Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2004, Blaðsíða 14

COLUMNS
“THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION
IS A JOKE.”
A Teacher Speaks Her Mind
by Ingunn Snædal
I have a disgustingly hard time getting up in the morning these days. My phone snoozes for half an
hour, every six minutes, and I can’t muster up the energy to get out of bed. When I shake off my dreams,
another day of work stares me in the face and I dread every minute of it. I am a school teacher and I
have come to resent my job.
A lot has been written about the
two month long strike in Icelandic
schools that has just come to an end.
Every day new articles appear in the
papers concerning the “aftermath”
of the strike. Politicians, lawyers,
economists and parents all have
something to say about those
horrendous weeks. Some of them
understand the teachers’ plight,
others plainly don’t.
I’m exhausted. My partner is a
teacher too. During the months of
strike we went from our normal state
of broke to destitute. I read in the
papers that one teacher has turned
prostitute. Fair play to her, but
bonking in the back of cars is not my
way out of this hole.
The morale is the worst. For those
of you who haven’t heard, the
government put an end to the strike
by slapping down a law on teachers,
giving us 0 kr pay raise, taking away
our right to strike and
making us wait (and
work) the next four
months while we wait
for “gerdardómur”, a
committee put together
by the Supreme Court
to reach a decision
whether teachers
deserved any raise
whatsoever. Faced
with this, teachers and
the county councils
managed to get a deal, almost
identical to a proposal put forward
three weeks ago which 93% of
teachers voted against. Now we get
a rehash of this proposal and the
outcome of the vote is expected Dec
6th. My whoping wage of 180.000
kr (before tax) will, according to this,
rise to a staggering 210.000 in May
2008. I will say no.
All the while, teachers are supposed
to carry on as per usual, teaching
grammar, literature, algebra and
science, handling twenty kids at the
time. Our policy of “school without
borders” means we have handicapped
and mentally ill children in with
other children and every teacher shall
cater to each and everyone’s needs.
I teach 34 classroom hours a week,
full post being 28 (which means a
43 hour work week). In addition to
teaching and preparing classes, my
time is taken up with registration
work, student interviews and
counselling, phone calls and emails
to parents, teachers meetings, filling
out requests for all sorts of analysis
for students (for a school to get any
money for students with special
needs, applications in triplicate must
be written and sent out). Homework
I correct in my own time. That is not
considered amongst the things we
should get paid for.
The “minister of education” is a
joke. She has proven herself to be
good for sipping champagne at
official openings and is of course
very photogenic but not much else.
It was slightly embarrassing to watch
her on Channel 2 the other night,
doling out lies and half-truths about
teachers and their salaries, when we
had all seen her on telly just three
weeks earlier, admitting that the pay
was certainly “much too low”. After
that she was quickly removed from
the spotlight and we saw nothing
of her until that famous interview
on C2 when she had been re-
programmed and now read her lines
correctly.
As my students tend to say; “this is
a glorious nation of high education
and literature... NOT.”
NOT TRYING TO FOOL ANYONE
Donald Trump – The Last Honest Capitalist
Like it or not, we in the West live in a market-driven economy. When some of the
powerful few who steer that economy screw up, it makes us all understandably nervous.
From Mike Milken and the savings and loan crisis to Kenneth Lay and the Enron crisis,
we often see a lot of very rich people making poor decisions that cost taxpayers billions of
dollars and thousands of jobs. What makes such crises even more despicable is how these
men have, in the past, tried to pass themselves off as benevolent contributors to society.
This is why New York real estate developer Donald Trump has my grudging respect.
Trump’s honesty with himself and the rest
of the world makes him a more emotionally
stable captain of industry – happy with who
he is and what he wants to do - and less
likely to make rash and foundless decisions
which could cost many jobs. Weasels like
Milken and Lay, on the other hand, possess
a dishonesty which almost smacks of self-
loathing. The constant justifications and
excuses drain their energy and take their
focus off of the business of doing good
business. They are hence prone to make
mistakes that can do serious damage to the
same economy they help control.
If you are one of the super rich of the world,
you would much better serve the global
market (and your bank account) by following
Trump’s example. Admit to anyone who
will listen that you are a shameless, money-
grubbing foot soldier for the capitalist
horde. Display your greed without shame or
embarrassment. Put your surname on
everything you own. Buy that gold-plated
mailbox! It’s in the job description.
We all have our parts to play in the global
market economy. Most of us will be working
jobs which we settle for, living from paycheck
to paycheck to maintain an acceptable
standard of living. We fight to ensure that we
are not only protected from those conducting
the global market but that we get a bigger
share of their wealth. We live in these roles
without feeling the need to lie about why we
play them. Why should it be any different for
the super-rich?
It would naturally be ideal if the super-
wealthy really were benevolent contributors
to society, slicing off a good chunk of their
earnings to help maintain a decent standard
of living for all. And while there are some
millionaires, such as George Soros, who do
take this philanthropic role, we might as well
be honest in admitting that the vast majority
of those entering the market are not there
to play the generous uncle. Look to Trump,
ubercapitalists, and admit your role in the
market game. Nothing is more damaging
to the sense of self than lying to the world
about who you are. For someone in charge
of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to
inflict this sort of damage on themselves, it’s
bad for all of us.
Donald Trump has made it perfectly clear
that the singular goal for his entire life has
been to amass and maintain a fortune. Plain
and simple. You will never hear him making
some sanctimonious claim that his greed keeps
thousands employed, that his wealth enables
him to donate much more money to charities,
or that his acquisitions add to the health of the
nation’s economy. No, Trump wears his greed
as a badge of honour. He knows why he’s been
put on this planet and makes sure everyone else
knows it, too: he is here to earn. by Paul F Nikolov
Lækjar-
torg Hverfisgata
In
gó
lfs
st
ræ
ti
Læ
kj
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ga
ta
Bankastræti
Arnar-
hóll
Ka
lko
fns
veg
ur
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