We have a choice

A speech by Birgitta Jonsdottir, October 5th 2009 in the Icelandic Parliament
translation: Kári Þór Samúelsson

Madam President. Dear countrymen. We have a choice to make. We are never faced with just one way, one solution. To assert so is a testimony to incredible tunnel vision on the reality that we live in. We are far from being the first and only nation that has had to deal with crisis and economic collapse. Perhaps what makes our position unique is that we are in an economic war – a war with nations that are using their positions of power to get what they want. Does that mean that all other avenues are closed? Are there perhaps other possibilities than chaining us with the burdens of foreign debt far into the future?

It certainly makes sense to lower our interest payments as soon as possible but is there perhaps another way? Why can’t we look at, or at least discuss, the possible solution of declaring a debt moratorium? The numbers I hear on the national debt is so huge and such a high percentage of our GDP, that according to all the standards we use we are technically bankrupt. Is it maybe better to face reality before it is too late? Is it maybe better for our nation to take the crunch immediately instead of continuously adding to our foreign debt? Do we want to offer our children the hopeless conditions that many underdeveloped countries have had to offer their future generations? Do we want to be just another country that does not do anything other than pay off interest on foreign debts? What is the worst thing that could happen if we declare debt moratorium? Will the sky fall? Will we starve? Will we never again be able to get loans from the international community? Of course not.

We have heard from many experts that horrendous tales of the International Monetary Fund. They warn us against continuing on the road we are on. Do these fine individuals know what they are talking about? One of them is a Nobel Prize winner in economics and worked for the IMF a long time, the other was an economic hit man and yet another one is a world renowned economist. Some experts have proposed that we join other nations that have defied the IMF, or at least seek advise from nations that have fared badly under IMF conditions. Will we be able to preserve economic independence, if we continue to believe that the only possible solution to the debt problem is to create more debt? People who are dealing with excessive consumption of some sort should probably not use this cure since the solution seems to be to consume more to cure the over consumption. I simply don’t understand this methodology.

Unfortunately, the reality is that if we continue on the way the government is going our nation will be crushed under the interest burdens of foreign debt. Payment of foreign debt will take a big chunk of our economic growth and our GDP. The government proposes two ways out of this problem, slashing our welfare state and increasing taxes. Furthermore, we have not seen any reasonable proposal to correct the injustice that the public has suffered. How can you expect to nation to shoulder such burdens as the proposed cuts and tax increase suggests if you can not trust that the hardship will have positive results in the end? It simply can not be expected.

We now need to make decisions based on hope, justice, and the resurrection of pride which comes from living in a country which many people believe is almost uninhabitable. We can and should seek all possible ways to find common solutions. Britain declared war on our nation when they labeled us as terrorists – the British authorities have used economic terrorism against us by misusing the IMF, and using our EU membership application as leverage in order to extort from us what they want in the Icesave debate. It is morally wrong to lay debts on the shoulders of the public which it had nothing to do with in the first place.

Our government doesn’t seem to realize that we are indeed in an economic war and that the nation has been attacked in such a way which makes a courteous response impossible, and it being impossible as well to state without blinking that we should pay the debts of financiers that mortgaged the work of the nation undisturbed while the administration slept.

The demands of Britain and Holland regarding Icesave have to be rejected on the basis of national well being and security. If the government tries to honor the Icesave agreement and follow the IMF program it could lead to mass emigration, damage our healthcare and education system, diminish the workforce, inhibit productive investments and usher in a period of permanent national decline.

I object when our leaders claim that we the people are obliged to pay debts we never incurred. On what basis should every man, woman and child be forced to pay €20,000 each? I have heard that we have to pay the British and the Dutch because they are using their strong position to stop our loan from the IMF. I have heard that their MPs were ruthless and rude to our visiting MPs last week in the European Parliament, and had said more than once that if we didn’t pay we could not join the European Union. I don’t know about you, respected government and prime minister, but I think the time has come to get out of this bind and seek alternative solutions.

