Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Isn't (!)

sacsis.org.za...

A fascinating article regarding the recent political and social shift of the brilliant people in Iceland. The people basically stood up against the various parts of their government whom demanded that they pay for the bankers mistakes, not only that but they didn't back down to pressure from Britain or Holland or other parts of Europe and they even went so far to jail a few of those politicians who were responsible for wrecking Iceland's financial status. Then they rewrote their own constitution to ensure mistakes like this aren't made again - real people power. Fantastic.

I'll just quote a little and let you read more yourself.

Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.” (How many times have I written that when Cubans see the dire state of their neighbor, Haiti, they count themselves lucky.)

and

In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.
But Icelanders didn't stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. (The one in use had been written when Iceland gained its independence from Denmark, in 1918, the only difference with the Danish constitution being that the word ‘president’ replaced the word ‘king’.)

reply to post by mr-lizard


We are just to dumb down to understand what needs to be done........

Good for them...........

Yippe ki yay! If only Americans would stick together and do the same D*&^* thing! I am still on pins and needles over whats gonna happen here, but holding on to faith. Thanks Poster and Iceland....we needed an example to follow if we just will!

reply to post by mr-lizard


I remember the referendum held in 2010. At the time I thought it was an excellent two finger salute to the Banking instituition.

I don't know if Greece will be able to learn a lesson due to its tie into the Euro. Maybe they can, it's worth a shot surely.

I can't believe this wasn't reported in the U.S?

Great point you make there. Pertinent. Timely.



I long for Iceland, but there is work to be done here.

reply to post by mr-lizard



thanks for the post of inspiration great find

I read the article and it seemed that the people are suffering quite badly still, due to high level of debt, low wage and low currency value.

The banks seem to be doing quite well now though

thefinanser.co.uk...

The almost 'cashless 'system is running quite well and according to this blogger the people are quite satisfied.

I think people don't mind a really tough tme if they are genuinely happy with the system THEY chose and there's hope for a brighter and more sound future...

Sure, they stood up .. but don't be so sure that they live better then they did before or they could if they played by the rules. It's like going from normal life to slaves. Try to live with just 1/4 what you usually spend in some period of time and tell me that you're happy and proud. There is a thin line between proud and depresive in Iceland and i'm not sure where the most people are there.

Originally posted by mr-lizard
sacsis.org.za...

The people basically stood up against the various parts of their government whom demanded that they pay for the bankers mistakes...

Oh Gawd, I hope we don't invade there next because they're not playing the global banking game right. You know how the cartels hate that!

hmm maybe I should get Icelandic citizenship.
Been looking at citizenship somewhere else because I don't like the path this country has been on for the last decade and unless Ron Paul gets elected I don't really see it getting better any time soon

Instead of running to Iceland, I say let's stay here and try to implement what took place there, here.

I'm not a big fan of running away.
I like to stand my ground.

Jail the bankers.

reply to post by Cobaltic1978

I was confused about the 2 finger salute part, then remembered that we only use our middle finger in the U.S. When we use the 2 fingers it stands for victory. I know I'm way off topic but it was my chuckle for the day.

IceLand had a population of around 300,000 people in 2011. If 10% of the population did a OWS scenario than it would explain how come they where able to make the changes they did.

Right now if we did a census of just how many people across America were actually participating on OWS I doubt it would exceed 30,000 which is 1% of our countries total population.

Judging from videos, customers and physically checking out the Seattle OWS three times now I don't even think we could break 20k.

Just my two cents.

reply to post by burningbelief


There's too many moving parts in the US to do the same thing here! The action the Icelanders took is great, but I don't think it's possible here becuase it takes too much BS (red tape) to change anything.

By the way, I show my solaridy to Iceland by using ice in my drinks every day! I encourage everyone to do the same!

if you are interested,

a pdf of the new proposed constitution is here

stjornlagarad.is...

its a great read - every country should have one of these

Originally posted by Toolatetotalk
IceLand had a population of around 300,000 people in 2011. If 10% of the population did a OWS scenario than it would explain how come they where able to make the changes they did.

Right now if we did a census of just how many people across America were actually participating on OWS I doubt it would exceed 30,000 which is 1% of our countries total population.

Judging from videos, customers and physically checking out the Seattle OWS three times now I don't even think we could break 20k.

Just my two cents.

On a full march day, i'de say about 100-200,000 across the country. Seen about 20k marchers at ows alone, not including the thousands at 80+ other cities in the US. Average 3,000 for those, and you got 260k people across the country. That is just averaging, im sure its probably around 200 - 220, but growing steadily. So we'll never know for sure

reply to post by mr-lizard

and thats why when the uk people got sick of it too and demanded to hold a referendum to get out of europe the prime minister sed "no" thengoverment told the politicians in house of commons "anyone who votes for this is finished"ha! democracy eh! roll on scotlands independence.

Geir Haarde, the Prime Minister of a Social Democratic coalition government, negotiated a two million one hundred thousand dollar loan, to which the Nordic countries added another two and a half million

I fail to see how 4.6 million dollars could do anything.

In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent.

900 percent of GNP? That is only 9 times the GNP compared to 200 times the GNP in 2003. Did a monkey write this article?

Would love to get the full story behind all this, written by a competent journalist that don't mix and match numbers that have no meaning together..

it all started when bankers corrupted politicians to deregulate the banks. then the crooks opened up offshore trusts and started loaning themselves money, with deferred interest.

they also bought stocks in their own banks and issued themselves loans to buy them, using the same stock as collateral.

basically the bank was buying its own stocks.

and to kick it all off, when the loans were due and the collapse was imminent, they wrote off all the loans.

they made the crooks on wallstreet look like nickel and dime bankers.

now every icelander is on the hook for over 160,000 euros. 1 euro is $1.40 american dollars.

when you convert it, it comes out to $224,272 usd. it makes the $14, 478 each american owes to other country's look like chump change.

then they all took off. now the u.k. and every institution that made loans to these banks want their money back and want icelanders to pay it.

icelanders are basically telling them to f-off, that's it's not their problem and that they're not going to pay what the bankers stole.

and the international financial community doesn't care who goes to jail, they want there money back. since the banks that owed the money are gone, their only recourse is the icelandic people.

the same thing happened in america. but since americans are stupid sheep, you paid back the international bankers the $700 billion dollars that american bankers and wallstreet put them on the hook for.