Lexi Finnigan2013-06-19T15:06:55-04:00Lexi Finniganhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=lexi-finniganCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Lexi FinniganGood old fashioned elbow grease.Cleared for Release but Denied Freedom - Shaker Aamer and Guantanamo Baytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.31484402013-04-25T19:00:00-04:002013-04-25T12:42:41-04:00Lexi Finniganhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/lexi-finnigan/"Somebody must have made a false accusation against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong."
So opens Franz Kafka's masterpiece The Trial. From this first sentence onwards, Josef K. is prosecuted by a remote and inaccessible government who will not reveal the nature of his crime. What ensues is a nightmare tale of frustration, anxiety and loneliness.
Shaker Aamer, a 46-year-old Saudi national and permanent resident of the UK has been held by the US government in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for more than 11 years without being charged.
He is now one of the last detainees still held at the facility, out of a total of 779 brought there from around the world since 2002.
He has been cleared for transfer on two separate occasions by the US government - in 2007 when the Bush administration conceded they had no evidence against him and again in 2009. Nearly four years later he remains in Guantanamo Bay and is currently on a hunger strike with 62 other inmates.
In regard to the treatment he has been subjected to since the strike, Aamer has been reported saying to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, "They are killing us, so it is hard to keep calm...in reality I am dying inside."
In a House of Commons debate this week, Jane Ellison - MP for Battersea in South London where Aamer's British wife and four children live - called his incarceration, "The ultimate stain on democracy." She argued: "A man should know why he is being deprived of his liberty and what he must do to win it back." She was supported by other MPs who compared Mr Aamer's treatment to that of Soviet gulag prisoners in the Cold War.
America's use of Guantanamo Bay has been the focus of widespread, international condemnation since it was established in 2002 by the Bush administration. In 2009, at the start of his term of office, President Obama pledged to close the interrogation facility down within one year. At the end of that year, with the detention centre still open and running, Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with the words: "I believe the USA must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight."
During his 11 years of detention, Shaker Aamer has been tortured, kept for more than 1,000 nights in a windowless isolation cell, starved, forced to remain awake for nine consecutive days and chained into positions that made moving unbearably painful.
Caroline Lucas MP (Green) spoke in the Commons debate of the USA's decision to limit the release of Aamer to Saudi Arabia as "irrational". She highlighted the fact that Britain has an exemplary record for taking in prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, all of whom are successfully integrated back into society, suggesting this leads to the uncomfortable conclusion that, "The only possible reason for sending Shaker to Saudi Arabia is to stop him from speaking out about his abuse - abuse in which the UK authorities have been complicit." She went on to say, "It is not enough to sit back and blame the US authorities when so many questions about the UK's role remain unanswered."
Alistair Burt, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, made only a limited response to points made by MPs in the debate, his reason being some of the questions posed referred to confidential discussions and intelligence matters.
He did make clear, "The UK Government believes that the continued detention of Shaker Aamer without charge or trial is wrong, and we will continue to do all in our power to return him to the United Kingdom."
He pointed out, however that, "Any decision regarding Mr Aamer's release ultimately remains in the hands of the USA Government."
As campaigners and human rights groups have argued, despite complications surrounding US funds for transfers, Obama does have the power to resolve certain cases, such as Shaker Aamer's. Amnesty International maintained, earlier this year, that resolving Aamer's case would be a symbolic step for Obama, demonstrating that he has not reneged on his commitment to closing Guantanamo Bay.
Image courtesy of Connor Tarter, Flickr, Creative Commons]]>Chicken Dinners - It's Time to Kick the Buckettag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.29087632013-03-21T19:00:00-04:002013-05-21T05:12:01-04:00Lexi Finniganhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/lexi-finnigan/
Obesity costs the National Health Service £5billion each year.
The modern epidemic of the developed world, obesity is now as prevalent in the UK as the fast food shops that line our local high streets. KFC, Burger King and Domino's Pizza are just a few of the names that make up a fast food market worth over £4billion annually.
Fried chicken is the fastest growing of all fast foods. With sales booming and more than 2,100 different chicken shops now open in the UK, this increasingly competitive market is rapidly replacing the traditional fish and chips as the go-to choice for hungry people in a hurry. Cheap, quick, filling and easy to eat on the go, its market share is likely to keep growing.
Roosters Spot is an upcoming franchise, providing "The finest quality Halal chicken meals" under the slogan: 'No one does chicken like Roosters Spot'. Their flagship store in Clapham, south-west London was recently the star of a Channel 4, Cutting Edge documentary, The Fried Chicken Shop: Life in a Day. Using a 'mini-rig' of fixed cameras, producer Yonni Usiskin offers viewers an intriguing insight into modern London life through the window of this bustling fried chicken shop.
