Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2012, Page 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2012
Iceland | Politics
Words
Kári Túliníus
Illustration
Hörður Sveinsson
So Who Is This Geir H. Haarde
Guy I Keep Hearing About?
Geir Hilmar Haarde, Geir Haarde for
short, was Prime Minister of Ice-
land when the economy sank back
in 2008. His signature moment was
addressing the nation on TV right
after the crash and asking God to
bless Itceland, which in terms of
Icelandic political discourse was as
incongruous as hearing the Queen
of England quote Linkin Park.
THAT WAS AGES AGO! WHAT HAS
HE BEEN UP TO SINCE?
He has been arguing about how much
he is to blame for the events that led to
the downfall of the Icelandic financial
system. He and his defenders argue
that he was a good man in an impos-
sible situation and that he did the best
he could with the information that was
available to him at the time. His accus-
ers say that he neglected his duties and
was at least in part culpable for what
went wrong, that a man of his experi-
ence should have seen the iceberg
coming. He is basically the Edward
Smith of Iceland.
WHO'S EDWARD... AH, THE CAP-
TAIN OF THE TITANIC.
Yes. Though, to be fair to Geir Haarde,
Iceland did not literally sink to the bot-
tom of the Atlantic. But like with the
good-or-not-so-good Captain Smith,
people disagree vehemently about his
conduct while in command. The Ice-
landic parliament charged him with
neglecting his duties as a minister. A
special court called Landsdómur finally
ruled on April 23 that Geir was guilty
on one count of four. Specifically he
failed his ministerial responsibility and
his constitutional duties to keep his
cabinet informed about major events,
namely the precarious situation of the
Icelandic banks.
HE WAS FOUND GUILTy OF VIO-
LATING THE CONSTITUTION? THAT
SEEMS PRETTy SERIOUS.
Geir Haarde argued in his post-verdict
press conference, in a tone that even
the most co-dependent friend would
describe as mildly intemperate, that
he had merely been found guilty of not
fulfilling a minor formality. Others have
joined him in interpreting the verdict
this way, notably Pawel Bartoszek, one
of the authors of the proposed new con-
stitution who summed up his defence
of Geir Haarde by saying: "It is a pecu-
liar sort of justice to find a man guilty of
violating procedural rules, even though
they are laid out in the constitution, in
connection to the collapse of an entire
banking system."
VIOLATING THE CONSTITUTION
STILL SEEMS LIKE KIND OF A BIG
DEAL.
You are not alone in thinking so. For in-
stance, law professor Sigurður Líndal,
Iceland's most well known legal com-
mentator of the last few decades, says
that Geir Haarde was found guilty of
more than violating a mere formality,
and that it is clear that Geir was con-
stitutionally required to hold cabinet
meetings about major issues, which he
neglected to do.
SO WHAT AWAITS GEIR HAARDE
NOW, THE GALLOWS?
No, given his age and lack of prior con-
victions, the court did not sentence
him to any punishment. He is available
for work should you have a national
economy that needs an experienced
captain.
Siglufjörður is a beautiful fish-
ing village, about an hour’s
drive north of Akureyri on the
northern coast of Iceland. The
town’s museum tells the story
of its herring fisheries, a sector
of the economy that experienced a long cycle
of growth for much of the twentieth century,
eventually seeing the population of the town
expand to 3.000. However, in the late 1960s the
herring disappeared without warning, leaving
bankruptcies, industrial decline and a reduced
population that today stands at 1.200.
Like Siglufjörður’s herring in years gone by,
Iceland’s tourist economy is going through a pe-
riod of unprecedented growth. Foreign arrivals
have just about doubled between 2001 and 2011,
from 300.000 to 566.000—and this figure will
likely be surpassed again in 2012.
It has led to a boom that can be observed in
some unlikely places. For instance, I was sur-
prised to find a bakery open in Hveragerði, a
town of 2.000 inhabitants in south Iceland, at
8 AM on a freezing Sunday in January, full of
tourists.
Over the past few years, I’ve watched Ice-
landers’ attitude towards tourism change. Views
are polarised: depending on whom you talk to,
it is either a fantastic economic opportunity or
a deep-seated threat to their cultural identity. As
evidence of the latter, Sigur Rós, perhaps Ice-
land’s most famous export, recently remarked
that the growth in tourism was one of the worst
things about Iceland’s economic crisis.
The knife-edge between economic opportu-
nity and cultural destruction is no more acute
than it is in the Westfjords: a remote region with
only 8.000 permanent residents. Mountains
and sea surround the region’s largest town,
Ísafjörður, where hundred-year-old streets host
craft shops, knitting cafés, and art galleries.
If you take a stroll around the industrial area,
you might hear thrash metal bands rehearsing
amidst the derelict factories, or stumble unwit-
tingly onto a film set. The creative economy is
flourishing here: there is a vibrant community.
But change is afoot. Subway, the global
sandwich chain, is opening a shop here next
month, taking advantage of the low rents, which
is the result of two decades of economic decline
and depopulation. And whereas the town’s busi-
ness community used to joke about the prospect
of tourism in such a remote location, it is now
taken very seriously as an area of the economy
that should be developed. It isn’t hard to see why:
luxury hotels, boat charters and toy puffins are a
much more lucrative game than picture frames,
wool and old photo albums.
The bottom line is the town cannot be sus-
tained by the creative sector alone. Developing
the tourist industry offers the prospect of in-
vestment and new employment opportunities.
It also offers an environmentally positive al-
ternative to heavy industry. Most people are in
agreement that as long as the growth in tourism
is managed carefully, the two worlds can peace-
fully co-exist to the benefit of everyone.
When the herring boom of the 1960s led
to overfishing, a quota system was eventu-
ally introduced. When fisheries are managed
carefully, the resource is virtually endless and
renewable. However, this is not the case with
foreign tourists: every airplane that lands at Ke-
flavík burns up thousands of litres of aviation
fuel—and despite the apparent discovery of oil
in Icelandic waters, the oil isn’t going to last for-
ever. Not even easyJet can change that.
Perhaps there is a valuable lesson here from
Siglufjörður’s disappearing herring: focusing
too much on one sector of the economy is not a
good thing, in the long run.
Opinion | Neil Holdsworth
Tourists: The New Herring?
“Though, to be fair to Geir Haarde, Iceland
did not literally sink to the bottom of the
Atlantic.”
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