Björk is hosting a three-day karaoke to protest Magma Energy’s takeover of Iceland’s natural resources.
Iceland is in a bit of a mess. The Viking island stronghold was the first economy to implode and now its natural resources are being threatened, according to Björk, by Magma Energy’s takeover of Iceland’s geothermal and thermal energy producer HS Orka. Björk is striking out against the Vancouver-based corporation (instead of against a paparazzo).
And her weapon: a three-day karaoke she is hosting in Reykjavik to apply pressure to Iceland’s government (whose actions probably grew out of the country’s dire economic straits), urging Icelanders to sign a petition to force a referendum that would overturn HS Orka’s sale to Magma Energy.
And who is Björk calling on?
“Elves, hidden people, sports people, hobby musicians and professionals … everyone who cares for Iceland, come and join forces and perform a powerful ode to the nature of Iceland… Let’s bring our natural resources back to us with song.”
She has asked the Icelandic people to come to the event, hosted at the Nordic House and other venues, and sing their favorite songs as an act of protest. On the opening night this past Thursday, Björk sang a duet with Icelandic environmentalist Ómar Ragnarsson.
In keeping with the theme of elves and hidden people, Björk noted that the date of Threttándinn was chosen specifically for its magical association. In Icelandic folklore, Threttándinn is a magical holiday when elves, fairies and other hidden people emerge from the hidden realms and party with human beings.
Iceland is heavily dependent on geothermal energy as the island lies on the Mid-Atlantic range, a hotbed of volcanic activity and hot springs. This renewable energy is harnessed and combined with hydroelectric power to heat and power the island’s homes and industries.
Magma Energy had previously owned 46% of HS Orka’s stocks before the sale. Magma then bought the 52% stock owned by Geyser Green Energy, with 2% ownership remaining for Iceland—effectively giving Magma 98% ownership and control of Iceland’s third largest geothermal energy company for 65-130 years.
Magma did this by circumventing Iceland’s rules barring non-European Economic Area countries from purchasing natural resource assets. The sale was carried out by Iceland’s Independent Party, led at the time by Geir Haarde who has been indicted for misconduct while in office and will stand trial. Haarde accepted controversial donations from FL Group, an investment firm, and Landsbanki.
Björk hopes that with the karaoke protest, and the help of elves and hidden people, she can raise the number of petition signatures from 28,000 to 35,000, a number which she and others believe will be hard to ignore.
Will the elves and hidden people sign the petition themselves? Is this legal? Or will they simply influence others to do so?
We must wait and see.
[Update: the event managed to gather about 45,000 signatures.]
January 08, 2011 at 10:58 pm, Stewabis said:
Bjork is clearly fooling the world into her marketing ploy. I've read into this situation and I've found some flaws in her cause:
1 – she is telling everyone that geothermal isn't a renewable resource and magma is going to destroy the wells. (Maclanes oct '10) In order to be renewable it needs to last pretty much forever. (Renewing itself.) Those poor uneducated icelanders are signing a petition under false pretenses. She also says ross beaty's old company, Pan american silver, broke humanitarian laws – I checked that, they actually have the best standing with locals where they mine, pan american just received two global humanitarian awards.
2 – the iclandic government was in a position to sell this facility or risk it going under. If that happened (and magma could have waited) – any company could have had a better deal with ZERO upside for icelanders. The resource would be gone.
3 – magma energy offered Borjk herself a huge chunk of shares AT cost. (Not looking to make a profit.) With that she could have sold it to whoever she wanted…ie iclandic holders…which brings me to number 4…
4 – magma energy has been and still is seeking an iclandic partner on the deal. Again, magma is willing to sell the partner's stake at cost…iceland shot themselves in the foot and there is no one in a financial position to pay the same price as what magma did…
5 – 90% of the power generated will be going to an aluminum smelter in iceland. They are looking to expand that aluminum business, so future expansions of HS Orka would facilitate powering that.
All this points to assisting the iclandic community vs stealing from them. Magma is a publicly traded company. everything they do has to be on public paper and viewable by the public.
Other active investors for iclandic geothermal include china and india, neither of which are a public company and can keep the financials of any iclandic geothermal behind closed doors. More of a chance of duping the iclandic public.
So…if magma didn't take over, that leaves china and india as interested investors…which will cause Borjk to change her focus and her cause.
