The IceSave issue finally closed yesterday with the historic vote of Althingi, ending one of the most humiliating year for politics ever, in an appropriate manner I must say. Never before has such a large group of people embarrassed itself as thoroughly and disappointed its people as much as those who fill Althingi’s chambers today. The men’s national football team doesn’t even come close.

The start of the year 2009 promised so much. A limp government was chased out by the people which had empowered it. A New Iceland was supposed to rise from the ashes but as I have said before, this New Iceland is one of the worst sort of nations that can be found anywhere in the world.

A leftist government was voted in which was totally natural as it was the Iceland of the Independence Party which was flushed down the drain. The new government claimed it would be emphasise “nordic welfare”. And that was the first mistake of this government. Someone should have called their PR people and tell them that you don’t promise nordic welfare when the largest budget cuts and tax hikes in the history of the nation are approaching. So the government made false promises right in the beginning. It gave hope based on nothing. Instead it should have called itself the “Ajax government”, or something in that manner to indicate to the public that it was there to clean up the mess left behind by other parties.

Tsunamis do not only wash what it can find on the shore into the sea, but also leve behind all sorts of junk. The same happened in the Althingi elections this spring. We got rid of lots of incompetent people, but unfortunately more junk washed up on Althingi. Few people have ever been as disappointing as the new MP’s we got. The Citizens’ Movement exploded in a short period because three of its MP’s were already trading favors, something they promised they’d fight. The results of the elections were as sad as they could possibly be as far as the quality of new MP’s goes.

Little has been heard of the new MP’s for the government parties but the novices from the opposition have not exactly enhanced the respect of Althingi. Experience has tought me that people who cannot open their mouth without screaming and disreputing others are off balance. MP’s do not refrain from using words such as “liar”, “treason” and “evildoers”. The paranoia is so strong that you would think that these people are on mescaline. The crew around the Progressive Party’s chairman is especially bad. Those people are off-balanced.

The only thing people wanted when the election was over was that everyone should now work together for the nation, not the political parties. And the parties failed on the first exam which was the EU vote. The Progressive Party did a total U-turn, even if the bill fitted its emphasis’ perfectly. The monster of opportunity simply dwelled to shallowly within the party. The Independence Party had its own interests at heart even if Thorgerdur Katrin and Ragnheidur Rikhardsdottir stayed true to their conviction. The attack they had to endure from their own party, not least the extreme-right was at best disgusting. The EU isssue showed us who really hold the reins of the Independence Party.

The government blew the issue badly by not reaching out for a bi-partisan conclusion. It is given that EU membership won’t be approved without the Independence Party. Bjarni Beneditktsson and Steingrimur J. Sigfusson have already said that any agreement with the EU is a bad agreement in their mind. The EU bus caught a flat before taking off.

To top the whole craziness, David Oddson was pulled up by the fishing-quota billionaires who bought Morgunbladid. There he attempts to write history in his favour, totally excluding any hope of peace and togetherness within the society. I am absolutely sure that we would laugh out loud if we read in the news that the Central Bank manager of Zimbabwe would be made editor of the most respected newspaper in the country. Does no one see the madness?

Which brings me to the next issue which is the attitude within Iceland towards the outside world. It seems like there has been an agreement made within the country that the economic crash in Iceland was due to the unfairness of other nations. Each and every trace of self-examination which was evident at the begining of the year has disappeared. Foreigners are cursed and the blood of business vikings is called for, but nobody seems prepared to examine what exactly went wrong here in Iceland.

The IceSave issue has not helped. It was badly managed, by both sides, government and opposition. I have changed my mind several times myself, because I fear the consequences of what happens if we pay, as I do if we don’t. Only time will tell, but I, along with most Icelanders I dare say are first and foremost ecstatic that it is over for now. And I think that we have done what was right in the end.

