Lithuanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vygaudas Usackas, has followed his Latvian counterpart’s lead. Both have now spoken out and defended Iceland on its decision to have a referendum in regards to the Icelandic bank “Icesave” bankruptcy and its debts to Great Britain and the Netherlands.
The British and the Dutch governments have both reacted strongly to the President of Iceland’s decision to call for a referendum due to issues of compensation, and warned that this could have an impact on whether or not they will support Iceland’s ambitions to join the European Union (EU).
On Thursday, during a telephone discussion regarding this issue with the Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ossur Skarphedinsson, Usasckas called “the threats of international isolation unacceptable by some politicians and commentators”.
“I have expressed the view that we understand the Icelandic president has the constitutional right,” said Usackas.
“In my opinion, currently appearing threats of international isolation for Iceland by some politicians and commentators are not acceptable,” added the Minister.
In Usackas’ opinion, the European Commission should get involved with the dispute over Iceland and the EUR 3.8 billion compensation pay out for Great Britain and the Netherlands.
“In my opinion, it is negotiable that the European Commission should get involved in this political dialogue and economic-financial dispute between the two EU countries and Iceland, especially bearing in mind that Iceland is a candidate country for the EU, which is just now waiting for an opinion to start negotiations with the EU, ” Usackas concluded.
>The fact is that the UK made a bad situation even worse by unjustly declaring terrorist laws on Iceland, sending two more banks into bankruptcy after only one had fallen.
Actually, if you read the Kaupthing High Court report and the various other reports/relevations from the UK, you’d realise that our financial system was teetering. Seriously. I’d be amazed if the primary concern of Brown and Darling was whether they could get a few votes.
So the country really didn’t have the luxury of handholding a bunch of incompetents who weren’t *our* incompetents.
Landsbanki was dead before the freezing order. I don’t think even Fisy would dispute that. It had closed its doors to everyone outside of Iceland. Now a bank might survive that blow to its repuutation if it was fundamentally sound but just experiencing a momentary panic run, but as we’ve seen that wasn’t Landsbanki. Even with 15 years grace, the assets won’t cover all of the deposits, let alone any of the other creditors.
So Iceland killed off 2 of 3 so far.
The opinion of the High Court was that the British government had no choice but to sieze KE. The judge actually said that. Now, you can argue that it’s a British court and therefore would back the UK government, but you’d need some evidence that it works that way.
So that’s a round 3 banks done in by Iceland, none (or at least no Icelandic ones) by the UK.
Another thing I’d like to point out that doesn’t concern this directly, but since we’re on the topic of helping other nations out;
I understand the UK, a nation of 60something million people has sent a rescue team of 80 people to Haiti.
Iceland, a bankrupt nation of only 300.000 has sent a rescue team of 40 volunteers.
Seems a bit odd?
SIR EURO said: “This is because you don’t watch tv.”
Haha it is obvious where you are getting all your “information” from!
You obviously have no idea about the ways of life in Iceland! I’m not even going to dignify the rest of your prejudice bull**** with an answer!
I’m sorry if you or someone you know lost money on Icesave, but so did loads of Icelandic people, and people keep on loosing their homes and jobs over here, and you want to condemn our children to slavery for generations to come.
The fact is that the UK made a bad situation even worse by unjustly declaring terrorist laws on Iceland, sending two more banks into bankruptcy after only one had fallen. That could possibly have been avoided. And what was the real reason for this? A cheap trick by Mr Brown to fish some extra votes.
I myself and my family, and most families I know did not take part in this credit-free-for-all! We did not buy new cars and big plasma tv’s. We did not take expensive holidays to exotic places, and we will not pay for the few corrupted bankers who did!
I wonder how many more small countries will start white-knighting for Iceland?
chris said “SIR EURO IS BACK, I know Icelandic people for a long time and many of them, but what you discribe is something I never noticed or heard.”
