Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.04.2013, Page 19

19 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 4 — 2013
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
Anti
Pro-Króna
www.framsokn.is
Framsóknarflokkurinn (xB)
(“The Progressive Party”)
Who they say they are in one sentence:
Radical-rationalism. This is about being open to radical ideas
and being willing to debate them in order to come together
for the best solution. Our feeling is that there isn’t enough
discussion and people are just shouting at each other. We
want to be radical about being rational.
4. The Progressive Party considers job creation, the removal
of indexation on consumer loans and correction of consumer
loans that have grown abnormally (because of the financial
collapse and the indexation) to be the main focus both in the
election and for the next four years to come.
9. In the last four years there have been about 200 changes to
the tax system. The Icelandic economy has to be stable, trans-
parent and trustworthy to create an environment where initia-
tive, hard work and social justice are the primary objective.
For that to be a reality the tax system needs to be rela-
tively simple to approach and competitive. The Progressive
Party believes in a tax burden that reflects the standard of
healthcare and other public services we’d like to see. But
first and foremost there needs to be private and cooperative
employment to increase tax revenue.
12. There was a failure of institutions as described in the
SIC report and was dealt with in part by a parliamentarian
conclusion. That work is on-going.
17. There are still some issues that need to be dealt with. The
Progressive Party would like work against negative gender
stereotypes, prepare both genders during their early years
to work together in society, secure gender equality in the
distribution of public funds and, last but not least, to reach
pay equality for women.
19. The Progressive Party sees Christian values as the foun-
dation of Icelandic culture and supports the national church
as it is set in the current law.
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Árni Páll Árnason
Pro
Pro-Euro
www.samfylkingin.is
Samfylkingin (xS)
(“The Social Democratic Alliance” (SDA))
Who they say they are in one sentence:
The Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) advocates for eco-
nomic stability and sustainable growth with equal opportu-
nities for all in an open welfare society.
2. The SDA is a centre-left political party that formed out
of an alliance of four left-wing parties in the run up to the
parliamentary elections in 1999. The SDA’s historical roots
are in traditional left-wing politics, the labour unions and the
fight for human rights and women’s liberation in the past
century. The SDA has been in government since 2007.
12. Opinions may vary on this issue, but most agree that the
collapse of 2008 was more than an economic one and that it
revealed an erosion of civil society and values of thrift and
common decency in the financial and business sectors.
7. Homes and businesses in Iceland will in the coming years
need, above all, economic stability. We need to stabilise the
króna, lift capital controls and make investment in Icelandic
firms a feasible option. Iceland should become a member
of the EU during the next term. If we achieve that we can
improve standard of living and increase jobs and investment
in the private sector.
17. Iceland has been ranked at the top of the World Economic
Forum Global Gender Gap Report for the last four years. We
are a feminist party and many important milestones have
been reached in the last four years, but the fight for human
rights never ends. We can still do better and we will!
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Education as we know it is pretty
similar in westernized countries.
You have pre-school or kinder-
garten for the youngest children,
primary school, high school/col-
lege and finally university. All
these stages of education follow
a similar structure with a similar
hierarchy of subjects with mother
tongue, math and science at the
top, the humanities in the middle
and the arts at the very bottom.
This model of education dates
back to the industrial revolution
because there was an increasing
demand for labourers with the ba-
sic skills that the education institu-
tions of the time provided.
This model is however severely
out-dated in the world of the inter-
net. The world is changing faster
and new technology is being devel-
oped faster. Technological change
will soon make jobs obsolete faster
than they are created if that devel-
opment hasn't started already. It
sure seems to be here already con-
sidering the fact that a lot of young
people today who have completed
a university education are having
trouble finding a job in their field.
Modern education strip mines our
minds for particular commodities
because of preconceived out-dated
notions of what intelligence is.
There is a lack on emphasis on the
arts, creative thinking and truly
utilizing the potential flexibility
that the internet has to offer in the
area of education.
The dropout rate in Icelandic
schools is a lot higher than in the
other Nordic countries. An issue
that has not been discussed enough
is the fact that the dropout rate for
boys is significantly higher than
for girls according to an OECD
report published in 2011. This is
especially true of students who
have learning disabilities such as
dyslexia or ADD/ADHD who of-
ten feel frustrated with the lack of
options and do not feel engaged in
what they are doing.
I along with several of my fel-
low Pirate nominees for the up-
coming parliamentary elections
are planning to introduce an edu-
cation platform that will hopefully
end up as a parliamentary resolu-
tion that will introduce a set of pol-
icies that would greatly reduce the
dropout rate and increase students’
interest in their own education. We
are looking at several other poli-
cies that have already been applied
with great success in other Euro-
pean countries.
Putting a greater emphasis on
creativity in schools both in the
arts and in more formal subjects
will greatly increase students’
ability to empower the multitude
of different skills they possess.
