Thursday 29 April 2010

The cold hard truth of politics but with warm sunny days ahead!

I am not usually interested in politics, for many years I have become very disillusioned with the major parties in Aust and for years now have voted for the Greens as I hope them to be a little more altruistic in approach. But I do find the Iceland situation quite fascinating and I feel for the Icelandic public who have been treated very badly by those that they are suppose to be able to trust.

I read a few blogs that report on the politics of Iceland in english, mainly the Iceland Weather Report, Economic Disaster Area and I do stop by and have a quick look at Iceland Banking Crisis News and More, this blog is often short on words but does bring some interesting info and thoughts to my attention. On Tues Dori Sig from this blog asks the question "are bribes used in Iceland political parties" and notes that every Icelandic party is corrupt and the politicians are not made to be responsible for their behaviour but then states that in foreign countries if a politician steals or uses public money inappropriately they are made to resign. While yes I will agree with this to a certain extent this is often only the case because Governments have had their  hands forced via media reports. Dori Sig finishes on the note that these corrupt politicians in Iceland will continue to be voted in because of public party loyalty.

Here in West Aust we have just had such a case played out in the media. Troy Buswell the WA treasurer was ousted from the role by the Premier Colin Barnett for breach of use of ministerial services. The media announced that Buswell was having an affair with Greens' MP Adele Carles, he apologised for the affair and stated that he would pay back the funds for the misuse of accommodation and ministerial car but had no intention of resigning. However that decision was obviously not his to make and the premier has since forced Buswell to resign. But I do believe that if this affair and misuse of Govt services had not been played out in the media the premier would have very quietly overlooked Buswells behaviour.

Icelanders should not rely on their government to do what is right...very few governments follow that rule! But the Icelandic media needs to step up and make the politicians publicly more accountable...political reporters need to scrutinize, scrutinize and scrutinize some more and bring corruption out in the open. Then the public may be able to vote more effectively if they know the truth.

With the release of the Black report I hope there is a brighter, sunnier future coming and that the public of Iceland realise that they do have power with their votes and do not need to put up with that which is not good!

Ok enough of politics! 

This photo is for Kristin, who had this same cactus flowering at Christmas in Iceland and mine is just breaking into flower with the onset of the cooler season here in Perth.

 You have all seen plenty of my winter Iceland pics and as summer is now approaching Iceland here are some from my trip in July last year...plenty of lush green grass and blue skies with 22-24 hour sunshine and even sunburn as you can see in the pic below of my daughter Eva.








1 comment:

  1. Good points Vicki, the problem in Iceland is exacerbated by media ownership and ties to political parties and/or other morally corrupt members of our community. Whose self interest is not served by a vocal Media. The Black report does criticise the media for its lack of reporting or biased reporting before during and after the collapse. RÚV is doing as good a job as they can and Kastljós in particular is to be commended for its reporting both when the black report was issued and now in the aftermath. Whether this will actually result in politicians accepting blame and responsibility for their actions is unknow. Afterall we have the classic case of Arni Jóhnsen a parliamentarian who was found guilty of stealing - sentenced to two years imprisonment and on release got pardened when the IP party had presidential control. Árni is again a parliamentarian.....

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