Clearly iceland can't support this on their own…if they could they wouldn't be in this position in the first place.
Following this story from day 1, I've come to the conclusion that borjk needs to go back to school if she is going to put herself in the middle of a political/business cause. Stick to making music, not rumors…which she is and conveniently has an album dropping in a month or so…this whole being in the spotlight for a good cause is most likely a ruse.
January 09, 2011 at 4:07 pm, Stewabis said:
Wow! I've never seen it that way before! I can see now how bjork might be manipulating this situation and through her words, I can tell she doesn't have all the information surrounding the subject.
I'm going to wait for hard evidence before I sign anything for her. In iceland we stand for what's right. Most of the population is like a flock of sheep, they'll run with the biggest caine.
Kudos for your hard work Mr. Stewabis. Hopefully your education will reach ears that count.
January 13, 2011 at 4:22 pm, Westcoast said:
I have to share this video about how banks actually work with you. Made by a couple of Canadian kids. Funny, entertaining and very, very informative. It taught me a few things I had no idea of.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ohnocanada/OhCanadaMovie#5452543728926279634
January 09, 2011 at 3:09 am, Westcoast said:
1. Go Iceland, Go Bjork. As you have learned to your sorrow, like the rest of us, there are always 'good reasons' why your resources must be taken away. And although you will be told that it is the best most economical way for that to be run, your taxes and your utility bills will inevitably rise – that is the neocon way of theft.
2. Governments all over the world have been corrupted by the global/banking paradigm. If you can't see by now that it is no good for anyone but the rich, you are blind. Icelanders should just TAKE the resource because it is theirs. They live there.
3. Iceland didn't shoot themselves in the foot at all. They were conned into believing a gang of fraud artists/bankers had more right to their money than they themselves. And they said no!
4. In Canada we too had an aluminum smelter owned by a private company which demanded the rights to a huge hydro resource to run the smelter and create jobs in the region. After they got the power GIVEN to them, they decided to downgrade the smelter and sell the excess power to the States because it is more profitable than making aluminum. The area (Kitimat) has been depressed for years.
5. Yes, Iceland can support it by themselves and they need only one thing to do it. A bank. Run by the people, for the people, and of the people. How long will it take for you to see that private banking and foreign ownership of natural resources are the two main things which bleed every unsuspecting nation dry? Go Iceland, Take back what is yours before you become a nation of media controlled mice like the rest of the world.
January 09, 2011 at 7:20 am, Stewabis said:
Westcoast:
1. You're making about as much sence as the cause itself. Taxes and utility bills will rise anyways, it's called inflation. Stuffing your money in your matress won't protect you from it. Unfortunate, but thats the world we live in.
2. I'm still waiting for someone to show any corruption evidence involving Magma energy OR Pan American Silver – according to Bjork has a role in this…I'm not rich, but I stand to profit just the same as anyone else in the markets. If you spent less time “fighting the power” and actually educating yourself, you could see that. I suppose the owners of your property should just come and TAKE it, it was theirs before yours…no?
3. The Icesave refurendum completely shot themselves in the foot. The government that they elected as a people, opened up a bank and offered to hold the money of international individuals. They froze the assets, kept the assets and closed down the bank. Instead of paying back the assets they froze and kept, they forced regulator insurance to pay out the billions that iceland kept to pay off other debt. Instead of paying back the debt, the people elected to forget about it. Where does that leave them? Their currency is still deflated, no light shedding on how they'll recover other than magma as a forign investor…which is now being ousted…China and Inda are also interested….WAY less transparent than a publicly traded company. As IF any of the major Euro companies would ever assist iceland…they're in the midst of burning more bridges…if they could sustain it on their own, they wouldn't be in this position…plain and simple…
4. give an example of forign ownership bleeding anything dry. you gave a example of a smelter in Canada. (which has a LOT more to the story than how you described it including insane tax hikes just after the deal was made. now THAT is dirty.)
Iceland tried a bank…it didn't work…and how is this bank going to get funded? how is this bank going to fund this facility and do a better job at it?
how is this going to get any more profit into the iclander's hands than what is currently provided?
you've got the woll over your own eyes. this evil machine is going to take over your brain and you'll never be able to think again…they've got wire taps on your dollar bills and will strike at any moment…..
the reality here is, magma owns and manages a facility, not the resource…it still belongs to Iceland. If the deal was for “all rights to geothermal access” – maybe iceland would have something to whine about….instead of complaining about everyone else, they should get to work themselves…. for a population that only 1/3rd is in the work force, they sure seem do be big talkers but not doers.