Hopefully, MP’s will use their New Years Eve break to carefully think about what they can do to make Iceland bearable again. Althingi’s Investigation Committee’s report will hopefully lead to a decent cleaning out. That, along with the mountain of cases forming on the desk of the Special Prosecutor, is the last rope the nation can cling onto if it wants real reform. Fact is that the situation is not as bad as we feared in the beginning. But while this reckoning is missing, the nation cannot move forward. To move on without it would be like prescribing ibufen for a brain tumor.

We have already spent one year in vain. Let’s not let another go to waste.

Magnus Geir Eyjolfsson – reporter, December 31, 2009.

Related posts:

1. EU In Less Than A Year
2. Why Althingi Won’t Approve The IceSave Deal
3. Guardian: Iceland One Year On

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:

1. An Economic Horror Story: The Frightened Generation Of Iceland
2. The story of Bjorn Ingi Hrafnsson
3. A Good Story, A Bad Bet And Things Gone Wrong

The District Court of Reykjavik yesterday declared that the borrower of a currency loan was responsible for paying his loan fully, even if it had doubled in one year. The Court really had few other options, the agreement between lender and borrower is one where the bank lends foreign currency and it was the customer’s choice whether to take that option or one of a loan in ISK.

So much for the imbalance between the lender who is supposed to know more about finance and the borrower who is not an expert.

The Courts and society has determined that Iceland is a country built for banks, not people.

This probably means that all those who have been waiting to hear about the outcome of this court case and have loans in foreign currency can say goodbye to their former lives. Tens of thousands of Icelanders are going to become bankrupt or heavily strapped.

Meanwhile, us who didn’t take the risk of currency loans even if they were offered are also being thrown to the wolves. What choices did we have? Not choices similar to people in countries around us of loans that go down as you pay.

Force majeure anyone? Is it unfair to compare the financial collapse of Iceland to anything but a natural disaster, an extraordinary event?

Meanwhile the governor of the Central Bank has assured Icelandic MP’s that even if the IMF has come out and said that Iceland’s debts were even larger than 310% of GNP, then it is OK because included in that number are all private foreign debts which are going to be written off, making the picture much brighter.

So the government, the banks and the largest companies will all see write offs that they will not grant to their citizens themselves.

A tragic story has emerged of Olafur Jon Leosson, a roughly sixty year old truck driver who bought himself a new truck on a foreign currency loan when jobs were everywhere for him to put it to use. Then the jobs started disappearing, and then the currency dropped. He tried to negotiate with the banks, the financing company Lysing, everything. He took his own life recently as he had found the door shut everywhere.

Great is the shame of the government, Althingi and the financial institutions. Did they ever read Grapes of Wrath?

Related posts:

1. In All Fairness: The Currency Loans And What Now
2. The Currency Loans: Iceland’s Great Shame
3. Loans of the Icelanders

This is probably the only thing the Progressive Party and the Independence Party have been able to organize successfully this year except for the fundraising for Illugi Gunnarsson and Gudlaugur Thordarson.

One Progressive Party MP Gudmundur Steingrimsson on the other hand says he wants none of this, and is the bigger man for it. He wants to vote on the IceSave agreement and let the government bear responsibility for the bill.

Related posts:

1. Silly Debate On IceSave
2. Citizens’ Movement Without MP’s
3. The Logical Trap Of A Double Election On The EU

When they are simultaneously adamant that the state’s citizens should pay up their unfair debts fully and completely.

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1. The Currency Loans Were Legal – The Dark Side Of The Government’s Inept Solutions
2. The Drunk In The Pond
3. An Unfair Advantage

Morgunbladid was one of the victims of Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s fatal business-eating disease and has had its ups and downs. At its best when analyzing what is behind the numbers Icelanders are facing, be it IceSave or household debt, at its worst whenever Agnes Bragadottir and Kolbrun Bergthorsdottir put their pens to work for the benefit of those who are most responsible for the crash. Currently it is in a identity crisis and its employees are facing a winter of Survivor.

