I’m going to write a bit more soon about the film I saw this evening, but before that I’d like to take a moment to remember the start of the Kitchenware Revolution, one full year ago today.
[~a moment~]
On January 20th last year, the Icelandic coalition government of the Independence Party and the Social Democratic Alliance reconvened in parliament after their three-week Christmas break. The agenda for their first day back included issues that obviously are crucial when you’ve got a collapsed economy on your hands: discussing smoking areas in restaurants and whether or not to sell alcohol in shops.
It was the final straw and showed more clearly than anything else the immense gulf that was between the politicians and the people of this country. The anger had been seething among ordinary citizens for weeks. By and large we had been extremely well-behaved. We got together at our appointed times on Saturday afternoons to listen to rousing speeches and shout a few slogans; some threw eggs and toilet paper at the parliament building. And nothing changed. The government operated behind closed doors and, when confronted, exhibited outrageous arrogance towards the people of this country. But mostly they made sure they weren’t in a position to be confronted.
This was the first day that protests didn’t take place on a Saturday afternoon. Hörður Torfason, who was instrumental in rallying people to the protests, suggested the people show up on the Tuesday in question and bring something to bang on – something to make noise. By noon, there were a couple hundred people there, banging pots and pans and empty biscuit tins. I went down to Austurvöllur and spent a little while, took some pictures. I expected the crowds to dissipate as the afternoon wore on, just like they usually did – only this time, they didn’t.
The crowd just got bigger. And bigger. By 10 pm there were fires burning down on Austurvöllur and EPI and I went back down there. It was incredible. Feverish. The rhythm of the pots and pans was like a tribal beat; the swaying of the bodies around the fire like a sort of exorcism.
It was both eerie and exhilerating.
Today I was asked whether I thought much had changed in the past year. I said I thought the main change was in the people. We are all a lot more aware. We know more. Almost every person in this country can talk like a learned economist. Our national identity has changed – for better or worse. And I think the division in this country has deepened.
As for whether the change has been positive – some of it yes, but essentially, we haven’t seen the sort of revolution in the social structure that so many of us dreamed of. Too much time and energy has gone into Icesave. And too many people are being handed back the reins of power – too many being handed their businesses back minus the debts. It can drive a girl to distraction just thinking about it.
In just over a week, the parliamentary truth commission will release its report on the investigation into the collapse. Some people are predicting a new outbreak in riots. Various governmental bodies and institutions are already gearing up for the worst.
We shall see.
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One of my favorite memories of our time in Iceland last spring was reading a request for people to donate the pots and pans they had banged to the national museum, as they were now valuable artifacts reflecting the modern history of the Icelandic people.
Who would think some kitchenware could accomplish so much? Sounds as if they had best be kept at the ready.
Interesting to read that post – and I got slightly nostalgic because I “joined” one of the protests outside parliament in December 2008 when visiting Iceland. Anyway, something named the “Truth Commission” sounds as if it came straight out of George Orwell’s 1984…
I don´t think there will be riots when the report is issued, some demonstrations perhaps.
But if nothing is done to follow up the findings then we will certainly get riots.
>“Truth Commission” sounds as if it came straight out of George Orwell’s 1984
Or post-apartheid South Africa.
Hmmm, thinking about it, except theirs allowed for reconciliation. Just by itself, “Truth” sounds pretty stark.
“Truth Commission” is my term, made up basically on the spot.
I’m not sure it’s the official name. In fact I’m pretty sure it isn’t.
The Icelandic approach is instructive!! We may yet see protests of this kind in Ireland, but it seems no-one can work out how or where to do it so as yet not much has happened, there is just a lot of undirected anger around. There is also a rumour going around that the powers-that-be have been told to ‘prepare for trouble’ this spring.
I remember being on Austurvöllur on one of the pre-Christmas saturdays afternoons in 2008. At this time the demonstrations were rather calm and brief.
