Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 12

Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 12
10 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 16 — 2010 After the events of the past few days, it is hard not to think of Goya’s painting of Saturn Devouring His Son. Iceland is still in shambles and its children are devouring the government that they voted for to clean up the mess. After watching our country suffer a melt- down induced by half-witted Gordon Gekko wannabes, I sense that a large majority of Icelanders think that the Independence Party can offer a sooth- ing return to blissful ignorance. The robber barons and fishing industry ty- coons want a return to Icelandic capi- talism: crony capitalism. And while benches were being burned, not on a bonfire of vanities, but on a bonfire of misdirected anger and ignorance, Morgunblaðið and oth- er “respectable” media outlets claimed that this was a mass showing of ordi- nary citizens that were demanding a new government. However, last time there were similar protests it was be- cause dangerous communists and ex- tremists sought to threaten Iceland’s stability and economical recovery. Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of the Independent Party, better known as The Ken Doll, put on his Janus perfor- mance. He praised the protests since he was not in power, since Bjarni is far too busy to dare sully himself and his silver spoon by showing up. These benches have been the homes of Reykjavík’s derelict and downtrodden, the people we walk past every day downtown. These protesters complain of a lack of income for basic needs such as food, and yet they have enough disposable income to buy egg cartons, juice bottles and other items to throw at the government that ac- tually may not be doing the greatest job in the world yet it is still cleaning up the mess that the distinct Icelan- dic crony capitalism created, which enabled Jón Ásgeir and others to buy up the whole country, bleed it, torch it and then lie to the Icelandic people on television; on the same flat screen televisions the children of the boom years bought while the Progressive Party created a housing bubble with a cheerful face in ads. The protests seemed to be com- prised of a generation of “me first” Ice- landers: teenagers that prefer reading text messages to books, suburbanites that lived in a bubble and believed the lies perpetuated by Morgunblaðið and the Independence Party—people that actually use words like communist with a straight face and thought that Iceland was somehow more special than every other country in the world. However, the most pathetic part of the protests had to be the Neo-Nazis and their symbols. Instead of focusing their rage on the individuals that created an oligarchic society made up of crony capitalists, we now have people spew- ing their hatred on others. After suf- fering from a severe case of capitalis- tic affluenza, we now blame foreigners for our problems instead of looking within. Shortly after the crash it was Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, then the IMF and other countries for not lending us money. Now it is “The Other”. Ironically, this makes sense in Ice- land. The farcical perversity of our society is so immense that it seems like Iceland is a cosmic joke. One of the architects of the Iceland’s current problems is Björgólfur Guðmundsson, who is married to the former wife of Norman Rockwell, a prominent Ameri- can Nazi. Thanks to Björgólfur and the rest of the ship of fools, Iceland is now dealing with the aftermath; nonethe- less people seem to have forgotten him. I guess he is too busy trying to run Iceland into the ground again for the protesters to notice while they keep on filling the pockets of the oligarchs. Opinion | Marvin Lee Dupree News | Iceland in the International Eye: September The Silver Spoon Revolution Jungle Drums and Tribal Justice “…Iceland’s misadventure in imitating the banking ex- cesses of bigger countries has let it to imitate their ju- dicial excesses.” Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times Public patience has once again reached breaking point. Although cur- rent protests may have been ignited by Alþingi’s recent debacle—a surpris- ing event which vindicated former ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Business Affairs of all blame in Iceland’s economic collapse, but sin- gled-out ex-PM Geir Haarde, voting to indict him for gross negligence—the question Icelanders are asking is: Can anyone here get our house in order? Commenting on the indictment of Geir Haarde, the Financial Times noted: “In large countries a crusading judiciary is either the sign of a feeble political class or the modus operandi of a corrupt one. Maybe, where everyone knows every- one else, statesmen can be disciplined ad hominem without creating damag- ing constitutional precedents. Maybe the prosecution of Mr Haarde is more tribal than political.” In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Geir stated that his indict- ment was absurd. “The crisis,” he said, “was not due to political decisions. It was partly the banks’ own doing.” Without pointing fingers, he admits that there were mistakes made within his own government, but for him, this indictment is a case of “political op- ponents settling their scores.” Geir H. Haarde, the first political leader to lose power as a direct result of the economic crisis, is also the first—and potentially only one—to be indicted. He told the Financial Times that he and his col- leagues “did not cause the crisis any more than George Bush in the US or Gordon Brown in the UK.” Geir may be on to something here. Hoping Geir’s indictment could set precedent other former political leaders are being singled-out for the chopping block in the UK and even the US. In fact, the Daily Telegraph proposes the UK government mount a similar case against Gordon Brown: “…he failed to control the recklessness of the banks… he stripped the Bank of England of its powers…and gave them a…wholly inept regulator…he misled parliament over the state of the public finances…” The Wall Street Journal concurs whole- heartedly, but it’s highly unlikely that a major political leader could be brought to court either in the UK or the US due to negligence any time soon. Set up in 1905, Iceland’s Landsdómur, a special chamber to try ministers accused of crimes, appears to be a rather unique institution. In the US, Foreign Policy Magazine had a look at the legal framework cov- ering a potential indictment of former President George W. Bush and for- mer Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, but found that “it's not against the law for [US] politicians to screw up.” Apparently mistaken regu- latory decisions and lax oversight are not grounds for criminal charges, and in fact even civil charges are highly unlikely. “Unless U.S. regulators were purposely colluding with companies to defraud investors, they can't be held responsible. Iceland's law is pretty unique, but countries under the West- minster system—those based on the British parliament—traditionally op- erate under a principle of ‘ministerial responsibility’.” The Financial Times points out that, “A simple-minded ide- ology, foolishly imposed is not the same as a crime. Negligence, no matter how gross, is not corruption.” To make matters worse, progress in charging former Icelandic ‘oligarchs’ and their ‘banksters-in-crime’ appears to be geriatric to say the least. The Daily Mail states: “The Financial Services authority, as Kaupþing's UK regulator, does not appear to have been in a great hurry to release regulatory material to the Serious Fraud Office.” And here in Iceland, despite a year and a half of evidence-accumulation, not a single ‘bankster’ has been brought to justice. Meanwhile, despite all the current gov- ernment’s promises to the contrary, and at the behest of the IMF, homes are being repossessed, taxes are higher than ever, and social benefits are being cut left and right. One wonders who re- ally governs the country. This last month the FT noted that Ágúst Guðmundsson, founder of Bak- kavör and one of the largest share- holders in the now-defunct Kaupþing, settled a London lawsuit filed against him. He was charged with acquiring an unprecedented 10 million USD loan from his former bank in 2007 for a holiday chalet in the French Alps. In the US, Glitnir’s ongoing 2 billion USD lawsuit with Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson appears to be nowhere near reaching a close. Quoted last month in the Daily Telegraph, he says: "For Glitnir to sug- gest that the overseas incorporation of these [my] companies is evidence of a complex web of international interests designed to conceal my assets is clearly nonsensical." On the surface, it seems—with the exception of Geir Haarde—that no one is guilty of a single thing. For a frus- trated Icelandic nation there appears to be only one thing to do: Crack out those pots and pans and get banging again. MARC VINCENz PáLL HILMARSSON

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