January 10, 2011 at 11:56 pm, Bromley86 said:
With regards to Kitimat, Wiki doesn’t agree with your position. Of course that doesn’t prove you’re wrong, but it’s a good start.
You also don’t seem to understand deposit guarantee systems when you say this in your later response:
“I was talking about Banksters in Iceland trying to shuffle off their PRIVATE DEBTS to the Icelandic People.”
It’s not the “banksters” trying to shuffle off their private debts, as the companies themselves have folded. Rather it is the UK/NL governments trying to get the Icelandic government to honour the deposit guarantee that, pre-crash, everyone understood to exist. Post-crash we’ve seen that the wording of the European deposit guarantee system is unclear when it comes to branches operating in other EU/EEA countries, but that’s a different matter.
If you want to argue about the validity of deposit guarantees in general, then you need to devise another system for preventing runs on banks. Even the co-op local banks that you seem to favour could face an unnecessary run.
Oh, and Iceland had state banks. They privatised them in what can only be described as a shockingly corrupt manner. So before they could make a go of local co-op or state-owned banks, the political/business culture in Iceland would have to be changed. Given that after over 2 years there has not been a single indictment of one of those “banksters”, good luck with that.
Finally, Magma. I believe that HS Okra is heavily indebted. It needs money to repay those debts. The Icelandic state is broke and it’s people, in terms of hard currency, have lost half of their purchasing power compared to 3 years ago. Where is it going to get that money? The time to have the public/private debate was *before* it got itself into debt.
January 13, 2011 at 4:34 am, Westcoast said:
You are dead wrong about Kitimat and if you take a little time to google around you will find the original agreement between the government and Alcan, which clearly demonstrates where that power was to go, and it wasn’t to the States. Kitimat is still an economic basket case although some companies want to ship huge amounts of toxic chemicals into and out of the port, which 80% of the people here are dead against because we don’t want our very own BP. That’s 140 kilometres of islands and rocks before you hit the open ocean. (if you make it) And although Wikipedia claims that Rio Tinto is going to modernize and expand production, they neglect to mention that there will be far fewer jobs.
Other than that we are in agreement, Bromley. What you describe as ‘shocking corruption’ is endemic around the world, my friend, and we are all in the eye of the hurricane, aka ‘the debt trap’.
As for Iceland, first they screw honest Icelanders out their very homes, then they trot out starving grandmothers in England as the ultimate reason why Iceland should pay. They are shameless. Look up the IMF on Youtube, see how they have enslaved (there is no other word) large portions of the planet.
Iceland should have nationalized the whole deal for just one reason: Private corporations are corrupt practically by definition, and not one nickel of the profits of Magma will ever go to health or education in Iceland. Unless it’s a token designed to dissipate the publics righteous anger. Can you give me one good reason why whole countries should be caught in an endless cycle of poverty and despair so a few rich rat-like vips can clutch to their filthy souls more money than they could ever use in a hundred, a thousand lifetimes? That’s why everybody wants Iceland to kick out the foreign exploiters and start fresh on their own terms. In you we would like to see ourselves.
The money for a national bank would come from work, property, resources, and taking over the private banks.
It all comes down to power, and the more control private corporations have over the government, the more fascistic things become:
“In 1930s Spain, under the rule of fascist General Francisco Franco, left-wing miners who had expressed discontent with Rio Tinto’s mines by striking were called to order by Franco’s troops. At the company’s 1937 annual general meeting, Sir Auckland Geddes reported “since the mining region was occupied by General Franco’s forces, there have been no further labour problems… Miners found guilty of troublemaking are court-martialed and shot.”
That is still true in many parts of the world, although you probably wouldn’t be given a court-martial. In lots of other countries, you would just lose your right to work for a living and…
Everybody is cheering for the people of Iceland. We wish we could take back our countries too.
January 09, 2011 at 11:29 pm, Westcoast said:
“1. You're making about as much sence …”
No point to respond to…
“2. I'm still waiting for someone to show any corruption evidence involving Magma energy …
“
I was talking about Banksters in Iceland trying to shuffle off their PRIVATE DEBTS to the Icelandic People. Pay attention when you read, please.