The Movement supports the following ideas for action to bring us out of the economic calamity we are in:

First, we should rid ourselves of the IMF presence in our country using all available means. The European Union has also been hostile to Iceland in the Icesave debate and hence it would be inadvisable to continue with our membership application at this time.

Secondly, we should initiate measures to control speculative trading, first by placing a 1% "Tobin-tax" on all financial transactions and profits, including derivatives, stocks, currency transactions and commodity speculation. Additionally we should halt the repossession of homes and businesses and update our regulatory framework for banks and financial markets.

We are now heading into familiar territory where left and right are positioning themselves in the usual opposing trenches. Lament is now heard from a familiar corner about how the cutbacks aren’t large enough or that its unfair to tax those more who can afford to pay more.

We have often heard that we need to get around this left-right paradigm which places people in opposing camps. It has never been more important than right now to lift the discussion on a higher plane than the trench warfare of obsolete values.


When I see the task of this government I see a number of important issues on the agenda and I pledge our support to many of the legislations being proposed. Much has been discussed about a broad based national coalition government and a non-parliamentary government . Such arrangements have not fared well in the past, but the total collapse of our financial system may justify that all elected representatives shoulder collective responsibility of resuscitating our economy. Unfortunately our president has lost his symbol of unity and any such government appointed by him would leave much to be desired.

This year me and my friends in the movement have have thought about what could unite us to seek a way out of our troubles. What could make us believe that it was sensible to try working our way out of these trying times and injustice. Is it realistic to expect that the public take on the difficult times ahead if they can not unite on something to work through this? It is often said that we parliamentarians are a disparate group of people reflecting the different views of society. Maybe our next big task should be to find a common way which we all can go. Maybe we need to think beyond the next four years. Maybe we need to really discuss what kind of nation we want to be. Many people walk wounded from the boom time in which they took part, they got swept by the current and now feel guilty. Others never took part in any of this and feel its unfair that now they are called on to pay for this whole mess when they never were rich in the first place. The pulse of the nation is rapid and raging.

The new Iceland isn’t the Iceland that the people called for. They wanted democratic reforms, but legislation now being proposed in this area is weak and not in tune with the peoples demands. The nation needs a constitutional convention in which citizens take part but the expensive advisory convention for a chosen few which the government proposes is a distortion of the unity such a convention could bring if a different metheod were used. In November a few energetic individuals will call together a national convention and it is my hope this endeavor will guide us on this path.

We parliamentarians are here to represent the will of the people. But the people have to make up their minds as to what it is that they want. It is clear that no matter which government will be in charge, they will always be unpopular in the trying times ahead If we are not to have a persistent government crisis it is important that Parliament take back the powers it was originally intended to have. At the moment the executive branch holds Parliament hostage. It is healthy for democracy that the executive branch refrain from using its MPs as a rubber stamp for their decisions. The government has set an example for all and called for the parliamentary minority to work according to their conviction, cf. European Union application - it must apply to the majority as well. Heard mentality and leader adulation brought us down. Lets make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Movement wants to speak for the public, we have no interests to guard but your own.

Halldór Laxness had a unique insight into our nation’s soul. Maystar, his poems of hope, sings in my heart when I think to my nation these days, and in particular this verse:

There are difficult times,
there is a labor dispute,
I have nothing to offer,
not a scrap I can give,
but my hope and my life
whether awake or asleep,
this hope that you gave me
it is all that I have.

There are difficult times and a hard winter lies ahead, but let us never forget that the darkest hour is always before dawn and there is hope if we find it together. In order for this to happen we must square up with the past and implement real changes. If we can see a purpose with our sacrifices this nation can continue to perform small miracles and make the impossible possible, then this depression will perhaps not last as long as it seems at the moment. It is unrealistic to argue that next year we will see the end of the crisis. But it is realistic to set goals that we can all agree on. What these goals are is yours to decide and ours to implement.

