Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution Essay

Introduction

Iceland is an old country that can be described as being hilarious (Vazquez & Calatayud, 2018). Iceland is famous mainly in relation to its hot springs, icy landscape as well as lack of the population. Even so, all this changed following the first gentle global economic downturn wave. At this point, it is imperative to note that American were against the presence of depression that was so popular at the commencement of the 20th century. Talking about 'recession' Southern Europe and France reconciled themselves to the true nature of things as they describe the 2008 financial crisis as being the worst ever 'la crisis'. The reaction of Iceland on the other hand actually was to turf out the government in power and bankers all of which can be described as Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution (Aevar Oddsson, 2010). This paper discusses the historical analysis of Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution, involved dominant and subordinates groups and their perspectives and how contestants of Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution construed oppression they wanted to challenge. The paper further analyses the social movement activities, contestants, visions, strategies, information dissemination, and mobilization as well as what adversaries undertake in regards to Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution.

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Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution

In view of the historical analysis of how Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution emerged, it is imperative to note that following the struck of the financial crisis in 2008, Iceland is said to have previously spent like two decades being ahead of many nations undergoing the route of privatization, financial deregulations as well as market deregulation. During this time economy boomed but it ended up to be very risk relying on the financial ventures that were speculative. It is worth noting that at the hit of the financial crisis, Iceland stands to be one of the countries that were most vulnerable. The biggest banks in Iceland failed, the currency collapsed, discontentment grew as well as unemployment spiraled. The truth of the matter is that Iceland was in turmoil in 2008, in that there was a systematic failure of the main commercial banks. Historically as denoted by an economist the collapse of Iceland was the largest ever suffered by any given country relative to the size of the country's population. In response to what can be perceived as the inertia of the government, it is ostensible that the protests began taking place around the month of October the same year of 2008. All in all the real protests commenced officially in January 2009 and demonstrations were held on a weekly basis and grew rapidly to an extent of having about 2000 people assembled outside parliament on 20th January 2009 in so doing remonstrating, banging posts together with pans and by doing so earning the name " the Kitchenware revolution'. On the following day, the car of the prime minister was all over pelted using snowballs together with eggs (Baruchello, 2014).

As regards to the involved dominant and subordinates groups together with their perspectives, it is imperative to note that the first protest emerged in the month of October 2008. During that time singer, Hordur Torfason stood in Reykjavik having a microphone and called upon the public to express their concerns. As a result of Hordur Torfason voice, the coming Saturday the first protest was well thought-out and by the third Saturday, a social movement was established by the name 'voices of people' having four demands that entailed government resignation, Central Bank's board resignation, authority board of financial security resignation as well as new elections (Calzada, 2015).

With reference to how participants of Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution construed oppression they wanted to challenge, the truth of the matter is that protesters maintained demonstrations that were noisy besides bonfires in the streets. The continued demonstration, in the end, led to the resignation of Prime Minister Haarde together with his cabinet and from that time moving forward the resultant was the announcement of the new election in May. Subsequently, the following day Director and the entire board of the Financial Security Authority as well resigned. Up to this far, it is worth noting that three of the four items that were demanded had been fulfilled. As if that was not enough, protestors assembled the following Saturday in the forward-facing of the parliament in so doing demanding that the three governors of the central bank's board ought to resign with immediate effect (Elkins, Ginsburg & Melton, 2012).

In view of further social movement activities, contestants, visions, strategies, information dissemination and mobilization, one case in point entail the manner by which Hordur Torfason urged the protesters to have a meeting on the following day at the building of the Central Bank Board. Having been bolstered by the prime minister who was acting then Johanna Sigurdardottir who was disappointed by the refusal to resign by the three governors, the activist went further to block the building and by doing so hindering the bank chiefs to get in. At this point, one chairman decided to resign however the two others were still reluctant to do so. As the protest continued, in February a law to reform was crafted by the parliament calling upon the reformation of the central bank, abolishment of the board of governors that were at the moment in place. Elkins, Ginsburg, & Melton, (2012) notes that as soon as the new law ended up to being inevitable, finally the two chairmen had no choice but to resign and on 26th February they stepped down. Eventually, the four demands that were envisioned by the Protestants were thereof met.

