Charlotta Lahnalahti – Pike & Hurricane

Behind Closed Doors

Charlotta Lahnalahti — Fri, 30 May 2014 16:11:33 +0000

It’s a Sunday afternoon, you are on the local Hong Kong subway, the MTR, heading south from the university to do some shopping. The minute the MTR draws into Admiralty station, you remember that you’ve made a huge mistake; there are masses of people cramming in and out of the car and you once again get cornered into the far end or the car and almost miss your stop. It is Sunday, the one day-off in a week that the domestic workers have in Hong Kong, when the streets and parks are filled with Indonesian and Filipino workers, mostly women. They are on Skype on their smartphones, using the always-accessible Hong Kong internet, reaching family members and relatives in distant countries. What goes on in the minds of these women, who need to sustain their families’ lives abroad by working for a minimum wage of €2,60 per hour, in this metropolitan city?

The rights of Hong Kong’s approximate 300, 000 maids, and other domestic workers, have been in international media in the last few years when the residency legislation was altered. The new legislation was adopted in order to tackle so-called ‘job-hoppers’ -migrants changing jobs on a regular basis. This change gravely impacts domestic workers: the Immigration Department has set stricter measures to ‘premature contract termination’, meaning that the worker might have to stay under the employer’s roof under any circumstance. The standard 2-year contracts between the worker and the employer can only be terminated on grounds of “ – transfer, migration, death or financial reasons of the ex-employer, or if there is evidence suggesting that the foreign domestic helper (FDH) has been abused or exploited”, the Hong Kong immigration department reports. In addition, the Department can deny the worker new employment if they have had multiple contracts before. There is no way back into Hong Kong for a terminated worker and therefore legal steps need to be taken with care.

In late April, the BBC reported the story of a 26-year-old Indonesian Rohyati working in Hong Kong who was misused by her employer. Instead of getting help from her work agency, through which she found her job and was provided assistance and protection, she was inspired by another maid whose case had gained wide media attention, and Rohyati filed a police report. Amnesty International has criticised Hong Kong’s work agencies for not looking after their employees. Rohyati first reported to her agency who only told her to be patient with her employer as not much could be done before she had paid her fees to the agency and would be able to leave.

Rohyati was not the first, nor will she be the last, worker who experiences maltreatment at the hands of her employers. Thousands of domestic workers in Hong Kong fall under the category of bonded labourer which is defined as a form of slavery by Anti-Slavery International. Victims of bonded labour work under lacking working conditions, with a salary that is incompatible with other forms of income, in an abusive environment. Slavery and abuse are two of mankind’s oldest crimes and has endured through the contemporary world. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that there are estimated 20.9 million victims of modern slavery, who are abducted and tricked to work on all continents. Tragically enough, this number of 20.9 million cannot even be outdone by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the amount of shipped slaves throughout those 300 years of business.

Bonded labour is most common in Southeast Asia but Europe has a lot to work on as well. In the shade of the Big Ben in London, a decision was made in 2012 that domestic workers entering the UK cannot legally leave their employer, making the country one of the most abusive destinations in Europe. Migrants have no option to report their abuse from behind closed doors and if they escape, they become illegal immigrants. Most of the domestic workers find employment through family members and receive very little payment. They come from unstable, conflict ridden countries to which they have no way of returning if they illegally escape their employer. “Confiscation of passports, confinement to the home, physical and emotional abuse, long working hours with no rest time, no holidays, and low wages or non-payment of wages”, Human Rights Watch found many factors opposing human rights that are daily for the migrant workers in the UK, and reported them on March 31^st. In both cases the UK and Hong Kong, the states have themselves contributed to the worsening of circumstances that foreign domestic workers arrive to.

In June 2011, the UK was one of the nine countries that did not vote in favour of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention, which Hong Kong ratified. The UK requires written terms and labour contracts made between the worker and the employer but there is no mechanism to control them, whereas in Hong Kong the abusive employers have been kept somewhat under control, imprisoning abusive employers on a yearly basis. The established work agencies in Hong Kong provide contracts and help for the domestic workers in the country, whereas in London no external middle-hand to oversee the rights of the individual domestic worker when the contract is between two individuals.