ICELAND POLITICAL LEADER CALLS FOR DEBT MORATORIUM AS GOVERNMENT CRUMBLES

By Webster G. Tarpley

Reykjavik, Iceland, Oct. 7 – A leading member of the Icelandic parliament called Monday night for the country to declare a debt moratorium and stop attempting to pay the $6 billion which the British and Netherlands governments are seeking to extort from Iceland with the help of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission in Brussels. This dramatic call was issued by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the chairman of the parliamentary faction of The Movement in the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. Birgitta Jónsdóttir was speaking during a special session of the Althing called to address the rapidly deteriorating economic and financial position of Iceland, one year after the collapse of the three hot-money offshore banks, Landsbanki, Kaupthing, and Glitnir.

In her remarks, Birgitta Jónsdóttir observed that Iceland is already technically bankrupt, and ought to cease payment. She also pointed to the hostility to Iceland of the IMF and EU. The current prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who leads a moribund coalition of Social Democrats and Left Greens, had attempted to justify her policy of financial appeasement of the British and Dutch. London and The Hague are demanding $6 billion in restitution for losses incurred by private Icelandic bankers operating in their countries as Icesave, even though the Icelandic government had never guaranteed these operations, and even though British and Dutch regulators were deeply implicated in the Icesave debacle, which came in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The sum demanded by the British and the Dutch from Iceland in an operation spearheaded by the widely hated UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown would amount to about half of the yearly Gross Domestic Product of Iceland, a country with about 330,000 inhabitants. If the Anglo-Dutch were attempting to perform a proprortional extortion on the United States, they would be demanding about $8 trillion . The British and Dutch are also determined to collect at least 5.5% compound interest, meaning that Iceland’s obligation would grow over time, even if substantial payments were made. If the politically desperate Brown and his Dutch retainer Balkenende get their way, Icesave will turn into Iceslave – a future of poverty, unemployment, depopulation, and national collapse for Iceland, which could never pay the sums being demanded.

In a related development, Icelandic Health Minister Ogmundur Jonasson, a highly respected leader of the Left Green Party, resigned from the coalition government in protest against the economic policies being pursued. Specifically, Ogmundur Jonasson stated in interviews that he could not in conscience support the Icesave sellout, as the prime minister was demanding. Ogmundur Jonasson is widely regarded as a possible candidate for prime minister. His resignation is considered the de facto start of a government crisis likely to lead to the fall of the current coalition, perhaps as early as mid-October.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir’s The Movement faction is the product of a mass strike upsurge which gripped Iceland from October 2008 to January 2009, with frequent large-scale demonstrations against the previous right-wing coalition government, which had imposed the monetarist de-regulation of the Icelandic banking system, leading to the banking crisis of last autumn. Birgitta Jónsdóttir and her associates were originally elected as part of a larger group called the Civic Movement, from which they split when the Civic Movement took a course of opportunism.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir has now placed the question of a debt moratorium squarely on the international agenda. Her courageous move shows that small countries can move world history by providing leadership for humanity in times of crisis when existing institutions are increasingly paralyzed and corrupt. In recent months, political forces in the Philippines and Sri Lanka had raised the question of debt moratoria, as had the leaders of UNCTAD. With the news coming from Iceland, the formation of an international debtors’ cartel to confront London, Wall Street, and the IMF has suddenly become a real possibility.

The world needs an honest money system

I got this article sent and I find it carries important message...

"I am Canadian and a great friend of your beautiful country. I have visited the island 5 times and even read Egill's Saga without having nightmares :-)

I am a retire Director of an Investment Bank. Like approximately 98% of people who work in banking (and 99.9% of the general population) I never truly understood how money is created, the act of bringing it into existence, and certainly did not understand the confusing issues of Fractional Reserve Lending, but since retirement 9 years ago I decided to find out this mystery. I highly recommend this field of study to all, for our ignorance of this money scam is quickly enslaving the world.

The purpose of this post, entitled, 'Mortgage Striker Support', is to offer my highest praise and encouragement to any and all of you who are participating in this activity. You are indeed the true patriots of Iceland, and I assure you, Egill would be proud of all of you indeed!

