A Short History Of The Years 1992-1999

Because of projects that are unrelated to the issues discussed in this paper, it is possibly necessary to give comprehensive information about what Sverrir S. Sigurdarson was doing in years past, to explain his career, accomplishments and challenges. That is the reason for presenting the information on the following pages.

The Vatnajokull National Park in East-Iceland is Europe‘s second largest, and arguably Europe‘s most diverse and spectacular national park. The original reason for the park‘s existence, and the reason that the attention of politicians was brought to the possibility of forming such a park, and that there were good reasons for doing that, is that Sverrir Sv. Sigurdarson spent many years researching, developing and introducing ideas, arguments and strategies on doing that. Throughout Iceland‘s history, Sverrir was the only person who formally presented any ideas on this option. Conventional nature conservationists were never interested in this type of area for protection, and other groups never talked about it either. Sverrir‘s ideas were mainly two strategies, which were of a kind that had never been seen before. One strategy was about how this protected area could enhance Iceland‘s image, assist in marketing it as a tourist destination, and help to create new jobs. The other strategy was, that if Icelanders wanted to build large hydro power or geothermal projects to generate electricity, then their image would look better if they would at the same time commit large areas to nature conservation. He showed that forming a park on and around Vatnajokull glacier would not have to exclude large possibilities for energy developments. This was the kind of argument that had never been seen before in a formal, well worked out discussion, and was what the central-right wing government was content with at the time. Sverrir, who was a university student, is thus the original mastermind behind the Vatnajokull National Park. The succession of events is outlined shortly in part one of this text. Following that, he encountered some very serious challenges, which are described in part two of this text.

PART 1: 1992-1999

The following overview of history describes shortly the formal discussions and public and not-so public events that took place, regarding the possibility of protecting the Vatnajokull glacier and its environs in East-Iceland, with the purpose of creating one, large nature conservation area or national park. Both targeted ideas and more dispersed ideas are mentioned, as well as the general occurrence of events, as is possible. Official discussions regarding this possibility was close to none. At each item in this description, there is the corresponding page number in the book „The steps towards Vatnajokull National Park,“which is a 282 page book, mostly in Icelandic (which the reader can get a good idea of what says through Google Translate although it is not entirely accurate). The former page number refers to the content in question, and the latter page number refers to the discussion in the book about the events around when that content came out. The book is available in a free PDF version on the web page www.seevatnajokull.com/bok.

Antecedents 1985-1991:

After several years of economic growth and prosperity, there was a backlash in the economy with a recession in Iceland. That was around 1990-1991. Man people lost their jobs, suffered a lower income, companies became bankrupt, and so forth. Sverrir noticed that there wasn‘t much of people looking for new opportunities for growth in an organized, public manner. People were mostly complaining and nagging over the situation. Sverrir believed that there was need for new ideas, new opportunities, to search for ways to improve the situation.

1992:

In the October 1992, there were disputes over the plans of the National Power Company, Landsvirkjun, which wanted to construct a large, high-voltage electric transmission line and lay it across an area named Ódádahraun in North-East Iceland. Nature conservationists objected, and said that this was one of the largest untouched wilderness areas that were still left in Western Europe. Sverrir wrote an article n the newspaper Morgunbladid, where he argued that the area should be spared, as it could become very valuable in the future for tourism, and could thus create new jobs. This was the first time that someone wrote an article, arguing for nature conservation only from the viewpoint of national marketing. (Pages 26 and 189 in the book).

1993:

Sverrir continued to think about this area in North-East Iceland and it‘s possible importance in the big picture. He gradually started developing an idea about a way to strengthen the image of Iceland, and create new valuables for Icelandic businesses, and to create new jobs in the recession that was still somewhat holding Iceland in its grips. The idea was that preserving this large area could be a way to achieve such a goal.. (Page 190 in the book.)

In October 1993, the 8th Icelandic Nature Conservation Convention was held. Mr. Kári Kristjánsson set forth a proposition which he had developed with Ms. Bryndis Brandsdottir, of forming what he called a Volcanic Protected Area. The area would mostly be Northwest of the Vatnajokull glacier. A resolution was passed about the area at the conference. (Pages 28 and 196.)

At that same convention, Mr. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, member of parliament for the constituency of East-Iceland, set forth a suggestion, in the form of a list of 17 areas in East-Iceland. These areas, he believed, might be made into national parks or other types of protected areas in the future. He didn‘t provide an explanatory statement or other information with the list. One of the 17 areas was Vatnajokull glacier, and this was most likely the first time that Vatnajokull was formally mentioned in a nature conservation proposition. This was very late in the convention, after the formal program was over, so the list was not discussed to any extent and not voted on. Instead, the list was directed to the Nature Conservation Council for further discussion there. The list was, however, never discussed in the council and was forgotten. (Pages 32 and 197.)

1994:

Sverrir continued developing his ideas, which had now evolved into an idea of protecting all of Vatnajokull glacier and its environs. Talking to individuals who were more knowledgeable than him, he had noticed that some part of the glacier was already protected, or around 20%, and there were many protected areas adjacent to it, as well as areas on the Nature Protection List which is a kind of informal wish list of areas that might be protected, but don‘t yet have a formal protection. By protecting the parts of Vatnajokull that were not protected, it was possible to connect many protected areas together into one, large whole. Sverrir was not in any contact with Hjörleifur Guttormsson, the member of parliament. He went far and wide to gather various information, so that his ideas would be founded on reliable data. (Page 200.)

Sverrir wrote an article in the Morgunbladid newspaper, with an inquiry to Mr. Jóhannes Nordal, who was the chairman of the National Power Company, Landsvirkjun. Mr. Nordal was also retiring at the time from the position of chairman of the board of governors of the Central Bank of Iceland. Sverrir asked Mr. Nordal about the environmental effects, positive or negative, of the hydro power developments needed to lay a cable across the seabed from Iceland to Europe to sell electricity abroad. Mr. Nordal answered several weeks later in the same paper. (Pages 33 and 203.)

Sverrir put together a description of his ideas in English, along with additional information, and sent them to around 30 international hotel chains in the beginning of September 1994. He asked them to respond with their comments on his ideas. The purpose was „test marketing“ of his ideas, to see if they would answer and to see if their answers had a positive or negative tone. He received around 10 answers which he felt was quite good, and most of the answers were signed by people in managerial positions at the companies. Many of the responses seemed honest and rather positive, so Sverrir determined that he should be able to present his ideas officially. He had no further dealings with the companies. (Pages 35 and 201.)

1995:

On January 3rd, 4th and 10th, three large articles were published in the Morgunbladid newspaper, Iceland‘s largest and most influential newspaper, by Sverrir. In the articles, he outlined his ideas about protecting the Vatnajokull glacier, to form a „cornerstone“ in Iceland‘s image. This cornerstone could become well-known in the future, and would make it easier to market Iceland to tourists, and thus create new jobs. One can say that this was strategy number one of two (see later). The day before the first article, he went to the homes of all members of parliament and government ministers, and submitted a letter, telling them about the articles, and encouraging them to read them. In the first article, he showed an image on a map with a possible protected area, which was rather large, or covering around 40% of Iceland. (Pages 56, 59 and 63, and the chain of events on page 205.)

When he was developing his ideas, he systematically investigated the position and vested interests of all possible agents, and developed his proposition and arguments, so that no one wold lose anything, but all at least could perhaps benefit from this. He looked at the side of the national government, municipalities, police, coast guard, search and rescue teams, outdoors travel associations, the tourism industry, and last but not least, the energy and heavy industry sector. The energy sector wanted to harness the many possibilities for producing electricity either with hydro power or geothermal projects, and there were also powerful and politically connected contracting companies, that benefit from such projects. Sverrir knew, that if this sector would see this idea as a threat, then this would never happen.

