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ExPatLeftist

ExPatLeftist's Journal
ExPatLeftist's Journal
April 11, 2012

From an expat living in Iceland for 16 years (and an Icelandic citizen) this is mostly inaccurate.

And much of this has been widely reported globally.

The government resigned and then basically shuffled themselves around to form a new government. (Not too many people wanted that job after this fiasco so mostly the same people ran again and people everywhere are so dumb they voted in many of the same faces/feces).

Voting to refuse to pay back the UK, et al. was just kicking the can down the road - no one here is under false illusions that we will not have to pay this all back at some point.

Incarcerated who?? Sure there's an investigation, but no one is in prison. And it's people investigating their old pals, etc. Not many expect a lot of jail time out of this. And recently some have gone after the old PM but many here are saying "putting him in jail will not change anything" and so are willing to just let bygones be bygones so as not to "create a stir". The ex PM and then central bank manager (Davíð Oddson) is IMO most to blame for all of this along with a handful of business sharks that he enabled, and they are laughing their asses off, free as birds. Note that not only is he laughing his ass off, Davíð Oddson is now the editor of the main newspaper in the country. So PM -> Director of Central Bank -> Head propagandist. I would love to see his head on a pike, but many "right wingers" here (right wing here = left of Dems in US) worships him as a god still. Fact is, my son and his kids will end up paying for these jokers having a decade long hookers and blow party. And people do not seem too concerned with putting them away or getting our money, and the Brits' money, back from the Caymans. Personally, the only justice that I can even hope for at this point is that I see one of a handful of these #$/&% walking down the street, I will punch him in the face and gladly spend a few days in jail.

The banks were nationalized, which helped to some degree, but all still refuse to abolish basic issues that screw the populace, such as "price insurance" on loans (the principal on loans rises with inflation which means effectively that people will never be able to pay off their loans. I have been paying on my loan for a few years now and the principal is higher than when I started, let alone the additional interest), and banks still refuse consolidation loans, meaning you can get screwed with "price insurance" many times over with a few small loans and end up not being able to pay your monthly bills in very quick fashion.

The process of rewriting the constitution has been a joke at best, and I will believe it when I see it.

As far as this not being reported, I watched much of this on CNN and yes even FOX News at the time - and even saw myself in front of a bonfire for a second. I also read about it in many US and UK papers, etc.

As for things being fine in Iceland now as someone said, I would beg to differ. People are really getting hit by this and many have moved to Norway. And as far as the guy that not only falsely claims it was not reported at all but then claims that the reason is that we are a nation of fishermen, well, that's conjecture on top of false information. And BTW I make videogames (including one of the larger MMOs in the Western world), am not a fisherman, and Iceland has a lot of high-tech and world record levels of Internet connectivity, etc... PS I would remind you that any one individual can have great impact on the world, let alone 320.000 individuals.

In general, and I mean this as kindly as possible and with no presumptions, I would personally tend to abstain on commenting authoritatively on countries that I have never visited.

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