I should be grateful to have a job

I wasn’t at the weekly protest yesterday. I was at a family birthday. My husband went, however (we divide our forces…). Actually I wasn’t sure if there even was a protest, as those behind it used all possible ways to promote Monday’s protest. On December 1st we usually celebrate our Sovereignty. This time there is obviously little to celebrate.

I will go there tomorrow.

Otherwise, things are much the same. I am working on getting my young one into daycare when I start working. I am also working on my positive attitude; I should be grateful to have a job, I should be grateful to have a job, I should be grateful to have a job, I should be grateful to have a job, I should be grateful to have a job, I should be grateful to have a job…

Hey big spender…

Yesterday I talked to someone abroad that I did not previously know. I’ve talked to many of my friends abroad about the situation in Iceland. The first one to contact me to ask what was going on in Iceland was my Irish friend in England. She was closely followed up by Switzerland, Zambia, Norway, Belgium, the US and Mocambique – in the first run. It seems that they’re getting pretty scary news. Which is not unfair, as the situation is rather scary.

However, the reason I was talking to this person I did no know was the fact that in spite my good intentions to

a) keep my word and take this low salary dead end job that I’ve already accepted and

b) not leave Iceland unless we’re evicted (see my threat to our Industrial minister below…)

I was just very curious to see how much I’d get paid where I used to live when I was young and irresponsible (once I was, it’s true…).

I called a couple of places and soon found out that based on my relevant language skills and education and given that I’d start in a not-so-specified office job, I should get about 2,43 x what I’ll be getting paid over here from January onwards. Do you get that? It’s nearly two and a half times more! Not to mention that the living conditions in that other country are decent, whereas what is happening here is getting… well… less than that.

However, this guy that I finally ended up talking to for a while asked me how the situation was in Iceland at the moment and we talked a bit about the crisis. In spite of everything it struck me a bit to hear that he, like many others, had this idea that normal people have been on a crazy shopping spree for the past few years. Although he was polite his view was a bit like “Oh, that’s a pity, but you dug that grave yourselves, by living like little millionairs for all those years”.

Who started that rumour?

Ok, I know that most of my parents generation by now were in a pretty good place financially. They have paid for their houses and saved some on the side and yes, they can buy their SUVs, flatscreens, trips to the Canary Islands, etc.

But somehow, like I stated in my first post, most of the people that I know from my generation have had a very modest life style, to say the least. Hell, we’ve never even had a microwave owen. I got my first car when I was 29 years old, before I just walked or used the bus. My husband has technically never owned a car, as our car is on my name.

Our lifestyle hasn’t changed much. My kids get about 90% of their clothes used from my friends and family. Children’s clothes exchange is very common among my friends. Why shouldn’t it be? I had to buy myself a jacket recently, I bought the cheepest one in the mall and still felt guilty. That jacket was the first garmet I bought since July. And in July again I had  not bought any clothes for months. Don’t worry, I wasn’t poor, we just didn’t have any money to waste.

I take this discovery, the image this guy at the foreign job agency has of us, the ordinary Icelanders, as yet another incentive to keep blogging in English. I know I’m not going to change the world and I know that proportionally few of my readers are non-Icelandic, but it seems to me that there is so little information accessible on the internet about the everyday life in the crisis that I’m determined to go on.

In case you feel like helping out, send this link to your friends abroad, particularily those of them who happen to have some media or marketing connections. And if you have a Facebook account, add Mynt Karfan as your friend. Any comments are welcome – I also have a gmail account: myntkarfan@gmail.com.

Citizen meeting

There was a public citizen meeting tonight (pardon me if I got the translation wrong – my dictionary search also suggests the term “town meeting” and google’s further definition is: An informal gathering of an officeholder or candidate for office with a group of people, often local, in which the audience raises questions…)

It was the fourth meeting of this sort in four weeks. The meetings have grown from a small theater to a bigger concert hall to one of the largest lecture halls of the University of Iceland.

I’ve wanted to go to the other meetings, but I haven’t made it. This time me and my husband were organized, we arranged for my parents to look after our children, and took off. We were there on time, but the building was already full. It was stuffed to the door.

We spent the night in the hallway, along with hundreds of others. There were large TV screens, on which we fallowed what was going on on the other side of the door. This citizen meeting was different from the other three because

a) a large part of the government finally showed up to answer questions from the public

b) it was broadcasted directly on the national TV.

As for the meeting, what was said there and how it came about, I have to say that I was pretty satisfied. Of course I am not referring to the way most of the government spoke back to the people, but to the discourse at the meeting in general. The speaches were good.

A man named Benedikt Sigurðsson discussed very clearly some practical issues that regard the financial situation of me, my family and many like us. All the other speakers made perfect sense to.

I could make a very long post about the meeting and all the thoughts and emotions it brought forth. However, I doubt that many of you who read my blog (the number is increasing day by day, thank you all), would bother to read it. So I’ll pick out one little thing that our Minister of Industry, Össur Skarphéðinsson, said, when answering a question from a civilian.