Originally, it was Sverrir‘s idea to just publish these ideas in the paper. By that, the ideas had been presented and other would be able to consider them to the degree they were interested in. Throughout these years that followed, he was never campaigning for his ideas, so to speak. He never tried to get meetings with influential people, or any such thing.

But in February, he felt that there were a few items that might be explained better. He created a special paper with these speculations, and sent the paper to more than 100 individuals, including all members of parliament and ministers, and many more that could be influential in the field. Along with the paper, he also sent photocopies of the three articles. (Pages 67 og 207.)

After this, Sverrir received a letter from Björn Bjarnason, a member of parliament for the right-wing Conservative Party, with his comments on the ideas. (Page 209).

Sverrir also received a polite letter from the deputy minister of the Ministry of Fisheries. (Page 212.)

In April, Sverrir put together another paper where he informed how it would be possible to create Western-Europe‘s largest continuous protected area, in just one step. This would be through protecting the around 80% of the Vatnajokull glacier that hadn‘t been protected at the time. This would link together around 10 protected areas into one continuous cluster of protected areas of various kinds. It would be around 13,000 square kilometers or around 13% of the country. He sent this paper to the same group of 100 people. (Pages 82 and 209).

In November 1995, he published the third paper, with speculations about a possible submarine electric cable, which some were thinking about might be laid from Iceland to Europe. He speculated about what could be the situation with such a cable, and the large protected area he had proposed. He concluded, that such a large project, and the hydro power developments that would be needed to produce energy to sell through such a cable, could even benefit from such a huge park as Sverrir had proposed. Such a park could form a balance against the huge hydro power projects, and Icelanders would thus show that even if they were building these large electricity production projects, then they were determined to protect their nature as well. This idea could thus be a possible consensus between nature conservation and hydro power projects. One can say that this idea of consensus was strategy number two of two, the first strategy being the huge protected area idea itself. It is certain, that conventional nature conservationists would never present an idea like this, as they were traditionally always very opposed to hydro power projects which they saw as evil. Sverrir was not a conventional nature conservationist, but a business student with a business plan of sorts for the nation, to strengthen tourism, create jobs and create a possible balance. He put some considerable work into this paper, among it making phone calls to Washington DC where he had a discussion with an official at the World Bank, and also with an official at the United States Bureau of Reclamations, which operates the large dams and hydro power stations in the United States. He distributed this paper to the same 100 persons as before.

After this, Sverrir received a letter from the managing director of the State Physical Planning Agency, where the director told him about an idea competition that would be held the year after, in 1996, to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the first physical planning legal code established in Iceland. (Page 213).

Mr. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, the member of parliament who attempted to present his list of 17 areas in 1993, presented a proposition of protecting the area around the easternmost point of Iceland as a nature reserve. This point is a mountain cliff named Gerpir. The Gerpir are was one of the 17 areas he put forth in 1993. (Page 200).

1996:

In the beginning of the year, Sverrir sent a letter to a part of the 100 who had received the papers in the year before. The purpose was to brush up their memory of his Vatnajokull ideas, and also to ask them to give a formal answer about what they thought of these ideas. The idea was then that he wanted to gather these answers, and bring them into the hands of the government, so that it would be known what various agents thought of these ideas.

He received a letter from Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company. The letter contained a special note from the chairman of the board and the CEO of the National Power Company, personally, to him, a university student. Then Sverrir was presented with many questions and a tone that didn‘t seem too positive. Sverrir tried to answer those as well as he could. The letter from the National Power Company did not indicate, that there was any interest in any benefits from a protected area, or a middle way or consensus between nature conservation and hydro power developments of any kind.

He also received a letter from the Nature Conservation Council, which said that the matter would be discussed. By that he had received a response from the two bodies that were generally seen as being the greatest adversaries in the matters of the Icelandic Highland. He also received another letter from Björn Bjarnason, the same member of parliament. Those were the only responses he received. (Pages 216 to 221, and also page 214).

In the spring, Sverrir submitted an entry to the idea competition that the managing director of the Planning Agency had told him about the previous fall. The idea competition was named Iceland in the year 2018, and was a full-blown, open idea competition where mainly professionals submitted entries. Sverrir was one of only two university students who participated.

In September 1996, Sverrir learned that his entry was one of three that had received the top prize in the competition, or 1.-3. Place. A reception was held at the National Library, where he received his prize. An exhibition of the winning entries was put up in the library, and was there for several weeks. The other winners in the 1.-3. place were a duo of an environmental engineer and a graphics designer, and the other was an economist who was also the political advisor of the Icelandic minister of finance. (Pages 94 and 222).

1997:

A symposium was held in the Nordic House in Reykjavik, were the winning entries in the competition were presented. Sverrir presented the ideas in his entry with slides on an overhead projector. In the audience were among others the minister for the environment, the environmental committee of the Icelandic Parliament, and others. They listened to Sverrir‘s presentation, but none of the had any discussion with him afterwards. (Page 225).

The Morgunbladid newspaper, the same that had published his ideas in January 1995, contacted Sverrir and asked him for an interview to explain his ideas. The interview was published on January 28, 1997, in the paper.

The day after, on January 29th, Morgunbladid ran an editorial, where the paper presented its views, that Sverrir‘s idea should be taken into thorough consideration when the future of the Icelandic highland was to be decided. It was highly unusual, or rather it was probably the only occurrence in the 20th century, where the paper would run an editorial with praise and recommendations about some ideas, that a single and unconnected university student had been presenting on his own. Morgunbladid was Iceland‘s most influential newspaper, and more of a political institution rather than a newspaper. The two editors were extremely influential, and one of them was known for a great interest in Iceland‘s nature. The story goes, which can be read in the autobiography of a former prime minister of Iceland, that the editors even reserved for themselves the right to decide who should become ministers in Iceland‘s government. With the editorial in Morgunbladid, it was clear that Sverrir‘s idea had „hit the home run.“

Sverrir was asked to present his ideas at a meeting at the Iceland Nature Conservation Association. He wasn‘t a member of any nature conservation society. He did that, but didn‘t really receive any questions after his presentation from the group assembled there, and there was no discussion of the possibilities, except for one person who stated his support of the ideas, but that individual was actually the same environmental engineer who had been one of the winners in the 1996 competition. In retrospect, he isn‘t sure that the others at the meeting liked his ideas, but they didn‘t say anything positive at least. (Page 226).

Sverrir sent in a new entry for the essay competition among university students, held by Vísbending, a periodical about economic and financial matters. He won the prize for the year 1997. His entry was several scenarios, where he showed what effect various nature conservation possibilities would have on hydro power and geothermal electricity possibilities, in various categories of economical feasibility. The conclusion was that it would be possible to let both of these to ways of utilizing nature have some prominence, and it would be a matter of choice how much nature conservation, and how much energy production, Icelanders would in the end choose. Sverrir didn‘t present any preferences for how much should be of each, he was just presenting the scenarios. (Pages 134 and 228.)

