“I’m surprised at just how peaceful Icelanders are,” said Margret Kristin Blondal, protesting alongside her mother, Solveig Hauksdottir outside the Cabinet meeting house yesterday. She said it’s unbelievable that nobody has yet started ripping up paving stones to throw. She believes that the protests could be a lot more violent. “Maybe that’s what the government is waiting for,” she says.
Around two hundred protesters gathered at the cabinet meeting house yesterday and tried to prevent government ministers from gaining entry. Police officers escorted the ministers in through a back entrance. Children at the neighbouring Tjarnarborg nursery school looked on excitedly until police requested the blinds be drawn on the windows, MBL.is reports. Most of the protesters then entered the house’s garden and heckled ministers as they struggled on the icy back steps on their way into the meeting.
The protesters were still there and heckling loudly as the ministers were escorted back to their cars by police and a crush of journalists, both Icelandic and international. Some minor pushing and shoving between police and protesters followed, but the demonstration was disbanded when both sides agreed to leave the scene at the same time together.
Einar K. Gudfinsson, Minister of Fisheries said he was very disappointed that the protesters chose to behave the way they did by “Preventing democratically elected representatives of the people coming into their workplace”.
Einar K. Guðfinsson should be thankful that he is not living and governing in a Banana republic where no doubt he and some of his fellow members of the cabinet would be facing a much more serious fate then having to face their “angry” and “ripped off” countrymen. Having to use the back door for work…now thats real hardship !!
bob (Reykjavik)
As angry as people are with the government…..
Remember it was the Banks,which are PRIVATE companies their owners and the crooked billioneer puppetmaster businessmen who were in bed with the banks + stocktraders that vastly overvalued stocks got Iceland into this mess.
The main fault of the government + central bank was to let the banks go so far .
But in the governments defence David Oddsson in perticular was always trying to break business corruption.
Remember Baugur control about 60% of the food in Iceland and about 40% of the clothing… Now thats a real mafia.
After the George Bush shoe throwing incident, maybe 1000s of protesters could throw their boots at their foes …….ONLY JOKING… Please dont i will be arrested for inciting a riot!!!!!!
I think that at least the perception is that the government or at best too many in government were also in bed with the private bankers. I for one am under that presumption.
Having the talking heads in government saying they want to kill corruption is one thing but reality is often another.
Elsewhere in the world you might have a high ranking state official win an election on a ticket of stopping the rampant corruption that everyone knows is going on. And then two years later that same official is arrested for doing exactly the same. Only now we can see how pervasive and blatant that corruption was.
>But in the governments defence David Oddsson in perticular was always trying to break business corruption.
One thing funny I find is that now people talk of the media not being indepdent and owned by the businessmen etc etc and if they had it not been like that would be that the problems would be seen and reported head of time.
Yet in all this talk of corruption and mafia and criminal goverment oligarchy they forget what Davið tried as last act as Prime Minister in 2004, the media bill to make impossible for large private companies to own more 15% and have newspapers and television stations not be owned by the same people.
As he said to enable the media to remain independent and critical not only towards politicians, but also towards financial moguls.
Or did I imagine it?
Based on the demeanor of the Icelanders that I know, it would have been surprising if the protesters had “started ripping up paving stones to throw” as Ms Blondal suggested. One has to wonder what sort of impact that would have had on the impressionable young minds in the “neighbouring Tjarnarborg nursery school” Would she suggest that “who has the largest paving stone wins the battle”?
These are disturbing times we live, so much chaos happening these days, all because an elite group of bankers was greedy and crashed the whole system. Now we the common working people have to deal with the consequences while they are given handouts in money from the national governments etc. it’s just sickening.