A local council in a rural area north by the sea began a discussion about a farmland which had been left by the farmer last autumn. The land was in bad shape and something needed to be done. A lot of discussion went on but little was done.
This land had been owned by the council and used for grazing sheep owned by the public until a new and charismatic chairman assumed control of the council and wanted to sell of its assets, including this land which had good potential for sheep-farming.
The chairman got his way as usual and the buyer was handpicked from his group of friends. His name was Storolfur. The locals were vary when word spread of the intention to sell the land to him because his methods in farming were questionable and he had been charged before for inappropriate handling of sheep and unorthodox methods of bookkeeping.
The chairman and his followers got their way and Storolfur got the land and immediately hired the chairman’s personal friend as his foreman, but conveniently didn’t pay the small price of the land.
As time passed, people got talking about the riches of Storolfur. He was extravagant and never seemed to lack in cash, but he had access to abundant money in exchange for love letters to the chairman which had assumed a new position as the treasurer of the council.
As hard times approached, people started noticing that there were no longer two heads on Storolfur’s sheep, but what is worse that complaints were coming in about his livestock grazing in other areas without the necessary permits and that his workers were taking on other farmers’ sheep from far away areas and not providing any guarantees that they can return the sheep in good condition.
To make a long story short, a harsh winter arrives which hits those farmers worst who believed that by expanding greatly and the appropriate increase in global warming, farming in Iceland had changed for the better so that sheep could graze by itself all year round and did not need to be tended to except for shearing and slaughtering.
Between Christmas and New Year when the talkative council finally decides to check on the condition of Storolfur’s farm. It is late at night when the councilmen approach the farm, in the moonlight of the thirteenth moon of this fateful year.
When they approach the farmhouses the first one lets out a frightful scream, because from the darkness a shape arrives and embraces him with its cold arms. As his screams fill the icy night, the councilman battles the mysterious being.
Some of the councilmen decide the best option is to flee from this ghost. They walk back to their farms and tell everyone that there is a terrible ghost in the area which will destroy everything in its wake.
People who hear these fables become terrified and fearful of the future, when they see their old chairman and his councilmen disturbed with fear describing the imminent doom.
Back at the farm, the new chairman of the area and his sheriff decide to try to help the man fighting the ghost. After a while it turns out that it is no ghost which has embraced the councilman, but so-called “fatherland”, woolen underpants which Storolfur had left out hanging to dry and the wind had swept away towards the councilman which is crippled with fear.
Let us now leave this fable which we all know in one way or another from our thousand year old history. But not without learning something from it.
For example, you shouldn’t sell the public’s assets to your friends. And you should choose your friends carefully.
New councilmen should not be able to talk their way out of dealing with problems from the past, even if it the problems are not their fault.
And councils shold solve difficulties but not enhance them and especially not by scaring innocent people by changing dirty old pairs of underwear into a deadly ghost.
Whatever may become of our tradition of stories, it is time to finish this IceSave issue, for now and go without fear towards the promised fortress around the homes and families in this country. The resurrection of the business sector is on its way with tens of billions of write-offs for banks and financial institutions. Now it is the turn of the people of this land, people of flesh and blood, time to write of some of the debt which is dragging it down.
Maybe it is natural that a guilty conscience because of the past is lurking in the fear of the future, a future which will come whether we fear it or not.
If we have the fortune to meet the future with courage and honesty, our people will live long and prosper in our country.
Related posts:
Vilhjalm A.
2 years ago
Most of the Icesave debate was a complete waste of time.
Really, nobody could talk about the real issues involved in Icesave.
The truth is that Iceland is going to take loans to pay for Icesave. Iceland is definitely not going to pay Norway back, and probably won’t pay back Sweden either. And it’s possible that the IMF will forgive part of their loans and maybe the British and Dutch too, if and when Iceland joins the EU. But of course Icelanders can’t say these things publicly because then they won’t get the loans.
If you add up the Scandinavian and EU loans that won’t be paid back, plus the money from the sale of Landsabanki assets, then the burden will not be very large in the long term.
The real benefit from Icesave is that it opens the way for joining the EU and getting the Euro. Iceland currently has a money supply of the equivalent of maybe 40-50 billion Euros, but it is backed by almost nothing. If Iceland gets the Euro then it gets a money supply that is real money, the equivalent of free 30-50 billion Euros.
The other truth that no one wanted to admit is that the Althingi members were voting mostly out of self interest and along party lines, just to retain the current government or to try to overthrow it, and to keep their jobs in Althingi.
Dadi
2 years ago
True Vilhjalm A.
Most people in Iceland had turned away from IceSave a long time ago. The politicians were stuck in the trenches.
The last few months revolved around how many blows the opposition could land on the government.
It had nothing to do with national interests.
Blubber
2 years ago
Agreed, a total waste of time. Disgusting.