Helicopter resque last night in Reykjavik - video

I was taking photos last night of the sunset and the Octupus,Paul Allens boat( co founder of Microsoft )
Then suddenly the Coast guard Super Puma helicopter,came flying low over the seaside.
The flew low,with search lights on and finally stopped near land,over a little boat.
On the boat where children  sailing in and around Reykjavik.
Then the motor stopped,and they where near land,and the boat got to close to land.

Helicopter crew used the downwash from the helicopter,to push the boat away from the land.
You can see that ,where i used lots of zoom.
One man was lowered to the boat,and a rescue boat came from Reykjavik harbour.
Many came to watch,and see what was happening.
The time was about 23:00 hours local time.
THe helicopter,landed nearby ,and shut off its engines.
Two boats came to assist,and as you can see ,the weather was good .
The search and rescue was succesful,and in the end , the boat,with the children was pulled to safety in Reykjavik harbour.
And the children will not forget this adventure they had last night.
Why and how the children got to be on the boat,is not known .

Corruption in Iceland courts ? another ruling in Iceland

Yesterday there came a ruling by Reykjavik county court,about a Car loan based on foreign currency interests rates.
The loantaker wanted to have the interests rates according to the loan,and not the Foreign Currency based rates,as the Iceland Supreme court had ruled that they where illeagal.
But the Courts ruling yesterday,said that the interests rates should be according to Icelands Central Bank rates,not the rates on the loan .
The Loan company,Lysing, will therefore not loose as much money,according to this verdict.
But now information is coming ,that the judge is married to a lawyer who has a office with the lawyer of Lysing,and a nother lawyer who is married to one of the ministers in the govermnet of Iceland.

Icelands Firefighters on strike today - video and photo

Icelands firefighters are on strike today,from 8 in the morning till 16:00 in the afternoon.
And if they dont get any pay raise,that later they will go on total strike.
Today they went to City Hall,and talked to City Officials.
And then they invited them outside,and showed them how to put out fires.

You can hear cars honking,becuase on the shields,it says " honk for Firefighters "

Theyr wages are little over the lowest wages in ICeland

St. Basil male choir from Moscow in Iceland - music festival

In the last week of july ,there will be a music festival at Reykholt,the birth place of Snorri Sturluson in Borgarfjördur .

The St. Basil male choir from Moscow,will perform religious music from various times as well as russian folk songs that have earnt world wide fame.

Also The Reykholt Piano Trio will perform well known trios by Beethoven, Schostakovich, Piazzolla and Gliére.

And here is a link to a Guesthouse web page,and this guesthouse is located at Reykholt..

Bjork offered a share in Iceland power company by Magma Energy

Ross Beaty,CEO of Magma Energy, that bought the HS ORka powerplant in ICeland,has offered Bjork,a 25 % share in HS Orka.
Mr Beaty says that he offers Bjork the share at the same price as Magma Energy got it from HS ORka.
Bjork has seen his offer and answered

" dear ross
noticed your message for me
you offering me shares in hs orka shows that you totally miss my point
i feel this company should not be privatized , it should be given back to the people .
therefore i am not interested in shares .
but if i would get the same deal as you , a 70% bulletloan from icelanders to buy usage of their own resources , i might reconsider , who wouldn´t ?
you didn’t really put your money where your mouth is , did you ?
good bye

björk

P.s. I also saw in financial times when you asked me , personally  , to pop over to your office and you would  lower how long magma´s usage of our resources is going to be . This  only reveals how willing you are to cut deals outside law and order "


Grapevine has more info

Bjork at a press conference in Iceland -video

Bjork Gudmundsdottir,held a press conference yesterday.
There she questioned the sale of the HS Orka power company to a foreign Canadian company,Magma Energy.
" Are we going to pay Icesave Debt, by selling our nature resources to foreign companys? " she asked.
Bjork also had more questions,as she introuduced the signing petition ,where people challenge the Goverment to stop the sale of HS Orka to a private company.
Yesterday at 22:30 hours, about 4000 people had signed the petition.
No questions where allowed at the press conference.

Bjork send questiions to parliement in Iceland,asking about leagality of sale

Bjork Gudmundsdottir , known as ,Bjork,has sent the Public Representative of the Icelandic Parliament,a complaint ,and asked him to investigate the sale and negotiating process,in selling the HS Orka power company to a foreign  company ,Magma Energy.
Also signed the letter , Jon Thorisson (the Icelandic assistant to Eva Joly) and the writer Oddny Eir.
They also put forward several questions they feel must be asked by the government, by the parliament and by the public.
Björk will hold a press conference with a performance on Monday 19th July at 4.00pm in the Nordic House, Reykjavik.