This is because you don’t watch tv. Icelandic media has always projected an image of Iceland as if it was the richest country in the world.
normal? icelandic person said “How would you feel if you personally had to pay for things that a privately owned band in your country did? I am Icelandic, but I feel no responsibility for what private banks did. The fact that they happened to be Icelandic does not concern me”
you icelanders voted of this gangsters election after election, decades after decades, they told you you were rich, they provide you with easy credits, you bought everything you could not afford with those credits, expensive cars, houses, travels, etc… you enjoyed buying stuff outside iceland and behaving like the richest people in the world. YOU TRUSTED THEM, BECAUSE YOU LIKED WHAT THEY WERE GIVING TO YOU. YOUR GREED AND MATERIALIST MENTALITY TOTALLY BLINDED YOU, EVERY AND EACH ONE OF YOU icelanders, young people 18 yo driving luxury cars to high school, when they have a job at a local grocery shop, or dominos pizza, people living in luxus houses,travelling even many times in the same year abroad, BUT THEY WHERE JUST UNEDUCATED WORKERS AT FISH FACTORIES… HOW COME??
OF COURSE YOU ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE BECAUSE YOUR IGNORANCE MADE YOU DEMOCRATICALLY VOTE FOR THEM!!! THE GREED BLINDED YOU AND NOW YOU HAVE TO LEARN FROM THAT, AND PAY!!
SO PLEASE, STOP TRYING TO AVOID RESPONSIBILITY AND SAYING THAT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. YOU ALL PARTICIPATED OF IT!!
Niels, so when the Icelandic banks ran out of money they set up IceSave. Incredible. Good thing they collapsed before they caused any more trouble.
I learned about Icelandic spending habits from friends who lived in Iceland and from Icelandic tourists. Their attitude was: why worry about money when we can borrow more.
@Bjarni and West,
The icesave money was used by Landsbanki to fill the gaps. They were unable to attract the money necessary for their operations in the capital market. Basically, Landsbanki faced such high debts that it could not borrow enough anymore to pay its obligations.
So I do not think that Icesave money went directly into the pockets of some Icelanders (maybe indirectly thru some of those very strange transfers to the Cayman islands when the banking system collapsed).
However I had some interesting discussions on this site with Easy and Fishy (not Fisy) about the extreme lending behaviour of many icelanders before the kreppa. Apparently it was not unusual that a student who did not have a job and never had earned an income, could go to a bank and get a loan large enough to buy a fancy car!
Such behaviour is totally unheard of in Europe.
‘If you walk the streets in Iceland, you will see exactly the same types of cars, goods, and properties as you will see in any other well-off European country, including UK and Netherlands.”
Partly true Bjarni, except the cars are more expensive than in other European countries. That spending was not driven by the sale of fish and aluminum. It was driven by easy credit from Icelandic banks who obtained the money from foreign deposits, the sale of bonds, and borrowing from other European banks, especially German regional banks. If borrowing by Icelanders was at the level of other countries, then Icelanders should not have any problem paying off their debts.
DO NOT MAKE ANY EXCUSE PAY YOUR DEBTS TO THE HARD WORKING PEOPLE IN ICESAVE IN UK AND HOLLAND.YOU ICELANDIC GOVERNMENT WILL CEASE TO BECOME A NORMAL NATION IF YOU RUNN AWAY FROM YOUR DEBTS AND RESPONSIBILITY ANY THE MONEY WAS GIVEN TO YOU IN GOOD FAITH STOP COMPLAINING ICELAND PAY UP.
To West:
>>>>The money was used to provide easy credit to Icelanders in order to buy houses, vacation property, expensive cars, other consumer goods, vacations and shares in investment funds.
It is you that is making up the facts here. Yes, it is true some people in Iceland were borrowing too much, and spending more than they earned, but they were in no way different than people in other countries. If you walk the streets in Iceland, you will see exactly the same types of cars, goods, and properties as you will see in any other well-off European country, including UK and Netherlands.
If you want to claim that all the IceSave money was brought into Iceland, you are going to have to back that up with some factual data. Please provide actual references to the economic data you were basing your claims on.
And by the way, the Icelandic people that took those loans are still paying them.
@Loftur with the long icelandic name,
Your ‘article’ is completely biased. You constantly refer to UK/NL as ‘the colonial powers’ . If a foreigner would similarly stereotype the icelanders as ‘thieves’ you would probably cry out loudly.
Moreover you do not present any facts, just vague assumptons: “people are assuming that….”
“Some people have been talking about….”
Where did you study? Reykjavik?
I can assure you that any paper with the standards of your writing and reasoning would immediatley be rejected by a serious university , even if it were written by a first year student.