Frettabladid is dying. No ifs and buts about it. If it continues on the road its been on since last autumn it will not suvive until the next. Except as a commercial pamphlet. The disgrace was completed in the summer when it outsourced its editorial opinion columns to people with an agenda from different sides of the political spectrum. What was supposed to be a brilliant bi-partisan move has turned out to be less interesting than a fart in an elevator. Might bounce back if a new owner can be found, but the paper has always depended on Jon Asgeir Johannesson’s ventures for ad revenue.

But the surprise of them all is DV. The wimps that dared not go against Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson last year for the fear of him purchasing them have become so hard-hitting and relevant that Althingi has canceled its subscription. When a newspaper has to be kept away from democratically elected politicians so it does not hurt their feelings, it has to be doing something right.

Sometimes pleasant things come from unexpected directions.

Update:  Petur Gislason, an unemployed man in Reykjavik has stepped forth and said he is prepared to buy a copy of DV for Althingi.

Related posts:

1. Inept Althingi – Inept Nation
2. Complexity Of IceSave Too Much For Althingi?
3. Why Althingi Won’t Approve The IceSave Deal

Althingi is preparing to vote on whether Iceland should enter talks with the EU and there are a couple of MP’s whose stance and attitude towards the whole thing is astoundingly backwards to say the least.

I voted for the Citizen’s Movement and have been reasonably pleased with the fresh air they’ve breathed into the stale Althingi. I don’t need my MP’s to completely agree with me on all issues and I respect those who can hold a different opinion if they can back it up convincingly.

But Birgitta Jonsdottir has now joined the ranks of those gutless MP’s who want to vote against the talks. And she is neither convincing or assuring in her stance.

Why gutless? Well, the EU issue is one that Iceland has to face sooner rather than later and instead of hearsay and propaganda from politicians who are paid for by the farming and fishing lobby, we need to get the facts on the table. What is on offer for Iceland if it joins the EU?

And why the EU? Culturally and commercially, Iceland is so linked and dependent on Europe that we are going to end up in the union eventually. In fact, you can argue that it is absolutely necessary if Iceland wants to keep its  independence, contrary to what the fear-mongers have tried to install in the nation. The world is heading for more cooperation, more synergy. It will be extremely hard for Iceland to isolate itself away from it.

The conversational detours some have tried to head down, such as Iceland joining the US instead are not valid. Culturally, Iceland might be more alike the US than most European nations but it is only skin deep, extending more to taste in music and movies than social values.

On the campaign trail this spring, Birgitta said the following repeatedly. She was against the EU herself but there were different opinions within the Citizen’s Movement and it was tolerant of such differences. But the nation should be allowed to vote for or against the issue itself.

Then when push comes to shove, Birgitta backs out. She does not want the nation to vote on the EU. She joins the ranks of those that want a double national election on the issue. First to vote on whether Iceland should enter the talks, and then the results from the talks.

Such a brainless idea could only have come from the nationalistic ranks of the Independence Party, Progressive Party and Left/Greens and Birgitta falls right into the trap. The agitators say the double elections are more democratical so that Iceland would not waste time or money on needless talks if the nation is against it. But in reality it is just a trap. Who in their right mind can honestly say they can in good concience vote for or against something without knowing what they are voting for or against? The nationalistic forces in all parties are just stalling, buying time and igniting hate, fear and distrust in the process.

The double election idea is so intellectually and logically stupid that it could only be devised by politicians who are masters in stalling on issues. Again, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND CAN HONESTLY SAY THEY CAN IN GOOD CONCIENCE VOTE FOR OR AGAINST SOMETHING WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE VOTING FOR OR AGAINST?

Anyhow, Iceland will end up in the EU. Two years ago we would have had a bigger say about it, now we have less, and in the future we might not have a choice. Now, where on that scale does the whole independence issue fit?

Related posts:

1. Idiots In The Citizen’s Movement
2. Independence Party Tragedy
3. The Small Party Dilemma

Independent Party MP and former economic advisor to Geir Haarde’s government, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson told Althingi that he’d just met one of the “viking raider” businessmen who’d critizised the government for not having called on any advisors in the IceSave.

