White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech

Iceland

A few weeks ago I went to Iceland to spend a week there. It has changed a lot from when I was there last summer. Iceland is still not cheap, but surprisingly less expensive due to the lack of worth of the Iceland Króna. Last summer nobody was talking about unemployment, now it's around 10 %, maybe higher already. Construction sites are dead, all the workers there unemployed. But still, there is a lot of optimism among all Icelanders. Some even go as far as predicting a new economic miracle for Iceland, as there is assumed to be oil under the sea in the Dreki area north-east of Iceland.


I went to Althingi (icelandic parliament) to listen to a debate once, and came right in time when they were discussing about Geir Haarde's BBC interview. The interview is in English and Haarde did say some very controversial things in it. Absolutely worth waching it!

Here are a few pictures from Iceland:


Ice broken by the river



Landscape in pretty cool lighting



Gullfoss in ice



Our summer house



Downtown Reykjavik, the construction site in the background is the new concert house at the harbor (there was nothing being done there, but they are planning to resume constructing soon)



Snow in Reykjavík, the church is Hallgrímskirkja, which is being renovated(the only construction site I saw somebody actually working at)

Change Has Come

Now finally some things changed in Iceland. For now about a week, a new cabinet is working for Iceland. After former Prime Minister Geir H Haarde finally gave up, after weeks, well, already months of revolutionary protests. Considering that Iceland doesn't have an army or armed police officers, the situation was pretty alien in Iceland, having had the image of the peaceful people of the north.


Massive protests in Reykjavík



Nightly Bonfire in front of the Icelandic Parliament

For a pretty long period of time, the protests seemed to be useless. The politicians kept trying to get themselves out of this mess and tried to avoid a loss of their reputation. Well, time didn't help that any, the former Prime Minister Haarde couldn't get into his car without being attacked with eggs and snowballs. By the way, Icelandic prime ministers have rarely relied on the service of bodyguards. Permanent personal security for a politician is something that didn't exist in Iceland until October 2008. Now, about two weeks ago, the powerful finally realized what the best option was: Resignation!

It started with the Minister for Economic Affairs, Björgvin Sigurdsson, who said that apparently he couldn't win back the people's trust. The prime minister announced new elections on May 9th and the resignation of his entire cabinet. He also said that he won't continue his political career due to his state of health (cancer).

I believe he made that decision a bit late. But better late than never!

Then everything went pretty quick. The oppositional Socialist and Left-Green Party formed a temporary cabinet, which will operate until those elections in spring. That cabinet is lead by Steingrímur J. Sigfússon of the Left-Green Party, who is now Minister of Finance, and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of the Socialists, who is prime minister. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is not only the first female prime minister of Iceland, she is also the first homosexual prime minister in the world. Yes! She is 66 years old and married to a woman, an Icelandic author. There is the whole cabinet:



The whole cabinet with President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir left to him and Steingrímur Sigfússon on the right hand.



It's interesting that those three politicians already sat together in that room before. But that was more than 20 years ago, in 1988. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the second from the left, was Minister of Finance back then. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, next to him, was Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security. Steingrímur Sigfússon wasn't part of the Left-Green Movement back then (he was one of the founders in 1999). He was Minister for Agriculture and Communications for the People's Alliance and is sitting on the right end in this picture.

The person in the middle on the president's seat is Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who was the world's first elected female president and served for 16 years from 1980 to 1996.

No need to say that some major things have changed in Iceland. I'm going to Iceland in a week and will spend a week there. It is a pretty cool coincidence of cheap airfare, my grandpa's 90'th birthday and a mid-year-vacations in Austria.

Things We Need...

...or at least someone thought we do.

To survive, we need water, food and oxygen. It's really not a lot. However, these past years that doesn't seem to do it anymore.


For those who want to know right away, a built-in scale right where people most likely get rid of that desert.



A blondie-keyboard! Typing, like on the computer is like so much easier now, like, you know what I mean? OMG this is fabulous. It even has an "idk" button, cause you wouldn't know otherwise.



In case you forget how old you are, here's just what you need. Too bad you're not gonna get any older than 84. Watch how you get older without having to look in the mirror!


You wanna find out what's going on behind your back? Check it out. Unfortunately human kind wasn't equipped with butteyes, but we can beat that nature!



The Electronic Bubble Wrap Keychain. It pops like the original, but it's indestructible. I really want one of those!

Shame on Austria

Imagine there is somebody, who is a member of a fraternity who is voted 3rd President of the Austrian Parliament. That's ok, but now imagine that this fraternity is not really a nerdy academic one, but instead brutal with ideologies on the far right political end. This is not fiction, it's Austrian reality.