You said:
“Where does “west” get such faulty information ? Why should people living in Iceland have gained from lost bank loans to customers in Britain and the Netherlands ? All funds in Iceland are empty and that is causing the problem.”
Apart from the fact that you are mixing up cause and result: nearly everybody in Iceland enjoyed the free ride of uncontrolled and unsustainable growth in the years up to the Kreppa.
And now the house of cards came tumbling down…not really the fault of ‘the colonial powers’ ist it?
Alexander, you said:
“Where does “west” get such faulty information
From “independent” western media of course :-)”
I can only tell you that in the ‘colonial nation’ NL (which only ‘owns’ a few islands in the carribean compared to which even iceland is a major power) the public opinion is showing a lot of understanding for Iceland.
A discussion about this matter in newspaper NRC gave rise to 173 reactions, most of which (about 150!) show great understanding for the icelandic position.
http://weblogs.nrc.nl/discussie/2010/01/06/moet-nederland-de-ijslandse-schuld-van-13-miljard-euro-kwijtschelden/
Based on comments from Loftur Altice Þorsteinsson and others, many Icelanders seems to have amnesia about the Icelandic banks and forgotten about the money that the banks brought into Iceland. The money was used to provide easy credit to Icelanders in order to buy houses, vacation property, expensive cars, other consumer goods, vacations and shares in investment funds. This was less than two years ago. Surely your memory is not that bad. Loftur, you twisted my comments about the need for the fishing industry. Stick to facts if you disagree.
From “independent” western media of course :-)
Where does “west” get such faulty information ? Why should people living in Iceland have gained from lost bank loans to customers in Britain and the Netherlands ? All funds in Iceland are empty and that is causing the problem.
“west” is badly misinformed, when saying that “the Icelandic banks were bringing money into Iceland and the fishing industry was no longer needed”. This is plain nonsense. Obviously the banks had grown, but it was their foreign branches that had grown. They were serving foreign customers and doing this in the same manner as other banks are doing.
Øystein informs us that “the Nordic countries have already done a lot to help Iceland out of the crisis”. This is a strange statement since the Nordic countries hold a knife to our throat. Please advise how the Nordic countries have helped.
The Icesave case is a legal issue, but Øystein does not seem to realize that. The Deposit Gurantee Funds in the European Economic Area (EEA) are of the same kind as limited companies. State guaranties are forbidden and there are good reasons for this, based on competitive equality, insurance arguments and national sovereignty.
Why should the Nordic countries not have the option of earning interest on their money, by loaning it to Iceland ? How could it be illegal to help Iceland by lending it some money ? How does this illegality relate to the fact that the branches of Icelandic and Norwegian banks, in EU states are the responsibility of these host states?
It could be informative to visit following sites:
My article about responsibility within EU states:
http://altice.blog.is/blog/altice/entry/995404/
Interview with Alain Lipietz and Eva Joly:
http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/4472547/2010/01/10/
Mazarin, you have got the situation wrong. Britain and the Netherlands were fully responsible for the Landsbanki branches in these states. This applies both to opening the branches and the operations. There was no responsibility with Icelandic authorities. Therefore, Britain and the Netherlands could prevent Icelandic banks from operating branches in these countries.
See my article: http://altice.blog.is/blog/altice/entry/995404/
Alain Lipietz: http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/4472547/2010/01/10/
Please notice that there is no creditor, since no money has been lent. There are only outrageous claims by Britain and the Netherlands that have no legal basis. However the claims that are still unsettled, are for damages that Britain caused by employing the Anti-terror Law. These claims are high indeed and to this comes the theft of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander.
Normal Icelandic person, you did gain from the actions of the Icelandic banks, all Icelanders did. If it wasn’t for the Icelandic banks your standard of living would have been much lower. There was no opposition to the Icelandic banks in Iceland when they were bringing money into Iceland and there was even talk that Iceland no longer needed the fishing industry because of the money brought in by the banks.
What does the UK and Dutch Gov. want to do? To bend the democratic sytem in European counties? EU member or not, Brown cannot give order to Iceland to pay. It is not the fault of the Icelandic administration that the public wants to vote but in most EU meber countries like Germany are votes not allowed due to the public would decide opposite the decisions of the Gov.
Brown wants to have a dictatorship? This time is over and the Big Dictator 75 years ago was UK’s enemy…Now he wants to be one? Go to Haiti and apply for….Gordon!