It is remarkable, how fast those demonstrations were gathering momentum from this pre-Christmas time up to the full-blown Kitchenware Revolution just a month later.
If anger has been building up for a long time under the surface, it needs sometimes just a small incident to trigger riots.
Joerg – those pre-Christmas Saturday afternoons don’t count. The protests virtually died down in December 2008 in the advent to Christmas. The greatest numbers (before the actual pots and pans) were in November. In fact, many of us were worried in December that this was it – that the people had had enough and wouldn’t do any more protesting.
Then, of course, they started up again in January with a vengeance.
What a day! Our family will never forget it, especially our son Patrick, who was only 11 years old then and taken into custody that day. To this day I have not heard a word from the Police who told the press that I would be charged. They said to the reporter from Stod 2 that he had been taken into custody for his own protection from the crowd who were throwing “missiles”.
1) He was gassed by the Police
2) The missiles were snowballs!!!!
When my lawyer asked for the report (they would not give it to me) they had changed their tune and were saying that he had gotten separated from his mother and they took him into “care” while they found his mother. I was about 20 feet away and when they asked him where his mother was he pointed to me sitting on the bench (I have a dissability and could not walk unaided after sitting there in the cold for 3 hours, so after being dragged from the bench by a policeman whom I told that I was disabled, he left me crying for help on the icy ground and ran after the camera man who filmed it, I was then helped back onto the bench by the police camera man and a police lady and was allowed to sit there behind the police lines) and I waved my son over. Two of the five police around him stared at me straight in the eyes, so they knew I was there. Instead of bringing him over to me they took him away. I thought they were taking him to my husband on the other side of the police line, but they took him to the police station. They never phoned me or my husband. We only heard about it from my sister-in-law who saw it live on TV.
Anyhoo, the longer story can be read in a comment I made last year on this blog. I have been asking the social services for the report for the last year but they keep telling me it is “lost”. So I have not been able to go ahead with my plan to charge the police with “kidnapping” or some other such charge. I only want the true story to come out, not monetary compensation. What really pissed me off was that a few weeks later when the police were doing the rounds of the schools to tell children that they were really the “good” guys. A young relative of my husband asked why did you arrest an 11 year old boy. The policeman told the class that he was beyond help, a bad lot, and not to believe anything a mother like that would say. Man!!!! I wanted to charge that policeman with slander, but did not know how to go about it.
Patrick was so happy to be the only person in the world to be on the front page of a newspaper, rather than President Obama who was inaugurated the same day as the protest. He was so excited about his “anniversary” that we had a wee celebration for him yesterday.
Here is a link to him on the front page of the Icelandic newspaper DV: http://www.dv.is/frettir/2009/1/21/mamma-skildi-mig-ekki-eftir/
LoVe Pauline
My translation in English on the article about my son Patrick. My Icelandic is not good, but I think this is a “fair” translation
http://www.dv.is/frettir/2009/1/21/mamma-skildi-mig-ekki-eftir/
The English translation of the words of the article are:
Headlines: My mother did not neglect me.
“I was also demonstrating. Everything is so expensive now” said Patrick McCarthy. (They just presumed he had the same family name as me, typical press!)
An eleven year old boy, whom the police arrested during the demonstration at the parliament yesterday, was taken to the police station.
Patrick was demonstrating along with his mother and the police say that he was taken into custody for his protection as he was in danger from the missiles being thrown by the demonstrators. (missiles = snowballs)
Pauline McCarthy, the mother of Patrick said that they were sitting together most of the time, but as the demonstrating increased he asked if he could join the crowd and take a more active part in the protest.
“I was sitting on a bench very near him when the police took him away” said Pauline. She said the police informed her husband that she would be charged by the child protection agency.
Pauline said her son watches the news and is exceptionally concerned about the state of the countries financial ruin for a child of his age.
“He is always asking questions about the effects this will have on our personal lives and worries that we will lose our house, he is very dissatisfied with the government” she says.
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