Tomorrow should be exciting. How many will turn up at the downtown demonstration?

The last couple of months have been about shock. People have been stunned and are trying to asess the situation. Now we are beginning to see the start of polarizing. In media, blogs and on the street, people are getting fired up against each other.  

From now on, everyone will be assigned a side. You will be judged on whether you are critical of the government or not. Whether you are related to this businessman or that politician or not. We will see a lot of blame being thrown about and a lot of mud slinged in all directions.

I have never taken sides. I have never been blindsided by political parties, nor do I have any rich uncles. I used to work for the man, two of the three former poles of power. Everything I say will be countered with references to my old workplaces and whatever I was supposed to have done there, true or not.

Expect this if you are in Iceland, and especially if you are a native. We are entering an ugly period in our democracy. And the country will be worse for it.

What could lead us from this doomed path would be the following:

- All politicians could take responsibility in the form of all heads of parties in parliament resigning. This would give us the country a bipartisan ground to start on. They were all in power while disaster struck and they all have to show us some remorse.

- The ministers of finance and business could resign as well. They have to show us that they accept their role as the men in charge of the economy while it crumbled.

- The head of the Financial Regulation Authority should resign. So too, the Central Bank governors and its board. If David Oddson could retire and start writing his memoirs then that would be nice. His presence is clouding everything else and poisoning the necessary processes we need to go through. Fortunately he did not attend the open meeting last Monday or all important matters discussed in the meeting would have ended up being about his persona. We don’t need that anymore.

- The rest of the Parliament could agree on a temporary government with reps from all parties that calls for an election in May. They should appoint a new Central Bank governor for a four year period, preferrably someone with vast economic experience. They should also dismiss the regulation that allows sitting parties a generous donation from the federal budget for the votes received in the last election. It is not democratic, probably against the constitution and all common decency. They should also announce talks with the EU. 

The situation is so bad that we cannot allow ourselves an ideological civil war, where progress and justice are cast as equal opposites against status quo and greed. Look what it has done to the US. I would dare anyone to maintain that the US today is a better place than ten years ago.

Now it is a big question whether we can deliver a better Iceland to ourselves ten years from now.

Related posts:

1. Do something
2. Four Good Reasons Why I Am Starting a Start-up Away From Iceland!
3. The polarizing effect of talking bushes
4. Regulating the new financial sector
5. How sweet it is…