When the icelandic banks collapsed in October 2008 and the Icelandic state was technically bankrupt and had to go to AGS and beg for loans , many people lost their jobs, many Icelandic people lost all their belongings since currency was devaluated and many had all their loans in foreign currencies but their income in Icelandic currency – if they still had any income at all. We thought we had lost all the depositor money in the banks in some mystic international financial game and knew there was huge currency inbalance so we assumed a near future was us going into barter trade and growing potatos, going fishing and trying to survive.
It was a terrible shock, to go asleep in a prosperious country and wake up in a country were the young people didn‘t seem to have a future. But the worst shock for me was not facing the situation of Iceland´s economy, not facing the incompetence of the Icelandic government and not when I was realizing step by step how corrupt the Icelandic banking system was, it seemed like a mosterous pyramid scheme. Actually I had not expected my country to be different from the other western countries and the fall of Leman brothers was paving the way towards what was happening all over. I had expected the system to collaspe, I am still surprised why other states are not collapsing, it is a cracy system, it seems like some kind of a game were no real production seem to have to follow the bubbles… and the state of USA finance is terrible… but people still believe states can be too big to fail. I do not share that belief.
So actually I was prepared for a new future and since Iceland is a resource rich country in a location that will be more important in the decades to come, especially to a energy and food hungry world I also reasoned that this would only be a decade in poverty and you can take that if you know there is some future for your children. After all Icelanders had been farmers and fishermens in the past and living conditions were not very poor in the past exept in time of natural catastropes like Lakagígar eruptions.
The horror moment of the times of the Icelandic collapse, the horror I will never forget was the speech of Gordon Brown and what happen in UK politics in the aftermatch of the Icelandic bank collaspe. I know that the situation in October 2008 was very scary for all the governments of the western world and the worst scenario – going the same way as Iceland – a bankrupt country – was something that was feared all over. Lots of emergency meetings and the governments decided to stick together and cling to the illusion that the bank system is save… for the time being. That meant a state the size of Iceland with overblown banking system that was far beyond saving of the government was not playing along and could not play the same tune as the other european countries.
And in the time were Iceland misery was worst, when we had lost our future and hopes which by the way was much worse than losing the material belongings and short term unemployment, by the time were most young Icelanders were facing a future bound by their own debt in a system were most of their loans were in foreign currency… the Prime Minister of UK Gordon Brown decided to use anti-terrorist legislation to freeze transactions to and from Iceland. That was like a horror movie watching Gordon Brown and his finance minister Alistair Darling accusing Icelandic government of „not honoring their oblications“ which as I understand was to garantee in full British depositors their deposits in branches of Icelandic banks in UK. British government had decided on their own to secure all deposits in banks (for individuals, not informed investors) located in UK. It was impossible for Icelandic government to do. A bankrupt nation is not able to pay. UK government wanted the people of Iceland to be put into debt slavery on terms much harsher than the Germany war debt after world war one.
Also there was a dispute about the legal terms of how the deposits should be garanteed and the Icelandic government wanted the dispute to be solved in court. But at that time no other government in Europe did want case like this settled in court because that could mean collapse of the banking system which at that time was really on the edge. Gordon Brown used anti-terrorist legislation to seize the assets of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki, the bank which he accused of being about to default on its obligations to British depositors and also of another icelandic bank Kaupthing. Kaupthing failed after these actions. Gordon Brown wanted the government of Iceland to „give back the money“ like the government of Iceland was some kind of pirate nation hiding money somewhere.
When I saw the television interview in October 2008 where Gordon Brown was justifying his use of anti-terrorist legislation to solve financial dispute with a friendly small nation in financial trouble I thought for a moment he would demand his army to invade Iceland, coming here to look for some money or goods he assumed Icelandic government or the banks had stolen from UK. I was also thinking that now I know how the people of Irak felt when they watched on television how President Bush defended and justified the decision to invade Irak, to find some kind of a nuclear weapons that never were there, same kind of contempt, same kind of anger, same kind of powerlessness …. and also facing a future in a nightmare world, world were human rights were taken away at the spur of a moment, using a structure of a police state, using all the structure that had been build as a tool in recent years for „the war on terror“.
I saw the dictators I thougt until then only were in some faraway African or Middle East countries moving into my world, it was also like a 9/11 moment, a collapse of the security illusion, I thought until that moment I was fortune to live in the civilized world. Since then I have had total distrust in government, not only the UK governments but in all governments. I believe that when they are in crisis they behave like animals fighting for their own survival and I can not see a place in the future world for the same kind of governments as exist today so I foresee many survival fights. And in these battle the governments will turn to their own citizens they will consider ordinary citizens their enemies. We live in a world were dictetors act as tortures and my eyes have opened for how governments/dictators stick together to protect their interests and their power. Their enemies are empowered people that work in coordinated selfregulated group, groups without leaders.
My eyes have been opened for how it dictators in other part of the world suit very well the purposes of dictators in Western countries and how dictators have and will work together to supress people and take away their freedom such as Rome-Tripoli deal when Gaddafi was working with Berlusconi patrolling the coastline. The uprising in North Africa regimes is in a region fixated on anti-terrorism and oil and the uprising are in some way related to the prevalence of anti-terrorist policy (Jeremy Keenan). The people are calling for free and accountable governments , not the unrepresentative governments that are willing to accept subordination to Western political and economic diktats.
In a post 9/11 era politician have used supposed threats to justify state violence. By focusing on security leaders have found means to legitimise state violence, withhold rights and freedoms and neglect governance. Ghezali says. "Violence has even become a means of social and political advancement. Murderers have become heroes and hold power in public institutions." (Salima Ghezali from Algeria on Aljazeera)
But is not only the dictators of North Africa that are taking away human rights and using War on terror to justify the making of a police state. I have talked about Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister who used anti-terrorist legislation to solve financial dispute with Iceland. Listen carefully to the mumble of Alistair Gordon (exacly in time 21:57 in this video), he starts to stammer and whisper and can not even say the word, he is so ashamed of his wrongdoings against Icelandic people. I hope history will not forget what his government did and the activists in UK should learn from this and for those that believe small nations should be picked and and debts from international pyramid schemes should be allowed to make some citizens of the world into powerless debt slaves should cite the poem First They Came For the Jews by the German pastor Martin Niemöller who was an anti-Communist and supported Hitler‘s rise to power at later understood what it was all about.
In America the police state is even more advanced than in UK. Glenn Greenwald wrote the blog Government-created climate of fear jan 10, 2011 he explains how so much of what the U.S. Government has become a wordwide torture regime devoted to creating and strengthening a climate of fear. It is a state were people are abducted and shipped to secret prisons where they are thrown into cages for year without charges dressed in organe jumpsuits. It is enough to persons connected with the wistleblower website Wikileaks to be labeled as terrorist.
As argueed in this article The logic of Power: Al Qaeda versus Wikileaks „ A Declaration of a State of Emergency provides the best opportunity for a government to attack on individuals and political organizations.“
