Clarification

Franek Rosvadovsky spoke today on RÚV in the rather ambiguous terms. I took the time to clarify some of the more vague statements.

 -"The ICESAVE agreement and both the one that has already been signed and the parliament´s passing it, is not a precondition under the review of the program."

CLARIFIED -The Icesave agreement has already been signed. If the parliament doesn't pass it we will use some other excuse to postpone the IMF loan.

_"But as you know, the review does have financial requirements."

CLARIFIED- Do what the British and Dutch tell you or you will not get any money.

_"I don't know whether this deal is the best possible for Iceland.  One can never know something like that for any deal. "

CLARIFIED- The ICESAVE deal is as bad as our IMF deal but hey, we are only holding the gun to your head, it is you that must pull the trigger.

 

GTB

Þjóðarbúið ekki á hliðina vegna Icesave

Nonwhaling Nation?

The New York Times, in its ridiculous editorial, said

The commission’s nonwhaling members, the United States included, should press for a complete ban.

Since when is the United States considered a nonwhaling nation?  The asked for and received permission to allow native peoples to kill whales in Washington and Alaska.  The US Navy probably kills more whales with its sonar than all the whaling nations combined.  And the only really endangered whale, the right whale, is being slaughtered every year by ship strikes in the shipping lanes of the coast of the US.  Where are the calls to ban shipping to save that whale?

 The US takes a ANTI-whaling stance but they are far from a nonwhaling nation.  Nonwhaling would be more like the IWC members Switzerland or Mongolia that don't even have access to an ocean to fish in.  Kind of make one wonder what they are doing in the IWC to begin with. This is akin to Iceland being in a committee to regulate giraffe hunting in Africa.

The Times calls the ban on whaling "not really a ban at all". That is because it is NOT supposed to be a ban but a moratorium.  A moratorium is supposed to be temporary.  But somehow the "non-whaling" members have twisted the original purpose of the IWC from a regulatory body into a conservation body.  This is the real reason the IWC is failing,because it is not doing what it was meant to do, which is regulating whale hunting, instead of banning it.

GTB

Hvetur til algers hvalveiðibanns

The Real Agenda Revealed

The postponement of the Greenland quota for hunting humpback whales reveals the true agenda of the IWC.  Their own scientists say killing 10 whales is sustainable for the humpback population and yet the members can come to no agreement.  This is because the IWC is no longer about managing the whale stock for sustainable use but to ban their use altogether.  The IWC has lost all legitimacy as a regulation commission and instead is a dysfuntional organization that has been distorted by the anti-whaling members to fulfill an agenda for which the organization was never intended to do. 

GTB

Ákvörðun um hnúfubaka frestað

Price Based on the Market -Not the Cost

I wrote in a previous blog http://www.gregg.blog.is/blog/gregg/entry/892704/ about how the oil companies determine the price of fuel. I said I knew how they did this because it is the same way the company I worked for determined the price of milk. Not on the cost but on what the market will bear.  Olís tried to raise the price but the competition would not follow so they had no choice but to lower it again.  Just as I said we used to do with milk prices in the US.  This is nothing but a legal way of fixing the price within the market.  The oil companies need to do it this way since they got caught doing it the illegal way last time.  And I bet people are still going to but fuel from Olís tomorrow, so what do they care?

GTB

Olís lækkar lítrann aftur um 12,50 kr.

Animal Park (Húsdýragarðurinn) in Reykjavík to Close

In a move to pacify a small opposition, the animal park in Reykjavík will be closing.  Opponents have long claimed that there are millions more kronur made in killing domesticated animals and selling their meat and skin than can be made by simply allowing people to look at them and pet them.  Shocked visitors to the park were told animals could only have one single use, that according to International Fund for Animal Welfare who reported that whales should only be used  for whale watching since more money is made with that activity than whale hunting.  Some people expressed their disbelief in such an illogical move to close the park, but it was  thoroughly explained to them that conservationists seldom use logic or even science in making decisions so closing the park fits that rationale.

GTB

Hvalaskoðun veltir milljörðum

Biodiesel

Besides the meat, one fin whale has enough blubber to produce between 50 to 70 barrels of oil.  If the quota of 200 whales was filled that could produce between 10,000 to 14,000 barrels of oil per year.  That is nearly 3 million liters per year.  If the oil was converted to biodiesel and sold it would have a market value of nearly 500 million kronur.   Just using the blubber would justify the hunt and make it very profitable. And these figures don't include the blubber from the minke whales.  Just something to think about.

GTB

Fyrstu langreyðarnar í land

Tragedy- No Longer Just for Greeks

The elements of a tragic hero-

1.A great or noble person Icelanders and their Viking history, strength and attitude

2.Makes a mistake of some kind usually because of hubris-tried to buy the world on credit 

3.Reversal of fortune-KREPPA

4.Has a downfall- buried by debt, they begin to bury their houses and cars

5.Recognizes his mistake- this final act has yet to be played out

 

An important part to a tragedy is that the audience should feel pity for the hero and experience fear.

We feel pity for the Icelandic hero beause we can place ourselves in his position.

We feel fear because we too do not know our future or our fate.

