Guð Blessi Ísland

Last night my wife and I saw the documentary movie Guð Blessi Ísland, which is about the banking collapse of 2008 and the subsequent resignation of the government.  Overall, I found it to be a powerful, moving film that helped an outsider like me understand Icelandic's part of the international banking crisis, something I have studied for some time.


This film has received some criticism for not accurately portraying Icelanders.  Director Helgi Felixson follows three Icelanders to show the impact of the economic crisis on them - a police officer, a truck driver, and a witch.  Well, she seemed like a nice lady, and her heart was in the right place.  I'm sure that when most Icelanders saw her segments in the movie they feared that the entire world would think that Iceland was largely populated by witches who dug through dumpsters to get food.  That was not the case with me - instead I saw a desperate woman who was concerned about her son's future.  Although I am not a witch, I share her same concerns about my daughter's future in the United States.


During the segments which showed scenes from the Kitchenware Revolution, my 15 year old daughter was watching the screen with a look of horror on her face.  Here was this nice, peaceful country that Dad has been talking about moving to, and people are beating on pots and pans and throwing eggs at the Parliament.  Oh, and the people were getting sprayed by large canisters of pepper spray, which is something that is not very much fun.  I explained to her that she was watching something important - a free society exercising their right to protest their government.  I then went on to explain to her that this event was the equivalent of 12 million Americans storming Washington, DC and causing the President and Congress to resign.  I saw a look on her face contemplating the ramifications of such an action, and an immediate sense of respect for the Icelandic people.


She also saw that in a truly free society that governments can either be placed into power, or be pressured to be removed.  Many would expect that an American child would understand this concept as the United States was born from revolution.  However, throughout our history the American government has continually eroded the ability and desire of the American people to enact effective change upon our government.  We have a two party political system, and often elections come down to a choice between two spokesmen of different special interest groups and not representatives of the people themselves.  Within the past 15 years or so, we have also seen protesting equated to being anti-government.  In fact, we have taken extreme measures in the United States to prevent people from protesting, such as deployment of LRAD systems.


Here is a video of LRADs being used against protesters in the US.  When I say "protesters" what I really mean is "people trying to walk down the street":

Did you see all the protesters?  Neither did I.  This video was shot during the G20 meetings in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 2009 but it clearly shows nobody protesting anything.  Yes, there were protesters at G20 as some people feel that globalization of monetary policies remove a country's sovereignty.  This thinking is similar to Iceland's lack of desire to adopt the Euro or to join the EU.  As soon as you join the "club" you are no longer in control of what happens in your country.


Of the three Icelanders that are portrayed in Guð Blessi Ísland, two of them were wanting to leave Iceland and come to the US.  I found this to be a little bit ironic, considering that I want to leave the US and go to Iceland.  Unfortunately, I think these people had the romantic notion of the United States in their minds and had not considered the reality of such an action.  In Iceland when the banks failed, the government was changed, investigations were launched, and people got arrested.  In the United States we gave the banks over $12,000,000,000,000 (which we created from thin air) and bandied around toothless words.  In essence, nothing changed... so what is to prevent a future banking failure in the US?  Nothing at all.  Since the United States is virtually owned by the Chinese, how long will it be before the bill comes due?  It is frightening to think about and the concept does not paint a positive future for the US.


As someone on the outside looking in I see Guð Blessi Ísland not as a story of documenting the struggle of three Icelanders, but more of a study of Icelandic people as a whole.  I would really like to see comments on what both native and expatriated Icelanders think of this movie.  I know that it shows a grim side of the Icelandic crisis, but it is important to keep in mind that it was made during the worst parts of the crisis.  According to government and media information sources, Iceland is now on the way to recovery and if that's true then I am all the more happy.