Heimurinn horfir til Íslands

Þjóðverjinn Christopher Patrick Peterka kom til Íslands fyrir kosningarnar og skrifaði vinum sínum þetta bréf. Upplýsingar um höfundinn má lesa fyrir neðan greinina.

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Dear Icelanders,

actually I must agree – yes, you've obviously screwed it. Everybody on this planet who can read likely knows it. So there's Iceland today – the laughing stock of the world? Maybe.

Way more important to me seems that most of you experience the pinch personally. You might feel the difference as a lack of prosperity.

But you might also feel relieved. All the ambition of going for just another bigger, faster, better – suddenly gone because there's simply less budget. A moment to take a breath. Think.

Walking up and down Laugavegur these days made me wonder what the future will be like when either the days shorten again in autumn or the first signs of an economic rise show up again.

Will history simply repeat itself? Will everybody just switch back to normal? Or will you Vikings try something else as so often and sucessfully before?

Reykjavik's stores today show perfect sceneries but they're ghostly empty. In between: large windows with tiny posters telling all the same two words: “til leigu”.

Although I don't speak a single word Icelandic it's not a great deal to understand what “til leigu” is supposed to mean. Feels like every third store had to put that sign on display.

Thanks to the Icelandic Design Centre art fills the voids.

On good Friday afternoon I watch the 20st century parading through the city – hundreds of muscle cars, huge jeeps and humvees showing off what once was one's pride and is now mostly owned by – a little weird – quite bankrupt banks. In a way many 21st century people curiously notice the ongoing somehow irritated and amused from the cafes and walkways.

There's a sense of irony on the streets. I caught the phrase “we can do it better”. And then sun breaks through the clouds.

And indeed – with all respect to the ones that suffer from unemployment or other major loss today – there's something remarkable about this failure.

Because you've just tipped a point that the rest of the world is going to face sooner or later, too or is just even now in the very same situation.

We're entering interesting times here.

After years of believing in more + more is more we now know that this might have been a dangerous path to follow.

The formula “economic growth = success” has lead us to an absurd idea of stability because we're unable to recognise balance by anything else than increase.

Andri Snaer Magnasson has described this wonderfully in his fantastic piece of work “Dreamland”.

Is GDP's growth missing, incertitude along with the feeling of failure comes up; although prosperity has measurable increased if you compare our decade with previous ones.

There's not only beer. But many beer brands. There's a splendid variety of products, brands and most important whole lifestyles on offer for everybody.

Let's talk about sustainability instead. About how you could use the very moment of the clash for the reinvention of capitalism. It certainly won't be a 180 degrees turn in how to run an economy.

But how about a gradual change of two or the degrees? It could be a chance of a lifetime to set the course towards a prosperous new future. It might happen slower and be less glamorous in regard to conventional patterns.

But it might set you ahead of a worldwide competition for the smartest ideas about how societies can reinvent themselves around the ideal of a sustainable capitalism making use of the greatest resource you can have:

The strategic creativity based on historic experience and cultural habit that makes you unique and strong.

Others have taken their steps forward already. Take Sao Paulo for instance. Not really closely related by first sight to Reykjavik by figures and climate you might share a certain mindset.

Paulistans have a behavioural pattern in their DNA that makes them “create and destroy” new things quickly. May it be a new building, a political programme or just an idea.

So the Brazilians dropped advertising and art during the last two years – at least in the way we got these cultural forms to know for the time we're living in modern societies.

They love their city today and still partner up with big brands – but with much more sense and relevance for everybody than a billboard could have ever done it. Their art biennale returned to the global floor by radically changing the rules – and Brazil is one the move forward. Bio-fuel, a new public paradigm offering public space as a sphere of imagination and inspiration for all stakeholders – corporations as well as governmental institutions, visitors and citizens – transforming their lives and processes in much mores sustainable and hereby successful ways.

Be sure – we're with you. United we shall stand and face the necessary metamorphosis together. We all can profit from it although we will need to get used to our new set of values.

Less really being more in the understanding of balance? Sounds nice. But means thinking different and that hurts in the beginning.

Let's talk, discuss and ventilate ideas. Use the web. Go and have a drink together. Vote people into the government that know to carefully listen. Politicians who can be sure that they'll be rewarded by the people and the media for brave decisions and taking the risk to personally fail but do the best for their country.

Icelanders, the world is watching you.

Go ahead, light the way. We're closely behind you.

Take the chance and use your energy to become the most interesting and worthy laboratory for contemporary thinking on this planet.

Good luck and wise voting.

CP

AUTHOR

German mediomician Christopher Patrick Peterka has recently visited Iceland and led talks with more than 10 local thought leaders from Art to Economy to Science and Politics.

Peterka is founder and Managing Partner of the think tank gannaca located in Cologne, New York and Shanghai since 2002. He studied business administration, political, social and media science at the universities Cologne and Duesseldorf.

The autodidact founded his first business at the age of 16. Peterka travels the globe and connects mentors with great talent, expertise and passion. Well informed about the and connected to various Icelanders he considers himself a friend of Iceland.

Additionally he's member of the board to science magazine GDI Impuls, cooperator of the institute of applied virtuality (IAV) and mentor the the international institute for inspiration and formation (IIIF).