Aristole himself would be impressed by how well the Icelandic crisis is following the classic Greek artform.

 

GTB

Eyðilagði íbúðarhúsið

More Republican Hypocracy

Normally I could care less about any politican having an affair.  They are just regular people, believe it or not, and their personal life should really have nothing to do with their jobs.  Except of course when the politician is a conservative Republican who feels the need push his social agenda on the rest of the country, as Senator Ensign is and does. The best part of his affair is that he is a born again Christian. Well someone needs to tell Ensign that to be born again is not to be taken literally.  There is no need to try to get back into a woman to be "born again".  Another funny fact that should be mentioned is he was a member of the group Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group that promotes marital fidelity.  I love that I don't need to make stuff like this up.  Life is so full of real comedy.

During the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998, Ensign, who was a Senate candidate, called on Clinton to resign. But Ensign has no plans himself to step down. Can you say -HYPOCRITE? When asked what he planned to do now that his affair is out in public, Ensign stated that he remains committed to his Senate duties.  I hope not in the same way he was committed to his faith, his wife, and his values.

GTB

Bandarískur þingmaður viðurkennir framhjáhald

Kaupthing is Not to Blame, Sort of

There is only one problem holding up the paying out of Edge accounts in Germany, and it has nothing to do with Kaupthing's ability to pay.  Kaupthing has the money to pay back all the accounts in full. The problem lies with the German bank to which Kaupthing must tranfer the money so the Edge customers can get paid.  It seems that Kaupthing has a debt not only with the Edge accounts but with the German bank itself.  So Kaupthing is afraid to transfer the funds for the Edge accounts for fear that the German bank will sieze the funds to cover Kaupthing's debt and not pay out the Edge accounts. Kind of humorous to the point of being sad, really.  Poor Karlheinz has come here when he should be at home, petitioning his bank to guarantee the transfered funds actually make it into his account and not into his bank's own account. Gook luck with that.

 GTB

Vill svör um spariféð

Negligence

Few things irritate me more than to read about how overcrowded the prisons are becoming in Iceland and how something needs to be done about it.  It was reported that the problem is so bad, two people have to share one cell.   The first thing that needs be done is to stop running a prison like a hotel. As Edda pointed out in her blog http://ek.blog.is/blog/ek/entry/896621/, it is normal to share a hospital room with more than one person so why should the prisons be different.  These are criminals we are talking about here; are we to treat them better than patients?  If two or more need to share a room so be it.  If the prisoners don't like it they should stay out of prison. 

The next thing to be done it to remove the TV's and computers from the rooms.  Is it a prison or a country club?  Sure it would be nice to rehabilitate people and that attitude is fine with non-violent criminals and actually Iceland should have a separate facility for such offenders.  As for the violent scum, two to a cell, no computers, no TV, and no phones is what they deserve.  Plain and simple. If more room is really needed the authorities can always use the brig on the airbase.  Maybe it is not up to Icelandic hotel/country club standards, but it is ready to hold prisoners.

All the foreign prisoners should be sent back to their home countries to do the time.   Being a foreigner I am going to do the Icelanders a favor here as say something sometimes they are too shy to say.  The influx of foreigners into Iceland without the need for work permits or background checks was and is the biggest mistake the Icelandic government has made-EVER.  Bigger than privatizing the banks. Bigger than the ICESAVE agreement. 

The opening of the borders was to fill jobs. Most people that came to work were youn men. By allowing this type of immigration of mostly young, foreign men, a situation was created I like to call the Wild West syndrome. It has increased crime in Iceland. The criminal element that found its way to Iceland did not phone home to invite their families, they invited their criminal friends.  Anybody who wants to argue otherwise is a fool, period.  Don't talk to me about the "majority" of prisoners being Icelanders. They should be! This is Iceland! Notice no one mentions how many are foreigners. Or how many are violent offenders. Too afraid to be called rasist. I thought we were all from the same race. The human race.

So Iceland opened the borders, women were violently attacked, people were beaten, and millions, millions of kronur of property was stolen.  And all for what? What was gained by this great experiment? Is Iceland better off because of it? Are Icelanders better off? What is the purpose of having this open border system?

Don't misunderstand me, I am not against foreigners living in Iceland (for obvious reasons). There is just a better way to it.  When I came to Iceland I had to have employment first.  I had to provide documented proof that I was not a criminal.  I saw nothing wrong with such a system.  It was the right way to do it and it worked fine.  Why it was changed I will never know.  The country is too small to allow unlimited, undocumented immigration.  The police force was not prepared to handle to increase in crime, although they have done a commendable job with the resources they have, the shops were not prepared for the increase in shoplifting, the bars not prepared for the increase in violence and the women not prepared for aggressive, sometimes criminal behavior that they could encounter.

And yet the government let the policy go forward and allowed it to continue even with all the evidence to the negative effect it was having on the country.  They only seemed to care about the economical benefit, and now that benefit is gone.  And Iceland is stuck with all the negative effects thanks to a government that should be charged with negligence in their handling of immigration.  And now the prisons are full, what a surprise.

GTB

Aðbúnaður fanga ekki nógu góður