Teaching computer program-
ming and code starting in primary
school will prepare students for a
future that is highly dependent on
the internet and requires a lot more
programmers. Half of the world’s
population will be connected to
the internet within the next four
years and the internet economy is
expected to double in that time.
Philosophy and gender studies
should also be taught in primary
school in order to improve criti-
cal thinking and give children a
greater understanding of equality.
Introducing a more person-
alised form of education that suits
each individual student will give
students a greater ability to pursue
their various talents. Online forms
of education such as Coursera and
Khan Academy have already been
used as part of the curriculum in
schools in other countries. It is
only a matter of time before online
forms of education start compet-
ing with the traditional forms. We
need to speed up that process, be-
cause right now, we're wasting a lot
of valuable talent to an education
system designed for the industrial
revolution and we need an educa-
tion that is designed for the future.
Arnaldur Sigurðarson is a
member of The Pirate Party.
For A New Education System
Júlíus Valdimarsson
Anti
Pro-Króna
www.internationalhumanistparty.org
Húmanistaflokkurinn (xH)
(“The Humanist Party” (HP))
Who they say they are in one sentence:
The party’s agenda is to prioritise the human being before
money and to create an economy that is in the service of
people and their needs rather than the other way around.
4. The most pressing, short-term issue is the needs of the
thousands of Icelanders who now live in agony because of
the financial crash and its consequences. Long term it’s a
new monetary system in which the Central Bank is the only
institution allowed to produce money and it does so accord-
ing to the needs of the economy. We also aim for a banking
system without interest.
7. We will change the money system, taking the power to cre-
ate money from the banks and putting it into our own hands
through the Central Bank and begin working on creating
interest-free banks. Bringing real democracy into the work-
place and rewarding the process of forming co operatives,
for instance by changing all companies the go bankrupt into
workers cooperatives. Cooperative enterprises endure eco-
nomical crises far better than the private ones and they are
generally managed more efficiently due to their democratic
vote.
8. While the beast is loose you should have it in chains, but it
would be better to replace it with a more useful and human-
friendly animal.
12. The crash was that of an old mentality which accepts that
some human beings are above other human beings and that
the interest of individuals are greater than the interests of
the whole. It’s a culture of letting others take responsibility
for our existence rather taking that responsibility into our
own hands in a real participatory democracy.
14. We do not think that Iceland should be part of EU, which
is in our view a European Union of Banks rather than people.
16. We call for reduction in economic growth. The level of
consumption in Iceland is far higher than in all other coun-
tries and this has to change. The natural resources should be
under control of the state and be used so that the environ-
ment can be delivered to the future generations in the same
or better conditions.
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson
Anti
Pro- Ríkisdalur
www.afram-island.is
Hægri grænir, flokkur fólksins (xG)
(“The Right Green People’s Party”)
Who they say they are in one sentence:
XG is a conservative, green, people’s party. We are libertar-
ians that like to see smaller government, lower taxes, free
trade and peaceful international relations. One of our main
goals is to adopt similar measures to the American TARP to
reduce index-linked housing loans to that which they were
on November 1, 2007, when the EU MiFID directive became
Icelandic law and refinanced them through a Quantitative-
easing programme. We also wish to establish a new
Icelandic currency, the Ríkisdalur, and peg it to the US Dollar
to achieve currency stability, among many other benefits.
We want to generally reduce government and government
spending and make all government more open and account-
able. We will instate a flat 20% tax rate to create conditions
for increased investment and get the economy moving
again.
3. Not really, but we are close to Ron Paul's ideological
agenda. It is very difficult to compare politics in the different
countries. But progressive conservative parties might make
for apt comparisons.
13. The short answer is: by staying away from them. A
longer answer is: by creating the general conditions that
have already been briefly described. The party supports the
welfare state, although it wants to make it more effective,
remove unjust income related reduction of benefits to the
elderly and the handicapped and to fix many of its expen-
sive and bureaucratic practices. Equality of opportunity and
benefits for all are the keys.
10. By unilaterally adopting a foreign currency the country
will have to buy that currency with other foreign currency we
do not posses, thus losing monetary independence and con-
trol over to the country owning that currency in the process.
The party opposes membership to the EU and the adoption
of the Euro, and among other things the loss thereby of in-
dependence and the control of money and monetary policy.
The country needs more fiscal stability. That needs to be
addressed, the problem of destabilization of large amounts
of offshore Icelandic króna in the economy and the huge
problem of vulture funds’ strangling ownership of the banks
as well. The solution to all of this is, as briefly described in
answer no. 1 above, to establish a new currency, named
after the old Icelandic currency “Ríkisdalur.” By pegging the
new Ríkisdalur to the US Dollar, currency stabilisation will
be achieved, while all monetary control and policy will to
stay within the country. By various other means, too long
to describe here, this will also enable solutions to the other
problems.
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Grapevine Election Guide 2 0 1 3