Another protest was today in front of the IMF office in Reykjavik.
This was more peaceful protest ,than the protest yesterday .
Here you can see a video from yesterday,when a protester that threw red paint on the IMF building ,got arrested by police.
He was arrested in front of the Govermnet building in Reykjavik.

Protester arrested by Police in Reykjavik ,Iceland today , video

Today at noon, a protest was held in front of the IMF( international moneytery fund ) office in Reykajvik.
People are protesting the IMF, and what they are doing here in Iceland.
Around 100 people attended the protest meeting ,and the IMF office ,is located behind the Govermnet building.
One protester dumped red paint on the IMF house , and on the video below you can see the Police follow the protester ,and arrest him in front of the Goverment  building.
People feel that the IMF is now controlling the goverment , and telling them what to do, like raise taxes,and raise VAT.
That would mean that people would have less money,and all things in the shops,food ,and everything else would be priced higher.

Iceland minister selling power companys to Magma Energy ?

Magma Energy corp has bought the geothermal power station ( HS Orka ) located near Keflavik in Iceland.
And according to Icelandic law, the only companys that can invest in Iceland power supply, must be located in the Europian union.
But Magma Energy corp. is a Canadian company.
So to buy Iceland Power company, the made a little company in Sweden, and bought the Geothermal power company.

The energy , electricity,heating and water, is very cheap in Iceland.
It is all owned by the goverment , or the towns in Iceland.
But when you privatize the energy ,the price will go up,and fast.
Here in Iceland , people are not paying much for hot water and electricity.
In the countries in Europe, they use Oil ,which is not cheap,and electrisity is not cheap either.
There is no activity in Magma Energy Sweden ,only a office with two lawyers.

And according to local news in ICeland, the Industry Minister, told Magma Energy , how to get by Icelandic laws,and buy the local power company.
Make a dummy company in Sweden ,and then buy the HS Orku in Keflavik.

The Industrial Minister  ,Katrin Juliusdottir,says that she did not tell Magma ,how to bypass Icelandic laws.
But the CEO of Magma in Iceland,syas that the Industrial Ministry ,told them how bypass Icelandic laws.
Many in Iceland look on this, as a treason by the Minister,towards the Icelandic public.

The Enviromental minister,Svandís Svavarsdóttir, is angry at the news about the buying, and says that it is illeagal ,to sell power companys in Iceland to foreign companys.

Photo - top: Svandís is in the Left Green Movement
photo- -below : Katrin is in the Social Democratic Alliance

Public protests the goverment and central bank in Iceland today

Today there where protests again in Reykjavik.
First at 9:30 this morning in front of the govermnet house,and protesters maide noise when the ministers came to the Goverment meeting ,and let them know that they do not have much support these days.
The Goverment has not kept the campaing promise,to thelp the public,and stand by the people.
Icelandic Goverment is helping the financial instituions,and pouring money to them,while the public is going bankrupt.

 

Then the protesters went to the central bank and protested there again .

The Central Bank , is not taking the Supreme Court ruling on illeagal loans by the banks ,and has challenged the Supreme court ruling.
Here is a video from the protest yesterday at the central Bank - and this is not my video .

Protest in Reykjavik today ,and a singer injured by the police

Today there was a protest in front of the central Bank.
It is because that the central bank recomended that the banks increase the interests rate on the loans that the Supreme court said where illeagal.
But that the Central banks and the politicians di not like.
So ,they are trying to find ways to increase the interests rates .
People got angry and today ,they protested at the central Bank.
And one of the protesters was Ellen Kristjánsdóttir , a great singer here in ICeland ,and her brother is Kristján Kristjánsson ( KK ) a great musician.
And the police forced here from the Central bank building ,with such force, that she had to go to the hospital .
Here is a video of Ellen singing

Protests in Reykjavik planned next monday - video

The Goverment is now trying hard to help the banks,due to the Supreme court ruling about the illeagal loans to the public.
Supreme court ruled that loans based on foreign currency is illeagal.
Now groups of angry loantakers are planning a protest in front of the Icelands Central Bank at noon on monday,and another protest in the afternnon in fron of the Icelands Parliement building.
The promises of all political parties to help the public , was just a lie.
They are all now helping their friends in the banks.
Most of have accepted money from the banks ,some more the the other.
It looks like that courruption is leagal here in ICeland .
For many it looks like that the members of parliement have accepted bribes.
Respect for members of parliement is at an all time low these days.
Here below you can see videos from the protests last year.

I have put on Facebook,lots of videos from the protests here in ICeland - the videos are HERE