timmah's brain

Iceland could become the Switzerland of bits.

Iceland has a unique opportunity to pull this off as they:

[Have] been one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world.

In 2007, it was ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations’ Human Development Index, and the fourth most productive country per capita.

In 2008, [r]elative to the size of its economy, Iceland’s banking collapse is the largest suffered by any country in economic history.

Renewable sources—geothermal and hydro power—provide effectively all of Iceland’s electricity[69] and around 80% of the nation’s total energy[.]
[Source]

Our Banking Crisis inquiry, and specifically the problem of the failure of the Icelandic banks, has raised issues surrounding the cross-border regulation of financial institutions.
[Source]

In other words, they are intelligent hard working people who got foolish and greedy and are embarrassed by that, plus they are self sufficient – so they are highly motivated to re-evaluate [their] moral codes.

From the Introduction of the IMMI:

I believe this proposal is a strong way of encouraging integrity and responsive government around the world, including in Iceland. In my work investigating corruption I have seen how important it is to have have robust mechanisms to get information out to the public. ~ Eva Jolly

The site includes the Proposal, a Timeline, FAQ’s, Endorsements and other links in English and Islenska.

From an article at the Guardian:

With a population of just 320,000, Iceland’s ambition to transform itself from a country heavily dependent upon fishing into a financial powerhouse, went up in smoke after the 2008 credit crunch. The failure of Landsbanki and the bailout of its online savings bank, Icesave, left Icelanders picking up the tab after the government had to find funds to repay creditors in Britain and the Netherlands.

Excerpts from an International Data Group News Service article:

If the law is passed, then data centers powered by Iceland’s renewable energy sources could, in future, make the country a haven for defending freedom and transparency of information, rather than a tax haven for concealing financial secrets.

Icelanders are playing a key role in this process, hoping to do away with the recent past and change society into something better as their country recovers from the global financial crisis.

“One of the things the nation has been calling for is honesty and transparency. We feel that it is important to have a vision for the future,”

The aftermath of the financial meltdown has nurtured a rebellious public mood in the country[.]

“We not only had a complete financial meltdown, we had to re-evaluate our moral codes,” said Jonsdottir.

She described the project as the opposite of a tax haven. Tax adopts regulations from other countries to protect secrecy, while Iceland will adopt regulations from countries that protect transparency, she said.

Previously here – Iceland could become the international center for investigative journalism publishing.

Part 5 of WikiLeaks presentation:

Courage is contagious.

Part 6 of WikiLeaks Presentation at YouTube.
Part 7 of WikiLeaks Presentation at YouTube.