The hour-long program starts with a few facts and figures:
In Britain, chicken used to be a luxury - we used to eat the equivalent of one a year. Now we slaughter 3.5 million a day and eat more of it than any other meat. How and where we eat chicken has changed and our high streets are changing with it.
Frequented by local regulars during the day and party revellers by night, Roosters Spot is open on average 17 hours a day, seven days a week, 364 days a year. At the weekend, manager Ali and his team of staff can serve up to 1,000 people a night and stay open until 6am. Hungry customers order crispy wings, grilled nuggets of chicken and side orders of chips. There's no time for knives and forks in the land of fried chicken. The experts tear chicken flesh straight off the bone with their teeth, pausing only to suck the spicy sauce of their fingers and perhaps add another glutinous dollop of mayonnaise. Salt shakers are used liberally and cans of Coca Cola and fizzy lemonade re-hydrate thirsty diners.
It is a well-known fact that fast food is bad for you. Relentless campaigning by the government's public health watchdog reminds us of this continually. Newly implemented traffic light food labelling now draws attention to fat, salt, sugar and calorie content in pre-packed food. So, where does fried chicken fall in the artery-clogging spectrum of fast food options?
Kentucky Fried Chicken, the undisputed market leader of the fried chicken industry, has a nutritional calculator on its website. A quick scan of the data reveals that a spicy crispy chicken breast contains 520 calories, 34 grams of fat and nearly 1.5 grams of salt. Red traffic lights all round.
In fact, this nutritional data reflects KFC's attempt to serve healthier food. In an effort to tackle the poor nutritional quality of its fodder, in 2005 the fast food giant stopped salting its chips and reduced its use of trans fats as part of a wider salt-reduction programme. The smaller fried chicken businesses however, are not so amenable. They thrive off the basic fact that salt is addictive and once consumers become accustomed to it, they crave it more and more. Good for business, bad for the body. Salt is one of the primary causes of high blood pressure which cause strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, all of which kill. Professor Graham MacGregor, chairman of CASH (Consensus Action on Salt & Health) says about Britain's booming fried chicken business:
Obviously in an ideal world you would change the consumer choices, but it's almost impossible with salt. For the more deprived people in this country there's no way they have any choice when they buy the cheapest food, there's no way they're going to look at the salt level.
Tower Hamlets is one of the most deprived, highly populated and ethnically diverse boroughs in England. A report by the Healthy Borough Programme revealed that for every school in the area, there are 42 fast food outlets. Some children in the borough eat up to 16 takeaways a week. Unsurprisingly, Tower Hamlets' residents suffer from high levels of obesity and shorter life expectancy rates.
So, as Britain plunges deeper into a spiralling obesity crisis, will we manage to break the cycle of unhealthy eating or are we headed for a slow and painful demise?
Proposed solutions range from fewer fast food outlets near schools and a 20% increase in the cost of sugary drinks, to suggestions that those suffering from obesity related diseases pay for their own medical care.
The future looks bleak, with analysis by the government's Foresight Programme predicting that by 2050 over half the UK adult population could be obese. It's clear that drastic mass-action must come from government, healthcare professionals and the food and drink industry. But most importantly, till we as individuals muster the will power to choose carrots over KFC, we haven't got a hope in fried chicken hell.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Creative Commons, Edsel L
Also on HuffPost UK Lifestyle: ]]>Will Kenya Avoid a Repeat of the Poll Violence of 2007?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.27670822013-02-26T14:24:09-05:002013-04-28T05:12:01-04:00Lexi Finniganhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/lexi-finnigan/"The Cicada sing an endless song in the long grass, smells run along the earth and falling stars run over the sky, like tears over a cheek". Karen Blixen, Out Of Africa
Straddling the equator, the snow topped peak of Mount Kenya stands sentinel, the country it lends its name to unfolding at its feet. A place of contrasting landscapes, Kenya spans from the bleached sands that melt into the Indian Ocean in the East, to the soft grasslands of the Masai Mara in the West, the Rift Valley tearing a chasm between the two.
Clinging to the periphery of Rift Valley town Nakuru, a makeshift camp has been assembled to provide temporary shelter for a group of internally displaced people. Following the disputed presidential elections of December 2007 a wave of violence and killing forced an estimated 600,000 people to flee their homes during two months of intense inter-ethnic violence. This community and many others like it are still waiting to be re-homed, more than five years later. With the next general election taking place on 4 March, fear and tension are building as the threat of renewed violence draws closer.