The civilian asked whether the government had planned to evict those of us who will in the end give up and stop paying our debts from our homes. The minister replied that they were working on adjusting the laws so that they would not have to evict us, but could let us stay there (paying rent to the banks that will by then have swallow what once was ours).

This is my personal answer to Mr Össur Skarphéðinsson, and pardon the caps lock but this is how I show my blog-emotions:

I HAVE EXPERIENCED LIFE OUTSIDE OF ICELAND AND SEEN HOW REAL WELFARE SYSTEMS WORK. I STILL HAVE A SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER IN A NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY. IF YOU WILL MAKE ME LOOSE MY HOME, THAT ONCE WAS 30% MINE AND 70% MINE TO BE IN DUE TIME, WITH REGULAR AND HONEST PAYMENTS, I WILL LEAVE.

And now, in normal sized letters again, this is what I will take with me:

a)      I will take my MA degree, paid for by Icelandic tax payers and my blood, sweat and tears.

b)      I will take my BA degree, paid for by Icelandic tax payers and my blood, sweat and tears.

c)       I will take my experience, my strong will, my intelligence and my ability to survive.

d)      I will take my exceptionally bright children (the older one has a confirmed IQ of 132 = not a future doormat of the likes of you)

e)      I will take my extraordinary smart husband, his BA degree and his experience from the Icelandic business sector.

You keep the rest. 

Pessimism

Today has not been a good day for me personally. Somehow it seems to happen every now and then that all the mess we’re in gathers up and suddenly becomes overwhelming.

Through the past few weeks I’ve generally tried to be optimistic, to avoid thinking about the things that make you absoloutely loose your mind with rage, and to focus on things that make me happy. My kids are, for example, an endless source of happiness.

But on days like this Iceland disgusts me. Not the island itself, the island is a beautiful, powerful thing. Just things like the endless corruption and lack of justice. I might add that I had days like this even before the economic crisis began. Most of us have known for a very long time that many things have been far from being right. Still, when any talk of corruption has been brought up, the authorities have gladly pointed at the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

I’ve often wandered what the index is based on. Today I heard someone on TV claim that it was based partly on the assumption that we were like the other Scandinavian countries and therefore they only gave us a “light check” or something like that.

That may be true. But I once also heard that a large part of the Index was based on questions regarding bribery. And it just so happens that traditional bribes are not a part of our culture at all. It is much more favour-for-favour-oriented. Plus, the index clearly did not ask if close relatives of say, ministers, were commonly hired for prestigious positions, even if there were other far better qualified applicants. I guess they just assumed we were a civilized nation.

Work abroad – protest

Yesterday I went to an introduction for work in several Europen countries. Yes, I know that I already got a job, and as a matter of fact I a kind of promised my new employer that I’d stay with them for a while. And since I have a habbit of keeping my word I plan to try to hang in there. However, I heard about this introduction some time ago and I decided to go.

To make a long story sort, it was very interesting. What was striking was the number of middle-aged Icelanders, people who have been on the working market for quite some time and now face unemploment, only because the irresponsible behaviour of a few personalities with too much power. I’m pretty sure that most of those people would rather stay where they are, than move abroad from their families and all.

And then there was the protest in Austurvöllur, central Reykjavík. This was the 7th time that people met there to express their feelings. This time I was there too. I was there last about 3 weeks ago. Or was it 4 weeks? In any case the crowd has grown considerably. At the same time it seems more scattered. Last time we all stood in front of the stage, this time we were all over the area.

This is a photo from the Myntkarfan phone – those people were promoting the EURO and the EU

Doubtlessly the best speach was given by Katrín Oddsdóttir, a law student. If I am not mistaken she is part of a group that want women to take over the parliament for now. Not a bad idea.

Her speach was inspiring, her voice cracked a bit over the most emotional issues, but it seems that everybody agreed with her. And I hear from people who were there or heard it on the radio, and read it on their blogs, that she was the one who really nailed it today.

The essence of her speach was about how our government basically betrayed us all by swallowing all of IMF’s conditions.

Here is another photo from the Myntkarfan phone – the main attention should be on the poster in the background, it shows the IMF as the big black wolf, dressed in sheep’s clothing, swallowing Iceland in one piece. In the blood pool it says EDUCATION, HEALTH, RESOURCES, INDEPENDENCY

After the protest me, my husband, our younger offspring and my sister in law visited a friend of mine who lives in the center. It was a short but pleasant visit, I got to use the bathroom, our child played, my sister in law got cake and my husband got a cake and coffee too (my friends makes excellent coffee). However, at the same time many of the protesters went to the police station and demanded that a protester that was arrested yesterday be set free.

The protest turned pretty loud and violent. The police used pepper spray. In the end somebody paid the probation fee for the prisoner and he got to go.

This is starting to feel like a war zone. At the same time I am glad that people are showing their feelings. And I can’t say that their anger surprises me. We’ve all been terribly mistreated.

Here I found something about what happened today.