Sverrir was asked to show up at a meeting in one of Reykjavik‘s colleges, to present his ideas to the students along with several others. There were five speakers, with quite different views. Apart from Sverrir who explained his Vatnajokull ideas, one was a park ranger, there was Mr. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, member of parliament for the left wing party who had presented the list of 17 areas in 1993, who talked about nature conservation from a general standpoint. From those who were proponents of energy production, there was the information officer for Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company, and a high-ranking manager in Icelandic industries. The information officer stayed mostly silent about Sverrir‘s ideas, but the manager didn‘t like Sverrir‘s ideas at all. He didn‘t say much about what the park ranger and the left-wing, nature conservationist member of parliament had said, but he attacked Sverrir‘s ideas rather harshly, saying that Sverrir wanted Icelanders to be like Yogi the Bear, rambling around some national park, eking out a living by begging from tourists. (Page 230.)

Ms. Siv Fridleifsdottir, member of parliament for the Central Party had a group of young people around her to discuss various political issues, in order for her to be connected to the grass root. She contacted Sverrir around April-May of 1997 and asked if he would like to show up and explain his ideas, which Sverrir did gladly. She and the group thought the ideas were quite interesting. What is interesting is, that two years later she became the minister for the environment, which wasn‘t at all clear at this point. Along with Mr. Björn Bjarnason, she was the only politician who contacted Sverrir directly to discuss his ideas.

In the fall of 1997, there were some disputes over the proposed planning of the Icelandic highland. The energy and industrial sector were not happy about the emphasis on nature conservation in the plan. Sverrir gathered some information, and ordered books from abroad, and wrote an article in Morgunbladid. The information was about the public opinion towards experiencing the outdoors and unspoiled nature in the United States and the European Union, and thus Sverrir concluded, that the emphasis on nature conservation could be well in harmony with public opinion in the West. (Pages 141 and 232.)

Hjörleifur Guttormsson, the same member of parliament who had presented the list of 17 areas, and was one of the five speakers at the meeting in the college in the spring of 1997, submitted his comments about the proposed plan of the highland. He mentioned in his comments, a proposition of forming four protected areas in the highland, on and around the four large glaciers in Iceland‘s highland. He also spoke about this at a meeting in East Iceland in December 1997. (Pages 146 and 235.)

An Icelandic student who was studying for a Cand. Merc. Degree at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark contacted Sverrir, and asked for permission to refer to Sverrir‘s ideas in his master‘s thesis, which Sverrir granted gladly. (Page 233.)

In December 1997, Thor Sigfusson, economist and political advisor to the minister of finance, and also one of the three who received the 1.-3. Prize in the idea competition in 1996, contacted Sverrir and invited him to be among 22 young writers in a book that was to be published to commemorate Mr. Eyjolfur Konrad Jonsson, a late former member of parliament and editor of Morgunbladid. (Page 233). Sverrir agreed to be among the authors, and wrote a fresh piece with speculations about Iceland‘s image and how a protected area could enhance it. (Page 233.)

This is what had happened until 1998. It is right to note that during these years, no one else presented any ideas, propositions, arguments or strategies regarding Vatnajokull only (and not other glaciers at the same time), and a possible formation of a large, protected area. The discussion that was about that was only others discussing Sverrir‘s ideas, such as the results of the jury in the idea competition in 1997, and the editorial in Morgunbladid in January 1997.

1998:

In February 1998, Mr. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, member of parliament, presented a proposition for a parliamentary resolution in the parliament. The proposition was for the formation of four national parks on and a bit around the four large glaciers in Iceland‘s highland. It should be noted that Mr. Guttormsson was among the political opposition, as the cabinet of ministers was held by the central and right-wing parties. During his two decades of being a member of parliament, it had never happened that a parliamentary resolution about environmental matters, that he presented while being a part of the political opposition, had been passed with a yes. Also, nature conservationists had never emphasized the protection of glaciers, as their focus was entirely on other areas and natural phenomena. This can be seen in the fact, that despite Mr. Guttormsson‘s proposition in 1998, the other three large glaciers have not been added to the nature conservation list, which is a kind of informal wish list, as nature conservationists have never had any interest in that. Sverrir the university student was not in any contact with Mr. Guttormsson, and didn‘t know about this. (Pages 148 and 158, and 235.)

In 1998, many agents, societies, municipalities and such were asked to give their opinion about the proposition for four glacier national parks. 32 comments were received by the environmental committee of the parliament. None of the comments focused on Vatnajokull glacier, and only two of them mentioned Vatnajokull, as those comments were also mentioning each of the other three glaciers. Most answers were short, around 2-3 sentences. Views about the four glacier national parks were mixed, and especially the National Energy Institute, Orkustofnun in Icelandic, was firmly against the idea, sending in a 13-page answer. No comment seems to have been received from Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company, however. (Page 236.)

In November 1998, the student at the Copenhagen Business School published two articles in Morgunbladid. Among the strategic conclusions of the master‘s thesis and the market research done for it, was that the area that Sverrir had proposed could be a good way to strengthen Iceland‘s image. (Pages 159 and 237.)

In December 1998, the book Hugmyndir or „Ideas“ was published. Among the authors was Sverrir with his piece. The other authors, 21 of them, were young people who were up and coming, and would later become among leaders in Icelandic society, among them government ministers, university deans, CEO‘s and such. They had all finished their studies and started their careers, but Sverrir was the only one among the authors who was still a student when the book was published. The chairman of the publishing committee was Mr. David Oddsson, prime minister of Iceland and also leader of the right-wing conservative party. Sverrir had joined that party in 1997. (Pages 161 and 238.)

1999:

In the first half of 1999 and in the year 2000, many things were happening.

In the beginning of 1999, a two decades time of relative peace between nature conservationists and hydro power proponents was over. The National Power Company, Landsvirkjun, was working on plans for a large hydro power project in East-Iceland, right next to or inside the area where a protected area near the Vatnajokull could be, depending on where one would draw the line. After more than 20 years of relative peace, loud disputes were arising over the issue, and opinions were very mixed, and did not go after party lines. Nature conservationists were trying to stop these plans for the hydro power project, a project that would be very valuable economically speaking for many.

The proposal for a parliamentary resolution about four new national parks on four glaciers was rejected in the environmental committee in the Icelandic parliament. That happened on February 4th. For some reason, the center-right-wing majority was interested in a national park on Vatnajokull only. It has never been explained why that was. A different proposal for a parliamentary resolution, this time presented by the committee itself and not Mr. Guttormsson, was presented to the parliament. It was about the possibility of forming a national park on the Vatnajokull glacier, the largest glacier in Iceland. It should be noted that although this was roughly what Sverrir had been talking about for many years, then he didn‘t know anything about this proposal in the parliament, as nobody told him about it and it wasn‘t discussed at all in society at large.

Sverrir has spoken once with Mr. Hjörleifur Guttormsson, the member of parliament. Mr. Guttormsson said that during these weeks, he managed to strike a deal with Mr. David Oddsson, the prime minister, about the right-wing political party accepting a parliamentary resolution about Vatnajokull, even if the party wasn‘t interested in all four glaciers as national parks. That may be true, but actually, influential individuals in the party had given a positive nod to the idea of forming a park on Vatnajokull. That weren‘t Mr. Guttormsson‘s ideas, but Sverrir‘s idea – remember the editorial in Iceland‘s largest newspaper.

The right-wing Conservative political party which held the majority of the ministers positions, and the business, banking and industrial sector in general where that political party was very influential, were historically quite against nature conservation. The possibility that the right-wing party would accept a parliamentary resolution about a huge national park, after a proposal that many perceive was presented by Mr. Guttormsson, a left-wing politician, a nature conservationist and a staunch opponent of the right-wing party must have been very controversial among many in the right-wing party, at the same time when the hydro power and industry sector wanted to build a megaproject at Eyjabakkar right next to the proposed national park, where nature conservationists were fiercely trying to stop the Eyjabakkar project. Although Sverrir wasn‘t well-known, then there were those who could easily trace from where the actual ideas came that the right-wing party was accepting. Without doubt, there was tension, distrust and even anger behind the scenes.

