Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Blaðsíða 12

12
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2014
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SKÓLAVÖRÐUSTÍG 15, 101 REYKJAVÍK AND HARPA CONCERT HALL
We in Iceland are often perplexed
by some of the claims made in the
international media about what did,
or did not, happen in Iceland from
late 2008 to early 2009. What sorts
of misconceptions have there been in
Spain about the post-crash protests
and their aftermath?
In Spain, a lot of people think that all
of the bankers responsible for the col-
lapse are in jail. They also believe that
you have a new constitution and that
your economy is doing really well. But
the funniest thing is that people in Spain
think that Icelandic taxpayers didn’t
spend one króna to bail out the banks. I
really can’t understand that. You bailed
out your Central Bank with $2.7 billion
USD as is well explained in the book
‘Bringing Down The Banking System’ by
Guðrún Johnsen, and that is equivalent
to more than $8,000 USD per Icelander
in just one month. That is something like
five times what it cost per capita to bail
out our banks.
What do you think precipitated these
myths? What or who keeps them go-
ing?
Almost everybody in Iceland feels okay
with these myths. I know there are
some individuals who don’t, but there
is a group of people that doesn’t care
about what the foreign media is report-
ing about Iceland. There are also people
in power (bankers, businessmen, politi-
cians) who feel really comfortable with
these myths. This is because, as your
Prime Minister has been explaining
abroad, Iceland has learnt its lesson and
is now the best country to invest in. Fi-
nally, there are the people who think
that if there are people abroad trust-
ing these myths, that it can be a factor
of pressure over the national govern-
ment. If these myths fit well with the
strategies of most of the Icelanders, why
would anybody want to explain it better?
In your experiences in this country,
do you think there is a willingness
amongst Icelanders to rid their coun-
try of corruption, or do you think
we've just sort of chosen to grudging-
ly accept it as a part of our daily lives?
I think that after the collapse of 2008,
some Icelanders started to realise that
daily “normal” corruption, which is part
of Icelandic culture, is not a good thing
when it comes to politics or business.
You should realise that it’s actually very
dangerous to mix the interests of family
or close friends with important national
issues like, say, banking. I’ve heard three
different opinions about it. The first one
is something like, “Here there is no cor-
ruption. Corruption is when you try to
bribe a police officer to get rid of a traf-
fic fine.” The second one says something
like, “OK, we have corruption, but this is
normal for a country
of just 320,000 peo-
ple, so everybody gets
something.” And the
third one thinks that
Icelanders shouldn’t
justify in any way any
dose of corruption,
especially in the pub-
lic administration. I
hope this last group of
people starts to grow
because I believe the
main goal for our de-
mocracies is transparency and no cor-
ruption at all.
In what way did Spanish activists
try to emulate the Icelandic model of
activism? What successes or failures
have their been where that's con-
cerned?
We have a lot of experience with activ-
ism against power in Spain, so actually
maybe Icelanders could learn from us,
but there are not many things that Ice-
land can teach social movements in
Spain. We both try to change things in
the best way we know. Your failed con-
stitutional process is interesting for us,
to learn how power
can destroy a great
project like yours.
Also, it is interesting
for us to know how
your revolution was,
but it is a big mistake
for Spanish activ-
ists to believe that
we should follow
the Icelandic model.
Our countries are
so different and we
can’t compare how
to fight against the system here and
there. It is true that during the protests
of the spring of 2011 in Spain there were
people holding Icelandic flags. For me,
that doesn’t make sense. My conclu-
sion is that some activists in Spain took
Iceland as the perfect land and created
a fictional place on which to project all
their dreams. It’s the only explanation I
find when I think about how capitalist
your country is and how incredibly rev-
olutionary it is supposed to be for these
Spaniards that blindly trust in you.
Where do you see Iceland being in
ten years, where the political system
is concerned?
I see a country with lots of problems
with tourism (believe me, I’m from
Barcelona and I know what I’m talking
about), with huge economic crises again
and again if you let the political parties
now in power and the old bankers repeat
the privatization process of the banks in
the same dark way they did at the end of
the '90s and the beginning of this cen-
tury. Be aware of this process. The fu-
ture of your country depends on it and
it is going to happen in the next two or
three years. You should also understand
that you live in a unique land. Please take
care of it and don’t let the “progress” de-
stroy your treasure. Without your land,
Iceland is not going to be Iceland any-
more.
Èric Lluent is a journalist from Barcelona, Spain who re-
cently published a book, ‘Iceland 2013: A Story Of Decep-
tion’, about the illusion and the reality of the Pots and Pans
Revolution of late 2008 and early 2009 and its aftermath.
Èric, who first came to Iceland in 2008, believed at first
in the “Iceland miracle” of grassroots democratic change.
However, in talking to Icelanders, he learned that the myth
and the reality of Iceland’s “revolution” were two very dif-
ferent things. The Grapevine caught up with Èric to get
him to expand upon some of the major points brought up
in his book.
Does Spain Have
It All Wrong?
Èric Lluent explains
the Iceland Illusion
Interview by Paul Fontaine
Photo provided by Èric Lluent
“In Spain a lot people
think that all of the
bankers responsible
for the collapse are in
jail. They also believe
that you have a new
constitution and that
your economy is doing
really well.”
INTER
VIEW
Iceland | Myths