What I learned about money creation is that it is a total scam; this fiat, debt-based, coloured paper that is backed by nothing other than the global banker elites who are taking over the world. Ultimately, real money is a call on our labour and for it to be honest it must be born out of labour and have real value within the economy, which is why gold and silver are still money today.

The banksters will say otherwise and have a great list of reasons why gold and silver can never again be used as currency, but the bottom-line reason is they can not steal value from it, and that is their mission in life - taking the value of our labour, seizing the assets, country by country, until they become the undisputed global rulers.

I know very well how proud and reputable Icelanders are as a people. If I lent you $100 or 100 euros, almost every one of your countrymen would honour and repay that debt. That moral value is deeply inbred from years of respecting each others promises - "a promise made is a debt unpaid" type of thinking. This is because you know very well the labour that is required to "earn a living", you know how hard life can be.

But what if the money I lent you was magic money - money that I created out of toilet paper; money that the value kept disappearing from, so that you could never earn enough to repay me and rather had to always return to borrow more and more and get ever-deeper into debt? How would you feel about that? Would you still feel obligated or would you feel betrayed and deceived? I think that Egill, when he would learn of such a trick, would have grabbed his broad axe and chopped off my head, and rightly so.

You see the current money system is funny money - magic money where the value always disappears. This is called inflation that so few people really understand. We believe we need banks because we think they have money to lend us - they do not. They only have the ability to create money out of thin air, and it is always given as debt where we have to pay interest or years of hard labour to try and catch up to the amount that the banksters created out of thin air in the first place, and we have to always run faster and faster on the work treadmill as the value of the money always disappears into the bankster's pockets, as the costs and expenses of living keep increasing.

It is truly a scam, a world wide scam and all countries, not just Iceland, need an honest money system. The only way it can be honest is if the banks are taken out of existence. We don't need them, and by keeping them, we perpetuate the slave system they have created.

How do we get rid of them? We stop playing their game. We stop paying the debt. We refuse to give our labour to pay back magic money, and this is what the Icelandic mortgage strike can accomplish. To all of you doing this, I say, Bravo!! You are the true patriots of Iceland and it is likely up to you whether Iceland returns into the hands of the people, or gets handed over to the banksters, and you become serfs and slaves in the country that Egill loved.

I salute your efforts and want you to know there are many, many people in the world who are on your side and right now, sending you love and support.

Tom Jefferson"

Joy B is now a MP

Dear friends and readers - I have not had time to write into space for some time - the adventures have simply been beyond amazing ...
Here is a link to a great interview conducted by Alda the spinner of the Iceland Weather Report - a must read for those who like to follow happenings and events from the island of extremes...

In Iceland things are never called by their proper names

by alda on May 28, 2009

In our latest in a series of interviews we talk to Birgitta Jónsdóttir, poet, activist, and newly-elected MP and party group chairman for the Civic Movement – the political force that grew out of the protests here in Iceland last fall and winter. It was founded a mere nine weeks before the elections and ran its campaign on a shoestring, yet managed to secure eight percent of the vote and four seats in parliament. Among other things Birgitta has been very frank about her views on the inside workings of Althingi, Iceland’s most venerated institution, which she expresses unabashedly on her blog. Birgitta is a single mom who was unemployed before being elected to Althingi.

Want to read more: follow the bread crumbs

LOVE B

Hit and run party in Iceland

Dear friends
I have been silent for almost a month - reason for it simple - I have been working day and night with various grass roots movements to find solutions to the crises we are facing as a nation. We had a revolution - we got a new government for 80 days and we will have elections 25th of April - however we are still falling deeper into a hole that the IMF is digging for us. I fear that there is a real danger that we will loose our natural resources if we follow the IMF plan. I have done some researching on the history of IMF and it is not a very happy trail. It is a program based on pure capitalism and it will destroy our social structure if we follow it.

