A storm brewing. Winds of change? Ian McDonald skrifar 16. október 2023 08:00 Early last week, Icelanders were battening down the hatches in the face of a brutal windstorm which lasted three days and nights without cease. Meteorologists were baffled by this, until they realized that the winds were actually caused by the simultaneous gales of laughter and sighs of relief from 400,000 people who just learned that Bjarni Bendiktsson was resigning from the position of finance minister after a decade of nepotism, scandals and quite astouding corruption. For a glorious moment, it seemed that there might actually be some measure of comeuppance for a man who, until now, had seemed bulletproof from any meaningful consequences to his actions. To those of us who had spent 6 weeks last summer protesting the illegal sale of Íslandsbanki, and demanding the resignation of the finance minister, for one brief shining moment it felt like victory. Unfortunately, as the saying goes “if you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait 5 minutes.” This proved to be all to pertinent as the winds seemed to shift again in favor of the finance minister. Yet again Bjarni Benediktsson showed that there is no lack shame or brazenness to which he will not stoop. The bottom of the barrel in fact can be scraped through. And scrape he did. Rather than take the hint and step out of the limelight quietly, taking the winnings from sale of Íslandsbanki with him, Bjarni decided that in fact there were still corrupt mountains left to conquer, and these particular peaks were overseas. Speaking as a British national, I have lived through my fair share of corrupt and inept politicians who ride the Ferris wheel of cabinet positions, jumping around from positions of unimaginable responsibility and power without the slightest iota of relevant knowledge or experience of their field. ….I lived through Boris Johnson. Healthcare, finance, education, foreign affairs. Qualifications? Doesn’t matter. As long as you toe the party line. And if you fail, we will just have a cabinet reshuffle and put you in charge of an entirely different aspect of public life! And around and around they go….where they stop, nobody knows. I am now saddened and angry to see that pattern repeating itself in Iceland, and in such a brazen way. Without any sort of approval from the public who they are ostensibly meant to serve, we are now stuck with a foreign minister whose only relevant experience of overseas work was when he was busy setting up offshore companies to avoid paying taxes. I worry that Iceland is slipping towards (and perhaps is already there) the sort of failed state of politics that I see when I look back at my native Britain, where lobbyists and corporate interests have long since seized the levers of power from the people, and as a result, the country has been chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. I worry what a man like Bjarni Benediktsson, who has made no secret of his desire to privatize every aspect of Icelandic society he can get his hands on, will do with the freedom of access to any world leader he desires to connect with. He could very quickly turn the country I love and call home into a global-scale yard sale. Everything must go. I have long since stopped asking if it wouldn’t make more sense to perhaps have a nurse in charge of healthcare, or a teacher in charge of education. Unfortunately that is nothing but a pipe-dream. I have lowered my sights a little now. Can we not just have a politician who did not illegally sell a bank to his father? It doesn’t seem much to ask. Perhaps I will ask Santa Claus. The author is a manufacturing worker. Viltu birta grein á Vísi? Sendu okkur póst. Senda grein Mest lesið Forvarnir á ferð Erlingur Sigvaldason Skoðun Bakpokinn sem þyngist aðeins hjá öðrum Inga Sæland Skoðun Örlög Íslendinga og u-beygja áhrifamesta fjármálamanns heims Snorri Másson Skoðun Það læra börnin sem fyrir þeim er haft Sigurður Örn Hilmarsson Skoðun Mataræði í stóra samhengi lífsins Birna Þórisdóttir Skoðun Fegurð sem breytir skólum Einar Mikael Sverrisson Skoðun Jóhann Páll: Vertu í liði með náttúrunni ekki gegn henni Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson Skoðun Björn Þorsteinsson as Rector - A visionary leader uniting disciplines and driving innovation Marianne Elisabeth Klinke Skoðun Hvað varð um loftslagsmálin? Kamma Thordarson Skoðun Vertu meðbyr mannúðar Birna Þórarinsdóttir Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Gunnar Smári hvað er hann? Birgir Dýrfjörð skrifar Skoðun Um Ingibjörgu Gunnarsdóttur – ferill að rektorskjöri Rúnar Unnþórsson,Þórhallur Ingi Halldórsson skrifar Skoðun Ísland er leiðandi ljós og hvatning til fjölmiðla Hrönn Egilsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Forvarnir á ferð Erlingur Sigvaldason skrifar Skoðun Vertu meðbyr mannúðar Birna Þórarinsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Fegurð sem breytir skólum Einar Mikael Sverrisson skrifar Skoðun Það læra börnin sem fyrir þeim er haft Sigurður Örn Hilmarsson skrifar Skoðun Björn Þorsteinsson as Rector - A visionary leader uniting disciplines and driving innovation Marianne Elisabeth Klinke skrifar Skoðun Verður Frelsið fullveldinu að bráð? Anton Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Til rektorsframbjóðenda: Hvað gerir nýr rektor HÍ við Endurmenntun? Ólafur Stephensen skrifar Skoðun Mataræði í stóra samhengi lífsins Birna Þórisdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hvað varð um loftslagsmálin? Kamma Thordarson skrifar Skoðun Bakpokinn sem þyngist aðeins hjá öðrum Inga Sæland skrifar Skoðun Örlög Íslendinga og u-beygja áhrifamesta fjármálamanns heims Snorri Másson skrifar Skoðun Ég kýs Magnús Karl sem rektor Bylgja Hilmarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Jóhann Páll: Vertu í liði með náttúrunni ekki gegn henni Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson skrifar Skoðun Tífalt hærri vextir, meiri skuldir - menntastefna stjórnvalda? Júlíus Viggó Ólafsson,Vilhjálmur Hilmarsson skrifar Skoðun Lífið gefur engan afslátt Davíð Bergmann skrifar Skoðun Kolbrún Pálsdóttir sem næsti rektor HÍ Árni Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Vitskert veröld Einar Helgason skrifar Skoðun Draumurinn um hið fullkomna öryggisnet Signý Jóhannesdóttir skrifar Skoðun Sönnunarbyrði og hagsmunaárekstur Arnar Sigurðsson skrifar Skoðun Sem doktorsnemi styð ég Silju Báru til Rektors Háskóla Íslands Eva Jörgensen skrifar Skoðun Sterk og breið samtök – tími til að styrkja rödd minni fyrirtækja Friðrik Árnason skrifar Skoðun Nýjar ráðleggingar um mataræði María Heimisdóttir skrifar Skoðun Börn með fjölþættan vanda Kolbrún Áslaugar Baldursdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hvalveiðar eru slæmar fyrir ímynd Íslands Clive Stacey skrifar Skoðun Netöryggi á krossgötum: Hvernig tryggjum við íslenska innviði? Heimir Fannar Gunnlaugsson skrifar Skoðun Í heimi sem samþykkir þjóðarmorð er ekkert jafnrétti Najlaa Attaallah skrifar Skoðun Heilinn okkar og klukka lífsins Birna V. Baldursdóttir ,Heiðdís B. Valdimarsdóttir skrifar Sjá meira
Early last week, Icelanders were battening down the hatches in the face of a brutal windstorm which lasted three days and nights without cease. Meteorologists were baffled by this, until they realized that the winds were actually caused by the simultaneous gales of laughter and sighs of relief from 400,000 people who just learned that Bjarni Bendiktsson was resigning from the position of finance minister after a decade of nepotism, scandals and quite astouding corruption. For a glorious moment, it seemed that there might actually be some measure of comeuppance for a man who, until now, had seemed bulletproof from any meaningful consequences to his actions. To those of us who had spent 6 weeks last summer protesting the illegal sale of Íslandsbanki, and demanding the resignation of the finance minister, for one brief shining moment it felt like victory. Unfortunately, as the saying goes “if you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait 5 minutes.” This proved to be all to pertinent as the winds seemed to shift again in favor of the finance minister. Yet again Bjarni Benediktsson showed that there is no lack shame or brazenness to which he will not stoop. The bottom of the barrel in fact can be scraped through. And scrape he did. Rather than take the hint and step out of the limelight quietly, taking the winnings from sale of Íslandsbanki with him, Bjarni decided that in fact there were still corrupt mountains left to conquer, and these particular peaks were overseas. Speaking as a British national, I have lived through my fair share of corrupt and inept politicians who ride the Ferris wheel of cabinet positions, jumping around from positions of unimaginable responsibility and power without the slightest iota of relevant knowledge or experience of their field. ….I lived through Boris Johnson. Healthcare, finance, education, foreign affairs. Qualifications? Doesn’t matter. As long as you toe the party line. And if you fail, we will just have a cabinet reshuffle and put you in charge of an entirely different aspect of public life! And around and around they go….where they stop, nobody knows. I am now saddened and angry to see that pattern repeating itself in Iceland, and in such a brazen way. Without any sort of approval from the public who they are ostensibly meant to serve, we are now stuck with a foreign minister whose only relevant experience of overseas work was when he was busy setting up offshore companies to avoid paying taxes. I worry that Iceland is slipping towards (and perhaps is already there) the sort of failed state of politics that I see when I look back at my native Britain, where lobbyists and corporate interests have long since seized the levers of power from the people, and as a result, the country has been chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. I worry what a man like Bjarni Benediktsson, who has made no secret of his desire to privatize every aspect of Icelandic society he can get his hands on, will do with the freedom of access to any world leader he desires to connect with. He could very quickly turn the country I love and call home into a global-scale yard sale. Everything must go. I have long since stopped asking if it wouldn’t make more sense to perhaps have a nurse in charge of healthcare, or a teacher in charge of education. Unfortunately that is nothing but a pipe-dream. I have lowered my sights a little now. Can we not just have a politician who did not illegally sell a bank to his father? It doesn’t seem much to ask. Perhaps I will ask Santa Claus. The author is a manufacturing worker.
Björn Þorsteinsson as Rector - A visionary leader uniting disciplines and driving innovation Marianne Elisabeth Klinke Skoðun
Skoðun Um Ingibjörgu Gunnarsdóttur – ferill að rektorskjöri Rúnar Unnþórsson,Þórhallur Ingi Halldórsson skrifar
Skoðun Björn Þorsteinsson as Rector - A visionary leader uniting disciplines and driving innovation Marianne Elisabeth Klinke skrifar
Skoðun Til rektorsframbjóðenda: Hvað gerir nýr rektor HÍ við Endurmenntun? Ólafur Stephensen skrifar
Skoðun Tífalt hærri vextir, meiri skuldir - menntastefna stjórnvalda? Júlíus Viggó Ólafsson,Vilhjálmur Hilmarsson skrifar
Skoðun Netöryggi á krossgötum: Hvernig tryggjum við íslenska innviði? Heimir Fannar Gunnlaugsson skrifar
Björn Þorsteinsson as Rector - A visionary leader uniting disciplines and driving innovation Marianne Elisabeth Klinke Skoðun