Um skapandi hugsun í pólitík og almennri hugsun

Fyrir tæpu ári síðan var ég beðin um að skrifa grein um ástandið á Íslandi í internationalt/alþjóðlegt  netfréttablað. Ég hef aldrei birt það hérna á blogginu, en hef þó haft það á facebook. Í morgun fékk ég þá hugmynd að setja það líka inn hérna. Bloggið er líka gott, því má ekki gleyma. 

Ljós og Kærleikur til alls

Steinunn Helga Sigurdardóttir

Denmark/Iceland

In Iceland, my home country, the crisis has been and is extremely violent. The population has experienced a natural catastrophe, which has a huge influence on the farmers in the southern part of the country, and not least on their domestic animals.

As we recall, Eyjafjallajökul has been active for a longer period, and ash, lava and soil have destroyed the fields and the environs on the entire southern part of the country. Nobody yet knows the extent of the damage this has caused for the agriculture in this area.

The other crisis is the wrecked Icelandic economy, which happened with a bang about 2 years ago. The impact on the country’s economy of the fraud and greediness of a few people was so catastrophic that it will take generations to rebuild the economy of the country again.

It has been interesting for me to follow this process as a person from outside, who nevertheless feels so involved in the country. It was as if the population woke up from a longer dream in fairy-tale-land, where everything was possible just moments before, but now no longer.

The population woke up in the middle of a nightmare, and the nightmare continues. For months, hundreds of people gathered outside the Parliament building every Saturday; equipped with pots, pans and wooden spoons and with beating hearts and fear of loss, they tapped a sound together in the hope that the politicians would wake up and do their part in saving what could be saved.

What differed from what I have seen before, elsewhere, was that most of them were artists, people who had lived a bit away from the rest. They were their own masters and you can definitely say that politics did not play a big role in their lives.

My own background is the artistic milieu in Iceland, and therefore I know the space well in which you are totally distanced from politics, but where any expression related to life, death, politics, aesthetics and the human condition happens in artistic ways.   

But now it seemed the time had come, the time for something new, the time to be a part of the community and pass on new ideas, which could be used to build something different from before.

After a while, in the cold of winter, with mittens, winter coats and  icy faces outside the parliament building, armed with pots and pans and the will to change for the whole and for oneself, they succeeded in getting the old government out, the government which was part of catastrophe descending on the whole country. And they succeeded in getting a new government, which could put the pieces together and attempt to reconstruct what was left, in the ruins.

It became a great victory for the green parties in Iceland.

But the story did not end with ‘everybody living happily forever after’. The problem was/is big and reconstruction will take a long- long time.  

On the 29th of May 2010 municipal elections were held in Iceland and this did not happen quietly.

 In Reykjavik a new party saw the light of day, The Best Party.    

Following a period where the citizens of Reykjavik had been exceedingly dissatisfied with the old system, because of the wrecked economy and corruption among other things, The Best Party won with a majority of 34.7 % of the votes in the local elections and thus became the biggest party in Reykjavik.  Jon Gnarr Kristinsson, the new mayor in town, has on his CV: stand-up comedian, actor and radio-host – and now mayor!

The Best Party differs a lot from what we have seen before. Most of the other members are artists and therefore in contact with new ideas, which is very obvious in the goals of the party.

It started as a JOKE,

with an idea,

with love for one’s town,

with love for one’s country.

That joke became serious when the citizens, very unexpectedly, turned their hopeful faces towards The Best Party. It was a desperate action to take such a radical decision, to give your vote to something so fundamentally different, but it was also a decision that the old had to go to make space for the new.

It was not because the party promised the earth, it was because it touched something in the population, which it was ready to receive, in desperation.

The mission of The Best Party is among other things to eliminate fear and anger from society and to create a platform which facilitates a different kind of dialogue!

They have decided always to be helpful and accommodating and always to strive to find positive solutions in all cases.

They work very consciously from the creative thought and from positive energy, to be optimistic rather than pessimistic.

They strive to see possibilities rather than limitations!

The Best Party takes responsibility for the whole and includes nature.

