Ripple affect

For the last several days, my father has been asking me what is going on here in Iceland in regard to the Wikileaks release of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan. The first time he mentioned it to me, I was a little puzzled, because the Icelandic media has not made a big deal out of a link between Iceland and Wikileaks, as far as I could tell. (And they are usually pretty good about making a big deal out of Icelandic involvement in any international issue). I said to him I believed it had something to do with the Icelandic rules governing journalism, that basically they were very pro-journalist. So today I got a bit more clarification, because it turns out the head of Wikileaks actually helped draft the legislation that the Icelandic parliament adopted. This reminds me of the Kari Stefansson event also, and I must say it is almost like the Icelandic parliament operates with some sort of California-esque proposition system rather than having an actual functioning legislature drafting laws.

Well so anyhow, the reports have come out, and the White House and the US media is making out like there is nothing all that spectacular in the findings, as if we knew all along this was a useless quagmire of a war. Instead, they have been concentrating on how this leak happened, and who was responsible. They suspect a private that is in custody for releasing classified video from Afghanistan in the spring as having leaked these reports also. He is now in solitary confinement.

If the release of these reports does nothing to change US opinion about the war in Afghanistan, and instead only results in this enlisted man spending the rest of his life in prison, I just think that is terrible.

As for the Icelandic parliament and how it drafts legislation, only a new constitution is going to fix that.

Comments

Björn Friðgeir said…
"almost like the Icelandic parliament operates with some sort of California-esque proposition system rather than having an actual functioning legislature drafting laws"

Nei.
Nær öll lög sem samþykkt eru koma frá ríkisstjórninni og það er svo fjarri því að Ísland búi við svipað kerfi og Kalifornía. Að auki er samþykktin um IMMI ekki lög, heldur þingsályktunartillaga.
August 2, 2010 at 5:21 PM
Lissy said…
Takk fyrir Björn.
August 2, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Lissy said…
What I was trying to convey, with the comparison, is the way the democratic process can get overtaken by special business interests if there is not extremely prescient legislative oversight. So for instance, the voters of California ok'd a popular suggested measure to have chiropractic services considered medical services, and thus the entire chiropractic service in California got an insurance windfall. The voters who went to the polls had not read the measure carefully, they just thought on first glance it sounded fine. That is my impression of the way legislation has passed here in Iceland.

I was not saying the systems are formally the same.
August 2, 2010 at 10:17 PM
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