Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2016, Blaðsíða 22

Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2016, Blaðsíða 22
V: I agree that technology is evolving fast, but it’s like the government isn’t evolving with it. You could be talking to a doctor over Skype, or chatting with someone at the student loan office over Slack. That’s maybe not something the next government should be focusing on, but maybe more something we’d talk about when talking about the Uto- pian Iceland. SS: I agree. I think a lot of our prob- lems stem from the way we distribute wealth. I think we’re actually seeing the first steps of the death of capital- ism, and that’s what the younger gen- eration is going to have to deal with. What this country needs is to get a grip on how we distribute the wealth. We also need to re-structure our health system and education system. Everything else follows after that. If you don’t have your health, and peo- ple can’t educate themselves equally across the country and all age groups, then you have nothing. We also haven’t been doing enough for the elderly, and this is a problem we’re all going to have to face. We have a very serious situation before us. B: I think a reform of the constitution is due. Maybe it’s not the most press- ing issue, but we can’t run from it. I think it was unfair how all the work that was done [on the constitution] after the financial collapse was not put to use. I think the most pressing part of the constitution that needs reform concerns the distribution of power. You can see this in the wake of the Wintris affair [the scandal that unseated former Prime Minister Sig- mundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson]. We needed a scholar to explain to people and he ended up becoming President. I think we’re playing with democracy as we go along, which is alright; it should be in a constant state of development, but a lot of the proposed changes to the constitution would have prevented Wintris and made it a much clearer issue. We’re not so far from a dicta- torship sometimes. What we have right now is not democratic. We have a Prime Minister who’s the deputy of a disgraced former Prime Minister. I think it’s no coincidence that the par- ties that gain the most from the cur- rent distribution of the vote are the most against reforming it. But I also think we’re not just ex- periencing an economic rift, but a moral one. Like what’s going on with the fisheries; there are ideas being floated about putting a tax increase on the fishing giants, or maybe every Ice- lander gets a portion of the profits. But this involves looking into how we feel about who owns the wealth of these fisheries. It’s a moral issue, because people feel it’s unfair as it is. I think it’s more than just capitalism versus socialism. For example, I support the idea of tax reform, but for me it’s not confined to lowering taxes; I think the tax system also needs to be simplified. V: The creative industries are getting so much more impactful every year. The McKinsey report of 2012 pointed out that we will need to double our exports over the next 20 years just to maintain our growth. Right now, our exports are based basically on four things: fish, tourism, heavy industry and the creative industries. Fishing and heavy industry are probably just going to be stable. Tourism will prob- ably continue to grow for a while, but we can’t put all of our eggs in one bas- ket. So I think the creative industry is key here. B: Absolutely. And I feel a lot of young people want to be able to work inde- pendently, and go from gig to gig. And they should be able to, because I think it would stimulate the economy. I don’t think taxes need to be cut, but they can certainly be simplified a whole lot. And where education goes, I would say: less Danish, more coding. SP: There needs to be a push for hon- esty. For the past four years we’ve been living in a concurrent mental state of abundance and austerity. The finan- cial crisis is over, so we can cut the taxes on the fisheries, but we still have austerity when it comes to hospitals and schools. I saw a recent interview with our Prime Minister where he said that we didn't need this income as our fiscal health had become better, but at the same time they were still making painful cuts to education and health. What’s frustrating is that what’s miss- ing in the electorate is a strong, angry demand for clarity. SS: What has to happen after these elections is the first steps towards changing our way of thinking, and the market system that needed to rise from the ashes of the crash needs to embrace a new way of thinking. Fish- ing and heavy industry represent the old ways, and the creative industry will be the future, which underlines the importance of education. Paul: So this brings us to the big ques- tion: what does your Utopian Iceland look like? How do we get there? V: I don’t understand why, in 2016, we still have a gender wage gap. In a Utopian Iceland, this would be fixed. I’ve been in touch with a lot of people abroad, especially Americans, who are fascinated with gender issues in Iceland. They look to Iceland, but we still haven’t solved this problem. It’s in a better place than elsewhere, but we still haven’t fixed it. We did legis- late that there should be gender ratios in boards in Iceland, and I think that’s working. So maybe something huge like that would work. SS: I think we need to be a lot more spiritual. A lot of our problems stem from shame. The materialism that’s breaking this society down needs to be off the table. I think a lot of these issues—gender, racism, the beauty myth, religion—they all stem from this flawed system that’s about to enter its death throes. It’s not just religious shame; there’s also a lot of gender-based shame, shame amongst minorities because this society has a “default type” of a human being—the financially stable man. Everyone who isn’t one has problems. Someone once said that to change society, you need to start by changing ways of thinking, and by that you change the culture of the society, and the final stage is where you’re able to change society itself. That probably takes a few generations, I would think. B: I think most of these are truly universal issues. But to approach this from an Icelandic perspective: I think it’s interesting that Iceland lies on this over- lap between American and European culture. I think that’s the global appeal of our culture. I think we should embrace it more. We need to appreciate how we’ve been influenced by foreign cultures. I mean, taking in foreign cultures is our thing. We’re hybrids. We have this romantic notion of being a secluded island, but I think we’re slowly starting to under- stand that we’ve always been global, and that that’s our strength. I think we need a total reform of immigration in keeping with that. Every Icelander needs to have literacy in more than one culture. We’re not that far from being the open nation that we should be; we just need that extra nudge. U: I think another way to look at the question is, “What can the govern- ment do to create a utopian society? And what could it do right away?” If you look at Iceland from abroad, it’s a perfect country in many ways, and I’m very grateful to live in Iceland. But then there are deep issues that we won’t show to other nations. But in terms of what the government can do right now, I sometimes look at Parlia- ment and think that an ethics expert and an engineer should just get to- gether and redesign it. Parliament is currently designed for 19th century guys on horses getting drunk. It’s not designed for women, or people with children. Regarding the gender ques- tion, I think in pop culture, you don’t always have the best role models for young men. But it’s young men who need to speak up about gender issues more. As it is, we’re more interested in playing Counterstrike and latest pizza offer at Domino’s. If we can’t change men’s self-image, then we can’t move forward as a society. People commit- ting acts of terror and violence, these are all young guys my age. Paul: Now we get to an issue close to a lot of our readers’ hearts: tourism. The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 15 — 2016 22 "We need to appreciate how we’ve been influenced by foreign cultures. I mean, taking in foreign cultures is our thing. We’re hybrids"
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