Søgan um vaktarskipið Nólsoyar Páll
– the man was dragged through the mire of the press but now tells the story about the ship Nólsoyar Páll from his angle.
Navigare necesse est – it is necessary to navigate. Jóan Karl Høgnesen knew as much, when on watch at the Faroese coast guard and rescue service. But his time at the helm was stormy, steering between the Devil and the deep blue sea. How to manage when the legal framework was faulty and questionable procedures had consequently accumulated over time. When trying to sort out the mess, he soon realised that some civil servants steered their own course; and the politicians were mostly uncooperative as they pursued their own interests with little respect for the laws of the land and its values.
Loosening the drawstrings, Høgnesen now empties the bag, narrates how the case about the coast guard vessel Nólsoyar Páll was whipped into a frenzy, turned into a scandal. And yet, the task had been clear and simply: buy a used vessel that is in a better condition than Ólavur Halgi—nothing more, nothing less. Read about what happened to our coast guard ship, which legally must be registered as a leisure boat. Read about how the common citizen is forced to pay for political irresponsibility, how politicians use their power to their own and their friends’ benefit, how they, through random procedures, change the number of fishing permit and allow fishing in protected areas. And what are worse, politicians who administer the people’s assets incompetently or a weak, uncritical media, lacking the courage and ability to exercise their role as the fourth estate?