@Johann
The only conclution I can make out of this is that it then must be illegal to help Iceland, as all problems in Iceland seems to be related to the funding of the Icelandic guarantee fund.
I wonder what Norwegian customers in Kaupthing Norway would say on this, as Norway guaranteded and paid out what Iceland fund should have paid?
If I drive on a road with a speed limit of 80 km/h and get stopped in 100 km/t, I can argue that the the first 80 km/h was leagal, but it would not work. I could also argue that my car was found OK in the EU-control, but neither that would help.
Iceland banks should not have established in Norway, as we for many years have practised and intended to have stronger rules than both in the EU and Iceland.
There are many ways to fund money – those who want an example can search http://www.mbl.is for: Glitnir Eksportfinans.
The Nordic countries want to help Iceland out of the crisis, and have already done a lot, but we know to much that we can play the propaganda game, it is just only frustrating.
Dear Mazarin.se
It is not running away from debt if anybody is willing to accept to pay compensation, if he does not owe the money and can not afford to pay. This is the situation in the Icesave case. The Icelandic government has offered the governments of Britain and the Netherlands to pay enormous sums of money, although everybody is in agreement that there is no legal foundation for the claims.
The regulations governing banking in the European Economic Area (EEA) are found mainly in Directive 94/19/EC, which is accessible on the Internet. This directive clearly states that Member States of EEA are not allowed to give state guarantees to the Deposit Guarantee Funds. There are good reasons for this, based on competitive equality, insurance arguments and national sovereignty.
Directive 94/19/EC also informs that the host states of Britain and the Netherlands carried full responsibility of the Icesave operations in these countries. No banking operations are allowed in these states, without a special permission by the host state, except if the bank does have head offices inside the European Union (EU).
Within the EU a single authorization is valid for banking operations, but strict rules about permits from the host states are governing operations within the larger EEA. These two types of rules are deviously mixed in EU directives and no wonder that some people have been talking about dubious regulations.
The important note is therefore, that no banking operations, unless the bank has its head office within the EU, is allowable within the EEA, without a special permission of the host state. Therefore it should be obvious to everyone that forcing Iceland to pay is outright coercion. The colonial powers of Europe are blackmailing a small country which has few means to defend itself.
Hilsen, Johann
ICESAVE is 100% responsibility of the government of three countries, Iceland, England and The Netherlands.
All three let this criminal activity develop knowing the consequenses long ahead without doing anything to stop it. By the way, majority of the Icelandic gangsters have moved to England where they carry on doing business like respected UK royals, living like kings with the money stolen via Icesave and more of similar nature. The taxes are paid to the UK authorities, so at least they are benefitting from the whole affair. The Brits and the Dutch have specialists in tracing ´hidden´money, why don´t they find this money and confiscate it? The Icelanders don´t have any means to do that.
If the general public should be forced to pay the amount those three countries decides has to be compensated to the victims of Icesave, why isn´t it equally split between the citisens of all three countries, then it will be divided between ca.57.000.000 people instead of wiping Iceland out.
Is it money that UK and NL are hoping for, or could it be the Icelandic gifts of nature? That is green energy, which will be claimed if Iceland would not be able to pay as per the proposed agreement.
It is also extremely strange that the credibility of Iceland goes down if they demand that the contracts they make will be realistic and workable. Everybody knows that the proposed contract is forced and humanly impossible for Icelanders to fulfill.
And for those of you who don’t understand what the UK and NL are demanding of us Icelanders;
$16,000 per Icelander to UK and NL. After WW1, Germany was told to pay 269 billion Goldmarks in reparation, later reduced to 132 billion, equivalent to about $200 billion in todays money. The German population was about 60 million i.e. it was told to pay $3300 per person. Germany is just in the process of finishing paying this 90 years after WW1
SIR EURO IS BACK; your argument doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I urge you to get to know the facts before you speak.
NORDIC PIGS; your argument makes even less sense than Sir Euro’s! Your racism clearly shines through!
And the rest of you that think Icelanders are criminals who are not keeping their promises and not taking responsibilities for our actions; How would you feel if you personally had to pay for things that a privately owned band in your country did? I am Icelandic, but I feel no responsibility for what private banks did. The fact that they happened to be Icelandic does not concern me. I gained nothing from their actions and I was never a part of it.