Sverrir graduated with a Cand. Oecon. Degree in business administration, with first class grades, from the University of Iceland, on February 6. That was a good moment. He had not only presented his ideas and won both prizes and praise, plus being the subject of an editorial in the country‘s largest newspaper, and also being and author in a book among young, up and coming people of power, where the prime minister was the chairman of the publishing committee. He had also worked on several other things during his studies. He had been a member of the debate team of business students, competing against law students at the university. He was marketing manager and chairman of the board of Hastod, an Icelandic chapter of the international Junior Enterprise movement among European universities. He was also vice-president of Hofdi, the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Generally speaking, he had done some remarkable things and his future seemed rather bright, as the job market was favorable for those with his education. It is important to see this and understand, because many who look at how Sverrri‘s career and position in society developed cannot believe that this was the real situation.

Only several days after graduating, on the same morning when it was generally seen what he was doing and where he was, certain individuals turned against him with negative attitudes and harshness. Sverrir did not understand why that was.

On March 10, 1999, the Icelandic parliament agreed on the parliamentary resolution about the possibility of forming the Vatnajokull National Park. The case was now in the hands of the minister for the environment, and the ministry, which would formally look into the possibility of forming the national park. Sverrir knew nothing about this.

2000:

The people who turned against Sverrir with negative attitudes and harshness continued their behavior, and it gradually became worse in late 1999. Sverrir did not get an explanation, even if he asked for one. He learned that there were close ties between these people, through family relations and long-standing collaboration, between these people and certain key agents in the hydro power sector, which at the time was in disputes against nature conservationists who were trying to stop the hydro power and heavy industry sector from doing what those sectors were planning. However, it is not clear if there was a connection, as Sverrir doesn‘t have a document that proves what was going on. In his work, he never did any mistakes and had good dealings with his colleagues, with an exception being these people who obviously were not positive towards him. In January 2000, the decisive action finally came, which was very questionable. It is clear if one looks into the details, that he didn‘t do anything wrong but it was closer to being a setup, where a scandal was fabricated and the blame put on Sverrir. He was told that it would be best that he would leave. He was told that he would get good recommendations so that he could get a proper job.

When he finally left that place, this promise was turned around by his supreme boss, and he was told that if anybody would contact them, then Sverrir the remarks would be given that it was not possible to give Sverrir any positive recommendations. He was also told that they weren‘t interested in him working there in the first place. He didn‘t receive any explanation about why this was.

During the same days that this happened, the National Power Company announced that it had dropped its plans to build a hydro power project at Eyjabakkar, and instead it would turn its attention to the nearby Kárahnjúkar. Kárahnjúkar was also right at the edge of, or inside the area where Sverrir had proposed that might be a part of Western Europe‘s largest nature conservation area. That was a much larger energy production opportunity, and much more valuable, and with much greater environmental footprint. The stakes were much higher, and the nature conservationists stepped up their game. In the four years that followed, Icelandic society was in flames in the harshest disputes in decades. In the end, the Kárahnjúkar hydro power project got built, and an aluminum smelter was built, by Alcoa Corporation, which is the largest aluminum company in the United States. It should be noted that Alcoa wasn‘t mentioned first in the discussion until two years after the troubles Sverrir was in, and after Sverrir‘s reputation and career was de facto destroyed. Alcoa thus didn‘t participate directly in that.

The Kárahnjúkar and aluminum project were the largest projects in Iceland‘s history, with a combined worth of US$ 3 Billion. A proportionally comparable project in Germany, for instance, would be worth US$ 750 Billion, and in the USA it would be worth three thousand Billion US$, which is obviously humongous. A lot of influential people didn‘t want to see this potential project go down the drain, while it was still uncertain and disputed. Without doubt, there were some who didn‘t like the idea of a huge national park right in the same area. In such complicated and heated circumstances, there are always some who are ready to play hardball, although there are also some who are more modest. Although many had little idea about Sverrir‘s work on the Vatnajokull ideas, as he tried not to bring attention to himself, then there were some who knew quite well.

For someone with a business degree, and for the types of jobs that such people work in, most often hiring are through recruitment agencies, or through advertising by official agencies or the government. The doors of all recruitment agencies turned out to be closed. During the years since the year 2000, he was never called in for an interview despite hundreds of attempts to apply for a job. After half a year, he was entering the situation of long term unemployment, and since he had been told that his previous workplace would give the remarks that he could not be recommended in any way, his chances of getting a job were very slim. What would the future hold? He didn‘t know, but it didn‘t look good.

Even if he knew that there had been disputes over the possible Eyjabakkar project, and disputes were increasing over the new possibility of the Kárahnjúkar project, then it seemed far-fetched that his work was in any way connected to that. He had stopped working on his ideas two and half a year before, and he didn‘t know that anything had happened since then regarding Vatnajokull. Since this time in 2000, apart from one and a half year when he did get a job, which he received help to get with direct maneuvering by an influential individual, his position in society and in the job market, and thus also personal finances, have been in a constant state of jeopardy.

In September 2000, Sverrir was very shocked when he read in the papers that the council of ministers had decided, that the government would form the Vatnajokull National Park. This was the first time that Sverrir got any information about that politicians had been discussing Vatnajokull in any way, and that they had been considering forming such a park. At the time, disputes over the proposed Kárahnjúkar project was increasing, and there must have been some interesting dealings behind the scenes, for the powerful hydro power and heavy industry sector to accept that such a national park would be formed in that area.

Sverrir immediately saw that his ideas about Vatnajokull must have influenced the decision to some degree, but he was in a precarious position, with no connections, no supporters and nobody interested in talking to him. It wasn‘t until four years after this that he got actual information about his historical importance in this matter. For the next few years, he thought that someone else had also been active in talking about this possibility of forming this kind of park and nature conservation area.

One thing was strange, which he saw clearly when he knew that he had been the only one to present argument for this. When the cabinet of ministers had made the decision of forming the national park, how did Icelanders react? How did they react to this huge decision, which in fact no one in Iceland had asked for? The strange answer is that nobody really reacted. There was no one who asked „wait a minute… who asked for this? Who was encouraging this? What was the argument behind this? How was the argument developed?“ No one said a word. People quarrel a lot in Iceland, they talk about the weather and such. But this, where 12-14% of the country was going to be transformed into one huge national park? No public discussion! No complaints. This gave Sverrir a reason to believe, that his focus on developing the idea in such a way, that no one would be harmed, and everyone could to some degree benefit from it, had been a success.

The plan was to form the park in 2001, but preparatory work on behalf of the government took far longer than that, and the park wasn‘t formed until in 2008.

PART TWO: AFTER 2000

2001-2003:

In the beginning of 2001, Sverrir had realized that he was in very serious trouble. He put together a paper in February, describing his ideas about what were the actual views of Icelanders towards nature conservation or large hydro power and industrial projects, stating that he thought that most Icelanders were not fundamentalist in either group, but actually wanted a mix of those two. He distributed this paper to around 100 individuals, as he had done with the papers in 1995. This was the beginning of his attempts to get a chance in Icelandic society, to be able to get a job and be a normal participant in the job market. The was very little reaction, and this didn‘t change his position in a fundamental way. He had been unemployed for around a year.