Tryggvi quoted the businessman as saying “at least we had the sense to call on advisors”.

As Tryggvi walked away from the podium under roaring laugher, other MP’s could be heard calling, “economic advisors perhaps?”

Related posts:

1. Tryggvi: Definitely To The Rescue
2. Joke of the day
3. MP’s Two Million ISK Payment For Mishkin Report

There isn’t much difference in voting for the Left Greens, Social Dems, Progressives or the Independence Party.

At least it doesn’t seem like a new government has arrived. The new one is still mired in secrecy, nepotism, stiff ideology and impotence.

I saw the Minister of Industry this weekend and thought to myself, “Well, there is the Minister of Industry”. What expert knowledge of industry has 33 year old Katrin Juliusdottir formed during her career as a ladder-climber within the Social Democrat party? The practice of appointing ministers with experience in their respective fields like Minister of Commerce, Gylfi Magnusson and Minister of Justice Ragna Arnadottir was a welcome change in the 80 days of the previous government, but as soon as they’d finished campaigning the people who considered themselves next in line came knocking on the door.

The only breath of fresh air comes from the Citizen’s Movement. Other parties are stuck in arguments over small things, who said what and who did what while the large issues seem to be left in a corner where it is hoped they disappear.

How did people expect change with what the four parties were offering? Eva Joly would probably give up if she looked around Althingi;

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson’s family became rich because his father was handed a state business on the cheap by the Progressive Party.

Bjarni Benediktsson has been a large owner and CEO of N1, the gas station business that was convicted of consulting with its competitors on price and then raised prices last week because of the new petroleum tax, albeit before it came into effect.

Arni Johnsen is a convicted criminal who was caught with his fingers in the state funds cookie jar, then managed to get his party members to grant him pardon. He is backed by large players in the fishing industry.

Asbjorn Ottarsson has been making serious money from the fishing quota system that needs an overhaul.

Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir’s family is said to have been relieved of a large loan that her husband used to purchase Kaupthing stock with while he was a manager at the bank. Those rumours have not been dispelled.

Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson was the chairman of Reykjavik Energy when it was trying to get in bed with all the money men and instrumental in the Geysir Green Energy fiasco, and he was found accepting large donations from FL Group, its owners.

Illugi Gunnarsson has still not answered these questions regarding Fund 9 at Glitnir, instead trying to twist and turn the story.

Helgi Hjorvar has supposedly had loans cut down but his party will not do that for households in the country. He also accepted donations from FL Group.

Siv Fridleifsdottir was the environment minister in the government that approved of the Karahnjukar dam and privatized the banks at the same time.

Steinunn Valdis Oskarsdottir accepted large donations from FL Group and Baugur.

Svandis Svavarsdottir rode in with huge promise when she claimed every stone would be overturned in the REI / Geysir Green issue. She then turned in a whitewashed report as soon as she was in the majority because her majority depended on the support of the Progressive Party, a large player in the matter. A couple of months later the Progressives had defected back to the Independence Party leaving a large egg on her face for not following through.

Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson wrote this

Johanna Sigurdardottir, Minister of Social affairs in Geir Haarde’s cabinet probably didn’t want to be prime minister but had to because of pressure from her party which was severly lacking in the trustworthy leadership section. She has all the aura of someone being somewhere she doesn’t want to be.

You could go on and on about our representatives in the legislative body but the fact of the matter is that the four parties are all utterly disqualified to lead and support the investigation that is needed.

Related posts:

1. The Curious Case Of The Social Democrats
2. Progressive Party Refuses To Leave The Green Room
3. The Independence Party’s Successful Projection Of Baugur and IceSave

From Stefan Benediktsson’s blog

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1. An MP Answers Why She’ll Vote Yes on IceSave
2. IceSave: Really About Domestic Politics In Iceland – UK & Netherlands
3. Iceland seeks help of Yale professor