In Iceland, the Panama Papers mega-scandal has already claimed two casualties: the prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and the idea that corruption is nearly extinct in the Global North. My piece in The Nation, just out, looks at Iceland in some detail. I point out that other Icelanders, politicians and former bankers, have also popped up in the Papers, so the scandal is far from over.
A leading academic who studies the right-wing cabal that got control of the island nation in the 1990s and ran it into the ground in 2008 argues that in the days and hours before the big collapse, elite insiders sneaked their money out to safety. Professor Silla Sigurgeirsdottir, a professor of politics at the University of Iceland, told me with some bitterness, “In four or five hours, some people set up big pension funds for themselves overseas.”
One difference with the US and Europe is that Iceland did put some of their banksters on trial; more than 20 were convicted and some are still in prison.
Iceland’s experience should prompt some humility in the rich world. There is a strong tendency in America and Europe to blame poverty in the Global South on cultural backwardness, on uneducated, superstitious people, inexperienced in democracy, who permit the rise of greedy, corrupt leaders.
By contrast, Iceland is a highly educated nation, which supposedly incarnates Protestant virtues of rationality and honesty. The striking 240-foot spire of the Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church is the most prominent landmark in Reykjavik, visible from 15 miles away. But for some years now, many in the Icelandic elite have turned out to be just as greedy and dishonest as their criminal counterparts in Mexico or the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“But for some years now, many in the Icelandic elite have turned out to be just as greedy and dishonest as their criminal counterparts in Mexico or the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Transparency International measures corruption by country. The DRC is 147 of the 168 countries ranked and scores a 22. Mexico is 95th and scores a 35. Iceland is 13th and scores a 79. There is certainly corruption in the West, but until we are paying militiamen bribes to travel from town to town, or have entire municipalities run by drug lords, as is the case in Mexico, comparisons like these are unhelpful.
I’ll grant you that by Scandinavian standards, Iceland is a cesspool of corruption. Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are 1, 2, and 3 in the world, and Norway is 5th.
There has been a lot of commentary on the Panama Papers on Craig Murray’s Web site, craigmurray.org.uk.
Here’s a good piece in blackagendareport.com: Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem.
I am sorry that you thought this important enough to print while the US has been on a rampage all of my life.
The man (PM) in Iceland stepped down.
(btw, why is everybody in this crazy world making a big old deal of this but not of Putin’s and Assad’s rescue of Palmyra, his people, and the defeat of Isis there?)
It beats blaming our political, corporate, military and financial leaders for doing whatever it takes to secure our interests in the Global South, including:
– keeping people only as culturally advanced and educated as we need them to be able to work for us and buy from us;
– securing their resources for ourselves;
– overthrowing democracies; and
– propping up greedy, corrupt leaders.
Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson came to power because he strongly opposed holding the state of Iceland responsible for the incredible losses that their banks experienced in 2007 and 2008. During that same time the governments of Ireland and Latvia assumed the losses that their banks had incurred during that period. International banks were absolutely furious with Iceland for not backing their banks with future taxes. Whereas, as we all know, the governments of the US, UK and EU countries all jumped in to bail out their failing banks. The US alone, through the federal reserve bank, created 3 to 4 trillion dollars, to bail out US banks. Iceland was the only Western nation to just let their banks fail and then suffer the consequences. What is interesting Iceland, very slowly to be sure, was the first country to begin recovering from that calamity. Today Ireland and Lavia are still severely burdened with paying back the money their banks lost.
What is interesting to me is that the first political casualty from these Panama leeks happens to be one of the only political leaders that actually protected his nation’s people from the crippling payments that came from “saving” their national banks. Somehow, I think Gunnlaugsson is being punished for defying the dictates of international finance. Of course, I cannot defend his actions in trying to preserve his personal wealth while the rest of Iceland suffered. The message that is being sent to leaders of other countries is to not defy the interests of international finance because they have ways to get even.