The problems that face most African countries today are well known to Kenya: overpopulation, poverty, unemployment and lack of water and health care to name a few. Despite steady growth of the economy, 46 per cent of the country's population lives below the poverty line, on less than $1 a day and access to clean water and sanitation facilities is limited.
More than 14 million people are expected to go to the polls on 4 March in one of the most contentious elections since Kenya gained independence in 1963. The vote is predicted to be close and a run-off will be conducted if no candidate secures an overall majority. The two favourites in the poll are current prime minister Raila Odinga (Orange Democratic Movement) and Uhuru Kenyatta (Jubilee Alliance).
The significance of these two names reappearing in Kenya's political agenda is not a coincidence. The two men are members of Kenya's major political dynasties and their rivalry echoes the relationship between their fathers - Jomo Kenyatta (the first prime minister and President of Kenya) and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga (first vice president).
In 2007, Raila Odinga's rival, incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was controversially declared the winner of the presidential election by the (now discredited and defunct) Kenyan Election Commission. Raila subsequently disputed the results, claiming fraud by the electoral commission and refused to follow correct constitutional procedure by presenting a petition to the courts.
In an election that was strongly marked by tribalism, opposition followers of Raila from the Luo and Kalenjin communities, enraged by the alleged electoral manipulation, went on a violent rampage against the traditionally dominant Kikuyu ethnic group that supported Kibaki. Political temperatures were raised and targeted ethnic violence escalated. The two sides unsheathed and unleashed machetes on neighbours and relatives and more than 1,300 Kenyan lives were lost.
It has been suggested since, that the violence that erupted in the regions of Naivasha and Nakuru was planned and funded by (2013 presidential candidate) Uhuru Kenyatta, who dropped out of the 2007 election race early in order to support Kibaki. Kenyatta was subsequently named as a suspect of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (along with his current running mate William Ruto, formerly a bitter political rival). Kenya's High Court has now cleared the way for both Kenyatta and Ruto to stand in the 4 March vote, dismissing arguments that the forthcoming trials make them ineligible.
Tangled within this political web of shifting allegiances and ethnic clashes is the loaded question of whether history will once again repeat itself.
When compared with the extensive canvassing and campaigning done by political parties in the US and the UK, the ODM and Jubilee coalitions seem underdeveloped, without history and organisational muscle and issue based campaigning seems to have taken a back seat to populist verbiage. Writer for the Sunday Nation, Kwendo Opanga stated in his opinion column last month:
Kenya's parties do not invest in research, planning and logistics when they have money. They invest in incessant intra and inter-party feuds and in plotting to gain power. They seek power without the benefit of researched and reasoned strategies put forward by think tanks but through forced and arranged marriages. That is why politicians have belonged to Party A at sunrise and become members of Party B at sunset.
So, what are the positive steps that Kenya is taking to ensure that a successful and fair vote takes place?
Efforts have predominantly been channeled into ensuring that the results of the 2013 election are credible. In 2007, one catalyst for the violence was Odinga's accusation that illegal rigging and ballot box shuffling was taking place. Approximately 1.2 million 'dead voters' appeared on the manual register and it has been acknowledged that there was widespread fraud and impersonation.
The newly formed Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has now implemented biometric voter registration and verification kits in order to eliminate ghost voters. The votes will be transmitted in real time electronically from polling stations across the country whilst hard copy votes from areas more than a three hour drive from Nairobi will be delivered by air. Media will also be granted 'unimpeded access' to the new system. Mr James Oswago, the electoral agency's chief was reported in the Daily Nation as saying: "There will be no room for anyone to doctor the results as the live feed will be seen across the tallying centres."
The country's first televised debate, which was broadcast recently, is another example of Kenya's efforts to make their election system more transparent. Considered by most to be a political milestone, the three and a half hour marathon gave Kenyans the opportunity to judge their prospective leaders on the strength of their policies under the real time pressures of live debate. The focus on policy rather than personality is a welcome change in a country where politics have traditionally been entwined with tribal identity and campaigns often carry a bottom line of 'us versus them'. Indeed when questioned in the debate over claims that ethnic rivalry is still at the heart of the 2013 campaigns, Uhuru Kenyatta responded: "Tribalism is a cancer that has afflicted this country for a very long time."
The key to this election surely lies in the losing candidate's ability to concede. Concession is critical in guaranteeing a peaceful outcome and preventing a backlash of violence. Should a re-vote be called for, the maintenance of peace should take priority. With the IEBC's emphasis on transparency and the fact that legitimate grievances can be addressed through peaceful means as set out in the constitution, Kenya has made strides towards holding a credible, peaceful election.
