That would be Skari, our resident viking.

I haven't heard anything about it before now. Hope everything is going well over there

That stuff could get dicey...

Yet another reason why Canada's coalition should not come to pass.

SKARI, NOW MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME TO DO THAT ROLLING OUT YOUR TITLE SUGGESTS!

It's quite simple. The whole of the Icelandic economy was pinned upon the banking sector, to the extent that its banks owed six times the GDP of the whole country. With the world's credit markets drying up, the nation's assets overseas have been frozen, it has had to go to the IMF for a loan (normally something reserved for developing economies), and it's economy shrank by almost 10% in one calendar year.

Frankly if a government isn't going to resign after that, I don't know when it is.

It's getting frightening all over the world.


Wonder how soon it will be before we are all ruled by a world government? (if we aren't already)

Bet you are all waiting for me to say a few words, eh?

I'm afraid I don't watch the news or read much of the newspapers, so I don't have all the details, but I'll tell you what I believe is pretty accurately close to the truth of the matter.

It has been made official. A temporary government is being issued to take control up until election which will be held as soon as possible. Our prime minister, Geir H. Haarde, doesn't agree with the temporary government and as I understand it he doesn't like the idea of stepping down either. Thankfully, our president has actually stepped up to pull some reins. Finally, I must say because our president hasn't really been much more than a front figure for our country.

Last year, some say in the latter half but I like to think it was from the very start, money problem started being apparent. Then, in the last four months, the banks became bankrupt (oh, the irony). A lot of people lost a lot of money, because these banks had been spending the money of their clients and now had no way of giving it back. These banks were re-established though and are back in business. Only one bank, aside from the national bank, did not turn upside down, become bankrupt or anything like that, and thankfully that's the bank I do business with

Because of the banks' going ape, lot of businesses did the same thing or something similar. Many small businesses were left out of business, and many businesses turned to reducing their staff. Unemployement doubled in a month or two before Christmas.

Who did we blame? A lot of people. We blamed the government, we blamed the national bank, we blamed Davíð Oddson (our former prime minister and now the leader of the national bank, who, incidentally, has no education that links him to banks or any money-dealing) personally, and we blamed the British. We blamed a lot of people, but in the end we turned our wrath towards the government.
In the past weeks, nearly every day and certainly every week, protestors have been protesting outside our Alþingi (our prime ministry of sorts, can't remember a good English word for it), occasionally stopping the government from entering the building. It started out peacefully, then turned violent, then turned into peaceful protestors protesting the violent ones. It was kinda funny. Policemen lined up in front of the protesting mob, and another protesting mob stood beside the policemen with orange banners of peaceful protesting.

During these protests, the police was harshly criticized for how it handled the situation. The people criticized the police for handling it too violently, with excessive arrests and turning to pepperspray when it was not needed. I disagree with this criticism. The mob turned violent on several occasions and drastic measures were taken.

Once, the arrest of a protestor was protested against. The mob stood outside one of the better known policestations in Reykjavík and at a point tried to make their way in (or so it seemed).

These are interesting times to live in, I'd say.

There's nothing more I can think of adding. I know the English department has a scheduled visits to the political groups that is taking up temporary reins of the country, but I'm not sure if it will be followed through due to recent events. If I learn anything new there, I'll let you know.

You may be seeing the same headlines for Canada tomorrow. There is a confidence vote on the budget that could bring down the current gov't and have us lead by a coalition of opposition parties that includes a party whose manifest reason for existing is to break up Canada.

Good times....

...Vive La Quebec.

Doesn't everyone in Canada, both those that do and do not live in Quebec, want Quebec separated?

We want the seperatists separated...the land, we want.

Quebec has a good chunk of the country's natural resources, and has land on both sides of the St. Lawrence, which is a major route for shipping.

If they were to seperate, they would be a independent entity cutting off two halves of Canada....not good.

does anybody else feel like you're on a run away train and you can't get off?

Thanks for your concern, but if I must say so frankly I don't believe this has effected me that much directly. I'm too young to be concerned about this, so my tactic is to avoid it for as long as possible

I have heard people talk, I have read a headline or two, but I try not to dwell on these matters until they start making my life noticably different. Who knows, I may just be better off than many of my friends

You can always move stateside if things get too bad. You'll speak better English than most of us at least

Scary times indeed. Skari, good for you for keeping a positive outlook. The desperation of the global climate is pretty terrifying, it's one economic travesty after another. Hopefully we'll learn that we need to keep our excesses in check. Capitalism has run the global economy unchecked, resulting in a near global depression. Combine that political dissent and we've got a recipe for an extremely urgent situation. We've needed a change in our direction for a long time coming, and hopefully we can turn this international travesty into the catalyst.