Yesterday I read a story in a column someone wrote in Fréttablaðið, about a little three-year old girl who burned her hand. After crying for a while, she went off and started playing again like nothing had happened. Over the course of the afternoon her mother noticed that a big blister formed on her hand, but the little girl just kept on playing. When she asked her daughter if her hand didn’t hurt, the little girl responded, “Yes, but only if I think about it.”
That’s kind of how things are up here right now. Despite the buoyant tone of the last couple of posts, make no mistake that things are kinda rough. In fact it often requires concerted effort not to get sucked into a pit of despair.
A professor at Reykjavík University was on the Kastljós news magazine the other night and said that as a nation we are in the denial phase and moving into the anger phase, and that’s probably fairly accurate. Everything that’s happening seems kind of unreal. In the abovementioned column there was a fairly good analogy: it’s like suddenly waking up in a different country, with a foreign language and incomprehensible road system. People have feelings of fear, anger and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. There is so much uncertainty: what will be the implications of all this for us? How will it play out? What will our New World Order look like?
Everything has pretty much ground to a halt. For example, since we got back from holiday two and a half weeks ago – the day before the first bank, Glitnir, crashed – I’ve had only one assignment. I’m copyediting a magazine that has been a regular job for the past few years … and we’ve just found out that this will be the last issue. Apart from that, work has dried up. Most likely because everything is paralyzed. Nobody is doing anything, everything is on hold. I spoke to my father last night … he works in the cultural sector and said they have instructions to put off everything and anything they can for the time being. I spoke to a friend today who is in the same line of work as myself, and while she’s working, she’s not sure how many people will actually be able to pay and has cut all private spending to a bare minimum. What’s most scary, especially for people like YT who don’t have a fixed salary, is that everything will just shut down.
Meanwhile, even if work does start to come in, I’m not even sure what to charge anymore. Nobody knows what our currency is worth, what the inflation figures will be like tomorrow or a week from now, if things will cost the same, more, or a lot more. Our fearless leaders claim to be working overtime to get things back on track, but how exactly will they do that? All those measures they’re taking, stabilizing the currency, pegging the exchange rate, etc. are just a big mystery to the likes of YT … I just hope somebody know what they’re doing, but I’m starting to have grave doubts.
In the meantime, there is a very serious lack of foreign currency in the country, which means that importers are not able to pay their suppliers even though they effectively have the funds. Some foreign suppliers are demanding payment up front, which is impossible, so there is a real concern that we will run out of certain goods. What foreign currency there is is being rationed and things like oil, petrol and medical drugs take priority over less essential goods.
And like the good professor said, there is a massive amount of anger brewing. At our Central Bank, our Financial Supervisory Authority, our government, and yes – Gordon Brown. But more on that later.
AN EXQUISITE DAY
Gentle sunshine and the most delicate of breezes, all day long. It was pretty cold this morning I’m told with icy roads and frosty windshields, but by the time I went out it was just a gorgeous autumn day. We reached a high of around 5°C [41F] I think, which is what it is now. The sun came up at 8.19 am and went down at 6.06 pm.
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Aron – thanks for the excellent advice. I do have Google ads though (and BlogHer) and that’s hardly enough to sustain me, sadly, although site traffic has gone up a lot in the last few days. As for PayPal I’m assuming you mean a ‘donate’ button, which I’ve always been a bit leery of. Feels a bit like accepting charity, which of course it shouldn’t be – why should bloggers give all their work for free, after all?
Food for thought. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
garpur,
I think all understand Iceland is in a bad way economically. Much needs to be done, much needs clarification.
No one knows what the future will bring, brighter times I hope. Hammering the situation home daily though seems a bit unjust. Iceland will persevere, times will get better.
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
A. Lincoln, 1859
Cheer up garpur!
I’ll come visit again soon and spend some of my foreign currency…. there’s plenty of Icelandic wool and 66 degree North gear that’s wanted in my household.
That’s if you can bear to take Sterling?! (I can bring Euros instead if you prefer)
The reason I’m shocked at the anger towards Iceland is that this could happen anywhere, and basically has happened the most here in the US. It’s just that for some reason, even after two terms of Bush, the world still trusts the U.S. system and the world will never stop trusting continental Europe or the UK either, so things are going to steam on ahead. Or not. Who knows. What has happened in Iceland happened so fast, it really could happen anywhere. The financial system seems so psychological. It seems to me the only reason Iceland fell so hard is precisely because nobody trusts it… there’s anger from the countries that really should be coming to Iceland’s aid, because this could happen to them too. It’s way too early for any writers to be saying anything about Gordon Brown’s legacy. The fact is that if the financial situation in the UK or the USA gets as bad as Iceland, relatively speaking, the people of Iceland have it a lot better because of their size and population in relation to their nature. The future is with sustainability. People in the US and the UK would suddenly have to go out into whats left of the nature and battle each other for what’s left. I certainly hope nothing like that comes to pass, but I feel that the press has taken this Iceland thing all wrong. It should be a warning to us all, but instead people are acting like Iceland has done something wrong as a nation. That hasn’t happened. The financial industry has failed Iceland, and the world. We all need to wake up from this dream because we all know that the modern western lifestyle is unsustainable as it is currently practiced. Sooner or later what happened to Iceland will happen in the rest of the developed world (since the developed world is where all the banks are). The countries that will come out strong will be those with smaller populations and usable (not necessarily sellable) natural resources.
Mikey – I sure hope you’re right! (About your last point, that is.) Thanks for weighing in.
Leighton – GBP, EUR, YEN, USD, CAD … we’re not fussy!
I’ve been wondering about your work situation and the work situation in general in Iceland, but was afraid to ask. Very worrisome, I know.
It’s not surprising that many clients have put things on hold. I sounds like several other commenters have some good ideas about how you might sort out some of the issues (like what to do about your fee structure).
Anyway, I know your services will once more be in high demand. Fingers crossed that that will be soon.
Mikey, you raise an interesting point. The current crisis did start with the US and has had repercussions elsewhere, because we’ve all been enjoying the financial good times (and a dependency on US dollars for oil). It looks like Iceland has the become the scapegoat, someone to vent on, since the world can’t really do anything about the US and USD.
Don’t have time to read though all the comments, but just wanted to encourage you to pitch your stories to the foreign press. You have turned out to be a great source of news from Iceland and right now you should be compensated for your work.
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