Hugging the parliament building

News! I’m no longer unemployed. In times where an unemployment rate of 10% is expected it’s good to have a job.

True, my new job has little if anything to do with my University degrees. As a matter of fact I don’t even think they ask for a grammar school exam for this particular line of work. Nor is it fairly paid. However, it is a job, I can quit searching (which has been really depressing) and I still have a month to finish the independant project I’ve been working on. Hopefully I can turn it into cash one day.

Yesterday there was a silent protest at the parliament building. People went there to hold hands and form a chain around the building. The aim was to “protect” our parliament, to protect the democracy and draw attention to, and fight, the corruption. I wanted to go, but I had my little one at home with a runny nose, so I stayed home this time.

My husband went, which is funny, as I didn’t even think he knew about it. I’m so proud of him.

Measures, speach(less), protest, gossip

On Friday our government introduced what they call “extended measures” to help the general public to cope with the situation. That is, some of the general public. And not really help, more like extending the noose (and by noose I mean the one that people use for hanging themselves in).

To make a long story short I have not yet seen anything in their “extended measures” that is of any relevance to me and my family at all.

Somebody asked me to speak in public last night, as a representative of the ordinary people, struck by the economic crisis. It was pretty late and I was almost asleep. I try not to take big decisions when half asleep, so I said I’d think about it. In the morning I did just that, plus consulting with a good friend who told me to go for it. I am not much into giving speaches, but I’ve done it a couple of times and survived. And so I decided to speak.

However, then it turned out that the person who asked me didn’t really have authority to decide who should speak at this particular venue. Appearantly I am one of many possible candidates. Which a kind of makes me uninterested, as my only goal would have been to represent the general public. It now seems that the general public has other delegates who may even do a much better job than me.

However, should I have given a speach I probably would have spoken about the same things that I wrote about in my first post.

On Saturday around 10.000 people (it seems hard to get reliable numbers, it might be a bit more or a bit less) took part in a protest agains the government and their lack of action. I wasn’t there. Like the Saturday before some yongsters chose to express their anger by throwing food and toilet paper at the parliament building (pardon me if the translations for “Alþingishús” is something else). From what I’ve heard it was only a small group. However, this seems to be what makes it into the international media, not the many good speaches nor all the other smart stuff.

Well, at least we’re getting attention.

One more thing: According to the latest gossip there is now, finally, some talk of forming a new government. However, I am not so sure that it would do us any good. As far as I see it the parties are all equally incompetent (including the one I voted for). We’d need a much bigger change than just a different conglomeration of the same old parties.

Premiere

Hi there.

So, I’ve done it. After a few days of contemplation I now have an anonymous blog (and in English!).

The things that have happened in Iceland in the past weeks are just too much to take in. That being said I realize that other normal people all over the world have experienced much bigger catastrophies of all sorts, be it of natural causes, warfare or anything else. However, for a relatively well off modern nation to become suddenly completely bankrupt is pretty drastic to me.

Had we decided, one year ago, not to buy a new flat, hold on to our 8 millions (my in-laws gave us the rest) and rent a flat from someone, I’d probably experience the situation very differently.

Let’s go over a few facts:

We’re relatively well educated people, we’re college graduates and I now also have a Master’s degree (finished last year). We’ve got two lovely children. We’ve got a pretty normal car, it’s 8 years old but works perfectly fine. We don’t spend much money on clothes and we hardly ever travel.

Since we moved into our flat a year ago we still haven’t been able to put proper curtains in all windows, finish the lighting nor furnish the way we’d want to, but that’s not a big deal. We were trying to save for those things, like normal people do.

For the first year after we took the loan we watched our 30% get smaller and smaller and eventually vanish. However, we were aware of the risk of taking such a loan in the beginning. So, no tears were shed, there was no talk of bankruptcy and there were certainly no thoughts of starting an anonymous blog.

What then happened was so crazy that there is no way to consider that “just a part of the risk“.

Now I have been focusing on our particular problem, but of course the whole society is affected. My mom lost between 20% and 30% of her life savings, possibly even more. Most of my friends are having troubles paying there bills. People are losing there jobs, wages are being cut down… need I go on?

What pisses me off the most it the myth that in the past decade we have been blinded by some overwhelming wealth and spending money like crazy on useless things while neglecting our friends and family, particularily our children.

Who came up with that?

Let me just speak for me and my husband, most of the time we’ve been broke as hell, after studying and working part time jobs during the studies to avoid the (evil) study loans. After graduating our older child was already on the way and well, to make a long story short we never came across that overwhelming wealth. The 8 millions we owned appeared mostly out of luck, as prices of properties went up during the time we owned our first flat.

Some people say that we, the home-buyers who took the foreign currency loans, were stupid all along. They say that had we known anything at all about money we’d never have taken it. Well, they might be right, none of our degrees are in economics. But how come I don’t feel guilty about that? How come I just feel like we did all that we could to gather the best information available at the time when we bought our new home?

After all we’ve never sought any financial risk (before). We’re just normal people, doing our best. And sorry about the clichee, but this just isn’t fair.