Saturday, April 30, 2016
VIOLET VAN DER ELST (4 JANUARY 1882 TO 30 APRIL 1966)
50 years ago on this
date, 30 April 1966, a British Anti-Death Penalty Activist passed away with a
reduced fortune.
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Violet Van der Elst
(4 January 1882 Feltham - 30 April 1966
Ticehurst)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.granthammatters.co.uk/van-der-elst-violet/]
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INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Van_der_Elst
Violet Van der Elst (4
January 1882 Feltham
- 30 April 1966 Ticehurst) is best remembered for her activities against
the death penalty. She was born Violet Anne Dodge, the daughter of a coal porter
and a washerwoman, she herself worked as a scullery maid. At age 17, she
married Henry Arthur Nathan, a civil engineer 13 years her senior. She
developed cosmetics including Shavex, the first brush-less shaving
cream and became a successful businesswoman. After her first husband died
on 15 November 1927, she married Jean Julien Romain Van der Elst, a Belgian who
had been working for her as a manager but was also a painter.
Having amassed a huge
personal fortune she purchased Harlaxton
Manor, in Lincolnshire, England.
She gained publicity
from her vocal campaigns against capital punishment, and stood three times, unsuccessfully,
as a candidate to be an M.P.. She fought Putney at the 1935 General
Election as an Independent, coming third. She fought Hornchurch at the 1945
General election as an Independent, coming fourth.
She wrote the book On
the Gallows in 1937 as part of her efforts to eradicate the death penalty.
In the same year she published a collection of 13 ghost stories, The Torture
Chamber and Other Stories.
Her campaigning, her
behaviour, and unsuccessful political career reduced her fortune, forcing her
to sell her house and move to a flat in Knightsbridge,
London, in
1959.
Largely forgotten,
she died in a nursing home, her wealth reduced to some ₤ 15,000, having seen
the abolition of capital punishment for murder in Britain the previous year.
In the 2005 film Pierrepoint, she is played by Ann Bell.
Friday, April 29, 2016
CHANNON CHRISTIAN (APRIL 29, 1985 TO JANUARY 7, 2007)
"So long as we live, they too shall live and love for they are a part of us as we remember them."- Gates of Prayer
Every year on April 29, we, the comrades of Unit 1012, will wish Channon
Christian a Happy birthday. We remember how you live and not how you die.
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Channon Christian
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We will post a video of
a victim impact statement from her mother, Deena Christian.
Deena
Christian's victim impact statement
Uploaded on May 12, 2010
Deena Christian's victim impact statement in the trial of Vanessa
Coleman.
VIDEO
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZH3f1ot6Cg
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS MERKEL! WELL DONE, WIDODO!
Let us give our thoughts about this meeting between German Chancellor,
Angela Merkel and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
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German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, right, and the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, left, address
the media during a joint news conference as part of a meeting at the
chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
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INTERNET
SOURCE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/indonesian-president-defends-death-penalty-drug-crimes-153110001.html
Indonesian president defends death penalty for drug crimes
April 18,
2016
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German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, right, and the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, left, address
the media during a joint news conference as part of a meeting at the
chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
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BERLIN (AP) — Indonesia's president is
defending his country's use of the death penalty for drug offenses, arguing
that drug abuse constitutes an emergency.
Indonesia has extremely
strict drug laws and more than 130 people on death row, mostly for drug crimes.
Authorities recently said Indonesia is preparing to execute more foreigners
convicted of drug offenses. Executions last year caused an international
outcry.
President Joko
"Jokowi" Widodo said Monday that "Indonesia currently has an
emergency, above all in drug abuse." He said 30-50 people a day die in
Indonesia because of drugs.
Jokowi said through an
interpreter: "Implementation of the death penalty
is carried out very cautiously."
He spoke after meeting
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who underlined Germany's opposition to capital
punishment and its wish for Indonesia "not to implement it if
possible."
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A member of the security wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, an Islamic
organisation, carries a placard that says “drug offenders = death,” during a
small rally outside the ferry port to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where
a group of drug offenders are due to be executed, in Cilacap, Central Java, on
March 12.
Darren Whiteside/Reuters
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Hundreds of students and other protesters carried signs that read
slogans including 'Go to hell Abbott with your druggies' and 'Abbott love
druggies, we hate druggies!' during the demonstration in Indonesia's capital
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OUR THOUGHTS:
Joko Widodo was one of the awardees of
the Rayner
Goddard Act of Courage Award, he defended the use of the death penalty.
We, the comrades of Unit 1012, advise the Head of States to learn from Widodo
on how he defended the use of capital punishment.
We feel that people like Angela
Merkel needs to go back home and take care of her own criminals in her backyard
and the migrant crisis before lecturing others.
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One campaigner held up a sign
which read: 'We Love Indonesia. Save Indonesia Generation. Go to Hell
Criminal Drugs!'
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