Martin Graf, a lawyer and politician was voted 4th president of the Austrian Parliament. This might seem like a simple representative job, but if you take a closer look on constitutional right, you can say that it's pretty much the 4th highest function in the Republic of Austria, after the President of the Republic, the 1st and the 2nd President of the Austrian Parliament. What is very controversial in Martin Graf's biography is his membership in the fraternity Olympia. He is still a member of this fraternity, though it has been criticized concerning its closeness to right extremist beliefs. The organization has been declared a right extremist organization by the Documentary Archive of Austrian Antagonism, a public foundation to research and archive Nazi crimes and right extremist movements after 1945. Despite many public requests to resign from the Olympia, Martin Graf is a member up to date. By the way, for members of the Olympia fencing is part of being in that fraternity. But not not exactly fencing as we know it from sports, more like aggressive fights.

But not enough with his background in such a fraternity, in 2000 he also questioned the Austrian "Verbotsgesetz", the law that banned the NSDAP and bans any neo-Nazi activities. Graf has always presented himself as moderate, being a lawyer and knowing the techniques in political presentation. He has been described as one of those "calm right ones", educated, but with very primitive principles. I say primitive principles because the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) has a pretty simple agenda. Its main points are German nationalist and xenophobic. Most of Martin Grafs party colleagues are nothing like him in their political style, as HC Strache, the head of the FPÖ.

As mentioned before, this man was voted 3rd President of the Austrian Parliament. This poll occurs at the first session of the Austrian Parliament after elections and is an anonymous poll by the delegates. Martin Graf was suggested by the FPÖ, that finished 3rd in the last elections and can therefore claim the 3rd President. That man was voted with a great majority, because only one party, the Austrian Green Party, said that they are not going to vote for him in advance. The other parties didn't think that his background was worth not considering him for this function.

Of course, Martin Graf, being a lawyer, has published numerous declarations, in which he states that he distances himself from any Nazi ideologies. But recently, it came up who is working in his office. Not only former fraternity brothers, but also customers at the German mail order company "Aufruhr". It is not proven whether they were they ordered "Nazi-shit" there, but they are definitely persons that have their political opinion on the far right end. One of his staff members has been organizing a very controversial youth camp called "Jugendbund Sturmadler", while another one is well known in the right extremist scene.

But the peak of this whole thing is that it is commonly accepted, nobody cares. Primarily it's a shame that somebody like that may sit in the Austrian Parliament. And, that somebody like that obtained such a high function. Shame on Austria.

By the way, the corsage he is wearing in that picture is a cornflower, which has been the symbol for many anti-Semitic movements, including the Nazis.

The Power of Democracy

In most of the so called "fully developed" we have parliaments, or something like that. Personally, I'm a fan of political discourse. Good debates, good arguments and good and effecive parliamentary action. But apparently that's not that common..

Here is some ineresting stuff out of the great and interesting parliamentary world:

In Italy they have something called lifetime senators, who can be appointed by the president. It's kind of the highest honor that can be awarded to a citizen of the Italian Republic. But, it means that those senators are senators for life, as the title says, which means that they sit in one of the parliament chambers until they die. At the time, there are 7 senators for life, ages 81 to 100.
One of those senators for life is Giulio Andreotti, 89. This man has been prime minister 7 times, at the longest serving 2 years. Andreotti has been involved in like every scandal on relations among the mafia and italian politics. But he managed to get out of every scandal and trial. But, I think the man is getting old..



Some other members of the italian parliament just decided to party.


That was because Romano Prodi alliance broke apart which was the end of his short career as prime minister. Some oppositionists decided to let the corks pop, and didn't care for the president of the senat shouting "Senators! We are not in a tavern here!"

But fist fight are pretty common some places as well. As recently in Mexico..

or the Ukraine..

and in Russia.


Butthe best still occurs in Austria.

Same Old

Dear Mr President,

"You are engaged on a double task, recovery and reform - recovery from the slump and the passage of those business and social reforms which are long overdue."

"If you fail, rational change will be gravely prejudiced throughout the world, leaving orthodoxy and revolution to fight it out. But if you succeed, new and bolder methods will be tried everywhere, and we may date the first chapter of a new economic era from your accession to office."

What does that sound like?

Obvious, it's an open letter to the US President. But not to Barack Obama as it looks like, no, it was already written in 1933, some 75 years ago. It was not written by some American advisor, no, it was written by Mr Keynes, a British economist, to President Roosevelt. If problems that aren't any different from now already existed 75 years ago, then what happened?

It appears to me like if humanity doesn't realize that everything is going wrong, until it's definitely too late. If Mr Keynes had pointed out those problems, willing to prevent another crisis, why do we have a crisis now. I believe that studying history is not enough, you have to understand history. Humanity always functions in similar patterns. This crisis is going to be solved, everybody is going to be happy until the next crisis comes up. The economic cycle is based on that. But what if everything gets out of control, as it is happening right now. I guess then we won't have any other choice than hope. Hope for change. I hope that change won't come when it's too late, as problems will always be similar to the same old.