In August 2001, he did get a job, as a marketing and tourism officer for a medium-sized town in the countryside. Him getting this job was without doubt because of a direct interference by a very influential individual, in the right-wing political party and on the Morgunbladid newspaper. His hiring was not influenced by any powerful individuals or families in that town, so he really didn‘t have any fundamental supporters in the town. Nevertheless, he did many good things, as he is both hard-working and talented, and thus able to do many things that otherwise would have been necessary to buy from others. It was in many ways a good time, although he felt several times that there were influential families that were not happy about him being in this job. He was hired only nine months before the general municipal elections, and the majority that had created the position lost the majority. The opposition took over, and they were not interested in continuing this job, although he stayed there for about five more months to finish a project he had started, under a new mayor, who didn‘t want to have much contact with Sverrir. He was then told to quit, rather coldly. Those who had hired him were gone, and it seemed clear that those remaining weren‘t going to talk very nicely about him. At the same time, the other workplace he could refer to was the first one, where he had been harshly treated and where he was told that he would be badmouthed, if someone asked. The situation didn‘t look too good, unfortunately.

For the most part, he was long-term unemployed, and didn‘t manage to build the history, connections and reputation for anybody to be interested in giving him a job. Unfortunately, people around him didn‘t have correct information about what was going on, so their reactions were rather negative. Sverrir was criticized, they gave him a cold shoulder, and called him a loser or lazy for „not getting himself a job.“ The Icelandic nation was split in half, in the middle of the harshest disputes in decades over the Kárahnjúkar project, which finally was getting realized. To tell the story, that he was the author of what seemed to be a nature conservation idea in the area would not benefit him, even if it was actually a business idea and also a strategy for a middle way in the decades old struggle between the nature conservation and industrial sectors.

The disputes about the Kárahnjúkar project and the aluminum plant of Alcoa reached its absolute peak in 2003. Society was in flames in quarrels, with the project being mentioned many times each day in the general media. Sverrir knows that people in East Iceland, who had expressed views against the project got into trouble afterwards. They got fired from their jobs, and felt pressure in various ways. Sverrir did not take any part in the disputes, as he had been neither for or against this project. Some nature conservationists disliked the proposed Vatnajokull National Park, as the saw it as a currency in the disputes over Kárahnjúkar, and decided on to appease nature conservationists. That was probably true, and also one can expect that there were some among the supporters of the Kárahnjúkar project who were suspicious of such a large nature conservation project.

Sverrir managed to get a job in the beginning of 2004. It was at an educational facility. The first days were okay, but then suddenly the manager changed her mind and fired Sverrir after only ten days on the job. However, nothing particularly bad had happened. She said that she didn‘t need one with his education, even if she had been asking for one with his education. A year later, she was interviewed in a newspaper, where she bragged that the operations had grown so much that they had to add many to their staff. Sverrir didn‘t get any explanations as to why he was fired, but he suspected that this was all linked to his past troubles.

In all, he lost a job, or encountered a negative event regarding work and income, four to five times in four years. In all instances, there was something strange about the ordeal. Something was not okay, was not right. He hadn‘t done or said anything wrong, not even something that would be a reason for a mild criticism, let along a near destruction of one‘s position in society. Then he learned that he was the only man responsible for the original idea itself, realizing the opportunity, developing the strategy and arguments, behind the huge national park. He suspected that there was a very ugly relationship between those events.

2004-2005:

In early 2004, the ministry for the environment published a report about the proposed Vatnajokull National Park. The report contained among other evaluations about the possible positive economic effects that the national park could have for Iceland. There were estimates on how much foreign exchange revenues from tourists could increase because of the national park, with lower and higher estimates. Although such numbers are generally very uncertain in nature, Sverrir saw that the national park could become extremely valuable. Based on these numbers, and also based on estimates of the economic multiplier of tourism which was estimated for the ministry responsible for tourism, Sverrir calculated the possible economic effects on a larger scale.

He saw that during the century, the park could increase the turnover of the economy to the amount of billions or tens of billions of US$, and increase net tax revenues to the government by billions of US$. That is really significant, and not less proportionally. In the US, since the US is around 1000 times larger than Iceland, this would amount to some Trillions or tens of Trillions of US$. It is a bit frustrating and sad, that the people in Iceland are almost universally not interested at all in this, as they are not collectively capable of evaluating and understanding this.

The park could also have a great effect on jobs. The park could create up to 650 new full-time equivalent of jobs at average wages, based on the lower limits of the estimates. Comparing the sizes of the nations, this would proportionally amount to 650,000 new jobs in the United States, or around 130,000 new jobs in the UK or France, or 160,000 new jobs in Germany.

Sverrir had been a university student when he introduced his propositions, and he saw that if the estimates would turn out to be correct, the increased tax revenues for the government could be enough to pay the total operational cost of all universities in Iceland. That isn‘t too bad from the ideas developed and presented by a single university student.

Now Sverrir wanted to get exact information about what the prehistory of the national park. What had actually happened in history before politicians started discussing the possibility of forming the park? What was his part in all discussions, proportionally? He now went and talked to individuals who knew, especially a former chairman of the Icelandic Nature Conservation Council. The information shocked Sverrir. He learned that in history, contrary to what he had heard, no one among nature conservationists had ever talked about, wished for, proposed or presented argument for protecting Vatnajokull glacier, except Sverrir. This means that there is no doubt what was the reason, that politicians suddenly had in front of them descriptions of the possibility of doing that, with arguments which were attractive to the business life, and also with a strategy about how the hydro power and heavy industry/raw metals processing sector might benefit from such a large nature conservation area on Vatnajokull. Sverrir was the only one responsible for that in history. Sverrir also investigated a database of public discussion, and found that certain focus and concepts, which politicians used, had originally been proposed by Sverrir. Nature conservationists had never presented such a focus or concepts.

This means that although it is true that politicians did discuss the idea of forming the park, and they took the political decision, and now it was the government that was doing preparatory work for the national park, then Sverrir was surely the original mastermind behind the basic idea. Even if he wasn‘t participating, then it was clear that this was his original idea, and if he hadn‘t done this, then it was highly unlikely that anybody else would have developed similar strategies. That meant, that the politicians would never had in front of them ideas on doing this, and thus they would never had decided to do this.

Sverrir decided to look deeper into these issues. He wrote six papers in all about the economic side of the national park. This included a sophisticated excel document to calculate the possible cash flow and net present value of the national park, for the Icelandic economy. He then contacted a lot of people, and met personally with around 30 people, among them more than half of the government ministers. In all he spoke to or contacted around 300 people, which is a lot among a nation of only 300 thousand people. He also pointed out that he had been the one who was developing these ideas. By this, he was hoping to fix his own personal image, so that he could get access to society, to get a job, so he could sustain himself and his life, and even do things as running a home ain a proper manner and do other things that are considered rather normal, all of which was not economically possible in his position.

In short, it has to be said that there was very little interest in this issue, or in his work. Sverrir found it strange, that nobody among these leading people in Icelandic society asked questions, for instance of how he had developed these strategies, where and how he had gathered information to develop them, and such. Nobody objected, nobody doubted. In short, there was no discussion. Some seemed to think it was funny when Sverrir tried to mention that things had not been easy. Talking about that was not easy, since those who had possibly used their influence to sidetrack Sverrir‘s career were still very powerful, and then there had been the harsh disputes about the hydro power developments in the area. One government minister which Sverrir was quite candid with found it extremely funny that Sverrir had gotten into trouble, and said that he would certainly not help Sverrir with anything, although he knew how Sverrir had contributed to the case.

