Kristinn Hrafns­son, the editor at Wikileaks, wrote a post on his Facebook page, reg­ar­ding the Icelandic govern­ment sell­ing its stake in the bank Íslands­banki. In his post, Kristinn uses the tale of Jack and the Bean­stalk as a metaphor.

„If I was like Sif Sig­mars­dóttir, Iceland’s most prominent columnist, I would surely write about Jack and the Bean­stalk,“ Hrafns­son beg­ins his post.

„Jack was a silly boy that allowed him­self to be fooled into sell­ing his family’s milk­ing cow in exchange for three beans. In the real world, this is where the business tale ends.“

He then talks of the widely criticized sale of part of the govern­ment’s stake in Íslands­banki:

„Less than a quarter of the citizens wanted to sell the bank. The majority was completely aga­inst it. Jack’s mother realized that it was not a good deal at all to receive ISK 100 billion for a bank, that in the last seven years alone ret­ur­ned ISK 103,6 billion in pure profit.

When people have been fooled, a story about a bean­stalk and endless prosperity must be created.“

Hrafns­son ends on a strong note:

„In the real world, Jack and his mother lost their little apart­ment in Sel­tjarn­ar­nes, were dri­ven out of town and now live in an apart­ment in Reykja­vík, provided by social services.

The one that fooled Jack then wrote the fairytale, because that way he will be able to deceive more fools like Jack, and then afterwards laugh all the way to the bank… his bank.“

The response to Hrafns­son’s post has been immense and the tale of silly Jack clearly resonates with many.

This article was orig­inally publ­is­hed in Icelandic by Björgvin Gunn­ars­son.