Things that matter and things that don't matter
The female first cousins had lunch together today, which was really nice, we have not done that in a long time. Though the conversation lightly touched on issues of fashion and a bit of family gossip, we stuck more to amusing anecdotes out of our recent trips, etc.
One slightly disturbing story however involved two of my cousins having to keep on driving past another friends house, when they saw the "criminals" standing outside having a beer and cigarette. Fanney dropped the word in there very casually, so I had to stop the conversation and ask "glæpamenn, ha?". She said it was a man who had kidnapped a man in Sandgerði, put him in the trunk of his car, and then forced him to withdraw large sums of money from his ATM. This same guy then later beat up an elderly couple whose grandson owed them money, harming I think also their greatgrandson in the process. I said "Wow, why hasn't the guy been arrested?" My cousin then informed me he had been arrested, and charged, and found guilty for both crimes, but because there was no prison space he was just living at home. He is on a WAITING LIST to get into prison, and in the mean time of course cannot get a job or anything.
Now in California there is a shortage of prison space and some people with very minor offenses do have monitored home arrest. California has also reduced the length of certain punishments (and increased others) in an attempt to save money. But still. Someone like this would be safely behind bars in the US, at least for a while.
Later the conversation came around to Magma and the sale of HS to them. We actually were of the opinion that the more well-run, professional, foreign companies operating things in Iceland, the better. Or that at any rate these are two private companies making an agreement between themselves.
It just seemed to us less important to worry about how your natural resources are being tapped and more important to make sure the criminal element is being securely held.
One slightly disturbing story however involved two of my cousins having to keep on driving past another friends house, when they saw the "criminals" standing outside having a beer and cigarette. Fanney dropped the word in there very casually, so I had to stop the conversation and ask "glæpamenn, ha?". She said it was a man who had kidnapped a man in Sandgerði, put him in the trunk of his car, and then forced him to withdraw large sums of money from his ATM. This same guy then later beat up an elderly couple whose grandson owed them money, harming I think also their greatgrandson in the process. I said "Wow, why hasn't the guy been arrested?" My cousin then informed me he had been arrested, and charged, and found guilty for both crimes, but because there was no prison space he was just living at home. He is on a WAITING LIST to get into prison, and in the mean time of course cannot get a job or anything.
Now in California there is a shortage of prison space and some people with very minor offenses do have monitored home arrest. California has also reduced the length of certain punishments (and increased others) in an attempt to save money. But still. Someone like this would be safely behind bars in the US, at least for a while.
Later the conversation came around to Magma and the sale of HS to them. We actually were of the opinion that the more well-run, professional, foreign companies operating things in Iceland, the better. Or that at any rate these are two private companies making an agreement between themselves.
It just seemed to us less important to worry about how your natural resources are being tapped and more important to make sure the criminal element is being securely held.
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