“4. give an example of forign ownership bleeding anything dry. you gave a example of a smelter in Canada. (which has a LOT more to the story than how you described it including insane tax hikes just after the deal was made. now THAT is dirty.)
“
Actually you LIE, or please give an example of any tax hike. just one. Foreign ownership bleeds most countries. Start with bankers…
http://whatreallyhappened.com/…
Here is a link you will enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
“Iceland tried a bank…it didn't work…and how is this bank going to get funded? ” (because it was polluted with private neocons)
They could fund it the same way you fund your mortgage – with collateral. With work. Or like commercial banks, they could just print the money out of thin air. They could pay off their debts in devalued dollars and tell the banker to bugger off. The MOST IMPORTANT THING is to make sure that no foreign banks get their greed little paws anywhere near it.
Or did you go to sleep for the last three centuries when private bands of bankers were sucking the life out of humanity? Coffee?
“how is this going to get any more profit into the iclander's hands than what is currently provided?
“
Interest, juice, the vig… that which bankers steal from everyone else on this planet.
“you've got the woll over your own eyes. this evil machine is going to take over your brain and you'll never be able to think again…they've got wire taps on your dollar bills and will strike at any moment…..
“
You jest, which makes it obvious you don't watch an average of four hours of tv/propaganda every day, or swallow media lies served hot come election time. Perhaps you believe that America had a right to invade Iraq and Afghanistan when they only had a list of lies for reasons. Nasty people do try to influence your thinking all the time. They do it to make a profit, the same way magma wants to profit on the backs of Icelanders.
“the reality here is, magma owns and manages a facility, not the resource…it still belongs to Iceland.”
It's the same thing. If a country owns a river, but give the rights to the electricity from the river to a private bunch of crooks, you know who will profit from it and who will pay more for electricity. That is what will happen in Iceland. That is what has happened everywhere else in the world.
When the public owns a resource it is not about profit, it is about how it can best benefit the economy and everyone who lives there. WHEN PRIVATE FOREIGN CORPORATIONS own a resource or even the rights to it, it is all about profit, all the money made in excess of expenses will be sent out of Iceland. That money, which would otherwise stay in the Iceland economy and benefit everyone, will be lost forever. And the irony is that it is Iceland's resource and Iceland's workers which are being used to rob Iceland.
Read the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Ask the people in Latin America how they like working in factories for foreign corporations. For a few dollars a day – just enough to survive in fact. Ask people anywhere how they like toiling away a good part of their lives to keep bankers and their whores in scented toilet paper. Globalism, my friend, has come and going, going… we see it for the scam it is. Perhaps you have mistaken Magma for Mother Theresa? No, they are there to exploit you.
To all Icelanders: Kick the foreign exploiters out – there is nothing they can do there which you can't do better yourselves!
January 19, 2011 at 9:10 pm, Stewabis said:
Westcoast clearly has no grasp on reality of banking and a healthy economy.
It’s like trying to prove a point to a wall. Pointless.
Heppy thinking the way you do.
You’ve clearly been brainwashed.
January 21, 2011 at 9:59 pm, Westcoast said:
“no grasp on reality of banking and a healthy economy.”
You Have to be kidding! Iceland and the most of the rest of the world are completely ensnared by international bankers. Income has been decimated by debt and the attendant inflation for the last 30 years, people are rioting in the streets. And I have no grasp? I think you got that backwards. Sad to see, that you have deserted reason in favour of insults. But I urge any fair minded person to read this link:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/01/20/more-icelandic-bankers-arrested/
Or you could go to sites like Whatreallyhappened.com and search for ‘banksters.’ Or you could Google ‘Helen Brown’ to read the truth. A lot of her stuff is on the huffingtonpost if you like your ‘news’ a little mainstream. Good luck Iceland, and I hope you do a Tunisia and throw the (banker) bums out. Along with the foreign exploiters. There is nothing they can do (except lie and practice yellow journalism, perhaps) which the people of Iceland cannot do far better for themselves by cutting out the greedy middle-man.
January 22, 2011 at 12:42 am, Westcoast said:
Stewabis: here are a few questions you might ask about Magma buying Iceland’s resources with largely Icelandic money. If you can get over your hubris long enough to think about it clearly.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.orkuaudlindir.is/docs/Question_list_Bjork_English.pdf&embedded=true
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