1st of March 2018
Iceland and senior citizens
As you know my foreign followers here on WordPress I have been writing a lot in Icelandic recent weeks.
Even though I live abroad and will for what is left of my life here on this earth the matters according to senior citizens in Iceland do affect me.
I get my pension from there and I make it my duty to talk about how those who are really struggling after becoming 67 years old in the land where the elite is happy and sucking the majority of the country’s wealth.
Governments come and go, more frequently these last years than before.
Why?
Because, fortunately there are some politicians who don´t support the corruption and they can, if they want to, blow up the government, and that happened last year.
Now we have a new government in the country.
Now we have a finance minister who was in the Panama papers. We have ministers that have used their power to execute favours for their favourites.
Now we have a prime minister who smiles and thinks everything should be put in a committee for discussion even though some of the matters have already been in many committees and written results and suggestions are there to use.
No! More committees are this prime ministers goal. Maybe she will get the legacy as the “Committee prime minister”
The ministers in the Icelandic government have assistants. Of course, the job is difficult, but there are also many favorited colleagues and party members and friends who need a good job and they are awarded, of course.
In Iceland the population is less than 350 thousand people.
There are 63 MP´s for this tiny nation.
Those who are ministers have got assistants, some of them more than one. Of course, it’s a complicated job and who am I complaining?
Back to the senior citizens. The system in Iceland is like this:
I have been paying percentage of my salary my whole working life to a fund which is called Lífeyrissjóður. These payments were supposed to make my retirement wonderful and I should not have any worries about my financial outcome.
Saving is good you know.
Saving in these funds in Iceland is according to the law in the land. Everyone has to do it.
So, there is also a social security system which is supposed to help. Those who have payed taxes their whole life have contributed to this system.
What I have been writing about these last weeks in Icelandic is about this horrible retirement pension that the average person in Iceland has to live by.
Of course there are those who are well off when they retire. Thank god for that. Not everyone in Iceland is starving.
But, there are many senior citizens that are starving. They have no idea how to have food on the table every day. There are those who have no house to live in. There are those who take their own lives simply because there is no light at the end of the day. These are the people I am fighting for. I don´t care about those who are living well, they don´t need anyone fighting for them. I am happy for those who have all they need. I just want food on everyone’s table every day of the month and I want everyone to have a warm house to live in and I want everyone to be able to buy the medicine they need and see the doctor if they need.
I don’t think that is too much to ask for.
Before the last election the current prime minister said, and used a serious tone, that the elderly and handicapped could not wait. They needed to get better social security. The money they got should be enough to make a proper living.
This was before the last election, just in September 2017. Now it is 2018 and the prime minister has the power. What happens now? What does she say now? The elderly have to wait and maybe there will be some change sometime in the future. No change now. Now the matter should be up for discussion in yet another committee.
There is no lack of promises before the votes are in. After the election the votes are already in the pockets and no need to keep some promises made some months ago.
Does this sound familiar?
Anyway, thank the almighty for some decent MP’s who are demanding information about the salary and perquisite that those who become MP’s in Iceland. These decent ones are demanding everything on the table.
The parliament has put on their website some of the info.
Now we can see how much the monthly salary is for example for the prime ministers and all the others.
The public can finally see black in white what these 63 MP’s get payed every month.
This is good.
This is fair.
The taxpayers are the ones who pay the MP’s salary.
So, the current prime minister has
2.021.825 Icelandic kr. per month plus 40.000 Icelandic kr. just for being a MP
This adds up to 2.061.825 Icelandic kronur per month
My friend’s pension is 243.075 Icelandic kronur per month.
The prime minister, who said in September that the elderly could not wait to get higher monthly payment, but says now in February that nothing will be done and nothing is needed now, has more than 8 times higher monthly salary than my friend who is a senior citizen.
I have not been writing about the situation in English. I have felt ashamed. I have friends in Iceland and did not want to embarrass them by writing about the situation in other languages.
Now I have had enough.
Now I will write in English every time I write something in Icelandic about this matter.
I am angry and sad.
I don´t understand why people, who have built up the society that now is prosperous and should be for everyone, have to be hungry and cold in one of the riches countries in the world.
The MP’s are the ones who can change the situation. Some of them are willing to but they don’t have the power. The power is in the hands of the smiling prime minister who brought to power AGAIN the most corrupt MP’s ever.
I will continue writing about this at least in English until the situation changes. Other languages might follow.
The corruption is enormous in Icelandic politic. Who would have thought so?
Thank you for reading this.
Hulda Björnsdóttir
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