Of course nobody in Iceland WANTS to pay the IceSave debt accumulated by Landsbankinn. Neither do we WANT to pay the cost of the Central Bank bankrupted by the Independence Party.
But those organizing “national votes” or petitions denying responsibility appear utterly silly.
The debt won’t go away just by saying no, we don’t WANT to pay the debts. It still needs to be resolved. And those opposed have not been able to show the availability of a better deal.
Besides, it is silly to claim that Landsbankinn was just some private business downtown which did not have anything to do with the state.
Landsbankinn under the governance of Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, Sigurjon Th. Arnason and Kjartan Gunnarsson was the ivory tower of Independence Party sanctimoniusness and nepotist corruption. The bank was a model example of politics merging with big business to the point of no distinction.
For that we all bear responsibility. Some of us for voting for these people who made things that way, and all of us for allowing them to get away with it for so long.
Besides, the whole shitstorm is being kicked up by the Independence Party and Progressive Party to transfer the IceSave issue onto the government in the voters minds.
There might be a technical clause in some law somewhere which might possibly relief Iceland of the IceSave debt. The moral issue of whether that is right or wrong towards individuals abroad does not speak well of the nation.
Besides, what should we say about a state which demands write offs and fairness when dealing with its own creditors, but does not grant its own citizens the same courtesy?
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Silly Debate On IceSave | iceland today
2 years ago
[...] Read more here: Silly Debate On IceSave [...]
Blubber
2 years ago
Too true, the debate on IceSave is populism in the Nth degree.
Very few people seem to notice how the actual perpetrators are barely mentioned.
It reminds me of the discourse prior to the Iraqi invasion when the US government had managed to connect Saddam to 9/11 without any real evidence. Following Icelandic media one might think that Gordon Brown wants Icelandic blood, when in fact they just want the money that was theirs to begin with.
Yes, the pay back deal is crap, but that is nobody’s fault but our own. Getting a better deal is not going to happen as long as we blame the victim and claim no responsibility.
Moreover, your entry from June, “Complexity Of IceSave Too Much For Althingi?” still holds true. There are complex levels and any number of arguments that are sort of true and kind of right, but useless.
Vilhjalm A.
2 years ago
The Word on the Street column says that Icesave will pass for a very simple reason. The swing vote is Thrainn Bertelsson. If he votes no, the current coalition government will collapse and Thrain will be out of a job, with no chance of being elected again. So all of the rhetoric about independence, justice and sovereignity, and all the detailed analysis of the language of the Agreement counts for nothing. Instead, the vote comes down to whether one guy wants to keep his job. Thrainn wants his paycheck, so he will vote yes.