Positions and Interests

I have a good friend who happens to be an excellent negotiator. I asked him once how he became so good at negotiating and he told me the most important aspect is to know the difference between a position and an interest and then negotiate from there. With the proposal to build a hydro dam in the Ölfus river, it is important to recognize the positions and the interests of the people who are proposing the idea.

The position taken by the Independence Party in Selfoss is that the income generated by the dam could pay off the town’s debt. Everyone wants the debt paid and their ridiculously high property taxes lowered so, of course, the idea on the surface should be investigated. But my friend has always warned me to ignore the position in an argument and look at the interest. So what is the interest of the Independence Party in building this dam?

First, it helps to know who is leading the party. He is none other than ex-Todmobile band member Eyþór Arnalds.  But Eyþór is also on payroll of his father-in-law as the director of a company called Strokkur.  What does that have to do with the dam in Selfoss you may ask? Well, Strokkur is part owner of a company called Thorsil ehf. Thorsil, in turn, wants to build a diatomite production plant in Þorlákshöfn by 2012. They have signed a (non-binding) power deal with OR back in February but as OR is now technically bankrupt, their ability to expand the current plant on Hellisheiði and to sell power to Thorsil is unlikely. So Thorsil has a power problem.

Enter Eyþór and clan with an idea to build a hydro dam allegedly to pay off some debts and no one has to search very far to who they plan to sell the power to. So now the interest is revealed -a plan to dam a river that is not even entirely owned by a town to sell power to a company in which the managing director is also the top politician of the town that proposed to build the dam.

 Glad to see the Independence has returned to the politics of the good ol’ days! But is also amazes me that the news media has not even mentioned this aspect of the proposal. I suppose they could learn a lesson from my friend and investigate the interests of an argument and not just the positions.

 

GTB

Áforma virkjun Ölfusár