my kind of protest. any links to the story?

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>> ^imstellar28:
my kind of protest. any links to the story?


They are protesting in front of parliment. We now have protests there every saturday at 15:00. People show up, 3-4 people hold speeches. These motorcyclists weren't an official part of the protest but wanted to do show support in this way. The flag the guy on the roof was raising is the flag of Bonus (icelandic Wal Mart, Tesco). The cops tried to get him but the crowd got him back and he ran away. I was very happy they didn't resort to spraying people with tear gas which they did this summer. When people are shouting at the police there they are saying "YOU ARE WORKING FOR US, NOT THEM". I suspect the police were this passive because most of them probably agree with the protesters.

Basically, Iceland is in turmoil. The credit crisis led to all of our 3 banks collapsing(12x the size of the GDP). It's down to a european trade agreement(can't remember the name in english). It gives companys all sorts of freedoms, some good, some not so good. It meant that our banks could operate anywhere in Europe. So, they went and started loaning in Holland, Germany and England. In England alone over 300.000 people had accounts (these accounts had very high interest rates). So.. when the banks couldn't get loans from other banks they started falling, they had expanded themselves way too much like everybody else. BUT.. while the law gave them freedom to operate in other countries, the banking license was still in Iceland. Which meant 310.000 people were now responsible for accounts of almost 500.000 people, many of which had high amounts in the accounts.

The Icelandic goverment started freezing the banks, to take over. A disputed act, but they couldn't really let the banks go bankrupt because then the country would have no way to buy anything, nobody would have any money. So when Gordon Brown saw what they were doing he talked to our goverment and they said they would probably be able to pay off what the law required of them (about 20-30.000 euros for each person I think). Somehow Gordon took that as us not being willing to pay. So next the British goverment froze all Icelandic assets in England (using the terrorist law) and declared Iceland as a bankrupt nation (even though the country itself had no debts and has been practically debtless for some years, quite rare for a country). Next we knew, iceland was on the same list as terrorist organizations like Al quaida and terrorist supporting nations. It has now come to light that before they did that, the assets of the banks would have sufficed to pay off the legal requirement and then some. But freezing everything and declaring us as a terrorist nation effectively took all value off those assets. Catch 22?.

We are now running down on foreign currency to buy in produce. We have been working with the IMF to get a loan to get the economy moving but word is that the english and dutch are working behind the scenes to deny us of that loan until we agree to pay way over the legal requirements. Gordon Brown is basically trying to look as some savior to the british people, he's been doing horrible in the polls and this is his Falklands war.

In essence, we got fucked by greedy businessmen and inept politicians. 99% of the nation had no idea we were written down as responsible for all these foreign accounts. The politicians championed these businessmenn while everything here was booming, they were buying up huge companies overseas, money here was very easy to come by. But as it turns out, it was a bubble, none of it was real.

In the last few decades unemployment has been from 1,2-2,2%. We are now facing a possible 10-20% next year. Numbers that have never been seen in the history of the country. Our international reputation has been terminally fucked. We read stories of icelanders in england having their dinner plates spat on, people getting verbally abused in the street e.t.c. Just for being icelandic. For the actions of about 30 people.

This rant could probably be 3x longer, but i'll stop here for now .

... well, all ya'll Icelanders are welcome in the States.

Most of us will go, 'oh you're from Iceland? ... like where Bjork's from? thats awesome! hey, lets go bowling, maybe hit a bar afterwards. do you guys drink beer in Iceland?'

Tags for this video have been changed from 'motorcycle, iceland, protest, cops, police, protestors, pickets, picketers' to 'motorcycle, burnout, iceland, protest, cops, police, protestors, pickets, picketers' - edited by calvados

In Canada too!

And two of my bros are planning to visit Iceland in January -- the trip's been on the books for a few months, before all this happened.


>> ^bamdrew:
... well, all ya'll Icelanders are welcome in the States.
Most of us will go, 'oh you're from Iceland? ... like where Bjork's from? thats awesome! hey, lets go bowling, maybe hit a bar afterwards. do you guys drink beer in Iceland?'

im surprised i didnt hear a single tire pop in all that

i like ice landic people! as far as i know dont realy know anny, i havent herd of anny icelandic hatred infact i wasent evan aware of the situatoin as im hiding out in a nucular bunker.

And that is my video ---
You can see more videos from the protests at - www.youtube.com/dorisig