2005-2018:

In the end, these attempts were fruitless. The situation persisted where Sverrir could not get a job that suited his talent and education, his rights to receive unemployment benefits ran out as well. He formed a freelance projects service, which was somewhat successful, but it was rather difficult to get decently paid freelance projects as he actually didn‘t have very strong connections after these years of tribulations, and it wasn‘t always easy to get paid for those he did work on. He also had several entrepreneurial ideas that were quite promising, and was trying to write a novel.

In the years that followed, the disputes about Kárahnjúkar were over, as the power station was fully built and the aluminum plant started producing metal.

Icelanders turned to building up an international banking system. Sverrir did not stand a chance to get a job in that sector. The Icelandic banks and business men borrowed massive amounts of capital from foreign banks. In 2008, this whole thing collapsed with the bankruptcy of the banking system, and de facto bankruptcy of the Icelandic nation and its businesses. Combined, the bankruptcy of the Icelandic banking system of the tiny little nation of Iceland, and after only five years of expansion, was one of the largest bankruptcies in world history, and comparable to the Enron scandal in the 1000 times larger country of the United States.

During the time when the government was preparing the national park, Sverrir was never contacted or answered when he was presenting his case, except there was one minister for the environment who did show some thankfulness and mentioned him. That was in 2004, when the Skaftafell park was enlarged. The minister was the same Ms. Siv Fridleifsdottir who had called Sverrir in for a discussion in 1997, when she was a member of parliament.

In 2008, eight years of preparation were finally over, and the government established the Vatnajokull National Park, on June 6, in Skaftafell in Southeast Iceland, where the former Skaftafell national park had been. When Sverrir arrived, he met the former minister for the environment outside. She immediately tried to establish contact with a man there, which Sverrir didn‘t know who was. It was the newly hired managing director for the new park. The man didn‘t want to talk. The former minister tried establishing contact again, but he again didn‘t give any of his time. Sverrir managed to talk to him shortly, but he was only ready for around 30 seconds. Sverrir found that rather strange. After all, it wasn‘t Sverrir who was trying to establish a conversation, it was the former government minister who had handled the preparations the longest part, or for five years, who was trying to establish a conversation.

During the ceremony, the former environmental minister went to the podium and said among other things, that she wanted to mention two individuals who had been at the forefront of starting this thing, but were seldom mentioned at the time. This was Mr. Hjorleifur Guttormsson, the former member of parliament who had presented the proposition for a parliamentary referendum in 1998, and Sverrir, who had worked on presenting propositions from 1995 to 1998. Since she mentioned him, Sverrir decided to go to the podium also, and presented an idea of developing a social network website, which could be used to gather stories, images and videos made by people visiting the park. Afterwards, Sverrir tried to talk to a few of those present, but none were interested in chatting. This was quite typical. After this, he started developing such a website himself, using the online solution of Ning.com. However, he didn‘t introduce the website until later, because of the collapse of the banking system. After the collapse, Icelanders had other things to think about then a social media website for a national park.

But Sverrir didn‘t take any part in the preparations, or the running of the park. Many individuals applied for the job of managing director of the national park, some of which had experience or education of how to manage national parks. The one who was hired was a chemical engineer, who had once worked for the National Power Company, an arrangement that perhaps does not make one surprised when one thinks about what must have been going on behind the scenes. Sverrir has not been a part of anything at the national park, even if he has tried to contribute things. With a few exceptions, he has been ignored, and his words even quibbled. However, it has to be said that he didn‘t do much to contact the park, as he didn‘t trust the managing director, and his position was of the kind that it was not easy to be assertive.

In 2009 a non-profit organization named Friends of Vatnajokull was founded. Its purpose was to raise funds to support research, promotional and educational activities related to the park. There are many very creative projects that have gained support. It is interesting, that the supporter that contributes the largest amounts to the organization is Fjardarál, Alcoa in Iceland, the aluminum producer. Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company, is also a supporter, while only two of the seven main supporters are companies related to tourism.

So the situation was that a very large part of the cost of running the organization is paid for by the aluminum and hydro power sector. And the first managing director of the park was a former employee of the National Power Company. It is clear that the hydro power and aluminum sector has a fundamental influence in the national park.

The building up and running of the national park has cost the government a total of around US$ 65 million to date. Sverrir has received very little thanks, if any, and no compensation for his years of work. The building up of the park has been for the most part done in a satisfactory way, of course with some small exceptions. In the last few years, however, things didn‘t go well enough and there was a scandal regarding finances and running of the park. Also, the legal framework of the national park, that was passed in 2007, suspiciously didn‘t mention relations to job creating companies, tourist companies, and such in any way. Thus, it was not possible to include that in regulations, and not possible to create rules about how companies could run their business in relations with the national park. Thus, companies applying for permits serving tourists inside the park have been rejected by park authorities, leading to disputes and lawsuits against the park. There have also been problems with running toilets properly for those visiting the area, which has not been resolved despite going on for several years. This is all rather unfortunate.

Sverrir‘s ideas had the primary purpose of pointing out a solution that could help create new jobs, and evaluations made for the ministry in 2004 showed that it could become very valuable. If things continue to go as they have in the first ten years of the park‘s existence, then the park is not moving towards creating that kind of value for society. There is new management now, and they say that fixing these regulations’ situation is a priority, so let‘s hope things will get better.

Sverrir did contribute various things regarding the national park in the years that followed its formation. Here is an overview of that.

In January 2010, Sverrir finally introduced the social network he had developed for the Vatnajokull National Park. He named the website SeeVatnajokull. The website is still active on www.seevatnajokull.net. He sent out emails to tell about the website, and did receive some positive remarks about the website, but since there was no answer from the office of the national park, then his interest in putting a lot of unpaid or little paid work into the website became smaller. Throughout the years, he did things from time to time, but never received any answers from the office of the national park.

Sverrir decided he wanted to say something more about the possible economic effects of the national park, and to compare it to national parks in Europe and the US if possible. He managed to gather some information, and created a special video about the subject. In the video are also many pictures from the national parks, as well as from the national parks in the UK and the US, where he compares the economic numbers with the economic forecast that was made for the Vatnajokull park. He posted the video in September 2011. He received very little reaction. However, he created an English version which is on YouTube and can be seen here: https://youtu.be/npV3J3L621g

After the collapse of the banks, the atmosphere in Iceland was very negative. There was a lot of quarreling and blaming, but little positive growth thinking. Sverrir recalled that it had been similar after 1990, when there was also a recession although not as serious as this one. Back then, he decided to develop his Vatnajokull ideas to present a possible way to generate new opportunities. This time, he decided to set up a website with instructions on how to develop new ideas for growth, based on his experience from his own work on developing the propositions for the Vatnajokull National Park. He named the website Uppbygging or „build up“, and it can be seen on www.uppbygging.org. He did receive some positive remarks for this website, and who knows, perhaps this initiative had some effect in installing a little more positive thinking in Icelanders?

In 2013, Sverrir was thinking that there had been very little attention given to his work on what could be called the prehistory of the national park. He decided to put together in one place all material that had been presented by anyone, and an overview of all events and discussions, in the years before the Icelandic parliament started discussing the issue. This was the years 1992-1998, and the purpose was that this would be accessible for historians and others interested, and wouldn‘t be completely forgotten. He put this together in the book Skrefin ad Vatnajokulshtjodgardi or „the steps towards the Vatnajokull National Park.“ He distributed the book to libraries in Iceland, but apart from that he didn‘t promote it. This book was mentioned at the start of this text, and the page numbers mentioned are in that book. The book can be downloaded in PDF format (Icelandic) for free at www.seevatnajokull.com/bok.

