The Joke is on Us

I wish I had an explanation as to why talkshow host/comedian Stephen Colbert would be testifying in front of Congress on the the conditions of the nation's farmworkers. But I can not find one, simply because there isn't one. It just shows the lack of wisdom by the members of Congress who invited him. 

The idea that because someone is famous, they then must have very insightful things to say about everything (I call it "the Bono effect") is predominently an American phenomenon, but can be found in all over of the world in one form or another.  

Icelanders, luckily are not infected by the "worship the famous" disease, (at least not their own) but instead have a similar sickness that assumes because a person is capable of being elected he or she must be capable of running the government.  The current situation has proven that this assumption is not only untrue, it is dangerous.  

Someday, people will learn to rely on those with actual knowledge of the task at hand, instead of on those whose only claim is popularity. Then, and only then, will the situation improve.

GTB

 

 

 

Grín í Bandaríkjaþingi

The God Question

There are only two possible answers to the "God question".

 

Number 1. The is no God.

or

Number 2. There is a God...and he just doesn't give a shit.

 

Take your pick.

 

 GTB

 

 

„Hver er tilgangur lífsins?“

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

No state, government body or entity, duly empowered by the people, shall be granted, by legislation or other means, the power to perform any act that shall be, when applied to the people, prohibited by law.

 

GTB

Teresa Lewis tekin af lífi

Icelandic Hero

This guy is my personal hero. Ólafur R. Grimsson has managed, single handedly mind you, to steer the Icesave debate away from being about a wildly excessive, deadbeat nation that refuses to pay its debts to being about a European Union elitist club keeping their wealthy and powerful members happy by beating up on a small but proud nation.

 

While all the other politicians have done nothing but damage Iceland’s ability to negotiate a fair deal by cowering and groveling to please the British, Dutch, and the EU, Ólafur breathed new life into Iceland’s negotiation position by making out the EU as bullies and standing firm in the position that Iceland owes them nothing. Say what you will about past exploits, but no person has done more to support the nation’s image after the crisis than this man.

           I would like to know when the Althing plans to erect a statute of him in Rekjavík. 

GTB

Hvers konar klúbbur er þetta?

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