Friday, November 14, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
We protest!
Ok...
The situation is getting both surreal and chaotic at the same time. People are protesting every Saturday and the number of protestants grows by hundreds as the weeks pass. But it's not really clear to me what is being protested against. A bit like a case of the windmills. Protesting against everything at the same time.
The leader of the national bank, corruption, dysfunctional politicians, dysfunctional government, high interests, a currency that seems to be worth about as much as monopoly money...
And the government is silent. There are no concrete answers about anything. Nothing is clear. There has been no real drawing of the worst case scenario and there is no real picture of what would be the best thing for us to do in this situation; How much money we need to dig us out of those problems and how this is going to directly affect the common Joe? No answers.
Solid businesses are going down because they don't get cash to secure the stash and even though the town is full of tourists willing to spend money, shop owners can not get new goods into their shops... everything is frozen. Meanwhile a few hundred loose their jobs every week and unemployment is predicted to rise to 10% in the next year. This means that about 18.000 people will be unemployed out of the 180.000 who are on the job market.
Personally I don't really know what to make of all this and I am not sure about what to do about it either. This feels like a waiting period, everything is still in the air, nothing is clear, a whirlwind of snowflakes in a ball. We have to wait for them to fall down in order to be able to make the next move, or even get an idea of what the next move will be.
I picture a Scandinavian Murmansk during the next ten years... but truly hope for something better. And meanwhile I wonder where the exit is.
ps.
Tonight I met a guy who has just arrived from Nepal. He told me that everyone in Nepal were aware of the bad situation we have up here... Now what does THAT mean? :)
The situation is getting both surreal and chaotic at the same time. People are protesting every Saturday and the number of protestants grows by hundreds as the weeks pass. But it's not really clear to me what is being protested against. A bit like a case of the windmills. Protesting against everything at the same time.
The leader of the national bank, corruption, dysfunctional politicians, dysfunctional government, high interests, a currency that seems to be worth about as much as monopoly money...
And the government is silent. There are no concrete answers about anything. Nothing is clear. There has been no real drawing of the worst case scenario and there is no real picture of what would be the best thing for us to do in this situation; How much money we need to dig us out of those problems and how this is going to directly affect the common Joe? No answers.
Solid businesses are going down because they don't get cash to secure the stash and even though the town is full of tourists willing to spend money, shop owners can not get new goods into their shops... everything is frozen. Meanwhile a few hundred loose their jobs every week and unemployment is predicted to rise to 10% in the next year. This means that about 18.000 people will be unemployed out of the 180.000 who are on the job market.
Personally I don't really know what to make of all this and I am not sure about what to do about it either. This feels like a waiting period, everything is still in the air, nothing is clear, a whirlwind of snowflakes in a ball. We have to wait for them to fall down in order to be able to make the next move, or even get an idea of what the next move will be.
I picture a Scandinavian Murmansk during the next ten years... but truly hope for something better. And meanwhile I wonder where the exit is.
ps.
Tonight I met a guy who has just arrived from Nepal. He told me that everyone in Nepal were aware of the bad situation we have up here... Now what does THAT mean? :)
Friday, October 24, 2008
A clan called Icelanders
I don't refer to my fellow countrymen as a nation. I call us a clan. How can you call a group of 300.000 individuals a "nation"?
We are all so liked with each other that when you meet a stranger it normally doesn't take more than ten minutes to find someone that you are either related to or both of you know.
And being so small, we are all interlinked and that calls for certain problems in government and most other places of authority. Because the fact is that as humans we are all primarily concerned with our interests and -concerns. And the more the people in government are connected with individuals concerned about their interests, the more twisted the decisions they make can become. Because sometimes they are not thinking of the rest of the clan but only their own closest members.
This is why it has been suggested that a group of independent professionals, who do not belong to this family, this clan... come over here to sort out some of our problems. To clean out the closets and clear the way for something new.
The IMF might be the first step. But there is more to follow. I just think we need some outside counseling, love.
I suppose it's in a way similar to other countries but still different. The clan is then made up by Ivy league students and the sons and daughters of "somebodys". Probably harder to deal with. Maybe the smallness of the nation allows us to clear things up this way? The problem being a solution at the same time.
We are all so liked with each other that when you meet a stranger it normally doesn't take more than ten minutes to find someone that you are either related to or both of you know.
And being so small, we are all interlinked and that calls for certain problems in government and most other places of authority. Because the fact is that as humans we are all primarily concerned with our interests and -concerns. And the more the people in government are connected with individuals concerned about their interests, the more twisted the decisions they make can become. Because sometimes they are not thinking of the rest of the clan but only their own closest members.
This is why it has been suggested that a group of independent professionals, who do not belong to this family, this clan... come over here to sort out some of our problems. To clean out the closets and clear the way for something new.
The IMF might be the first step. But there is more to follow. I just think we need some outside counseling, love.
I suppose it's in a way similar to other countries but still different. The clan is then made up by Ivy league students and the sons and daughters of "somebodys". Probably harder to deal with. Maybe the smallness of the nation allows us to clear things up this way? The problem being a solution at the same time.
Tighten the belt
IMF was here today. We got the stash. 2 billion $. The next 6 months will be really hard they said. A lot of people will loose jobs, homes, etc. And the inflation will reach 20%. Lovely...
And we are supposed to reinvent the lifestyle of 1975. Eat our own food. Bake bread. No money to import. What can we export? Elves? Fish? Music?
Looks like we need to get creative... shouldn't be too hard.
And we are supposed to reinvent the lifestyle of 1975. Eat our own food. Bake bread. No money to import. What can we export? Elves? Fish? Music?
Looks like we need to get creative... shouldn't be too hard.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thrown out
Two icelandic women were thrown out of a petshop in Glasgow today "because they were Icelandic". The shop owner said something like "we don't want you here" as if those women were responsible for the Icesave issue.
They had nothing to do with banks. They just wanted to buy some stuff for their pets.
I wonder what it's like being German. Generations of Germans have had to suffer for the insanity that took place in WW2, even though they weren't even born until 40 years later.
They had nothing to do with banks. They just wanted to buy some stuff for their pets.
I wonder what it's like being German. Generations of Germans have had to suffer for the insanity that took place in WW2, even though they weren't even born until 40 years later.
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