Furthermore, read JON’s comment above!
Myself, you seem to be blaming the problems in Latvia and Lithuania on Scandinavian banks. Assuming that is correct, your comparison with Iceland is not valid because the problems in Iceland were caused by Icelandic banks. In fact, if you are correct, Icelandic banks may have contributed to the problems in Latvia and Lithuania.
Also keep in mind that Latvia and Lithuania need NATO more than NATO needs Latvia and Lithuania. I don’t think that these countries want to be tied too closely with Russia. They’ve been there before, but Iceland hasn’t.
Here following lead of Bjarni I will post links to most recent post so you can find them :
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/09/skarphedinsson-and-moratinos-icesave-has-no-impact-on-eus-treatment-of-application/ ( 4 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/09/eva-joly-to-dutch-media-netherlands-being-arrogant/ ( 11 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/joint-nordic-statement-on-iceland-loans-next-week/ ( 9 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/government-bill-for-a-national-referendum-on-icesave-legislation/ — policy advise for clueless Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Steingrímur J.
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/lithuania-follows-latvian-lead-by-expressing-support-for-iceland/ ( 21 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/british-fishing-towns-fear-iceland-politics-will-affect-jobs/ ( 12 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/08/iceland-finance-minister-on-nordic-charm-tour/ ( 2 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/icesave-should-not-sour-nordic-relations-iceland-fm/ ( 16 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/latvian-fm-wades-into-icesave-argument/ ( 29 ) — welcome to propaganda posting alias ‘ west ‘ of other posters here..
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/the-emergence-of-icesave-empathy-for-iceland-in-uk-media/ ( 46 ) — another meaty issues facts thread
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/07/bbc-newsnight-interview-with-the-icelandic-president/ ( 33 ) — Ólafur Ragnar gets Paxoed. Program features poor research by Economics Editor Paul Mason and his team — be ashamed Paui, very ashamed
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/06/iceland-and-uk-ministers-to-hold-meeting-this-evening/ ( 27 ) — at last one of the many obviously UK government working posters here comes clean and comes out publicly
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/06/icesave-misunderstanding-in-the-foreign-media/ ( 50 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/06/iceland-president’s-icesave-decision-drawing-harsh-international-response/ ( 57 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/06/iceland-fm-declines-india-trip-with-president/ ( 5 ) — Össur Skarphéðinsson acting like a child
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/government-iceland-still-committed-to-debt-repayment/ ( 49 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/fitch-lowers-iceland-credit-rating-to-junk/ ( 11 )
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/business-as-usual-for-icelandic-government-for-now/ ( 25 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/is-iceland-without-icesave-allies/ ( 56 ) – more meaty facts and discussion
https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/declaration-by-the-president-of-iceland/ ( 4 )
* https://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/01/05/icesave-agreement-rejected-by-icelandic-president/ ( 65 ) — a particuly juicy thread
Where I put a star * I indicate threads very much worth reading.
Fully support the rights of Icelandic people to vote.
Government and Parlament are only a representatives of decisions and acting. But there will always be questions that will be national, and I honor, if that already would be done by Parlament before.
There was some comments about banks in Baltic’s
Let me tell you story on it:
One day, there was a small child called LV, EE, LT.
One man, called Scandinavian bank decided to feed that child with chocolate in advance, with hope that in future he will be selling that a some profit, without saying, that too much snack is bad.
The Child used to eat a kilos of snack, he has never been tasted before, and nobody stopped him. (naturally, as one man has full pockets with snacks that where produced by his brothers and there was a new market – absolutely empty)
One day Child got his pain in stomach, feeling himself very bad
AND
the man (bank) understood what he did, and instead of taking kid to hospital and paying him medicine to feel guilty and saying sorry,
he said >> I will lend you more money for getting medicine, but when you get standing, you will still have buy my chocolate
That is a story.
Those new countries were overloaded by cheap credits, supported by mainly Scandinavian distributors supply consumer products with aggressive marketing on how close is nice life just over the paper with new loan.
We have never seen those things before, we had no opinion/experience about bancrupcies (do not compare with early 1990′, when it was transition economy with no regulations), it was just very fast 20 years of very new country.
The only hope for Iceland is that bigger countries will support because of strategic access to Arctic resources, and for Baltics – NATO border with Russia, that will be geopolitical fight forehand
Dear Johan(n?)
