Johanna Sigurdardottir is Iceland's new Prime Minister - and she happens to be gay.
I get frustrated when people like Chris Trotter go on about "identity politics" within the Labour Party. For me such success is not about identity politics but about social democracy in action. Johanna Sigurdardottir was clearly the best person for the job.
The social democratic mission is about ensuring that people have the opportunity to succeed regardless of their background (age, sex, gender, disability, income, family background, religion). I don't celebrate Johanna Sigurdartottir because she is gay: I celebrate Johanna because she was the best person for the job, and Johanna and the Icelandic people did not let sexuality be a barrier to her success.
Hat tip (No Right Turn)
Why is it a world first?
Posted by: dave | February 05, 2009 at 04:01 PM
And yet you proudly promote her as the first gay PM, so there is a contradiction in your column. For her to reach this position and break through barriers suggests to me she is a very capable person. But Iceland has a bankrupt banking system many times the size of Iceland's GDP. Britain is not that far behind. We are lucky here our banking system is underwritten by Australia, something they have just realised and are possibly looking to give one of our banks (BNZ???) the flick, back to us.
Posted by: tim barclay | February 06, 2009 at 08:08 AM
Yes, this is about time. I'm not in the least surprised about the fact that this happened in Iceland - seemingly the cradle of equity, sense, democracy and fairness. (Incidentally I'm going there this summer.)
I wish her all the luck in bringing the Icelandic economy back from Ragnarok.
Posted by: DrCam of Melb. | February 10, 2009 at 01:16 AM