In 2014, he wanted to give copies of the book to the Vatnajokull National Park, and asked to come to a meeting of the board of the park. That was granted, and he met them in June 2014, giving the park two copies of the book. He was received partly with a curious, somewhat funny silence by board members, but the chairman and co-chairman were rather grumpy. The co-chairman tried to stop Sverrir talking when he wanted to mention what the situation was like fifteen years earlier when the parliamentary resolution was passed, which he found rather strange. The chairman said that there had nothing happened of any value regarding the park, before the government decided to form the park. He said that they only work on developing ideas had taken place after that. He said it, even as he sat there with the 282-page book with more than 100 color images in his hands. The managing director, who didn‘t seem to want to talk to Sverrir back in 2008 when the park was formed, sat in silence and didn‘t say a word through the meeting.

In January of 2015, he remembered that it was 20 years since he had presented his Vatnajokull ideas in the Morgunbladid newspaper, which he did in 1995. Sverrir decided that he wanted to do something about it, and decided to create a page on Facebook. He was going to name the page after the book, or „skrefinadvatnajokulsthjodgardi“ which was certainly not a name anyone was using. It turned out that he could not create a page with that name, as Facebook said the name was already taken. That was strange. There was no page active with that name. Sverrir tried adding „bokin“, meaning „the book“ to the beginning of the name. He could without any trouble create a page with the name „bokinskrefinadvatnajokulsthjodgardi“. He could also create a page named „skrefinadvatnajokulsthjodgardibok“, no problem. This was very weird. Obviously, someone had been on Facebook, creating a page with the same name as the name of his book, but the page was not active. Who had done this?

Anyway, he created posts on the same days as when the articles had been published, or on January 3, 4 and 10, and promoted the posts. He was simply telling about a historic event that happened 20 years ago, which should not be controversial. A bit later, he decided to promote the video about the economic opportunities around the park, with comparison with national parks in the UK and USA, which he created in September 2011, and did a bit of that. Then nothing more. In all, he promoted this for probably around 50-60 USD. Nothing huge. Later that year, he wanted to promote an entirely unrelated project that was linked to pets, cats and dogs. It turned out that his advertising account at Facebook had been made inactive, so he could not buy advertising. This was again very strange. He certainly was not creating any trouble on Facebook. Only hit likes and wasn‘t posting any comments or material that was controversial. Some months later he wanted to buy ads to help pet owners deal with fear of fireworks in their animals, and again, he could not buy any advertising. The possibility was blocked. He then, in February 2016, sent a very powerful letter to Facebook, with comments from influential people in Iceland, and then he got his advertising account back. But he got no explanations as to why it had been closed.

Sverrir has speculated who was active there? You need to employ some rather deep knowledge, sophisticated thinking and deep connections to influence the situation as it seems to him that the situation was influenced. Or did this happen for a complete coincidence? Someone had created a Facebook page with the name of his book, and for some reason the advertising account was blocked? Facebook wants your money, they don‘t close advertising accounts just like that for no reason.

You need to spend considerable time to plot different scenarios into the future, and then spend time on creating a page on Facebook with this particular name. You need to spend time contacting Facebook to have an advertising account shut down. You also need to be someone of a caliber to be able to connect directly and be listened to, which opens a question of whom this was? Or if the blocking of the advertising account was because of a considerable number of people reporting the ad, who were reporting these rather innocent ads and on what grounds?

Who was this? Is there someone who is doing this as a hobby? Or is it a part of someone‘s job? Then that person or persons is on a payroll. Who pays that payroll? Who decides that this is taking place? What ideas or ideology is it based on? Whom is this supposed to benefit? Is this activity based on some legal permissions passed by the Icelandic parliament? If so, which legal code?

Sverrir first got into trouble in 1999-2000 when there were disputes over the possible Eyjabakkar project, and then disputes over the then possible Kárahnjúkar project were starting. It was a kind of war going on. But in 2014 and 2015, there were no disputes going on, and Sverrir wasn‘t criticizing anyone or trying to stop anyone from doing anything. This was 15 years after the original troubled time. If you look back, you see that all that Sverrir had done was to develop ideas on things that the government could do to strengthen the position of the country and to create new jobs. He had also created ideas of consensus, of a middle road, of a possible peaceful solution in long-standing disputes, and he had never expressed views against anyone. Who was doing this, and why? Is this normal?

This is what he was doing regarding the park in the years 2008 to 2015. In the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, he tried to start this case again, contacting some members of parliament and ministers, as well as the national park and the new management there, to try to rectify his whole situation, but he felt that there was very little interest, and of course bringing this case up can also be risky, as the individuals whom he thought may have influenced his career in a negative way in the past years are still somewhat influential and very well-connected.

He did send a letter to the prime ministry and the ministry for the environment, asking that the government would look into history, and find out from where politicians may have gotten the ideas and strategies that opened their eyes, and made them pass the decision of forming the national park. Of course, looking at the information about that would not be complicated. They could simply look at the book that Sverrir put together in 2013. If there would be someone who said that something was missing, then that same person could present the historical information that was proof of that, and that material could be added to the book. Sverrir received an answer from the prime ministry, saying that it was the ministry for the environment that should handle the case. He has not received an answer from the ministry for the environment at the time of writing this.

In 2018, the government sent in an application for the Vatnajokull National Park to be nominated for the World Heritage List of UNESCO, and it is currently being reviewed by UNESCO. If that goes as hoped for, it will greatly increase the reputation of the park, which is already arguably the most diverse and spectacular national park in Europe, although it is only second largest.

Some thoughts

What Sverrir did while a student was in fact none of the ordinary. It was not only an accomplishment, it was perhaps unique. What do students normally do? They study, drink beer on weekends, have fun. Normally, they are not influential in business life or national politics. That comes later, when they have finished their studies and build their career. How often did it happen in the 20th century, that a first-year undergraduate student presented some large-scale ideas of potential national importance, and politicians in the country accepted in a very short time to do that, and out of it came something that was the largest in Western Europe? It is certain that this did not happen often. This was a true accomplishment, even if Icelanders in general cannot analyze and understand it. And then, instead of building a fruitful career, amidst the fierce disputes, Sverrir was de facto expelled from the job market. That is extremely rough, a serious breach of human rights, but also potentially damaging.

It seems clear, that presenting ideas about things that society could benefit from can, under certain circumstances when that society is less mature than they think they are, can have life threatening, or let‘s call it quality-of-life threatening consequences. Sverrir was not murdered, something which could have happened in other societies fighting over a US$ 3 Billion project, but he was „killed“ in another way. And then, since information about what had actually been happening wasn‘t available until it was far too late, others followed with the same attitudes. Among some family members, friends and acquaintants, there was little interest in his affairs and little interest in helping, he was given a cold shoulder, he was treated negatively and even attacked verbally when he expressed that he was unhappy about the situation. This led to his relationships becoming less valuable.