I agree that the lender also have a responsibility to not lend money to someone they know can’t pay it back.
The british and dutch authorities couldn’t prevent icelandic banks from operating in the UK/NL as far as i know without breaching international treaties, it was Iceland that was responsible for making sure its banks behaved responsibly. Iceland failed to do so.
Iceland is not in any position to set any conditions on its repayments, that’s the privilege of the creditor to do. You cannot unilaterally just decide that after a certain amount of years the remaining of the debt will disappear. That doesn’t count as fulfilling your obligations.
I really do think that it is running away from your responsibilities.
With all this said, i do think a friendly nation should have offered a better repayment plan to a neighbour in need. UK/NL are technically correct in their demands, but it would have been a nice gesture of them to at least not put such a high interest rate on the loans.
it just show what a democracy we have in EUROPE, big countries are like ******** and noone cares about smaller nations!
THE EU says there is last regime in EUROPE,and it is Belarus but the EU is actually new regime, we all have to listen Brussel and what France, Britain,Germany says!!!
I want Czech republic to go out of the EU too! Because after joining it we see nothing more than we pay more for all and no life is better
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH SIR EURO I WAS ONCE A EX ICELANDIC CITIZEN I AM OF ASIAN RACE ONCE I FORGET TO CHANGE MY WORK PERMIT TO ANOTHER WORK IMMEDIATELY THE HEAD OF THE ICELAND IMMIGRATION SECTION WANT TO DEPORT ME ALL BECAUSE I WAS ASIAN BUT DID NOTHING TO PEOPLE FROM EUROPE SO SEND ALL ICELANDERS BACK TO ICELAND
SIR EURO IS BACK, I know Icelandic people for a long time and many of them, but what you discribe is something I never noticed or heard. Maybe you talked with the bankers who stole all the money, but not with the normal people on the street. You generalize a complete nation based on drunk young people as a reference.
I have to agree with the esteemed Foreign Minister of Latvia (whom I met once in Seattle). It is the people’s right to approve of the work of government. Certainly something that is lacking in the US of A.
Moreover, the utility of joining the EU is now a big question mark, infringing as it does on national sovereignty in a major way. (IMHO).
Lois DuPey
Ex patriate of USA
(seeking political asylum)
integrityworks@mail.ru
To all that say that icelanders don’t want to join EU. What do you think icelanders would choose, to have the EURO as the currency or the Icelandic Króna?
It is not a matter of icelanders wanting to join EU or not, because, even if they wanted, they could not cope with the requirements, not now, and not in many years to come. So wanting or not wanting is out of the picture, what is important is to have the possibility of choosing. Icelanders have not that possibility.
What icelanders have is two options: behave with the international community, and honor its duties, for example, pay back and take responsibility of their acts, or
Misery!! I am so happy that icelanders have finally come to see that without the rest of the world they are nothing. It gives me an immense pleasure to see how they have to eat their own greed and sense of SUPERIORITY. This icelandic guys really thought they were SUPERIOR than the rest of people in the world. And they used to just say it in your face. WHAT A LACK OF HUMAN SENSE AND MODESTY!! They preached their richness with PLAIN OPEN MOUTH, looking down to the rest of the world.
They say that the eye of God never sleeps… What happened to Iceland is something biblical. I think the icelandic ruin should be put in the bible among stories of Sodoma and Gomorra. wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony, have driven Iceland to its ruin, and it very much deserved. They will learn with time that such kind of behavior is disgusting.
Look at norvegians, with all the money and oil they have, they NEVER WERE BEHAVING LIKE ICELANDERS. But this icelanders got the SAVINGS OF THOUSANDS OF HONEST PEOPLE in Europe, and they thought they were a rich nation, when they only are a punch of farmers and fishermen ( with all respects to those professions).
I remember all those news and tv programs in iceland showing the common icelandic NEW RICH farmer traveling abroad on their private jets, just copying the real rich people of the world… The icelandic news about BILLIONS HERE AND BILLIONS THERE, exalting every Icelander and made them believe they were all immensily rich. And then those workers, specially young people ( that now face the reality of what their country depending on foreign aid programs) going downtown at the pubs in Reykjavík drinking and behaving like beasts ( specially with foreigners), telling on your very face “we are so the richest nation of the world” “Ísland er stórasta land í heimi!!” and the like. Looking to foreigners living here as if they where insects, totally ignoring them or treating them as if they were poor inmigrants… And the news… treating foreign people with such a disrespect.
