Sofia city centre.

At a regional meeting of the ESFL, European Students for Liberty in Sofia, Bulgaria, Saturday 17 October, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gives a lecture on “Liberty in Iceland, 930–2015”. He takes the position that the laws of economics must be valid everywhere, also in small societies like Iceland, if they are to be considered laws of economics. Economic analysis can for example explain how and why private enforcement of law, as practised in the 930–1262 Icelandic Commonwealth, worked reasonably well. Ancient Icelanders also developed an effective system of utililising mountain pastures, each of them held in common by a rural community, and thus they escaped the “tragedy of the commons”. Professor Gissurarson also discusses the question why for centuries Icelanders starved while living close to fertile fishing grounds, and finds the answer in the alliance of the foreign king and the small class of local landowners who basically outlawed fisheries as an independent profession. This alliance was finally broken in the 1784–5 Mist Famine. Professor Gissurarson analyses the Icelandic system of individual transferable quotas developed in the fisheries. As a result, these fisheries are both sustainable and profitable: Icelanders have yet again escaped the “tragedy of the commons”.

Professor Gissurarson contrasts the 1991–2004 market capitalism in Iceland to the 2004–8 crony capitalism when a small group of powerful oligarchs used the good credit Iceland enjoyed as a result of sound policies pursued in the previous decade for massive accumulation of foreign debt. Professor Gissurarson maintains, however, that the credit expansion was not the real cause of the 2008 Icelandic bank collapse. The real cause was the refusal of the U.S. Fed to provide liquidity to the Icelandic banks, by dollar swap deals, at the same time as it did so to almost all other banks in Europe. At the same time, the U.K. government closed British banks owned by Icelanders while presenting an immense rescue package for all other British banks, and moreover invoked an anti-terrorist law against Icelandic banks and institutions. Professor Gissurarson argues that the reason Iceland has risen so quickly again is that it was never bankrupt, as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrongly asserted during the crisis. The Icelandic economy was, and is, soundly built on four pillars, profitable fisheries, ample energy resources, a booming tourist industry and much accumulated human capital. Professor Gissurarson’s lecture forms a part of the joint RNH-AECR project on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Cuban writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo gives a talk at a meeting of the Pen Club in Iceland Saturday 10 October 2015 at 14 in the City Library in Grofin, Reykjavik Centre. The meeting is co-sponsored by the City Library. Pardo describes the systemic abuse of human rights in Cuba and the reasons he was forced to leave the country. Pardo was born in Havana 1971 and received a degree in biochemistry from the University of Havana. Around 2000, he became a photographer and writer, starting the online magazine Voces in 2010, the only such magazine in Cuba. The material from Voces often had to be clandestinely distributed on CDs or in photocopies, as the authorities try to limit access to the Internet. In 2009, Cuban secret service agents sought out Pardo and a colleague of his and gave them a beating. In September 2012, Pardo was arrested, but when the news of the arrest spred, a multitude gathered outside the prison where he was held, to protest. He was released later the same day. He later moved to the United States where he has edited and contributed to a collection of short stories, Cuba in Splinters. He also writes poems and blogs.

In the beginning of 1959, communists seized power in Cuba and have ruled the fertile, sunny, tropical island since then with an iron fist, long under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Their oppressive regime is described in the Black Book of Communism, published in Icelandic in 2009. Almost 30,000 people are thought to have perished as a result of their activities (compared to around 3,000 in Pinochet’s Chile). More than 100,000 people have had to spend time in prisons and labour camps. In addition to a powerful secret police, the Cuban communists organised special neighbourhood committees to watch over people and to discover any dissent. Individual enterprise is held down as much as possible. It is estimated that around two million people have fled the country: they have “voted with their oars”. Icelandic leftists have however been staunch supporters of the Cuban communist regime. Magnus Kjartansson, editor of their now-defunct organ The Nation’s Will (Thjodviljinn), went to Cuba in 1962, spent an evening with Che Guevara and listened to two of Castro’s long speeches, and subsequently wrote a pro-Castro book, The Cuban Revolution (Byltingin a Kubu). Many Icelandic leftists also worked as volunteers on Castro’s sugar plantations, including literary critic Silja Adalsteinsdottir, also for a while editor of The Nation’s Will, and labour leader Pall Halldorsson. The last action of the main leftist party, the People’s Alliance, before it was dissolved in 1998 was to send a delegation to the Cuban Communist Party, led by two former Party Chairmen, Margret Frimannsdottir and Svavar Gestsson. They asked for an interview, or rather an audience, with Fidel Castro, who did not bother to receive them.