The UK has recently tightened its penalty legislation on domestic abuse, if found guilty the sentence now lies between 14 years to life. Even if the penalties for modern slavery would be increased, it would not help the plight that the victims have endured. Who works for the improvement of domestic workers’ rights? Most of the victims are uneducated young women who have no way of affecting their life in their home- nor receiving country. When it comes to Asia, or contemporary Europe, or any other corner of our planet, one of the world’s oldest crimes continues on our watch. We need to bring the disease of slavery back to the surface, thus preventing it from spreading further in our interconnected world.

By Charlotta Lahnalahti

Image credit:

Picture 1: Kaj17, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Kevin Utting, licensed under CC BY 2.0

The post Behind Closed Doors appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Djurens Parti – The New Political Vision?

Charlotta Lahnalahti — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:43:36 +0000

Djurens Parti – Party for Animals was established in late 2013 as an initiative to bring animal rights to today’s politics. What the party wishes to combat is that as animals have no voice of their own but have an equal intrinsic value. Parikka Altenstedt’s stance on the party’s policies: “Our goal in Sweden is to get in the Parliament and to local boards in cities, as well as to regional representative bodies and teach others to become aware of animal perspectives in politics; animal protection, meat- and food industry, city planning, fur industry, trot industry, animal’s working rights, hunting issues, animal testing, animals as pets and the business around that, and the list goes on. Animals have the right to co-exist with humans with their own conditions and should be treated as thinking and feeling subjects and not as objects or raw material in our economy”.

Many individuals find that the above touches could interfere with human rights. For example, with issues such as animal testing and the security it gives. Some of the policies the party has established therefore could potentially clash with human rights. If this happens, which ones are to be followed: human rights or animal rights? Additionally, the party solely advocates policies on animals and their treatment but does not seem to have much to say in other fields. Comparing them to other one-policy parties, such as the Pirate Party in Germany and their respective/counterpart Animal Parties in other countries; one-policy parties have had to collide with other parties in order to get their policies through.

Why was an establishment of a new party needed in Sweden rather than adding more animal friendly policies to other parties’ politics? Parikka Altenstedt: “We waited for seven years for the other parties to get here, to recognise animal rights in their political agendas. Lately, the progress in the Swedish parliament has been negative with the new wild animal legislation from 2013 and even the head of the Swedish Green Party, Gustaf Fridolin, got a hunter´s licence! Some individuals in other parties do a great job but it is not enough to change the legislation significantly and neither is it enough to click “like” on Facebook. We need to active in parliament. What we will battle with now is to sharpen the animal rights legislation and get the state agencies to follow them”.

In November 2013, the Swedish government weakened the protection of wild animals by giving special rights for hunters, which Johanna Parikka Altenstedt calls “the last drop of an outrageous wild life politics of Sweden during the last seven years”. She states that finding more people to work with was easy as many shared Parikka Altenstedt’s thoughts on animal rights, she connected with Jonas Paulsson from Stockholm, and thus establishing a party was just a step away. Animal rights parties are a growing, international trend: the Swedish Djurens Parti points to its Dutch counterpart, Partij voor de Dieren as a successful example, as they have sat in the country’s parliament for the last few years. Interestingly, Turkey, Spain and Portugal are newcomers in the movement and in addition, India has its own Ministry for animal rights. Parikka Altenstedt comments: “We should learn from the other [parties]. In the European Parliament elections, we have two top names from Skåne, who we would like to link with other countries animal parties and work for legislation to protect animals from slaughter transports around the continent”. Animal rights are considerably well taken care of in Sweden compared to Southern Europe and Turkey, where it seems more convenient to establish a party for the sole cause. Before tackling animal rights in the North, should inequality and social welfare be battled first?

