Icelandic Meltdown (not global warming)
Submitted by carpavel on Tue, 11/25/2008 - 00:27
http://www.sciencebuddies.com/
A near-riot and parliament besieged: Iceland boiling mad at credit crunch
Published Date: 24 November 2008
By Omar Valdimarsson
in REYKJAVIK
THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country's financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October's banking collapse crippled the island's economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, would continue until the government stepped down.
As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: "They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate."
The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.
. . . A separate group of 200-300 people gathered in front of the city's main police station, throwing eggs and demanding the release of a young protester being held there.
Police in riot gear used pepper spray to drive back an attempt to free the protester during which several windows at the police station were shattered
. . .One young man climbed on to the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland's national day, and hung a banner reading: "Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000" – the amount of the loan the country is getting from the IMF.
An ITN report of the protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHOM96wiA4&NR=1
also explaining the reason why people tried to storm the police headquarter.
Fellowship of the White Rose
Fellowship of the White Rose
Just spoke to a friend in Reikjavik
The incredible thing is that this thug of a central bank director is still not thrown in jail.
People have to pay 18% on their mortgages and 26% on an overdraft.
The inflation is at 16% and the IMF loan is guaranteed by what? Did they have to sell the island like Brazil did his rainforest to the IMF???
Hope not, ARREST David Oddsson, he is a financial criminal!!!!
Get to his house and throw him in jail!!!! Islandic people have a revolution!!!
oliver robert ike
David also advocated for
David also advocated for people to take foreign currency loans until the day the crisis hit the island. There are alot of people who's home loans are in Euro's which due to the 46% drop in the Krona have skyrocketed. The currency has been frozen for weeks now to prevent further falling but it will be unfrozen soon and we'll have to see what happenes then.
Latest debates from yesterday.
Yesterday the Prime Minister proposed that all ministers and other members of the paliament would take a pay cut. At the same time he's trying to convince people that the IMF loan and other things would be at risk if there would be an emergency election to vote out the ministers/parliament members the people are upset with, and he keeps protecting his former party leader who is now the CEO of the Central Bank.
Farmer Unions have come out completely against membership into the EU which is now becoming more popular of a topic. Farmers represent 1/5 of the entire population of the country.
A fight almost started in the house of parlament when a member of the majority party accused a the leader of the opposition party of preventing investigations into the financial meltdown. When that was said, the opposition leader yelled out "Ettu hann sjálfur" Meaning Eat it yourself, used as an equivilant as F You, then proceded to walk up to the podium where the member was still talking and stared at him before walking out.
Now the good thing for people in Iceland is that the police in Iceland are not allowed to carry guns. There is a complete prohabition on handguns in the country, but people are allowed to have hunting rifles and shotguns. The only guns law enforcement has is in the hands of the SWAT team "Víkingasveitin" but the rifles/shotguns in the hands of people outnumber the guns of the SWAT 3/1. And last I knew there are no Tasers in Iceland.
And yes, I lived there til the age of 23 when I moved here in 2005.
Thank you for the extremely pertinent post.
and expressing your delightful sense of humor at the same time! I LOVED your title to this post...Please keep us updated!
Libera me, let the truth break, what my fears make--Leslie Phillips
We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people,
we need to get good people to restrain bad laws. --
--G.K. Chesterton
yes, bjarni please keep us updated
DPers, if u want to see the front lines of the revolution, watch iceland.
i know several icelanders and can attest that they are a wonderfully generous, beautifully kind and stubbornly strong people. and they have no qualms of speaking up in the face of wrongdoing.
the fact that iceland was the 1st country to go may have been the most delicious of ironies of this whole financial drama.
we should all continue to watch & learn from the unfolding events over there and pledge our support to the icelandic people.
we must be united in principle no matter what boundaries we are captured in.
perhaps this is the 'real' global warming?
p.s. bjarni, have the elves been unleashed yet?
No elves have been unleashed
No elves have been unleashed but the peoples wrath is starting to come out more and more.
People there have been in slumber since 1944 when we regained our independance from Denmark. And now we are starting to see people embrace our historical heritige as rough and anti establishment which the Vikings were. We are taught from 2nd grade onwards that people left Norway due to an oppressive King and went to Iceland to be free, and every time the Norwegians tried to occupy the country for the following 300 years there would be bloody fights to keep them out. We are tought the glory of fighting for your own freedom is one of the foundations of the country and that force can be needed to get things done.
Now if you are interested in reading a little about what happened there in a very quick but for the most part accurate summary you can read it on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iceland
And you'll see that we origianlly lost our freedom due to large families growing wealthy and were vassals to the Norwegian king. Just hope people there aren´t going to let that happen again and let Ministers scare them into joining the EU
A question for bjarni
Do you think the reason for this crisis is just stupid greed of your goverment and banksters? Or do you think there is a more sinister plan behind it, like getting control of your country via a more or less enforced EU-membership?
Anyway, I think your country with its distinct culture, great musicians and its unique landscape has a lot of friends around the world. s.tristero is right about saying we should all continue to watch & learn from the unfolding events over there and pledge our support to the icelandic people.
Fellowship of the White Rose
Fellowship of the White Rose
A video of what you noted in
A video of what you noted in your piece.
In the start the woman at the podium is saying we need to go into the parliament building and other political offices and carry the elected officials if the parliament doesn't announce a national vote to change the elected officials. 'If that doesn't happen we will vote by leaving the country, hold mass strikes, protests and break laws which go against the constitution.'
When you see people hitting at a large door, you see the protest outside the main police station.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbpnLs4Hidc
Have a feeling the rest speaks for itself.
There was also a large meeting at the University where 26 members of the parliament attended at which they were asked to fire the Chief of the central bank and then resign.
http://dagskra.ruv.is/streaming/?file=4398343/0
Bjarni,
thank you for sharing that! You don't need to know Icelandic to notice people are really angry. The politicians and bankers in other countries should feel uneasy seeing what happens to their pals in Iceland.
Are you from Iceland? Anyway you seem to have an off-MSM perspective on things happening there. I think we all would be grateful, if you can keep us update on things happening in Iceland.
Fellowship of the White Rose
Fellowship of the White Rose
So how is Iceland doing?
Fellowship of the White Rose
Fellowship of the White Rose