Cuban refugees vote with their oars. From the Black Book of Communism.

The School of Social Sciences and the Economics Faculty at the University of Iceland, and RNH, hold a conference on “Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Utilisation” Thursday 8 October 2015 at 16.30–18 at the Festivities Hall of the University. The conference is in honour of one of Iceland’s most distinguished scholars, Rognvaldur Hannesson, Professor Emeritus in Resource Economics at the Norwegian School of Commerce in Bergen, the author of around 100 academic papers and six books. The conference focuses on Hannesson’s latest book, Ecofundamentalism, where the author makes a distinction between wise use environmentalism, which he favours, and ecofundamentalism, which he criticizes. Professor Dadi Mar Kristofersson, President of the School of Social Sciences, introduces the guest of honour. Professor Hannesson delivers a keynote lecture. Two discussants comment on the subject, Bengt Kristrom, Professor of Resource Economics at Umea University in Sweden, and Julian Morris, Director of Academic Studies at Reason Foundation in the United States. After questions and answers, Professor Hannesson gives final remarks. A reception on the premises follows. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Professor Gissurarson, Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and Professor Hannesson at the ESFL conference in Bergen 2014.

Many events are being planned by RNH and its associates in the winter of 2015–2016. European Students for Liberty, ESFL, holds a regional conference in Reykjavik Saturday 3 October, at meeting room HT-102, Haskolatorgi (University Forum), in the University of Iceland, 11–17. Speakers include Asgeir Ingvarsson, political scientist and business correspondent at Morgunbladid, Heidar Gudjonsson, economist and independent investor, Sigridur Andersen, lawyer and Independence Party MP, and Roderick T. Long, Philosophy Professor at Auburn University. A group led by law student Ingvar Smari Birgisson and economics student Thorsteinn Fridrik Halldorsson, Chairman of the Libertarian Alliance, is organising the conference. The participation of RNH in the conference forms a part of the joint project with AECR, Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

Julian Morris

Thursday 8 October 2015 a conference is held at the festivities hall of the University of Iceland, 16.30–18, in honour of Rognvaldur Hannesson, Professor Emeritus in resource economics at the Norwegian Business School in Bergen. The conference is sponsored by the School of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Iceland, RNH, and Reason Foundation. Professor Dadi Mar Kristofersson, President of the School of Social Sciences, will introduce Professor Hannesson who will, subsequently give a keynote lecture, with short responses by Julian Morris, Research Director of US-based Reason Foundation, Professor Bengt Kriström from Sweden and others. Professor Hannesson is one of the best-known and most-respected resource economists in the world, having published around 100 papers in learned journals. Recently he published Ecofundamentalism, where he contrasts „wise-use environmentalism” which he supports to ecofundamentalism which is, in his opinion, a dangerous religion. A lengthy review of the book by Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson will soon be published in a U.S. journal. The participation of RNH in the conference forms a part of the joint project with AECR, Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

Thursday 5 November 2015, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gives a public lecture on Ayn Rand’s moral defence of capitalism at 16.30 in lecture hall O-101 at the University of Iceland. The meeting is held by the Institute of Public Administration and Politics of the University of Iceland, also sponsored by RNH and forming a part of the  joint project by RNH and AECR on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”. The Public Book Club (Almenna bokafelagid) which cooperates with RNH, is also preparing for publication some books on history and current affairs, including works on Putin’s Russia and on totalitarian rulers of the 20th Century, Niall Ferguson’s Civilization, Richard Pipes’ Property and Freedom and possibly some classic works on liberty. RNH also continues its international operations. RNH Academic Director Hannes H. Gissurarson will give a talk at the regional conference of European Students for Liberty in Sofia in Bulgaria 17 October 2015 and attend the general meeting of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience in Wroclaw in Poland 17–19 November.