A story about Iceland by journalist Alda Sigmundsdottir
Last week's storm was a catalyst in a number of ways, not least in that it exposed so many weaknesses in this country's infrastructure. Hundreds of homes were without electricity for lengthy periods, and many without heat and telecommunications. In other words, people were totally cut off from the outside world, completely at the mercy of the elements for days on end, with no way of calling for help. One couple was rescued after several days from a remote farm where they had spent days living in a single room and using candles for warmth, with a small child and an infant.
Other farms had no power and were unable to milk their cows or even provide fresh water for their animals. In hospitals and health clinics up north medical staff had to administer medication with headlights on since there was no electricity.
Many people are now asking how, in a country like Iceland that is rich in natural resources and relatively wealthy, something like this can happen. How one severe storm can sweep us back into the dark ages, why our power infrastructure is so fragile that one bout of bad weather can completely knock it out of action.
Well, it turns out that the power infrastructure isn't that bad... or, specifically, the power infrastructure that Icelandic authorities have put all effort into constructing in the last couple of decades. Unfortunately that isn't the power system that serves ordinary people. It is the system that has been built specifically for heavy industry, read: large multinational corporations that settle here, buy our hydroelectric power at rock-bottom prices (paying far less than the normal consumer), and then take all the profits offshore, leaving almost nothing behind in the community.
Meanwhile, the power infrastructure for ordinary people is as we have now seen. Ostensibly there has been no money for improvements - or for funding Search and Rescue teams (they are currently made up of volunteers), or having adequate law enforcement, or a medical system that pays decent wages to all its hard-working staff and is capable of updating its equipment, or all the other things that a society needs to thrive.
It is ironic that the one town hardest hit by the disaster was DalvÃk, up north, which is where disgraced fishing company Samherji (you'll remember posts from last month about Namibia) has the majority of its operations. While residents of the town huddled in their cold and dark homes, served up by their spectacularly inadequate infrastructure, billions of krónur that could have been used by the government to build that infrastructure sat in offshore accounts belonging to Samherji's owners. All courtesy of a corrupt political and economic system designed for them by their cronies in government. In lieu of that, the Icelandic coast guard had to send one of its vessels to the town to provide power for the town through one of its on-board generators.
You can't make this shit up. And we need a new constitution. STAT.
Coming to a place near you soon....