It is uncertain how much the damage is that Sverrir has had because of this.The loss of income totals today not less than US$ 1 million, and then there is a question how to value the loss of opportunities, and not being able to do various things that people normally take for granted. On top of that, Sverrir has created innovations, that he has been interested in doing more about in entrepreneurial projects, but these troubles have definitely made it much more difficult to realize those, even to the point of making it impossible. Of course, general knowledge of what was actually happening can change that. But taking into account that for several years, he has had business ideas that could become important, and even disrupt, markets worth US$ 30 Billion, and US$ 300 Billion, to take two of his ideas as an example, then it is impossible to evaluate with any precision what the damage has been.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Iceland was the poorest and least developed country in Europe. It has then become one of the richest country on Earth. If one looks at the history of the Icelandic nation, one sees that much of Iceland‘s wealth can be attributed to things that Icelanders got into their hands, but did not create with their own thinking and ingenuity. The fishing grounds, the energy and geothermal heat, and Iceland‘s nature itself which is what the tourism industry is based on, were not created by the inhabitants of the country. The technologies used to utilize these were for the most part developed by scientists in other nations. World War 2 and the Cold War created circumstances that Icelanders had no power to create, but were extremely favorable for Icelanders. The same circumstances turned out to be a great burden for other nations, that were both much richer and more highly developed than Iceland in the former half of last century. Those were for instance Hungary and Czechoslovakia. These nations did not encounter their problems, because they had been so clumsy or had violated something. Likewise, Iceland did not become rich because Icelanders had been fundamentally so damn smart. This can only be attributed to luck. Around 1990 the fortunes of these nations had reversed: Iceland was one of the richest nations, but the other two nations were much worse off after half a century, first under Nazis and then under Communists. This is something many Icelanders don‘t quite understand. Icelanders were extremely lucky after the collapse of the banks, and benefited by circumstances that Icelanders themselves did not create with their own ingenuity.

The idea of turning the protected areas on and around the Vatnajokull into one large area of that kind, to enhance Iceland‘s image, however, was a pure thought of ingenuity. And it was only Sverrir who had presented any ideas or arguments for that. There was no one in Iceland who was talking about this. Sverrir has not received very little thanks and no compensation for his years of research and development to create those ideas, arguments and strategies. The fact is, that while there are groups who show much ingenuity, mainly young people with entrepreneurial spirits, then around the time when Sverrir was developing and presenting his ideas, most people had no understanding that this could have any value. Politicians took Sverrir‘s ideas and decided to use them without saying thank you. While a bit annoying, that was not the worst part. The worst part was what lead to Sverrir‘s career prospects and position in life being mostly destroyed, around the same time when the nation was disputing over hydro power and heavy industry projects. In retrospect, to develop and present ideas on how to create prosperity and new jobs seems like a good idea. But one can not say that it had favorable consequences for Sverrir. And it is clear, that most Icelanders don’t worry at all about that. In part, that is because they don‘t understand.

The solution in his affairs have been and are actually quite simple. If he could get a job, or build some value-creating activity, so he could sustain himself economically, then the problem would be solved. That is all. He has no need to seek justice, or revenge, because of past events. And he isn‘t waiting to be thanked, or being asked to apologize, since that will probably not happen. It should be added, that Sverrir isn‘t dealing with any of what one would call personal problems. He did have issues to deal with when he was a kid, a teenager and a young man. He was free from those problems before he started his studies and presented his ideas, and he has been free from them for 25 years. However, he isn‘t sure he is free from the problems, inside the minds and memories of others. So problems he has been free from for 25 years may still be his main problem? It‘s time to fix that too.

If you look at what Sverrir was doing during his years of study, what he accomplished and what the situation looked like when he graduated, then it cannot be seen as natural or logical how things developed. Of all those with a similar education and similar credentials, it is clear that his career has probably fared the worst of all in the country. And he did more than anyone during his studies to create wealth and prosperity for his country, and made a unique accomplishment. This cannot be seen as normal, or understandable. He has not been able to do much about ideas that could be very valuable, both financially and could also make life better. Of course, that is never certain. But Sverrir would like to get a better chance than he has had. Hopefully this text will help in fixing that sad situation.

This is the short overview of the prehistory of proposals and discussions about the possibilities of forming the Vatnajokull National Park, and a short overview of what happened then. A much more comprehensive description of all that happened may be available, but it really isn‘t Sverrir‘s wish to spend too much time and energy on this ordeal. This is all passed and Sverrir has little interest in dwelling on past issues.

In retrospect

It is a fact that Sverrir has been far from successful, or at least that is what it seems when you only look at what is readiy visible. This text has explained the things that have been hidden to most. Some people think that Sverrir is a loser, even an idiot. They think that if someone wants to work, then that person simply „gets himself a job.“ And since Sverrir hasn‘t been active on the job market, then that must be because he doesn‘t want to work, is lazy, or not competitive, or has some problems. The reality is far from that.

Is there something that Sverrir could have done differently, and thus avoided these troubles? Did he make some „mistakes“? If you look back, you see that the trouble was brewing in 1999-2000, and it set the tone so forcefully, where Sverrir didn‘t even have information about what might be going on. From that, one can safely say that Sverrir didn‘t make any mistakes. What he could have done, he could have decided back in 1993-1994, that he was not going to present any ideas on how Icelanders could build a better future, to create new jobs. Then he would not have raised any eyebrows whatsoever, and would not have made powerful enemies while still a university student.

„The reason that university politics is so vicious is because the stakes are so small,“ Henry Kissinger said once. What Sverrir was doing was no university politics. His ideas were directly influencing, or even initiating, government policy at the highest political level, and set off an entanglement with the largest and most bitter dispute in decades, concerning the largest project in the country‘s history. And he didn‘t even know it, so he couldn‘t brace himself or react to what he was entangled in. University students simply are not supposed to find themselves in that kind of a position, when they are just finishing their studies. And it seems that Sverrir paid the price. But that was not because he was not competent, and had made mistakes. On the contrary, his ideas were too good, too well worked and thought out.

How long these issues have persisted is not okay. Now it‘s time that Sverrir should be able to successfully turn to other projects, more productive activities, without having to battle a „mysterious“ situation that seems to lay rocks in his path again and again. The last instances of that are rather recent.

2019:

What is most important is what is happening today, and that is unfortunately not entirely good. The problems discussed have persisted. People around Sverrir haven‘t had correct information, they have not been interested in gaining correct information, and they don‘t see him or his legacy to be remarkable in any way, as they don‘t know or don‘t understand this story.

What is most important is that Sverrir has some very promising innovations that could be the basis for entrepreneurial projects. One of them is DESAUDIO, which is about an innovation which Sverrir has found out no one else in the world seems to be speculating about. This is an innovation that could be a disruptive force to some degree, and could even be quite profitable, in a market worth US$ 30 Billion globally. Sverrir also has developed another innovation, this time in a US$ 300 Billion global market, which is about a new category of beverage products that Sverrir believes could hold great promise. He also has other ideas, most notably an innovation in services for pets, that could also be very promising, although perhaps not on a scale of these two first mentioned. However, that innovation could be useful in 140 million homes, which is nothing small. This innovation could bring great benefits for pets, in terms of health and psychological well-being.

The position that Sverrir has been in for far too long, can most definitely sabotage his chances of doing something constructive and valuable with these three ideas mentioned. All that is needed here, however, is to gain the correct information and to understand what was actually going on. Sverrir isn‘t dealing with any personal problems, and he hasn‘t done anything wrong in these years. On the contrary, he did make great accomplishments. It is extremely rare that a university student is so influential while being an undergraduate student.

Sverrir is now only interested in doing something more about his innovations. To create wealth and success. And leave these heavy things behind. That is quite possible, if you simply know the truth.

Telling the truth, however, has been both rather unpopular and even risky. But time passes. Let‘s end this with a quote from Gautama Buddha: „Three things cannot long remain hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth.“