Would you vote for this man?

Politics are probably the same world round. Come election time the public is bombarded with flyers, commercials, posters and pins – all unappealing and unwanted. An array of well dressed, well coiffed people of all ages fall over each other in their attempts to sell the public their lofty aspirations and vague ideals, something no one is really in the market for. We all know what we want: social justice, security, equality and jobs and systems that keep our bodies and mind ship-shape (health care and schools), reasonable taxes – i.e. the ingredients for reaping as you sow. We also know what we don’t want: corruption, nepotism, greed, rampant bureaucracy, interest juggling, ridiculous spending, inequality or any other such ugly behaviour that has no place anywhere, least of all where society’s puppeteers are concerned. Sounds simple enough but I guess it must be anything but, seeing how difficult it appears to be in practice.

Later on this month Icelanders enter the voting booth to place their ballots for the municipal elections held simultaneously around the country. Here we have 4 main parties, none of whom are extreme and would probably all fall pretty close to the line separating left and right wing political beliefs – two swing to the right and two to the left. All parties present a mix of good and bad, both on their agenda and on their candidate rooster. In any other year these elections would have been a severe case of “same-old, same-old”. However, this is not any usual year. Just two weeks ago a committee assembled to get to the bottom of the banking crisis published its findings which were made available to the public on the internet or for purchase in bookshops. The report was in 9 volumes, no less was needed to paint the awful picture of corruption and greed that reigned supreme in our society before the crash. How so few did so much harm is incredible and maybe at a later date I will brief you regarding the report’s contents, at present I am too disgusted to even make an attempt. For now I am just going to describe the report’s effect on the elections.

Every now and again joke political parties enter the scene here, never managing to get anyone elected. I remember one that ran under the name: Left right and centre party – pretty funny stuff but not enough substance to engage the voters. Now yet again another joke party is running – this one in Reykjavík. The party is called the Best Party and its primus motor is a comedian named Jón Gnarr. In interviews he states his reason for entering politics – he wants a well paid indoor job that comes with a car and a chauffeur to keep him company while he is driving – i.e. he wants to be the mayor of Reykjavík. In interviews he states that he is going to be corrupt but he is not going to hide it so it won’t matter. He is also going to hire all of his friends in order to remain popular within his social circle. He is hilarious in interviews, providing an uncanny parody of professional politicians – belting out long sentences made up of words favoured by those in power, the speak that sounds good but if you reaaly want to really understand what was actually said  you need to write it down verbatim, only to reach the conclusion that the emperor has no clothes – talk that says absolutely nothing. In between these he manages to throw in really funny things – today he participated in a televised debate where he stated that he intends to rise from the ashes like the bird – Felix. He also quoted some nonsense that he attributed to Benjamin Franklin, only to add that he might be mistaken, it could have been Richard Nixon.

Like all parties the Best Party has a political agenda – when they entered the scene it only contained one single item: Add a polar bear to the Reykjavík petting zoo. Slowly they have added more, here are some examples:

• Plant palm trees along the Icelandic shoreline
•  Establish a program to try and tame the fish in the sea
• Install toll gates around Reykjavík to charge suburb inhabitants an entrance fee
• Similar to “adopt a highway” introduce “adopt a bum” program
• Free dental care for children and losers
• Make Iceland the leading country in the field of prisons

As you can see it is impossible that anyone could be under the misconception that the Best Party is taking the election seriously. But because of our frustration with the more serious, established parties and their participation in corruption, nepotism and lax work ethics - the Best party is doing quite well in the polls, incredibly well at that. Consistent voter approval (rising if anything each time the pulse is taken) show that this is not a fad that will blow over. The newest numbers show a 24% following, putting his rivals to shame. So who knows, at the eve of this coming election day maybe we will have a new mayor in Reykjavík – the honourable Mr. Gnarr.

If so we will have a lot of construction on our hands, seeing that his super-prison Gnarrenburg will be given a green light, as will the erection of toll gates and the enlargement of the petting zoo.

Yrsa - Wednesday