Why should the Icelandic public not be used as a scapegoat for ICESAVE?

 

The Dutch and British governments are pressuring the Icelandic government, and thus the Icelandic public, to pay what has been lost in the ICESAVE scandal. They are barking at the wrong tree. This is a big misunderstanding, caused by calling things by the wrong name, in this case, a bank. If the owners used the name "The National Bank of Iceland" while doing international business, which could very well be a case of intentional disinformation, meant to mislead with erroneous information. Understandably, the Dutch and British public could have believed that Landsbanki was authentically the national bank of Iceland. It wasn't.

Imagine if owners of ENRON were able to hide behind the US government, and simply let the American public pay the losses, and go free to other ventures... This is the case with ICESAVE, only it's the Icelandic public that is being forced to pay an amount that will leave the country in pieces. Landsbanki (The National Bank of Iceland) initiated ICESAVE. Even though this private company carried the name, The National Bank of Iceland, it was only so by name, since it had been privatized back in 2003. A correct name would be: A Private Bank of Iceland. This is a case of confused identity.

What makes matters even more confusing is that Landsbanki was nationalized again in October 2008, since the private company had gone bankrupt.

The owners of the bank should be responsible for the errors made by the bank, and not the Icelandic public, since the Icelandic public did not own that private company: Landsbanki.

The owners of the bank and responsible parties within the company should be held responsible for every single Euro lost in those accounts. They were the ones responsible for investing the money, and lending it, not the Icelandic public, any more than the Dutch or the English public is responsible for it.

Using the Icelandic public as a scapegoat is a horrible deed, something nobody should accept, not Icelanders, not the British, not the Dutch: nobody! These countries should conduct a joint legal investigation where the responsible parties will be identified and tried and convicted according to international banking laws. If the Icelandic public pays ICESAVE, this will happen:

a) Certain: The guilty and responsible will get away with a crime of the century, which invites the same crime to be committed all over again, since you can get away with it.

b) Certain: Generations of Icelander will have to lower their living standards, and poverty will increase dramatically, since taxes will be increased, government services reduced, prices get raised and the currency will continue declining.

c) Probable: Icelanders will leave their country massively, since they will not accept or tolerate such injustice to take place, and them to pay for something they did not do.

d) Probable: Natural resources of Iceland will little by little be used to pay debts the government will never be able to pay on time.

It is outrageous that the public may be forced to pay these huge debts of a private company that went bankrupt due to bad management. It's simply neither fair or just. My intention with this article is simply to inform and encourage readers to think about what is really going on behind the curtains.

Feel free to spread this information around to your friends that live abroad. We must spread the word. People have the right to know what great injustice is going on in Iceland. The international community must learn the truth, and hopefully help bring the culprits to justice.

Þér er velkomið að dreifa þessu bréfi til vina þinna og kunningja erlendis, ef þú telur það hjálpa til við að útskýra fyrir umheiminum hvað þetta ICESAVE mál snýst um og af hverju fjöldi Íslendinga vill alls ekki borga skuldir óreiðumanna.

 

Picture of Landsbanki's main owner: The Huffington Post