We the Icelandic people

It is hard to know how – or indeed, if – to respond to some of the comments that have been written on this blog over the last couple of days.

Some readers and commenters are adamant that Iceland is already bankrupt, or that bankruptcy is inevitable. I do not know what sort of information those people are privy to, or how they arrive at that conclusion, but if that is the case then that’s just one more thing we – the regular people who make up this nation – will have to accept. We’ve been told that this is not the case, and being someone who resides outside the scope of economic and fiscal management and consequently does not understand its intricacies, I have to choose to believe that’s true. Because the fact is that there’s a lot of conflicting information floating around these days and it’s come down to choice – that is, if one wants to get through this with one’s mental health somewhat intact. You can choose to buy into the fearmongering and doomsday predictions, or you can try to shut it off and just get on with the business of day-to-day living in a world where nothing is the same as it was just three days ago.

As most of you who are regular readers know, this is not a propaganda blog. I am not here to provide spin for the Icelandic government or any particular individual or to defend anyone’s actions. Normally I just write about my boring life and silly Icelandic customs and inane googlies. However, suddenly I find myself thrust into the midst of a storm that I – like thousands of other Icelanders – am trying to make sense of. And writing about it here in some convoluted way helps me make sense of it. It does not make me an authority. It makes me someone who likes to blog about what is happening around me.

In reading some of the comments to the last post, you’d think I and all of my fellow Icelanders were personally responsible for the way things are unfolding here. To wit:

I must say I do not have much sympathy for Iceland’s predicament …  Icelandic people should have been more vigilant and demanded better economic policies from their government.

How many people, anywhere in the world, who are not specifically educated in economics or business, are perpetually vigilant enough to demand better economic policies from their governments? “Icelandic people” in most cases are people who are getting up in the morning, rushing to get their kids off to school, going to work until 5 pm, taxiing their kids to soccer practice or music lessons or whathaveyou, rushing to the supermarket for something to eat, getting the kids to bed, and falling into bed exhausted themselves not much later. Those are the “Icelandic people” I know. They are people who have to trust their politicians or people who are running their institutions to do their jobs properly because they’ve got their hands full with other things. Sadly for us, our institutions and politicians failed. There were some people who rang the alarm bells, but the people who should have heard them were not listening. And yes, we now have to suck it up and pay – just to what extent still remains to be seen. And it’s hard as hell because some of us probably won’t have jobs any more.

Another commenter seems to think that we the “Icelandic people” have been having one long extended party over the  last few years and it is now time to “pay the piper”. To wit:

The Icelandic government has appeared hapless, disorganized and in way over its head. Private banks with 10x liabilities of GDP? How can a democratically elected government allow such a thing to occur? Hint – the Icelandic people allowed it, not a few speculators were the cause but the Icelandic nation as a whole who benefited for years from the “nordic tiger”.

Believe it or not, most citizens of this country have not been drinking Champagne for breakfast or eating caviar for lunch. The wealth that has poured into this country in the past few years, among other things through the banking system, has by and large not wound up in the pockets of regular Icelanders. The normal citizens of this country are people like EPI and myself who work hard to make ends meet, who have mortgages and orthodontists’ bills and have to pay tuition for our kids. Yes, we would have liked to buy a bigger home – you could even argue that we ‘need’ a bigger home – but we haven’t, because frankly we can’t afford it. We do have two cars – neither one is a SUV, mine is ten years old, EPI’s is 11 years old. Those two cars are regularly used by four people – our two daughters, as well as ourselves. We have not been wallowing in cash by any stretch of the imagination. We work hard for everything we get.

Saying that we the “Icelandic people” deserved what we had coming because we were not vigilant enough to monitor what our government was doing or because we were having so much fun benefitting from the “nordic tiger” is ridiculous. It would be sort of like saying that everyone in Britain deserved the July 7 bomb attacks because Tony Blair decided to invade Iraq along with George Bush. Absurd.

I’m aware that emotions are running high right now. A lot of things are being done and said, people are jumping to assumptions and conclusions and undoubtedly making bloody stupid decisions and mistakes. People in the UK are angry at Icelandic banks and entrepreneurs and, believe me, people here are angry, too. Very angry. Very angry and very scared. The sort of schadenfreude I have observed in the comments box here on this blog and on message boards worldwide is extremely demoralizing for the regular citizens of this country who live normal lives just like people everywhere else in the world. I’ve truly wondered whether it is worth continuing here simply because it might have an adverse effect on my sanity. Like everything else these days, it’s something that has to be considered and reconsidered on a moment-to-moment basis, like whether or not to turn on the news.

I plan to leave comments open for the time being, but if they become too distressing, I will close them. I hope you understand.

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