocent man to the death chamber, said he joined the opposition movement because he lost faith in the justice system.
"I oppose the death penalty for entirely practical reasons," he said. "Based on my personal experience, I'm not longer confident that our criminal justice system can keep the promise we made to ourselves."
Millsap has expressed doubts about the guilt of Ruben Cantu, convicted of a 1984 murder in San Antonio.
Millsap said he prosecuted Cantu based on the account of a single eyewitness. Cantu was executed in 1993, but Millsap said he now believes he was "probably innocent."
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, is pushing legislation that would allow Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, to impose a death penalty ban. Naishtat also wants to establish an innocence commission to free the wrongly convicted.
Perry has said previously that there are enough safeguards in the Texas justice system and has expressed opposition to a moratorium on the death penalty.
Source : Associated Press (El Paso Times), 10/31/2008
"There have been some innocent people that have been executed right here in Texas," said Clarence Brandley, who spent nine years on death row in Texas before being exonerated in the murder of a Conroe teenager. "But the politicians are not going to say that."
Brandley was joined at the state capitol by 19 other men who had been released from death row in various states. They want the Texas Legislature to declare a death penalty moratorium while experts examine how capital punishment is carried out in the state.
Former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap said Texas, which has executed 419 people since the reinstatement of the death penalty, has the "most efficient death machine in the free world."
Millsap, who once supported capital punishment but now believes he probably sent an innocent man to the death chamber, said he joined the opposition movement because he lost faith in the justice system.
"I oppose the death penalty for entirely practical reasons," he said. "Based on my personal experience, I'm not longer confident that our criminal justice system can keep the promise we made to ourselves."
Millsap has expressed doubts about the guilt of Ruben Cantu, convicted of a 1984 murder in San Antonio.
Millsap said he prosecuted Cantu based on the account of a single eyewitness. Cantu was executed in 1993, but Millsap said he now believes he was "probably innocent."
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, is pushing legislation that would allow Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, to impose a death penalty ban. Naishtat also wants to establish an innocence commission to free the wrongly convicted.
Perry has said previously that there are enough safeguards in the Texas justice system and has expressed opposition to a moratorium on the death penalty.
Source : Associated Press (El Paso Times), 10/31/2008
Australians warned about their reaction to Indonesian executions
An Australian expert in Asian law says the way in which Australians react to the execution of the Bali bombers will have implications for three Australian men on death row in Indonesia.
The Director of the Asian Law Centre at Melbourne University Tim Lindsay says people must keep in mind that three members of the Bali Nine are also awaiting execution.
He says, "Whatever is said now in Australia about these events will apply also to the Bali 9 - Scott rush, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who also face the same fate."
"Whatever is said in Australia that endorses these fairly horrendous events will be thrown straight back in the faces of these young Australians."
Source: Radio Australia
The Director of the Asian Law Centre at Melbourne University Tim Lindsay says people must keep in mind that three members of the Bali Nine are also awaiting execution.
He says, "Whatever is said now in Australia about these events will apply also to the Bali 9 - Scott rush, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who also face the same fate."
"Whatever is said in Australia that endorses these fairly horrendous events will be thrown straight back in the faces of these young Australians."
Source: Radio Australia
Complete video of Witness to Innocence's press conference at the Texas Capitol
On Friday [November 31, 2008], 24 exonerated ex-death row prisoners from across the country held a news conference to call for the establishment of a statewide commission on wrongful convictions while a moratorium is imposed on executions in Texas.
They spent a combined total of nearly 200 years on death row for crimes they did not commit.
They were joined by State Rep. Elliott Naishtat and former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap. Naishtat (D-Austin) is a longtime supporter of a moratorium on executions, while Millsap has become an outspoken critic of the death penalty since the 1993 execution of Ruben Cantu, who many believe was innocent.
Both KUT and Statesman covered the event.
They spent a combined total of nearly 200 years on death row for crimes they did not commit.
They were joined by State Rep. Elliott Naishtat and former Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap. Naishtat (D-Austin) is a longtime supporter of a moratorium on executions, while Millsap has become an outspoken critic of the death penalty since the 1993 execution of Ruben Cantu, who many believe was innocent.
Both KUT and Statesman covered the event.
Source: Texas Death Penalty Blog
* Also read on this blog: Death Row Survivors Call for Moratorium
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