EPI and I headed down to the demonstration this evening in Austurvöllur square.
There were lots of people there [around 8,000 I'm told] and it was very noisy.
There was quite a different sensation to the protests now than in January of last year. Back then there was a lot of raw energy and also a sense of empowerment, of hope that maybe, just maybe, we could have a new Iceland.
This time it was different. The word jaded springs to mind. The sense of empowerment was gone, and there was almost a sort of hopelessness, or resignation, in the air. That people were protesting just to do something, but that they really didn’t believe it would bring about any real change.
We shall see. I fully expect this to continue over the next few days.
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The noise-making in your video did seem kind of desultory. If not from Iceland, I can entirely, personally, relate in dealing with a bad situation which needs changing, yet in reaching out to those responsible having nothing happen. Deal with much of that and a certain sense of hopelessness does descend upon one.
But I also understand something else.
That for all the excuses and intransigence of Powers That Be, it is at last but their opinion. Also, in some cases, but themselves standing in the way of positive change.
Real hope can begin with that, in the understanding of what we each capable, irrespective of anyone else or their opinion, or permission. That collectively people in a place such as Iceland could band together and bring about true, truly positive change. From the ashes of the kreppa to reinvent the society and nation. If this understanding, and the will to see it through, is found then nothing and no one can stand in the way of it.
As in the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ those pulling the strings hide but behind a thin curtain and charade. One has but to click their heels together, realize what is possible
Relax the solution for Iceland is for Ireland to buy the country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uQ30Iafg8k&feature=related
@ idunn
people don’t have ruby slippers to click together when then have their pay cut by half, a new baby and the rent to pay.
Some images from last night -
http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/reyk-1.jpg
http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/reyk-2.jpg
http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/reyk-3.jpg
The immediate problem has been caused by runaway greed in the financial sector coupled with irresponsible and opportunistic deregulation by the law-makers. Probably all goes back to Margaret Thatcher! Anyone remember Edward Heath? He couldn’t stand her; said she represented ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’.
I can’t see that a change of government will achieve anything (that said, you can hardly keep these wretched individulas in power any longer – they’re only going to dish up more of the same).
Your economists will want to bring in the IMF and your politicians will want to sell off your country’s assets and resources. But the IMF must take much of the responsibilty for what we’re all suffering to a greater or lesser extent , and Iceland’s assets and resources are priceless. (Here in Western Australia we’re riding the worst of the crisis largely on account of the geological assets). To do either of these things would be a tragic disaster.
The banks and the polititians must be held to account. I understood that Eve Jolly had been appointed to investigate this. It needs to be done quickly.
People absolutely must not be forced out of their homes. No one must end up on the streets, unless they choose to. Think of your children! If people can’t pay what the lending institutions are telling them to pay, they must demand an acceptable debt restructure, and only after a transparent process of public accountability has taken place. This should be a mass revolt. Everyone who is threatened with foreclosure on their homes should refuse to leave. People must insist on change in practical ways like this in order to make an impact.
Embrace the idea of a barter economy for a while! It’s by far the lesser of two evils.
As for your politicians, they have betrayed their calling massively. There are no other words for it. The professions of banking and politics have been completely discredited now, not just in Iceland. There are no good politicians or bankers anymore. There just might be if one or other of them would stand up and publicly apologise on behalf of their professions. That would be a start.
There are ideas and solutions out there. You have some good people with good ideas in Iceland, problem is the ones I know don’t want to climb onto the stage.
My heart goes out to you guys in Iceland – a most beautiful and exciting country. And wonderful people ( I never met any bankers or politcos).
Why do those people protest? This was funny to listen to the numerous people interviewed by the press during the protest. Out of 30 people i would say that 1 gave a proper reason. Most of the people came up with phony reasons.
People started to be unhappy with the results of Landsdóm. Now they are protesting because there is budget cuts, taxes raises and so on.
Politicians are being more and more demagogic and populist.
They want election now? What do they think will happen ? As Dr Gunni said, do they think that now some smart people with magic solution to fix everything ?
This is funny to hear that the gouvernment is not doing anything. Things are getting better day after day. This is a fact.
i am not even to comment about the Nazi Flag during the protest
“The immediate problem has been caused by runaway greed in the financial sector ”
In most western economies it was runaway greed by individuals. Most people happy in the boom times to put their entire net worth into housing bubbles (madness). Here we even had people who took ‘equity release’ i.e. took money out of houses they didn’t even fully own to spend on goodies. Banks met a demand.
Bernanke, Mervyn King and lots of other central bankers in the West will make people pay for what they’ve spent. Unfortunately, they tend to make -everyone- pay, by debasing currencies. Which is why you see the price of Gold, Silver and eventually even food rise as they become better stores of value than paper money.