Before establishing the party, Parikka Altenstedt herself established a Facebook page, an online petition and is still actively sharing news online. Still in the phase of gathering members, is the party subjected to collecting likes on Facebook what Parikka Altenstedt herself judges as inefficient? So far, the members of the party have come from different areas of society with one sole thing in common; animals. “We have a high diversity within our supporters — Djurens Parti attracts young people who never thought they would vote, gathering people who want change and we give them possibilities to run for elections. Vegans, people with pets, older people, intellectuals who see animal abuse and cruelty as a philosophical and intellectual problem: Many groups and individuals out there understand that animals make people come together.” It is indeed admirable that many different generations are gathered in one party, around a subject that they cherish but is it enough? All levels of society need to be reached for full support in the parliament. People who do not have contact with animals, do not understand the aims of the party and might find it insignificant. The Animal Party needs to find ways to develop their policies more broadly to touch all levels of contemporary politics to attract more members.

In the super election year 2014 here in Sweden, the Animal Party has registered for both national and European Parliament elections. How will the party plead to more voters in order to get to the decision making organs? Parikka Altenstedt states that “the Animal Party’s big agenda is to change minds – the society is not for people only but for all the living creatures and we need to see animals, as part of our environment and life”. In order to change the Swedish and European wide political agendas, more awareness of the party needs to be raised and their own policies must be broadened if they wish to continue without colliding with other parties. Harmony between humans and animals sounds like a futuristic dream in our consumerist world, as well as defeating global warming, but it is essential that someone starts the battle. Due to the steps of Johanna Parikka Alternstedt, a new promising party with benevolent policies has been established, with some aspects that need developing in order to get more voters.

By Charlotta Lahnalahti

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Marji Beach, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Farm Sanctuary, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The post Djurens Parti – The New Political Vision? appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Ukraine: Revolution of Dignity

Charlotta Lahnalahti — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:42:00 +0000

Ukraine, and all of Europe, has been on edge for the last months as student protests which started in November of 2013 turned into violent conflicts in January of 2014. Having interviewed a Ukrainian student, Dima Kharchenko, who had been taken part in the revolution.

“I do not know where to start. It seems like so much has happened in the past couple of months. Firstly, I would like briefly touch on what preceded the revolution. The disagreements originate from 2010 when Yanukovych was elected as the president with previous vote falsifications, especially in the East, closer to the Russian border. After he was declared the president, Yanukovych launched a bunch of new policies, which were generally aimed at recreating the state where the majority of people served directly under the President and those beside him – including his so called “family”. Consequently, these policies led to the spread of deep corruption within the system and the worsening of human rights During the process of adapting the new policies, the citizens became unsatisfied with his rule, for reasons including his ignorance of public opinion.

However, Yanukovych tried to gather support by maintaining the Euro-integration process between Ukraine and the EU, which is an idea that appears to be popular in Ukraine. Throughout 2013, Yanukovych traded both with Russia and the EU, changing sides whenever one supported Ukraine more than the other. In the end, Putin persuaded Yanukovych to delay signing the Association Agreement (EU AA) with the EU on November 21st. This long feared decision led to peaceful student protests in Kiev, especially in the Independence Square, which is also known as the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The protestors demanded that Yanukovych sign the deal with the EU despite Russia’s reluctancy. Since the protestors were advocating the signing of the EU AA deal, they renamed the place to “EuroMaidan”. When it was clear that the agreement would not be signed after all, people started to go home. The night before EuroMaidan was to be disbanded, the Ukrainian special riot police, Berkut, attacked the protesters and journalists, severely beating them near and around Maidan. This is said to be the turning point which transformed the countrywide peaceful protests against the current government, to violent clashes between the government forces and the opposition.

As an outsider, a fact that has not been widely discussed in the international media, is that Yanukovych is a previously convicted criminal who has been imprisoned twice. The decisions led by him to attack the protestors and later not allowing flexibility in negotiations thus show such methods are perceived as justified and routine for this ex-con. His war-crime-like actions further decreased his credibility and the legitimacy of his power in the eyes of the international community, and dug himself a deeper grave. Even though Ukraine is not a fully democratic country, due to corruption, and it holds close bonds with Russian and Belarussian regimes, such open violence against peaceful demonstrators is simply unacceptable by the society and cannot be justified by any means.