The news here are so racist that even when a person born in iceland but with f.e. polish origin, do something they say a polish did this or did that… The way they have labelled the foreign population is so disgusting. Hearing those disgusting news among the usual show of the icelanders as a rich nation, What a mental masturbation really.
Thanks God for making justice!
Dear, mazarin.se
The one who lends money has a responibility, not to lend someone which is known that on forehand cant payback, lend money wisely etc. Otherwise you build up such a system where the lenders can lend money to everyone without taking responsibility of their doings and they can rely on state (taxpayers) to take the take the burden of their inresponsible action.
That is why that EU legislation forbids member states (Taxpayers) to guaranty any loans to the lenders.
In Iceland, the authorities that oversee the privatly owned banks failed in such a away to see the risk and the inresponsible behaving of the Icelandic Banks, but so did UK authorities and Dutch aswell. Both Dutch and UK benefitted from Taxes from the operation of the privat Icelandic banks in their respective countries, but not Iceland. The money got invested in UK companies, but hence Icelandic taxpayers agreed to pay UK and the Dutch back everything which the nearly empty insurrance fund of the privately owned bank should have, Iceland did that in August 2009 and passed a law accordingly. The Icelandic state put in these law a terms to assure that the Icelandic people would not pay more than they could afford, in order so that basic health and educational services should not have to suffer in case of bad times, but we would pay back.
We have always said that we will fulfill our obligations, but never been allowed to get our obligations clarified by any law institutions, but forced to pay everything unconditionally to the UK and Dutch.
That have we aggred on in August 2009, though that has been with the gun aimed at our heads.
Is this justice and fair, do you find this running away from responsibilities?
Med venlig hilsen,
Johann, ven fra Island
@Henk – The authors of the EU depositors guarantee scheme have said themselves that the law was not meant to be in effect in the case of a total breakdown of a country’s financial system. Your own (presuming that you’re Dutch from your name) finance minister, Wouter Bos, said so himself in April 2009.
The misinformations in the text above is hard to witness.
1)Britain and Netherlands had the option to seize the Assets from the collapse of Landsbanki´s Icesave accounts – they choose not to – the money from the Icesave accounts were mostly lent back to the english as the Icesave money stayed in England.
2)Icelandic law passed August 2009 state that Iceland will pay back the money it never got – the Brits reimbursed the Icesave accounts owners without so much as asking Iceland – so Iceland got a loan it never asked for. The money for most part never left England. The referandum is only about the terms of repayment – NOT a refusal to pay.
3)England did tax the interest earned by the british, NOT Iceland.
4) Britain is asking for 5,5% interest rate, when this rate should be nearer to zero. Only those 5,5% interest will pay for 50% of the whole health care system in Iceland in one year.
5) As for the legal responsibilty, he who claims he knows – he is not to be trusted. So the Swedish should be ashamed for themselves.
6) Talking about banana republic – one should look in the mirror. Also try to divide the Icesave claim by 300.000 people and see what you get. And there we are only talking about a small part of the national debt.
7) As for Lithuania an ugly game is ongoing. The scam the Swedish banks played is known to all real bankers in the world. It should be looked upon as a crime punishable by imprisonment. Who is to know what to do with money – the man on the street or a highly educated banker?
8) All that said – there is no excuse for the handling of the financial sector in Iceland – people all over were hurt in the process and lot of people in Iceland lost their lifesavings. On top of that – the icelandic people with no money left will be forced at british gunpoint to pay for lost savings in England – and they are trying to do so even knowing they cant on current terms.
A lot more can be said.
Sympathy is not asked for, but a little respect for the facts is in good order.
“Iceland helped Lithuania in thier freedom fight not long ago, this time Iceland needs to fight for its survival.Axel”
Iceland did not help any country in their fight for freedom and the only thing that Iceland wants help with is to go on a spending binge again.
Well it wouid be good if Iceland does vote no, when the EU vote comes along! It wouid shut the nations in the EU that support you up!
And to be frank with you, when this Icesave issue closes, which it will! I dont think it wouid be a good idea for the EU for Iceland to join! If this is things to come!
