Future of Hope

Iceland is sitting on the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is an area

where the plates on the surface

of the Earth are being pushed apart

by Magma that comes

from the Earth's Mantle.

There are very very few places

where a hot spot comes to the surface

like in Iceland and by the way,

Iceland floats in this situation,

there's a very critical floatation of it

so the whole natural existence of this

country is unusual, highly unusual.

Well we are lucky to be situated

on a volcanic island and as a result,

the ground water is heated and

that's where our geothermal power

comes from and then we

are also in the North Atlantic

with plentiful rain which provides

us with the hydropower

The best place to be when we

really hit the energy crisis is Iceland

I was in office for 16 years,

which is a very long time

during my time in office

I saw Iceland prosper

from a very hard recession in the

1970's and beginning of the 1980's

but some how we recovered

from that recession,

but with the privatisation of the

banks around the turn of the century

some how the Icelanders

started to forget their past,

people who forget their past have

difficulty in tackling the present,

not to mention the future

A whole new value system

needs to be created

and the greed that has

lead us to here needs to stop

because otherwise we don't

have a hope, for the future

and there's a tremendous

resistance in the system.

People like to do what they

are comfortable with

and they know how to do,

but I think I am seeing

a culture of change.

There are some people

that want to change the

way they live and operate

some people talk about

the global shift

that the mind shift

globally is changing

This concerns

two contracts

one with Hafnarfjordur and

one with Magma Energy, Sweden

You must be proud to sell off

the last assets that we have

Traitors!

You weaklings!

We became a part of this huge

international banking bubble

where this big mass of invisible

money became reality

but of course it is greed and

of course you never get enough

and people were

breaking the rules.

It was very macho,

masculine driven

it was a huge

giant erection really

It was not for sissies.

The women they were all

in the back papers,

they were not in the front.

These were young guys

and they were the coolest

guys in Iceland really.

In retrospect they were mad and

greedy because they lost the money

but if they had not

lost the money they

would just be

successful businessmen

Well Jon, How would

you like it if we had to move?

If we move to Thailand,

I don't know, it would be very hard

Maybe I'll miss the snow,

then I won't be able to go

to the Mountains

and go snowboarding

There's enough seaweed

for my seaweed bath

We are now in my home

where I both have my

business and where I live.

It was first just one house

and I wanted to live in part of it

and wanted to have a

restaurant in the other part of it

but when I told most of my

friends that, they would

usually shake their head

and say no, no, no, no

now you are losing

the last thing that you have

because this is an awful place and

you will never get customers there

but that appears to be wrong.

and now I make the

old house a restaurant,

I have a home restaurant

My wife is from Thailand

and we have Thai food

we take just one

group in the evening

minimum 6 people

and maximum 40

I built another house next to it,

where I have a Spa, a Thai Spa

with massage, herbal sauna,

seaweed bath and hot tub

Two years ago I built the

house that I live in

I made a traditional turf house,

I could see my dream come true,

the ideas that I want to make,

I make everything myself

If the economic crisis

had not happened then

everything would have worked out

I have been trying to sell

my home and business

and I have put it on EBay in Iceland

but the market is totally frozen

I am very very proud

of what I have been doing

no matter, even if I lose it

or if the bank takes it

I will still be proud of it

and if I drive past it

and say, 'ah this I made'

even if somebody else owns it

or lives in it, that's no problem

The World has been led

by people educated in some

of the best Universities

in the World.

This has lead me to be

quite certain that the education

that we are giving people

is not good enough.

I have spent 10 years

trying to figure out

why people do not want to face the

environmental crisis that we are in.

to be quite frank,

if you look here behind me

where you can see some of

my sustainability books

they are not written

by Academics.

The thinking behind sustainability

and sustainable development,

does not come from the Academic

sector, except for a very small degree.

The thinking comes from

visionary thinkers that

are actually leading the debate

and the development of ideas.

We have the power and the

knowledge to change things

but we are not making

very good progress

and I think there are

various issues involved.

There are the stakeholders

who want status quo

because they are

making money on it.

The policy makers who have

no understanding of Science

and the Scientists who are not

very good at communicating

their Science to the Policy Makers

and this is where we really need

to move fast to

get people together.

I like us Icelanders to

act local but think global

Iceland has been missing a clear

vision for what we like to stand for

and how we see

ourselves in the World

Just making new Smelters, for

export of Aluminium is very easy

and that's why I feel it is very

important for Icelanders to gather

and get an agreement

about what we like to stand for.

The Ministry of Ideas

is partly funded by

two of the Universities

here in Iceland

within that facility apart from the

Ministry of Ideas, we have

several start up companies

that work like a single company

in terms of exchanging ideas

and helping different companies

to get connected with different

people within the community

and the business community.

The goal is to generate

50 new companies in Iceland.

This Ministry can be looked at as

the heartbeat of the grassroots

when it comes to innovation

and change in Iceland

We have a vision that we can plan

this and we can kind of visualise

what we like Iceland to be in

20 years or 50 years

without the involvement of big

corporations or political parties

then when we go for voting

we can vote for politicians

that we feel, as people in the country

that are best fitted to fulfil this vision

We had the collapse

I think it is good because

now we are in the ruins

and we can learn from it

we can build up a new society

a new environment

and a new thinking

Iceland has huge opportunities

because we have these resources

and we can become perhaps

the first nation to have

all our cars and all our ships

powered by sustainable power

clean power.

Well, at the moment we are

transporting food primarily

by aeroplane and the

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