“Everyone who is threatened with foreclosure on their homes should refuse to leave. ”
The problem with well meaning comments like this is that you are just saying – shift the cost of the house from the person who borrowed too much to the young person just leaving Uni – or the young family just starting out in life – and get them permanently out of the housing market for a decade – just in order to bail out someone who borrowed too much.
Morally that is simpy wrong.
For those of us a bit older, its not so bad. For those that shifted out of property and out of paper currencies, its even better.
“I understood that Eve Jolly had been appointed to investigate this.”
Ah bless…
I’m kind of hoping the government will resign. That will make people happy and help with all our problems! The two viable options that will open up then will be a) a minority government with Sjálfstæðisflokkur, Framsóknarflokkur and Hreyfingin – I’m sure that will decrease the time-consuming carping in the Althingi. Or, b) elections – I’m sure that election campaigns will speed up the process of helping families rebuild their finances, show the greedy capitalists in the banks where David bought the ale (idiom) and elevate the political discussion in Iceland to a higher level.
Oh, I almost forgot the third option – the “utanþingsstjórn”. I’m sure it will be easy to find a group of individuals who are not themselves, their friends or families connected in any way to: political parties, influential families, the banks or other controversial groups. A group that the people of Iceland can unite behind and will trust to take on all their problems. And most importantly, would be willing to give up their jobs, abandon their family and private lives to throw themselves to the gentle hands of public opinion and the press.
Seriously, I’m not happy with all of the governments actions and non-actions but what are the real alternatives? If someone could come up with a viable option, I’ll join in demanding it be implemented, but until then I think I’ll use my limited emotional and physical energies for more constructive things.
@Michael,
Jonathan’s point is that the banks and their dictatorial and secretive manipulation of government policy are to blame. And I agree with his implication that, since financial crime at the highest levels of Icelandic society is behind the current mess, then normal reactions from thousands of individuals to the resulting debt should hardly be expected.
@Virgile,
People did not start to be unhappy because of the Landsdom affair.
They have been unhappy since it became clear months ago that there would be few changes to a badly corrupt system of government.
Isn’t there anyone in the Government who can lead and come up with a fair, humane and sensible long term strategy to reconstruct and find a way out of/through this mess? What has happened to the left-greens?
sylvia from viking wirral
Ásdis = Big like !
@Sylvia,
A good question.
I am wondering too what happened to the left-greens.
To start with, their aims seemed pretty indistinguishable from those of the “City Movement”, but now I would say that only “The Movement” is in touch with the 8,000 people who were protesting last night.
A wild guess would say that the left-greens are afraid of the consequences of radical reform. Perhaps they have even been threatened! Certainly their self-confidence seems to have gone.
There are definitely people who could lead and come up with a fair, humane and sensible long-term strategy to reconstruct and find a way out of/through this mess, but they are not in the Government.
What a sad joke.
Ásdis’ view is depressing!
@ Rik Hardy — I agree with most of what you said; however I think there is one person within the LGs who might be able to effect real change, and that is Lilja Mósesdóttir. Did you see the interview with her in Návígi last week? I believe that’s one of the things that sparked off the protests now. Unsurprisingly, it looks like she’s being shunned within the party.
@ Kentaro — demonstrations like this always bring out the rabble-rousers and troublemakers. That’s what the Nazi flag was about. I don’t believe it was any sort of organized statement.
It seems that there’s a reasonable chance that Iceland had been told by the IMF that it may not intervene to write off personal debt. Not if it wants IMF money.
So any write-offs have to come from the banks as a purely comercial decision.
Recent confirmation that the Iceland government has said to the IMF that it won’t write-off the loans:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/10/05/no-debt-write-offs-for-icelandic-households/
@Alda
Lilja is great. Doesn’t talk as fluently as she writes, but she’s a clear head in a messy situation, as is Þór Saari, for that matter.
Can’t understand her apparently being shunned within the party, but, like I said, the party’s self-confidence seems to have gone, and we know that people who lack self-confidence tend to hide behind the group and try to marginalize the individual who’s different, especially if he/she tells the uncomfortable truth.
No, I didn’t see the interview in Návígi. I’ll look for it, thanks.
The desultory nature of this protest does come across in the video- it does look a bit like resignation. This is understandable because the phase of exuberant consumerism and individualism in Iceland , and in the west as a whole, is over. That will never return, no matter how much we demonstrate and people, on one level, may be grieving for that. The point is not to return to the past but to prevent the descent in a kind of dark age, to stop the rot and to reaffirm certain fundamental values, to rebuild a real economy, real community and solidarity: to defend national sovereignty and democracy. This is a moment to draw the bottom line: none without shelter, none without food, none without the possibility of work. Everything in this crisis is about quantities, usually mind-boggling figures for debt or fraud, but behind just numbers there is a qualitative shift and we will become more positive as we realize the positive potential in all this
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