In line with the achievement of Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution social movement, together with its communicative properties, it is imperative to note that all the four demands of the social movement were successfully met, which is a great achievement (Kidd & McIntosh, 2016). More to that Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution can be highly regarded to positive results following the fact that Iceland remains to be the only nation that ever put the top financial executive behind the bars as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. As if that is not enough the country went further to regulate its financial sector more than many other nations (Fillmore-Patrick, 2013).

Explaining what adversaries undertake in regards to Iceland's Kitchenware Revolution together with what I discount as mere rhetoric, the following is worth noting. In 2016, it was made apparent that the prime minister of Iceland, ought to have squirreled millions of money offshores. Conversely, the widespread anger was revived that had earlier on drove the kitchenware revolution resulting in elections as well as amplified support for parties paramount to the sector of Finance. All in all, I agree that the new left-wing government at a fast pace passed a string of emergency thereby preventing Iceland from becoming bankrupt. The reality is that numerous practices of the business questionable have over time emerged that may result in perpetrators having to be answerable to the law (Calzada, 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the domestic arms of the Iceland main banks were thereof nationalized whereas the private international operations left to ruin by themselves. The new series of the austerity measures were reinstated as well as unemployment which ought to have been rising dramatically became stabilized to an extent of commencing to fall midway throughout the year. The criminal investigation that probably was expected to take two to three years was prompted in April 2009 having the apprehensive that brought corrupt politicians together with bankers to justice. Over half of all loans affected by Icelandic banks prior to crash ought to have been given to the company's subsidiaries to the bank. All in all, whether nationalizing the banks, imposing control on capital outflows, jailing bankers as well as holding national referendums regarding payment or not to the foreign debtors, the response of Iceland to the aspect of the devastating crash of the financial resisted all possible trends. Up till now the approach give the impression of a resounding success. All in all, the bottom line is that according to the IMF survey it is apparent that Iceland is among the leading economic performers in Europe which have stalwartly convalesced from the 2008 financial crisis. A good case in point to illustrate the enhanced recovery of Iceland from the global crisis can be attributed to the fact that the country's economic growth has the lowest rates of unemployment compared to many other countries. Additionally, Iceland also repays its IMF loans as scheduled.

References

Aevar Oddsson, G. (2010). Class awareness in Iceland. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 30(5/6), 292-312.https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/6561/research.pdf

Baruchello, G. (2014). The Picture-small and big: Iceland and the crises. Nordicum-Mediterraneum, 9(3), 1-10.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giorgio_Baruchello/publication/309809830_The_Picture-Small_and_Big_Iceland_and_the_Crises/links/58244e8108ae7ea5be723a62.pdf

Calzada, I. (2017). Do Digital Social Networks Foster Civilian Participation among Millennials? Kitchenware Revolution and 15M Democratic Regeneration Cases.http://www.glocalismjournal.net/issues/beyond-democracy-innovation-as-politics/articles/do-digital-social-networks-foster-civilian-partecipation-among-millenials-kitchenware-revolution-and-15m-democratic-regeneration-cases.kl

Calzada, I. (2015). Connecting the Basque and Icelandic Cases: An Ethnographic Chronicle about Democratic Regeneration.https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/41942879/Connecting_the_Basque_and_Iceland_Cases_20160203-30232-11m1otb.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1536992759&Signature=jDyLo4%2BlyNLpM6EAmp0z9gpubKY%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DConnecting_the_Basque_and_Iceland_Cases.pdf

Elkins, Z., Ginsburg, T., & Melton, J. (2012). A review of Iceland's draft constitution. The Comparative Constitutions Project. http://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/CCP-Iceland-Report.pdf

Fillmore-Patrick, H. (2013). The Iceland experiment (2009-2013): a participatory approach to constitutional reform. DPC Policy Note, 2.https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/31677764/dpc_policy_note_2__the_iceland_experiment.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1536993035&Signature=mR8svSxv4p1GvZtoRGqt1w3ylag%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3Ddpc_policy_note_2_the_iceland_experiment.pdf

Kidd, D., & McIntosh, K. (2016). Social media and social movements. Sociology Compass, 10(9), 785-794.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dustin_Kidd/publication/307626329_Social_Media_and_Social_Movements/links/5a661a74a6fdccb61c5a697a/Social-Media-and-Social-Movements.pdf

Vazquez, A. S., & Calatayud, M. M. (2018). Mobilisation and surveillance on social media: The ambivalent case of the anti-austerity protests in Spain (2011-2014). In Protests in the Information Age (pp. 21-39). Routledge https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351815437/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315212357-2