I have with others organized protest - information nights - open meetings between the public and the political leaders - we have managed to make an umbrella org for many of the grass roots groups so we can pool our resources together and make a heavier dent into the dead end we call neo capitalism that has been blossoming here and greed and corruption. We have now formed a hit and run party - its only aim is to get through democratic reforms on our constitution and the electoral legislation. Once we have followed through our mission we will cease to exist as a party.

I was elected as the vice president for this hit and run party and since we only got until April 25th to make this choice seen and heard I will not be writing much here on this blog - and i will not have much time to write letters:) not that i have been doing much of that in the last half a year:) please forgive me those waiting for replies ...

I leave you with a little film i put together about the financial crises in Iceland and will be shown on TVset a tv station in the USA on February 28th...

Icelandic parliament under siege

Right now the Icelandic parliament is under siege from the general public. The only weapons we have are our voice - and they are shouting. The only weapons we have is information - and they are shouting. The only weapons we have are noise and we are making them hear us. The only weapons we have are our fists and we are raising them.

The Icelandic parliament is under siege and they are using maze and batons against us. They are a the soft shield between the corrupt mafia who has taken our country and destroyed the future of the next generations.

I hope the noise will make them feel in their soul how they have made the nation bleed. I hope they will realize we want them to resign - we want them to leave forever and ever. We want a new constitution for the people of Iceland not to serve the mafia.

We will not leave until they will leave - we will make you hear our voice - to hear our howl for freedom until you leave...

Food for thought today: Tibet

Energized

When I am being love
my heart becomes huge,
overflowing,
inside, outside,
the walls I call body
I energize myself
not like a machine
more like a plant
Stretching my leaves
towards the light
When night falls
I don't sleep
I withdraw,
go inside,
close my blossom,
to the outside world
So I can let the light
illuminate my inside
I draw life from earth,
the mother
It's a more subtle kind of life
My grounding is my breath
The deep womb of intuition
I open to the father
The source for imagination
The bringer of light
The spinner of wheels
All is linked together within,
–Unbreakable threads

I am with the creation

Video from the protest in Iceland 31.12.08

Like in all mafia countries - the media is owned by the mob - the police is owned by the mob and of course they lie through their teeth when it comes to reporting what really happened at the protest.

Highlights from 2008

This year has been very eventful for Joy B aka Birgitta. Here are a few of the highlights.

I organized with my dear friend Hjörleifur Valsson two memorial events for my late mother Bergþóra Árnadóttir, who died from cancer 8th of March, 2007. The first event was held 15th of February when she would have turned 60. It was a total success - the event sold out and her lifespan was featured on the national TV the night before the event. We got some fantastic musicians to sing and perform her music and the event was something those attending will never forget, because of the quality of the music and the sense of warmth surrounding the entire event. A big thank you to everyone that took part in making this an unforgettable event:) You can find her music at the myspace page i created: http://myspace.com/bergthoraarna

Here is one video with her performing when she was young and was from one of the first TV shows in Iceland.




and here is a memorial piece i put together for my mother shortly after she died:



and finally the gravestone: thanx to Sólsteinar for managing to create my vision just they way I wanted it to be:



More highlight in the next couple of days:) until then Happy New Year: be the change this year:)

A message from Students for a Free Tibet

As 2008 draws to a close, we reaffirm our commitment to work for
Tibet in 2009. Tibetans across Tibet have risked everything to
make their stand and now we must answer their calls for freedom
with hard-hitting political advocacy that holds the Chinese
government's feet to the fire.

This March 10, 2009 will mark 50 years since the 1959 Tibetan
National Uprising, when Tibetans across Tibet rose up against
China's illegal invasion and occupation of their homeland.

As we approach this historic March 10th commemoration, and
following the Chinese government's rejection of the Dalai Lama's
attempts at meaningful dialogue, the time is ripe for political
action.

In 2009, SFT will highlight the Tibetan people's enduring
resistance, celebrate their embrace of nonviolence, and pressure
global leaders and the international community to push for a
resolution to end China's occupation of Tibet once and for all.