I would like to give an example of this. In the Danish newspaper Politiken Jon Gnarr says: ‘We have exceptional possibilities to create something truly unique, because we are placed close to the edge of the wilderness, which is not easy to find in Europe. And which, due to rapid climate changes, becomes more and more exposed at this time. Because of the changes, icebergs from Greenland come to Iceland more often, and with them also polar bears. Last year three polar bears arrived in this way, and as the law dictates, they were shot and killed with a riffle. I think that is sad. Next time a polar bear arrives in Iceland, we are going to receive it in a very friendly way. We will attempt to find the resources and the technology to catch it alive and to have some kind of facility in the zoo, where it can live.’

He comes up with more fine ideas about constructing an area in the landscape, where polar bears can live in peace and quiet, and Iceland is big enough for that!

From what goes on in Iceland I can see the creative energy all over, it assists in lifting the consciousness of the population from the level of greed to the level of ideas and in that way to create new possibilities to live in a different way.

Suddenly when everything collapses it becomes possible to think in new ways. That is what it takes.

With its 300.000 inhabitants living on the island, Iceland is a small country. Iceland is known for its fantastic nature and for its artists.

It is not only Jón Gnarr, the new mayor of Reykjavik, who has been visible in national and international politics. It is also Björk who is world famous for her music.

Björk is now on a mission to save the natural resources in her country, Iceland, from investors, who she suspects, will exploit the financial crisis in Reykjavik.

For a longer time I have been following the development going on in Iceland, and I am convinced that if it goes the right way and the population uses the resources at its disposal, something quite unique will emerge from which other countries can learn a lot.

It is extraordinary that in such a small country as Iceland, where we live consciously next to our neighbours, elves, trolls and lives from the inner dimensions, and where more than half of the population is innovative and creative, that exactly there the biggest catastrophe happens, that the whole country collapses and that the possibility to create something new materialises.

It will be exciting to follow what happens in the near future. It is obvious that all Icelanders are forced to wake up and to act, and it is interesting that the artists are doing it first. They take responsibility for the country because of their love for it and because of the creative energy they live in.

The creative energy has always been present everywhere in Iceland, and the link between nature, the nature elements and the human being has always been strong. For centuries we have cooperated with devas and elves, but now the time has come to think on a larger scale to influence the whole world, because what happens in Iceland has the attention of the whole world.

It is my hope that the hard time my people are experiencing will contribute to creating something which will be of use to everybody, in small and in bigger ways anywhere in the world.

Each time a human being strives towards the beautiful or the good, in the form of a painting, a sculpture, a song, a silence, politics, a thought, new ideas - or a wish - for oneself, one’s family, for one’s town, for one’s country, for Mother Earth or for the Universe, this human being becomes equal to the Angels of God’s Hand.  

Athugasemdir

[Ásthildur Cesil Þórðardóttir, 31.3.2011 kl. 10:22]

Flottur pistill Steina mín.  En svo er málið að Besti flokkurinn breyttist fljótt í venjulegan pólitískan flokk, sem er ekkert betri en hinir.  ég veit eiginlega ekki hvort okkur er við bjargandi.  Það verður að koma í ljós.  En ég heiti á landvætti og gyðjur og goð að vernda Ísland og koma okkur þjóðinni upp ú rþessu helsi pólitíkurinnar, sem er allt að kæfa. 

[Steinunn Helga Sigurðardóttir, 31.3.2011 kl. 11:23]

ég veit kæra vinkona, en þetta var spennandi og mikilir möguelikar í byrjun. Held þó að allir öfgar í byrjun séu til þess góðs og ofur eðlilegir, en svo janfnast hlutirnir oftast og sem betur fer. Trúi að gyðjur landsins og góða hugsun!!!

[Vilborg Eggertsdóttir, 1.4.2011 kl. 02:35]

~ mín kæra, meiriháttar!

Það sem var - er ekki lengur, það er liðið undir lok.

Því síður að reyna að halda áfram í sama farinu með gamlar "brellur" :o))

Ég veit að það er rétt hjá þér - það er sköpunarkrafturinn sem færir okkur umskiptin.

- enn og aftur - frábært hjá þér Steina mín -

Hjartans kveðja,