We must never forget that the only cause of a crime is a criminal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Given that she’s in charge of our systems to punish people and deter
them from crime, she really ought to have a knowledge of the obvious
pressures which
make<\/em> people commit it. In other words, that quote is the opposite
of her job, and kinda shows she’s unfit for the post. (Also:
it’s grammatically rubbish. A cause acts on a person; it can be
anything except the person. Pick one! Just not the person.) Either way
it’s not doing great things for the image of women in
politics.<\/p>\n
There are more women in governments globally than ever before, but
whether politically left or right very few of them are behaving any
differently to the men. That’s often understandable, since women
at the very top are usually under double the scrutiny for any appearance
of being “weak” or unsuitable.<\/p>\n
The World works a certain way when countries get into debt. The
International Monetary Fund turns up, tells them to privatise
everything and allow foreign investors to buy it all cheap, and
refuses to give out any money for loans if they don’t.
(I’m simplifying here, but… wait, no I’m not.)
Everyone who is still rich agrees that this is the way to go. If
you try something different, you will suffer the wrath of many
governments, banks and newspapers.<\/p>\n
Iceland said no. In fact, as
this excellent article points out<\/a>, they had a revolution and
threw out their government, which is pretty much the gold standard
for saying no.<\/p>\n
Weeks of protests and riots forced them to hold elections, and the
new Government decided not to put the entire population into debt
for decades by bailing out the banks. They held a referendum and
93% of the people thought they’d rather have Interpol arrest
the bankers responsible instead, please. Oh, and they’re
having a new Constitution, written by the public.<\/p>\n
To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected
twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any
political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens.
This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but
was written on the internet. The constituents’ meetings
are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and
suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes
shape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Did you know any of this? Did you know there’s a country
in Europe who threw out their government through the power of
protest, elected a left-wing coalition who then
asked the public what they wanted<\/em>, started writing new
rules with complete visibility to anyone on the net, and stood
up to the banks and IMF? Because I didn’t see the
headlines.<\/p>\n
As well as being the first openly-gay head of Government in
recent times (and one of the first people in Iceland to
fully marry her same-sex partner instead of a civil union),
J\u00f3hanna Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir is presiding as Prime
Minister over one of the gutsiest, brass-badass,
openly-defiant movements in the world. A
referendum<\/em>? Putting decisions in the hands of the
public?<\/em> None of that is ever allowed on choices
which actually matter. As a friend of mine put it when
she read the article: “Iceland, you
rockstar<\/em> “.<\/p>\n
Feminists keep waiting for a woman in power to act
in a way which differentiates her from the men.
Other than being physically seen in the front row
(which DOES make a difference), there’s not a
lot of point getting a woman in office if
she’s then invisible among the grey old guys.
I’m not saying that women will govern
differently just because they’re women (what?
With feelings, while wearing pink? What exactly is
supposed to be automatically different?) but
Iceland’s Prime Minister is restoring
democracy by definition – she’s giving
the votes back to the people. Her government is one
of the very few even considering going up against
the demands of the US, UK, Europe, Asia…
everybody. Whether she’s left- or right-wing
doesn’t decide if she’s politically
great, it’s listening to the views of her
country and standing fast against furious demands
from Big Money that makes her really quite awesome.
<\/p>\n
At the moment she is at the front of a government
which is trying the first truly different moves in
years, and finally we can see a female politician
who will be famous for being liberal, fair, in touch
with the public and
a titanium-plated Badass<\/em> in the face of
pressure. By getting the people to write the new
Constitution, she is directly giving a voice to
the women of her country. Equal voting rights is
crucial, but if that vote only affected things
once every four years, and none of the parties
offered what 93% of the population want, then the
actual power of it would be somewhat lessened.
J\u00f3hanna Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir’s
government is handing votes back to ordinary women
and men and that’s amazing. The views of the
whole population will be represented, with public
debates via internet along the way.<\/p>\n
Is increased democracy feminist? Do the majority
of the public hold prejudices, and will their
opinions harm women? Or by including more women,
do you ensure they won’t vote against
their own interests? Is it at least better than
a rich, white, male elite doing all the
decision-making?<\/p>\n
In this case I’m not saying that
Iceland’s policies being lefty is for the
best, or that their referendum result is the
correct one. After all, it might involve the UK
not getting all its money back (although an
article she wrote in April<\/a> suggests
we’ll see at least 90%). Whether the
decisions are good or bad, there is a powerful,
articulate woman right at the top of an
incredibly exciting political force right now.
<\/p>\n
I’d just like to ask if we can have Prime
Minister Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir over here on
an exchange program for a bit please?
We’ll lend Iceland Theresa May in return,
it’ll be fine.<\/p>\n
![\"Official](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Johanna_sigurdardottir_official_portrait.jpg\")
<\/a>One person I totally missed out from my previous post (which was
particularly unforgivable given her kickass achievements) was
J\u00f3hanna Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir<\/strong>, the Prime Minister
of Iceland. She is certainly overseeing a country that is doing things
very<\/em> differently, and in terms of democracy also Doing It
Very Right. When you see the massive extent of what’s actually
going on, you’ll be amazed (bear with me, there’s some
politics coming up but pretty soon we get to the
flying-shark-pirate-feminist adventures! I’m not kidding, this
is epic.)<\/p>\n