For the past five decades, Tibetans have steadfastly rejected
Chinese rule and, against all odds, kept their struggle for
freedom alive.

With your support, we can show the Chinese government, and the
world, that 50 years is too long. The occupation of Tibet must
end. Please donate now: https://secure.ga4.org/01/Support_SFT

In solidarity,

Lhadon, Tendor, Kate, Heather, Sam and everyone at SFT HQ

and Choeying,Tenchoe,Shibayan and Youndrung at SFT India

---

Students for a Free Tibet, India (SFT India) is the India National Network
of Students for a Free Tibet International, which has over 650 chapters in
more than 35 countries.

Founded in the year 2000 from a very humble beginning as a loose network of few
young activists and students based in Dharamshala campaigning for Tibet's
Independence,SFT India has grown as nation-wide network of youth, campaigning for
the Fundamental Rights of the Tibetan people, and we are still growing. It is from
our grassroots network that we gain our strength.

To ensure the effectiveness of our grassroots network.we create Awareness
and sensitize the world on the just cause of Tibet. We believe that young
people can and must take responsibility to change our world for the better.

For more information visit www.sftindia.org, www.studentsforafreetibet.org

Enough!

enough blood
has been spilled
enough hatred
has been bred

enough weapons
have been created
enough children
have died

enough, enough
the womb of the mother
is bleeding
her breasts dry

time
now
for the peoples of this world
to unite

our world on the verge of collapse
into darkness
time to unite
for real changes
for us all
not just the chosen few

time
for us
to choose for us all
for we are all chosen
to lead our world into another reality

Horror of War

I wish to dedicate this poem to everyone effected by war in one way or another. Deepest sympathies to the people suffering right now from the horror of war. All my problems are but luxury problems compared to your suffering. I wrote this around the time of beginning of the Iraqi war - but it could be about the same subject around the world. We really have to stop all this hate and fear in our world - I wish I knew how. Click on the image to see the poem better if you like to read it.

The International year of poetry: 2009!

Many have forgotten that once upon a time - poets were in the role of oracles - we still are - we have just forgotten - while reading through old poetry by some of those poets that never forgot their role and talked with the voice of reason - it is easy to spot this element of forth sight and future gazing - as our world will spin into even further turmoil and chaos - what better then find the simple tranquil voice within the worlds? the Voice within that empty space that speaks to us. Let us write - celebrate - and nurture the words of hope and rebellion against all odds.

Happy Brightmas

Next year 2009 will be the international year of Poetry - I have nominated this year to be the year when we need more then ever the voice of reason often found within poetry. Good poetry says more then 1000000 words. Now we need information, information, hope, faster then ever and the poem is the best form and method to deliver messages to humanity: viva la poesia: Lifi ljóðið:)

So dear friend - write down your thoughts in as few words as possible in a verse of hope...

Love - light - and joy
Birgitta

IMF, Russia and Iceland

Just got the news: IMF has agreed to lend Iceland money - Why? All the same people are in power - no one is claiming responsibility for allowing the newly privatised banks to grow so huge that they grossed 12 times the entire national budget. They knew about the risks and yet they allowed the IceSave blunder to occur as late as a few months ago.

I am deeply sorry for all of those people around the world who have suffered because of those incompetent politicians, sharks and general idiots in the banks to allow this to happen. If I had known - I would at least have tried to warn people... many of my friends have lost their savings because of the same sort of robbery occurring here.

But why does a "respectable" institution give the same criminals that made the great blunder happen, who got us in this mess in the first place - why does IMF give them the money to continue the gamble with the Icelandic krona? Many experts warn that the experiment they are about to conduct with the krona will fail.

In my eyes, dear world - this is the day we lost the last remands of our democracy and sailed full on, into corporate fascism... things are going to turn bloody if no one resigns - and I had truly hoped it wouldn´t have to come to that. The biggest loan is coming from Russia, with the kindness of the mafia love - the Icelandic nation, of course, does not know of what we need to sacrifice in return. My bet: energy.

