Icelanders Overthrow Government and Rewrite Constitution After Banking Fraud-No Word From US Media
Added by Rebecca Savastio on December 2, 2013.
Saved under Rebecca Savastio, World
Tags: icelanders
Saved under Rebecca Savastio, World
Tags: icelanders
Can
you imagine participating in a protest outside the White House and
forcing the entire U.S. government to resign? Can you imagine a group of
randomly chosen private citizens rewriting the U.S. Constitution to
include measures banning corporate fraud?
It
seems incomprehensible in the U.S., but Icelanders did just that.
Icelanders forced their entire government to resign after a banking
fraud scandal, overthrowing the ruling party and creating a citizen’s
group tasked with writing a new constitution that offered a solution to
prevent corporate greed from destroying the country.
The
constitution of Iceland was scrapped and is being rewritten by private
citizens; using a crowd-sourcing technique via social media channels
such as Facebook and Twitter. These events have been going on since
2008, yet there’s been no word from the U.S. mainstream media about any
of them. In fact, all of the events that unfolded were recorded by
international journalists, overseas news bureaus, citizen journalists
and bloggers. This has created current accusations of an intentional
cover up of the story by mainstream U.S. news sources.
An
“iReport” on CNN, written by a private citizen in May 2012, has
questioned the reasons why this revolution has not been widely covered
in the U.S., suggesting that perhaps the mainstream media is controlled
by large corporate interests and thus has been unwilling to report on
Iceland’s activities. That report is currently making its way around
social media.
CNN
today placed a statement on its website saying: “We’ve noticed this
iReport is being shared widely on Facebook and Twitter. Please note that
this article was posted in May 2012. CNN has not yet verified the
claims and we’re working to track down the original writer.” It is
interesting to note that CNN’s European version, CNN Europe, already
covered the story of the protests and the government’s resignation,
leading many to question why CNN would now need to “look into” the
claims.
Besides
CNN Europe’s own coverage of the scandal, the events in Iceland were
widely covered by international media and are easily verified by a
simple search on Google which leads to a variety of reputable
international news sources that ran numerous stories on the Icelandic
revolution. A whole documentary has been made on the governmental
overthrow called Pots, Pans and Other Solutions, and now, the
conversation is focused on whether or not the citizens’ actions actually
worked to make Iceland a more equitable nation.
To understand the enormity of what happened in Iceland, it’s best to draw parallels between the initial banking fraud that caused Iceland’s economy to collapse and the banking fraud in the U.S. that caused the mortgage crisis six years ago. In Iceland, unscrupulous bankers had inflated the value of Iceland’s banks internationally which in turn caused the “bubble” to eventually burst in 2008 and saw most of Iceland’s banks going bankrupt.
A
similar situation happened in the U.S. just one year before the
collapse in Iceland, with the mortgage crisis of 2007. Mortgage lenders
in the U.S. knowingly lent money to prospective homeowners who could not
afford to purchase a home. This, in turn, led to falsely inflated home
values and a vicious cycle of too much lending. Just as in Iceland, the
bubble burst and many U.S. banks were about to declare bankruptcy.
In
Iceland, the citizens took to the streets by the thousands, banging
pots and pans in what is known as the “pots and pans revolution,”
leading to the arrest and prosecution of many unscrupulous bankers
responsible for the economic collapse. Icelandic citizens also refused
to pay for the sins of the bankers and rejected any measures of taxation
to bail them out. In the U.S., the government bailed out the banks and
arrested no one.
The
pots and pans revolution in Iceland was not covered by mainstream U.S.
media. In fact, any information about this revolution is found only on
international newspapers, blogs and online documentaries, not on
mainstream front-page articles as would be expected from news
organizations covering a story of this magnitude. The New York Times
published a small handful of piecemeal stories, blogs and opinion
pieces, but mostly glossed over the main narrative by saying the 2008
financial collapse in Iceland caused “mayhem far beyond the country’s
borders” rather than pointing out that Icelanders took to the streets
with pots and pans and forced their entire government to resign.
As the saying goes, “there are two sides to every story,” but a more accurate articulation of this phrase would be “in any story, there are multiple sides, viewpoints, opinions and perspectives.” The story in Iceland is no exception. Socialist and Marxist blogs here in the U.S. say that there’s been a massive U.S. news conspiracy and cover up about the revolution in Iceland because the U.S. media is controlled by corporations, including banks, and the “powers that be” don’t want U.S. citizens getting any ideas to stage a revolution of their own.
Some
conservative Icelandic bloggers claim that while there was, indeed, a
revolution, it did not lead to a successful or widely accepted new
constitution. They say the situation in Iceland is worse than ever, and
that international news reports of an effective democratic uprising
leading to a better government are simply myths. Social media commenters
are scratching their heads over why they were robbed of the story of
Iceland’s pots and pans revolution.
As
with most narratives, the truth may lie somewhere in the middle of all
of these varying perspectives. One thing is clear, though: it’s nearly
impossible to find one mainstream U.S. news report of the pots and pans
revolution in Iceland, the resignation of Iceland’s entire government,
and the jailing of the bankers responsible for the economic collapse
there. Whether or not the revolution led to a more fair government or a
workable and effective constitution is irrelevant to the fact that the
U.S. media has essentially skipped over this story for the past five
years.
Is
it possible that mainstream media sources purposely covered up the
Iceland story to appease their corporate sponsors? It doesn’t seem
likely, and yet, what explanation could be given as to why this news
never made it to the front pages of our most trusted media organizations
here in the U.S.?
As
Iceland struggles to regain its footing with a new government, U.S.
citizens may or may not be able to look to Iceland as an example of
perfect democracy in action. The real question, though, is why weren’t
U.S. citizens given the information about the ousting of the Icelandic
government and the jailing of the unscrupulous bankers? Are journalists
in control of the mainstream media or is there some truth to accusations
that big business may, in fact, be strong-arming reporters to keep
quiet about world events that could inspire similar actions here in the
U.S.?
By: Rebecca Savastio
Sources:
Reuters UK
Newsnet Scotland
New York Times
Pressenza International Press Agency
Techdirt
New York Times Blog
Youtube (Preview) Pot Pans Documentary
Internationalist.org
The Guardian
Collective-Evolution
New York Times
Foreclosure Nation
New York Times
By: Rebecca Savastio
Sources:
Reuters UK
Newsnet Scotland
New York Times
Pressenza International Press Agency
Techdirt
New York Times Blog
Youtube (Preview) Pot Pans Documentary
Internationalist.org
The Guardian
Collective-Evolution
New York Times
Foreclosure Nation
New York Times
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