Get Out!

For the ninth saturday in a row, there has been a "saturday protests" in Reykjavik. The picture above is from the latest protest. By the way, the building in he background is the Icelandic parliament. But why are people demonstrating?

Well it's obvious that is has to do something with the financial crisis which hit Iceland really hard. The three biggest Icelandic banks, Kaupþing, Landsbanki and Glitnir have been nationalized. The Iceland Króna, the world's smallest currency system, has lost over 150 % and is pretty much worthless. But who is responsible? The Icelandic people?

No, of course not, the majority of the Icelandic people is not responsible at all. Responsible are the top managers of the Icelandic Banks, who took high loans abroad in order to invested on high risk and make big profits, which resulted in a desaster. Politicians did not interfere, they did not make rules for the financial market. Instead they privatizised national banks and let them do whatever they wanted. By the way, to privatize is based on the latin word privare which means to deprive/to rob.



The protests are against those two guys. Prime minister Geir Haarde and central bank head David Oddsson.
Geir Haarde studied economics in the Unied States and was minister of finance from 1998 to 2005. Following that he was minister for foreign affairs for about a year and the got prime minister in 2006. He still is prime minister.
David Oddsson studied law in Iceland, somehow got chief of the health insurance fund in Reykjavik and then was elected mayor of Reykjavik in 1982. He was in office until 1991, when he got prime minister of Iceland. He was prime minister until 2004, which was a period of 13 years. In 2005 he announced to quit politics and got head of the central bank. Why does somebody like that lead the central bank?

Those two can't deny being responsible for the situation Iceland is in right now. They worked together as prime minister and minister of finance for 6 years, and following to that as prime minister and central bank chief for more than 2 years.

Well, if somebody is driving drunk and causes an accident, does the police allow him to drive home afterwards?

Geir Haarde and David Oddson are the drunk members of the incompetent Icelandic government. They should have been replaced already, like the top managers of the banks, who were fired immediately, as the banks were nationalized.
But they don't want to be victims of the financial crisis, of course not.

The victims are the Icelandic people. Inflation has been 17 per cent in November, the Iceland Króna is worthless anyway and the unemployment rate has reached 4 %. It was less then 1 % a year ago and it is expected to increase up to 10 % or even beyond that.



But not only Icelanders in Iceland are affected, yesterday Haraldur Johansson, who my Dad has known for years, achieved national fame among the readers of the paper Der Standard. There was a reportage on his situation, which is that his Icelandic pension has been cut in half, forcing him to leave Vienna and return to Iceland after living in Austria for 18 years.

And he's not the only one. My great uncle is from Austria but lived in Iceland for 40 years. He lives on his pension from Iceland, recently only on half of it.

There has to be something done, maybe something like change.

The European Obama

The quest for the European Obama has been iniiated. In several European countris politicians with similarities to president elect Barack Obama rise. Europe is searching for their own Obama - superman.



For instance in the Netherlands. In october there were held elections in Rotterdam, where Ahmed Aboutaleb, the candidate for the social democratic party won and wrote history. He is the first mayor from a mixed ethnical background to be elected in a major city. He was born in Marocco, came to the Dutch as a 15 year old and to date owns a Maroccan passport. Him being elected is a great progress on the issue of immigrant's integration in the netherlands, as he a practising Muslim has reacher a climax in his career with two passports. Like Obama, Aboutaleb doesn't fit into any political scheme, he is somebody that came out of nowhere. On January 1st he will take office!



In Germany there recently arose another Obama - like figure. Cem Özdemir, who was born in Germany to Turkish parents. Lately Özdemir has been elected head of the green party in Germany, the first head of a german party with a mixed ethnical background. He is a man that has written several books on the situation of the Turkish minority in Germany. After he was elected at the national convention of the green party, the members began shouting "Yes, we Cem". That is the new slogan and hopefully a new way of politics.

Go To Iceland!

Iceland! - as cheap as it never was.
Due to the financial crisis the Icelandic Króna, which is the smallest independent currency world wide, is pretty much worthless. In 2007 the Euro was around 75 Krónur, now the Euro is about 178. Even a blind can see that that's some difference!
So go to Iceland, running around with foreign currency it is cheap. On the pic there is the door of one of the most unique shops in Reykjavik downtown, Ranimosk. There you get the most creative and best tshirts in Iceland, my brother sells the tshirts he makes there!!
Talking abour shirts, here is a tshirt that says

good weather and cheap beer
- what more yould you want

Well, due to financial crisis and global warming that irony is fading.