Goodbye my fair island - things will never be the same again... hello infinite debt for my children... dept is of course a claim on their work... so thank you Icelandic government for enslaving my children and future generations... thank you IMF for being true to your legacy - at least we will always know you are corrupt evil institute - wonder when they will privatise the water - the only inexpensive thing on the island...

Hello slavery: man i shall have to go and make some sort of revolution or i will go mad...

love and rage
joy b from the island of extreme insanity

Diary from the island of extremes - the Fall

Right now we are still falling - from being one of the wealthiest nations on earth towards the poorest nations on earth. What does that tell us about money - wealth - poverty?
It tells me that money is a gas. Money is not real in our world after we invested our security in it and lost our sense of sustainably. The western world is falling - we shouldn´t save the banks - we shouldn´t forget that we are the power - not just a handful of people should have the power to choose for us. But we are to blame. We wanted to throw away our liberties, our independence, our responsibilities for the status quo - for being in a limited comfort. We refused to face the responsibilities of insane decisions by our world leaders. We looked the other way as people starved and were shocked and awed in the name of forcing democracy - DemoCrazy on the world. Our view who we didn´t really know was anyway. We are to blame, we have to take responsibility for our lack of action, lack of responsibilities for having allowed us to become comfortable numb.

We are falling and after the fall is a chance for resurrection - for a new earth - old world order - to return to our roots - to return to the simple - we can learn much from the people who still know how to live in harmony with their environment - who have refined communities without a few fat cats stealing away the extra food to make it rot in sheds at distant shores - we should learn now or it might be too late... the earth can not sustain us unless we are willing to change our consumer habits... we really don´t need more stuff - we need to think with our heart - to develop the heart - and to have the courage to rise for a real reform.

You are the voice - don´t allow yourself to believe that you don´t matter - we all matters - we are the change.

Diary from the island of extremes - Anger management

I got my anger out this morning while writing about the current situation in Iceland - well most of it. I got too much to do, depression or not I always have too much to do. Each day has so many offerings of mini miracles.

Right now I have enough material to write a whole new volume of poetry - this time around I will write in my native language. I think the role of poets and other artists is never as important as at times like this. We should be the voice of reason. We should be the oracles as in the past. Need to rebuild bridges between the word and the public.

Here a drawing by the Hand of Joy B the poet:) Lifi ljóðið, innra sem ytra.

As I enter the creative space - all these troubles of the external world have little impact - seeking for some sort of harmony within this turmoil - find the ballast - because in Iceland the metaphors mostly evolve around the oceans and the elements of nature.
I am seeking for the nature within me - I think that might be a good thing to do for people feeling in a free fall of suspense and worry:) go visit the ocean, waterfall, mountain, tree, if you got the financial crunch blues.

Diary from the island of extremes III - Nation in denial

Right now, the Icelandic nation is in denial about the situation. The mentality, "I have enough problems dealing with my own situation" is still going strong. Why should I use my time to think of ways to change the situation, why should I care? Why should I take to the streets to protest, write about the situation and those responsible?

I don't think my fellow islanders realize that we are facing a grave danger of loosing the little independence we had. I don't think people still realize how utterly screwed we are. Our leaders, who by the way are to a large degree responsible for the situation we are in, ask the Icelanders to show them support and give them peace to solve the problem. And what do the islander do? They trust the people who are responsible for all the mess to clean up the mess. No one at the top has lost their jobs. Not even David Oddsson who was a prime minister here for a decade and before that the mayor of the capital city. He is the guy that was given the job of running our national treasury bank and he is the guy who angered Brown and Oh Darling with his big mouth during a live interview at our national TV. He has never been known for watching his mouth.