For five years, Kenya has been singled out as an example of how not to run an election. With just a few days to go, all we can do is wait and see whether history will repeat itself.
(Image courtesy of openDemocracy, Flickr, Creative Commons)]]>Do You Know Where Your Valentine's Day Rose Comes From?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26758912013-02-13T19:00:00-05:002013-04-15T05:12:01-04:00Lexi Finniganhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/lexi-finnigan/
Placed delicately on the breakfast table is an adorable miniature hat box, filled to the brim with Sweet Avalanche and Coolwater roses. Nestled delicately amidst the fragrant petals, a tiny heart-shaped card reveals sweet sentiments of love from a Valentine's Day admirer.
Available to order online from Waitrose, this delicate arrangement costs £60.00 - with the promise of free delivery thrown in for good measure. With supply now constantly outstripping demand, the price of a Valentine's Day rose is often three or four times the standard cost. With growing conditions in the UK being inhospitable in February, the majority of the flowers available in supermarket bouquets will thus be imported by plane from sunnier climes - such as Kenya.
A world away from the fog, sleet and ice of the UK, north-west of Nairobi is Kenya's Lake Naivasha. Fringed in papyrus and yellow-barked acacias, this fresh-water lake with its unique eco system is not only home to flocks of flamingos and pods of sleepy hippopotamus, it is also the centre of Kenya's $360 million flower industry. It is here, 4,500 miles from the UK that one third of all cut flowers bought in Britain are grown. Originally a grazing land for the Masai, today colossal stretches of white plastic reflect back the equatorial light and house the thousands of blooms that are being cultivated for the European markets.
According to the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), the country's economy relies heavily on the agriculture sector, which contributes 22% of GDP. The floriculture industry is steadily growing in the volume and value of cut flowers and Kenya is now the lead exporter to the European Union with a market share of over 35%. With an ideal climate for producing a wide range of high quality blooms year round, the flower industry plays a major economic role with an estimated 500,000 (including over 90,000 flower farm employees) depending on flourishing business.
Despite the improvement in working conditions following the formation of the KFC Committee in 1996, concerns about health and safety arising from the use of chemical sprays and long working hours are still an issue. The minimum wage for flower farm employees currently stands at 3,765 KES per month (approximately £27) despite harsh economic times and regular exposure to harmful pesticides.
Fierce debates surrounding the miscellaneous amendment to the Labour Institution Act proposing an increase in wages to 10,000 KES per month have resulted in a number of worker strikes. In December 2012, over 3,000 workers from Karuturi flower farm abandoned their tools to protest non-payment of their salaries and poor working conditions. The strike was organised barely a month after the farm announced its intention to layoff over 1,500 employees (this figure was later reduced to 600).
The chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, John Mututho (who is sponsoring the wage increase) was reported in the Daily Nation newspaper saying, "The floriculture sector is one of the leading foreign exchange earners in the country but the workers have little to show for it." He goes on to stress that the enactment of the Bill is vital in improving conditions of living for a majority of the Kenyan workers.
The run-up period to Valentine's Day is key for the flower producers who make 40% of their annual revenue in February and March. Astoundingly, the production line is now so efficient that flowers picked in the early morning in Kenya, can be sold at Europe's flower auctions the same day.
The real question is, with a bouquet of two dozen roses costing around £60 in UK supermarkets and workers taking home under £1.00 a day, what kind of profits are the producers making?
Keen to promote its ecologically responsible business practices, Waitrose adheres info-stickers to its bouquets, alerting consumers to the origin of the blooms. Waitrose roses, many of which are sourced from Kenya are accompanied by information about the 'Waitrose Foundation', a partnership created in 2005 to: "Help improve the lives of the farm workers and small holders who grow our produce." According to the Foundation's website, instead of funding through a price premium, Waitrose - in conjunction with growers, importers and exporters - passes a percentage of profits into a trust to pay for educational, social and healthcare projects. An accompanying video features a Kenyan worker on the Ravine Flower Farm. She smiles and says: "I enjoy my work. The flowers depend on us and we depend on the flowers." The Ravine Flower farm may be fortunate in its support from both Fairtrade and the Waitrose Foundation, yet despite the claim that, "where possible, the workers use organic pest control to keep pesticides to a minimum" basic statistics reveal that only 12 out of the 59 hectares of the farm use organic sprays.
Kenya's general election is taking place in three weeks' time and the threat of a repeat of the violence that marred the country in 2007 is looming. Flower farm workers and their rights are not the priority right now, but for me, this Valentine's Day 2013, I think I will give the roses a miss. After all, they will all be dead by the end of the week and diamonds last much longer.
