Lesson #7232: Nothing Unusual about Political Corruption
I have found this article in “Iceland review_online” and because I am agree with everything in it, I add it here so all of you also can read it.
" Last month it was revealed that a 21-year-old woman from Guatemala was granted citizenship directly from the Icelandic parliament after having lived in Iceland for only 15 months on a student visa.
What’s more, the woman’s registered address is at the residence of Jónína Bjartmarz, a high-ranking MP in the Progressive Party and Minister of the Environment. Upon closer investigation is was uncovered that the woman is in fact the girlfriend of Bjartmarz’s son and that Bjartmarz herself was listed as the woman’s representative for immigration purposes. Welcome to the wild rollercoaster of Icelandic politics. Buckle up because clearly someone has greased these gears of bureaucracy and we may all soon be thrown from the tracks.
Because this case smacks of corruption, the media and private citizens alike have repeatedly demanded an explanation for why the woman was granted Icelandic citizenship, when the law stipulates that foreigners must be domiciled for seven years in the country before they are eligible to apply.
Time and again Jónína Bjartmarz, and two of the members from the parliamentary committee that grants citizenship, Bjarni Benediktsson and Gudrún Ögmundsdóttir, have used the same defense: “There was nothing unusual about the handling of this case.”
If only I had known it was so easy to get citizenship.
As a foreigner living in Iceland, the last four and half years of my existence have been dedicated to learning what it means to be a member of this society. I spent three years at the University of Iceland to get my degree in Icelandic for foreign students. I’ve built up a circle of Icelandic friends who support me in my life and respect me as a peer. I’ve worked here as a humble janitor at a shopping center, and then as a translator in the opulent office of a bank CEO.
Like Lucia Celeste Molina Sierra, the woman who was mysteriously granted citizenship after 15 months, I’ve had the great privilege of falling in love with an Icelander. But I’ve also read Halldór Laxness’s books and Jónas Hallgrímsson’s poetry. Additionally, I’ve learned that to make good uppstúfur sauce for plokkfiskur you have to stir it continuously so it doesn’t get lumpy, that the best time for camping is the first weekend in July, that the word for cow is declined kýr-kú-kú-kýr, and that the Icelandic people are some of the most fair-minded people in the world, or so I thought.
I reject these politicians’ half-hearted explanation that “there was nothing unusual about the handling of this case.” The very purpose of referring applications rejected by the Directorate of Immigration to the parliament is when there is something outstanding about the application—when there are mitigating factors at hand. Because of these extenuating circumstances, the parliament, in its infinite wisdom, sees fit to grant an outsider the highest honor he or she can receive: to hear “you are one of us.”
But there clearly was something special about this application. The applicant’s mother-in-law is Jónína Bjartmarz, and the mitigating factors are political corruption and the misuse of power.
If there was some viable reason that Lucia Celeste Molina Sierra was made an Icelander after only 15 months, then the nation, and the rest of us apparent fools who consider citizenship a privilege worth years of effort, deserve a proper explanation.
Of course, I can always just chalk this up to another lesson in Icelandic life: that because my mother-in-law is a working woman from Ísafjördur, who sends me homemade fishballs and knits me scarves – who tries her hardest to make feel loved and at home on foreign ground, that because she is not a high-ranking MP, whose whim becomes the law of the land, I am less deserving of being a part of this country.
Lesson learned.
JM – jonas@icelandreview.com "
What can I say? The injustice and the nepotism always hurt.
" Last month it was revealed that a 21-year-old woman from Guatemala was granted citizenship directly from the Icelandic parliament after having lived in Iceland for only 15 months on a student visa.
What’s more, the woman’s registered address is at the residence of Jónína Bjartmarz, a high-ranking MP in the Progressive Party and Minister of the Environment. Upon closer investigation is was uncovered that the woman is in fact the girlfriend of Bjartmarz’s son and that Bjartmarz herself was listed as the woman’s representative for immigration purposes. Welcome to the wild rollercoaster of Icelandic politics. Buckle up because clearly someone has greased these gears of bureaucracy and we may all soon be thrown from the tracks.
Because this case smacks of corruption, the media and private citizens alike have repeatedly demanded an explanation for why the woman was granted Icelandic citizenship, when the law stipulates that foreigners must be domiciled for seven years in the country before they are eligible to apply.
Time and again Jónína Bjartmarz, and two of the members from the parliamentary committee that grants citizenship, Bjarni Benediktsson and Gudrún Ögmundsdóttir, have used the same defense: “There was nothing unusual about the handling of this case.”
If only I had known it was so easy to get citizenship.
As a foreigner living in Iceland, the last four and half years of my existence have been dedicated to learning what it means to be a member of this society. I spent three years at the University of Iceland to get my degree in Icelandic for foreign students. I’ve built up a circle of Icelandic friends who support me in my life and respect me as a peer. I’ve worked here as a humble janitor at a shopping center, and then as a translator in the opulent office of a bank CEO.
Like Lucia Celeste Molina Sierra, the woman who was mysteriously granted citizenship after 15 months, I’ve had the great privilege of falling in love with an Icelander. But I’ve also read Halldór Laxness’s books and Jónas Hallgrímsson’s poetry. Additionally, I’ve learned that to make good uppstúfur sauce for plokkfiskur you have to stir it continuously so it doesn’t get lumpy, that the best time for camping is the first weekend in July, that the word for cow is declined kýr-kú-kú-kýr, and that the Icelandic people are some of the most fair-minded people in the world, or so I thought.
I reject these politicians’ half-hearted explanation that “there was nothing unusual about the handling of this case.” The very purpose of referring applications rejected by the Directorate of Immigration to the parliament is when there is something outstanding about the application—when there are mitigating factors at hand. Because of these extenuating circumstances, the parliament, in its infinite wisdom, sees fit to grant an outsider the highest honor he or she can receive: to hear “you are one of us.”
But there clearly was something special about this application. The applicant’s mother-in-law is Jónína Bjartmarz, and the mitigating factors are political corruption and the misuse of power.
If there was some viable reason that Lucia Celeste Molina Sierra was made an Icelander after only 15 months, then the nation, and the rest of us apparent fools who consider citizenship a privilege worth years of effort, deserve a proper explanation.
Of course, I can always just chalk this up to another lesson in Icelandic life: that because my mother-in-law is a working woman from Ísafjördur, who sends me homemade fishballs and knits me scarves – who tries her hardest to make feel loved and at home on foreign ground, that because she is not a high-ranking MP, whose whim becomes the law of the land, I am less deserving of being a part of this country.
Lesson learned.
JM – jonas@icelandreview.com "
What can I say? The injustice and the nepotism always hurt.
1 commento:
Hi Gustavo.
I totally agree with you and this article. This is a scandal! There is no excuse or reasonable explanation for this. This people should resign! This is how Framsóknarflokkurinn works and the Icelandic people must think about this among other things next Saturday!
Big hug
Gunnur
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