Comments by "Halfdan Ingolfsson" (@Halli50) on "Journeyman Pictures"
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Allowing foreign super-trawlers into your waters is inviting corruption and bribery. My own nation, Iceland, has vigorously defended our fishing grounds from e.g. EU mismanagement and exploitation. At the same time we have failed to defend against the rot WITHIN! There are currently too few large Icelandic corporations that have managed to acquire almost all of the fishing rights in Iceland, in blatant violation of our Fishing Resources Laws that clearly state than no entity is allowed to control more than 10% of out fishing resources - all enabled by corrupt, bought-and-paid-for US American-style politicians and officials. What is really heartbreaking and makes most Icelanders bow their heads in shame is the fact that one of the worst offenders, Samherji, has been exploiting a developing nation, Namibia. They were caught bribing Namibian officials and politicians for years, in exchange for ruthlessly exploiting Namibian fishing grounds. The worst part is the fact that while Icelandic and European media managed to expose this atrocity and Namibia is vigorously chasing down and eliminating this corruption, Icelandic authorities are doing NOTHING! Samherji and another one other seriously large and corrupt entity (HB Grandi) appear to have the the whole show in their pocket. We all KNOW this, we all HATE it but while these corrupt corporate entities (our version of the Fossil Fuel Industry) have the politicians, the officials AND the media by the balls, nothing will happen.
The Nordic countries are generally known for low corruption and transparency, but Iceland is the odd man out, by far the most corrupt Nordic country, all thanks to people like Bjarni Benediktsson, our right-wing finance minister, our right-wing Fisheries Minister Kristján Þór Júlíusson who has been deeply, DEEPLY involved with Samherji for decades, and our left-wing Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir that despite this all starting long before she became Prime Minister, has seen fit to allow this to continue unabated. The stink is reaching historic levels...
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