Briefly, people of Ukraine are fighting against the authorities which have continuously, for three years, oppressed the population through deliberately ineffective government and structural violence. Even though the Western media says people are solely fighting for further EU integration, it is a false assumption. EU integration seemed like an open door to a democratised Ukraine, which was closed by Yanukovych and sparked violence. People are struggling because they are fed up with the government and its ineffective actions.

The issue in Ukraine has been called many names, such as Eurorevolution, Revolution of Dignity, and the Euromaidan revolution. I like the sound of the Revolution of Dignity most, since we are fighting for our basic citizen rights over the dictator rule. Living through these events, I have come to think that, at times, further happiness can be achieved just through collective struggle. Even though the clashes that are ongoing and create a dreadful atmosphere, many people are happy to be there. People are demonstratingbecause they are willing to fight, not because they are forced to. Maidan looks catastrophic and depressive today, but people attending seem happy and help out with whatever they are capable of. It is difficult to acknowledge and realise that all the things happening here are happening to my country and its people. It is especially hard to realise the fact that people are dying for a better future, because of a student revolution that started so peacefully.

And here I stop, I am leaving to Maidan and will continue writing as soon as I come back.”

The next day on the 22nd of February, I receive a message from Dima at 13.03: “Yesterday, at Maidan, the situation was calm. No clashes and no fire. Instead, there were dozens of coffins carried near the Maidan,( heroes to whom we said goodbye. Afterwards I went to Sophiyska Plosha (Sophiyska square) where the oldest church of Kiev is located. There we lit candles and mourned for a hundred of those, who sacrificed their lives in the battles of last months. You could stand there forever watching the candles burn and people sitting nearby and praying, but it is, though, too sad to watch it.”

Later on the same day I receive a live feed message from Kiev at 16.25:

“Our Parliament has voted to impeach Yanukovych and has set a new election for May 25th! – D”

23rd of February:

“Regarding the future of Ukraine, I, as for many others, hope and believe that people will learn their lessons from 2004 when Yanukovych was chosen and will rely on the newly chosen politicians. This also requires challenging them and recreating the entire system in general, in order to eradicate all the corruption and other flaws which have spread all over [the country] during the last 10 years. I hope that our old Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who was imprisoned by Yanukovych in 2011, will get back to politics. I am not dreaming of this ideal-democracy-bullshit, but I truly wish that Ukraine would evolve into something that people could call a country of active citizens.”

Since messaging with Dima, Tymoshenko has been freed from imprisonment and continued closely in politics with the interim president, Olexander Turchynov who was named as the spokesperson by the parliament. Turchynov states that the country is under the risk of separatism between Russian speaking East Ukraine and the rest due to the eviction of Yanukovych. The ex-president fled to Russia after being wanted for mass-murder and gave a speech on February 28th from Moscow. Unknown Russian troops entered the Russian speaking part of Ukraine, Crimea which is a southeast peninsula in the Black Sea, monitoring its airport and raised Russian flags to Crimean parliament building. Since then, most of the troops have left having created suspicion of Russia monitoring possible Ukrainian mobilization in Crimea where the new government are least popular.

What will happen to Ukraine in the following months is hard to predict. A big country, of more than 45million citizens, needs a strong, reliable government but stability requires a fashion of active citizenship to challenge the power of the authorities. According to many scholars, states are built for its population, but in the contemporary liberal economic world, self-interests are the driving forces in today’s politics. This was also be a possibility in Ukraine’s case where Yanukovych strived for more power, undermining the legitimacy of his rule.

Active and educated pioneers, such as Dima, are examples for students and citizens who seek to create an inclusive and participatory political processes and sustainable security methods for post-conflict Ukraine.

By Charlotta Lahnalhati

Image Credit:

Picture 1: streetwrk.com, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Picture 2: Sasha Maksymenko, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

The post Ukraine: Revolution of Dignity appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.