Come on. This is absurd. Are you comparing them or are you not? Invoking the comparison?

This is irresponsible at best. I’ve been thinking lately, that as a 37 year old, I’m part of the last generation of people with strong secondary links the second world war (as opposed to direct links). We grew up with people who had escaped, but whose families were murdered living next door. Kids now I think are growing up with this as just “history”.

We have a responsibility to prevent this from becoming further trivialized and “abstracted” as we pass the world on to future generations.

This doesn’t help.

As scared as I am , I have confidence that in the end, things will be okay (I have to!). It’s easy to point fingers, but the facts seem to remain that in many of the countries where the financial fiascos are happening, there was a lack of regulation by the government and the people in charge of the banks had way too much freedom to engage in risky behavior, which has lead “the people” to pay and pick up the pieces.

From the very kind people I’ve met in Iceland, my impression is that people are extremely hard working and positive individuals who aren’t living well beyond their means (like many middle-class Americans that I know have been). I’ve been fascinated by and envious of the Icelandic culture and the positive attitudes and kindness of the people there.

Thanks again for your insightful updates on this matter, and I do hope you keep posting.

Thanks for providing a real view of what’s going on in Iceland. I’ve read a number of accounts from different media sources in the U.S. and U.K., and none of them describe the events with precision, as you are doing.

I am trying to remain calm about all this, as fear is what transforms these sorts of episodes into real catastrophes. I’ve been thinking a lot of my grandparents, who both lived through the Great Depression in the U.S. They were educated, hardworking, and fortunate enough to keep their jobs throughout the whole crisis. The Icelandic people have surely been through much more difficult times than these and will prevail as they have through famine, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wars, and yes–violent weather. My thoughts are with you. In the meantime, I am hoping desperately that the U.S. doesn’t elect the kind of head-in-the-sand, look-out-for-your-rich-buddies politician that we’ve suffered under for the past eight years. And look what effects that’s brought the world!

Seriously though, since their introduction the UK anti-terrorism laws have been used for just about everything you can think of and are somewhat despised by a lot of people here as being an infringement of civil liberties and abuse of government power. (And we don’t get votes on things like bailouts over here)

But that’s a whole different debate…. and is yet another reflection of how the general populace really don’t have that much say in the big decisions that affect us all so much.

As always, excellent newsbits. Here’s my thought, if there are only 20-30 people who are directly responsible for this in your country, and your phone book is listed by first names, can’t you just call them up and guilt-trip them a bit? Not that this may be particularly practical, but it might make for some interesting entertainment. That is, of course, if any of them are still in the country, as you mentioned. I mean in a country of 300,000 your six degrees of separation are cut down to at least three, right? You could find out. If the media can’t ask the hard questions, you can!

I would really look forward to a post about that. “So I called the head of the bank…and…”
tee-hee.

but the weather is good too.