Birgitta Jonsdottir, Democracy and Freedom of Information
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 24 Nov 2014
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service
The Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jónsdóttir has taken an important step towards solving one of the central problems that the world is facing today: How can we regain democratic government when the mainstream media are completely controlled the corporate oligarchy?
If anyone doubts that democratic government has been lost and needs to be regained, let them think of the recent US election, in which a large percentage of the voters stayed home because they were disillusioned with the political process. They knew that whomever they elected, their voices would not be heard.
The voters did not like to be told that they had power, which in fact they did not have. Both major political parties follow the dictates of the corporate oligarchs, rather than the will of the people. No doubt the Democrats in the US Congress are slightly better than the Republicans, but both parties have essentially been bought by big money from lobbies representing the military-industrial complex, the fossil fuel companies, and Israel.
Contrary to the wishes of the people, social services continue to be cut in favor of obscenely bloated military budgets, perpetual foreign wars, and environment-destroying subsidization of the fossil fuel industry. Despite the will of the people, the US government exposes our beautiful earth to the deadly risks of all-destroying thermonuclear war and out-of-control global warming.
The United States is by no means the only country with an oligarchic non-democratic government. Globally, countries with truly democratic and sane governments are the exception rather than the rule. Therefore, the problem is global. And let us repeat: How can we regain democratic government when the mainstream media are completely controlled by the corporate oligarchy?
Let us return to Birgitta Jónsdóttir. Who is she? Birgitta is a popular and successful young Icelandic poet, writer, artist, publisher and antiwar activist, who had no inkling until quite recently that she was destined to become a politician. Then in 2008, Iceland underwent a financial crisis. It became clear that the crisis was due to corrupt links of politicians with Iceland’s financial sector. In 2009 Birgitta ran for the Icelandic Parliament (Althingi, the oldest parliament in the world) as part of the reform movement.
Believing that lack of free information was the main cause of the corruption behind Iceland’s 2008 crisis, Birgitta Jónsdóttir convinced her colleagues in the Althingi to pass unanimously a law calling for complete freedom of information in Iceland. She also worked closely with Julian Assange to produce the video “Collateral Murder”. Here are some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgitta_J%C3%B3nsd%C3%B3ttir
https://en.immi.is/media/documentaries-on-immi/
Under Birgitta Jónsdóttir’s leadership, Icelandic parliamentarians plan to pass laws that will make Iceland a safe haven for journalistic freedom. In so doing, they will help to re-establish democratic government throughout the world, a vital step if nuclear and climatic disasters are to be averted.
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John Scales Avery, Ph.D., who was part of a group that shared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in organizing the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. Ørsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is chairman of both the Danish National Pugwash Group and the Danish Peace Academy and received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. His most recent book is Civilization’s Crisis in the 21st Century http://www.learndev.org/dl/Crisis21-Avery.pdf.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 24 Nov 2014.
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