Iceland’s Conservatives Try to Rewrite History

Mr. Gissurarson is himself one of the prime beneficiaries of this patronage system. He was appointed to the political science faculty of the University of Iceland in 1988 by Iceland’s Education Minister, despite vociferous protests from the faculty and the university that he had no expertise in the area of politics. He was appointed to the Central Bank’s board, despite his lack of expertise in finance. He was recently found by the Icelandic Supreme Court to have breached the copyright in the memoirs of Halldor Laxness, Iceland’s only Nobel Prize winner.

Iris Erlingsdottir in the Huffington Post

The whale hunter

This is a widely circulated photo of the new Minister of Fisheries, Steingrimur J. Sigfusson working in whaling more than 30 years ago. 

Steingrimur is now looking into retracting the permission for whale-hunting that his predecessor granted on his last day in the job. 

So what point does this photo prove? Nothing except that Steingrimur can change his mind on issues. Which some people would call flip-flopping and others would call sensible. 

Just depends on where you stand doesn’t it?

Lord of the ring

Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson elevated himself as the self proclaimed master of the Icelandic business world, and set himself upon the throne of a kingdom he called Baugur. Many in the land believed he was a force for good – his father was a consumer champion – but he rapidly became the poster child for all that is rotten in the Republic of Iceland.

From Paul Nathan’s article in Nei from December 20, 2008.

Selling Mt. Esja

The idea of selling Mt. Esja began as a prank, but with time it had developed into something more serious; by now it was no longer a joking matter. Peter wasted no time and founded exPORT Mountains Inc. in collaboration with foreign investors. No one, for example, realized that when they dug the tunnel under Whale fjord the government was doing preliminary tests, a minuscule experiment, as per Peter’s consultation. The results were promising. It was considered unproblematic to tunnel under Mt. Esja to saw it free from its base and sell it to mainland Europe. Intense debate ensued. Scientists everywhere, individually and through learned societies, voiced their informed opinions – quot homines tot sententiae.

From Orn Bardur Jonsson’s short fiction about the sale of Esjan.

Read it in English here, scroll down past the Icelandic text.

Qualifications expected

In new laws regarding the single position of a Central Bank Governor, instead of the current three, it is required that the person in the job hold at least a master’s degree in Economics. 

As opposed to the current requirements of a Phd. in party politics.

The return of David

In Channel 2′s poll regarding whether David Oddson should return to politics the numbers are quite revealing. 

10% for. 90% against.

Positive moves for students

One of my friends has a locational problem. 

He has said for years that if Katrin Jakobsdottir and Kolbrun Halldorsdottir of the Left/Green party would become ministers then he would flee the country. 

Just so it is clear, he does not vote for the Independent Party. He is afraid of their hard-line stance on issues, just like he is afraid of Sigurdur Kari Kristjansson’s and Petur Blondal’s hard-line stance on issues. 

One of the most excruciating appearances on national TV belongs to Katrin, when she was one of those who wanted it made into a law that there had to be gender-equality in all boards of companies in Iceland. Her opponent only had to ask, “so if you and your sister start a business you have to find two guys to sit on the board with you, even if the bring nothing of value to the organization?”

Kolbrun’s major issue as a member of parliament has been to ask that new-born children be clad in neutral colored clothing while in the maternity ward, instead of pink for girls and blue for boys today. Just as scary as Sigurdur Kari’s only notable contribution in parliament has been to ask for alcohol to be sold in convenience stores.

But now both Katrin and Kolbrun are ministers, of education and environmental issues respectively. My distressed friend asked whether Akureyri counts as a foreign country.   

But in all fairness Katrin is making some positive moves in the ministry of education. In today’s Frettabladid she hints to a change in Student Loans where students will get their loans paid out in the beginning of the semester instead of after the semester.

You can hand it to the Independent Party that on all issues their priorities are clear, businesses first, people second. Their control of the Student Loan Organization has made sure that everyone who has to take student loans has to first get an overdraft with their bank and live on that until the end of the semester when they get their money from the organization. With interest rates of 25-20% and loans guaranteed by the government this has been good business, for the banks.

One of Katrin’s first acts was to meet with heads of student organizations. They said they’d been waiting for such a meeting with the previous minister but hadn’t been granted one. My friend is looking into his re-location options but for now he is considering whether he should be open to good things, no matter where they come from.

Cold fury at Iceland’s Baugur administration plan

The spat between Britain and Iceland over the collapse of the Icelandic banking industry is starting to make the Cod War look like a convivial fish supper. The Treasury is spitting that it was not consulted over attempts to put a company that owns large swaths of the British high street into administration.

From The Times

A full page of neo-con comedy

The neo-cons of andriki.is take their comedy to a whole new level in Frettabladid today.

In a full-page ad they point out to the fact that there have been many and varied laws regarding the financial markets in Iceland during the last few years. The ad proceeds to point to most of the laws and the headline sarcastically states “There were no rules here”. 

“People have talked about the lack of rules without saying which rules are missing”, says spokeperson Sigridur Andersen. “People should stop talking in phrases”

 Not for the first time, Andriki.is turn things on their head. Very few people have said there weren’t rules and laws available. Most people have pointed to the fact that the people who were supposed to enforce them didn’t, both because in some cases they were to close to the banks and in other cases because they didn’t have the resources available to them. 

But then again, Andriki.is is a very funny webpage which is maintaned by people who misunderstood Darwin. Let’s see whether their next full-page ad will ask “Why didn’t we enforce all those laws?”

I’ll even publish their ad here above for free to mess with one of their core concepts, that nothing is free.