(my comment is of course directed at petros, forgot to meantion that) ^_^
You say swedish banks GAVE huge amounts of loans.
That is of course true, it was not very bright of them, but let’s not forget that ultimately it was the latvians/lithuanians that TOOK these loans. No one knocked on their doors and forced them to take these loans – they flocked en masse to the banks to ask for them.
The Swedish customers and the swedish state(people) have had to loan these banks billions to keep them afloat – but you don’t hear us whining about it. Of course it doesn’t really affect us in the same way since we’re a much bigger country than Iceland, but the principle is the same.
In the 90’s we had a systematic bank crash in Sweden aswell – making us one of the most indebted countries on earth. But unlike Iceland, Sweden doesn’t try to run away from its legal responsibilities. We pay our debts. Today we are one of the less indebted nations in the west.
The people are responsible for the governments – it may not always be fair but there aren’t really other alternatives. International relations could not function otherwise. Had icelanders actually listened to the warnings, they could have avoided all this, they did have elections amid strong warnings from all over about how vulnerable their banks were. They re-elected the people that made it all possible.
I sympathize with how difficult this will be for the icelandic people. I really feel sorry for them, they are our brothers. But if they’re gonna be all childish about it and refuse to honor their legal responsibilities then they are simply a banana republic that deserves all of its misery.
>Iceland will not be permitted to join the EU unless it pays what is owed!
Majority of Icelanders are not interested in joining the EU so you are barking up wrong tree there.
Only part of our current government are interest in joining up ( Social Democrats ), and they do represent less than 20% of electorate of Iceland.
Henk and Jamie
Keep in mind that 65% of the Icelandic population does NOT want to join the EU, so that can not be used as a weapon against the people.
What should be the main issue is the deal itself, signed in June, where Iceland is deprived of the right of a leagal ruling on the matter. The big boys set the rules and the others must do at they are told, regardless of leagel rights.
Iceland helped Lithuania in thier freedom fight not long ago, this time Iceland needs to fight for its survival.
“after the Vilnius massacre of January 13, 1991, which revealed that Gorbachev had authorized attempts to overthrow Lithuania’s government, Western states broke ranks. The first was Iceland, which declared that it recognized Lithuania’s sovereignty. Iceland had extended recognition in 1922 and had never reneged on it”
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-8299.html
I remember when this was happening some people here in Iceland were worried over how badly Russia would react because we were doing alot of busyness with them at the time,
Vladimir Zhirinovsky was running for president in Russia, he treatened to invade Iceland and turn it into a prison colony we would back up Lithuania,
that mad man only got 8% votes.
this support is greatly appreciated and important to us Icelanders.
Jamie, Latvia and Lithuania did not borrow as countries. What really happened is that the Swedish, Austrian and other banks gave a huge amounts of loans in foreign currency, sky-highing the real estate market. They created a bubble. And now that the banks were bailed out the Latvians and the Lithuanians have to pay. You see, instead to bail out the people we bail out the banks. Not pretty.
Something similarly silly happened to Iceland.
I’m not saying the same for my country, Greece which was supposed to do investments with that loans. In this case it’s entirely our fault.
But Latvians and Lithuanians (and Icelanders), they do have a point.
Hello there,
I am not the spanish minister but I want to tell you icelandic people that we (spanish people) support you!
[…] Read the original post: Lithuania follows Latvian lead by expressing support for Iceland … […]
Henk, It does agree, but it’s economy is too small to support that. When you take a loan you want to be finished paying it one day, if that day will be never why start a loan. Against lower interest it would be possible, but not against 5,5 %.
Lithuania and Latvia shouid keep put, they both have an agenda becouse those counrtys are in heavy debt to others! This is not acceptable, Iceland will not be permitted to join the EU unless it pays what is owed! The baltic’s shouiid also remember that their econmic aid given by the EU is payed out of NET PAYERS POCKETS LIKE THE UK AND HOLLAND.
I hope this Minister will also understand that a country that wants to join te EU must do what it agree upon with other states. That means paying the money back that the Dutch and British governments were so good to advance for Iceland. There is no discussion about this possible I think. I understand that Iceland was the first country to recongnize the independance of Lithuanian and that this is a way of saying “thank you”, but is will not solve the paying problem or help Iceland enter the EU .