So why, why but why does the nation just go shopping with their credit cards in the shops still owned by the same guys who made the impossible possible... made this nation go bankrupt? Well first of all, this is a nation of sheep, nation of mindless consumers, nation of spineless wankers, nation of workaholics, nation of self interest people, who really don't care much about anything except the external goods. A nation who has always thought first, how can I exploit this situation to my own interest. Viva la Banana!!!! This is a banana republic - but the sad thing is that the government doesn't even need an army to get people to follow orders, there is no army in Iceland. It is enough to say, if you obey, we might make YOU feel special and give YOU a little extra. Join the party = there is still plenty of greed-booze left.

I am a little concerned, because I love this island, there is still a mass of untouched wilderness left, but not for long if things carry on in the direction the capitalists wants us to go.
We are a nation living in fear, not of war, not of drought, floods. We are a nation living in fear of not having enough stuff. We are victims of our own greed, and through that process we might loose our independence and our wilderness.

Our government and members of parliament are now talking about that our only salvation is to change this island into heavy industry hell, build more smelters, let us use all our cheep energy to fuel aluminum smelters and other nice factories. Our propagandamasters have managed to sell the nation that we are helping the poor underdeveloped countries in the world by having Rio Tinto and Alcoa in Iceland, because they use our green energy not the dirty coals. So in the mind of the nation aluminum factories are green factories and not only that they are now talked about as our saviours ....

I am living in a banana republic and there are no guns to our heads, the greatest threat we face is to become dependant on huge corporations who roam the earth like an overgrown psychopath.

I want to be able to have election, I want people to take some responsibility for enabling the Icelandic banks to grow so over their head that they were rolling money in and out that is 12 times bigger then our national budget. Who allowed this> WE. People denied the obvious, they tried to ruin the reputation of those that dared to warn us. WE the Icelandic people are responsible, and each day that we allow the people responsible to rule our country, our responsibility grows.

This would of course be quite OK if this blunder was only effecting Iceland, but it is effecting huge numbers of people in the UK. I can understand the anger, and all I have to offer is, my little I am so sorry. A little group of people has been protesting, but it seems so useless, where are the masses who have lost their jobs, their savings, where are they? I honestly don't know.

Diary from the island of extremes II

Who will suffer in Iceland: The working class people are and will suffer. The elderly people, the disabled, the poor, the single parents, the children will pay for this incredible blunder. The rich will still remain rich, the politicians will still have a job.

Many working class people who have been saving a little bit every month have lost big chunks of their live savings. No one knows how much yet. We are still a nation living in suspense of what tomorrow might hold. We are a nation living in fear and the fear is so thick that I can almost taste it. It seeps through my sleep and there is basically nothing I can do or say to make it go away right now, because the wave is so colossal.

People are taking their own lives, people are basically in silent despair and in Iceland you don't show how you feel. In Iceland you bottle up your emotions and put on a brave face no matter if your heart is braking.

Icelanders are a strange bunch of people. Perhaps because we are so few, the elements of the hoard are more obvious here then in other places on this planet. I am puzzled that the people who got us in this mess are still plotting and ruling our country. There is absolutely NO tradition for people to step down from power if they made a mess. The worst thing is that people accept it.

We are a nation in fear - but this fear is not knew. It is integrated in the soul of the nation. I was hoping that this modern day catastrophe would have been the wake up call for my nation. However the only thing we seem to be learning from this fall is that we will just work even harder. People were already working so much here that almost all children were kept in daycare 9 hours a day from age 1 and a half. We have world record in the use of Ritalin for our kids, and despite the fear we claim we are the happiest nation in the world. We claim we are the least corrupt, we claim we read the most, we are the most optimistic. There is something totally surreal about living on this island. This is why I have always left but there is a strange pull that always lulls me back.

I always thought it was the Icelandic nature who pulled me back. In the last few years I have realized that Iceland is the perfect place to do social experiments. I have often become bitterly disappointed in my nation. However I have also realized that because there are so few people here it is so easy to get access to the people in power. Thus it is quite easy to apply changes by simply implanting ideas in the right places. So I have come to see myself as the person who plants seeds, I have no interest to play the political game, I have no interest in fame, I like the concept of planting seeds at full moon.

When they will sprout is impossible to say - all I can do is to carry on planting seeds.