Comments on: Bad Icelander Awards and other diversions

By: James McNally

James McNally — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:10:22 +0000

Have you seen this yet:

Reminds me of The Onion for Icelanders (but it’s in English). Funny.

By: James

James — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:02:47 +0000

Muriel – Note that Iceland wasn’t part of that European fishing agreement and so couldn’t have breached it. Iceland obviously isn’t party to or bound by the “allowed quotas” that other countries may have agreed amongst themselves. That’s an important point.

By: alda

alda — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:17:14 +0000

There is also the possibility that the IMF is a huge bureaucratic monster and the Swiss rep simply wasn’t in the loop.

Since just about all other reps have spoken out about the request for assistance from Iceland, I’d say this is the more likely scenario.

Again: we don’t do mindless bashing on this blog. Consider that a warning.

By: Penn

Penn — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:10:46 +0000

“Swiss representative in IMF says no formal request for assistance has been received from Iceland.[11.11]”

So, the Prime Minister lied about the IMF loan, and lied, and lied, and lied, and lied again.

By: Gray, Germany

Gray, Germany — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:30:16 +0000

“Oddsson emphasised he had full confidence his mobile phone records would prove he sent a text message on 3 November.”

LOL!

And in response to a request by the Finnish Ministry of Finance, Haarde announced he will present his economic plans to Nordic countries, willing to provide credit, very soon. There will only be a small delay because of an unfortunate mishap:
“The dog ate my homework!”

By: alda

alda — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:23:58 +0000

every Icelandic businessman who ventures abroad turns into Super-Kleptomaniac-Man and every Icelandic government official spills out a bucketful of lies whenever he opens his mouth

Now now, let us not get carried away.

By: Muriel Volestrangler

Muriel Volestrangler — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:12:05 +0000

Unfortunately, our Bad Icelander Award for today is an all-too-obvious choice: the “Nameless Icelandic Herring Fishing Boat Owners”. Apparently Icelandic boats took five times their allowed quota of mackeral this year, according to the Scots, who are very upset, hopping mad in fact. The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association said, in blunt fashion, “Such activities by Icelandic fishermen threaten the long term sustainability of the mackerel stock… We can’t have fishing nations sticking two fingers up to the European agreement.” Icelandic officials said that the extra mackerel were an accidental “by-catch” of herring fishing and gave a variety of others explanations, which I was inclined to believe — until I saw a graph showing Icelandic catch of mackeral in the past few years. In 2006 the catch was 4 thousand tons, now it’s over 100 tons. Sorry, that’s no accident — that’s fully intentional. Yes, it’s true, the poor mackeral are just wee insensate fish, and not even good eating, and the amount of money involved is miniscule in comparison to the bank losses. But the fishermen have further tarnished the already battered Icelandic reputation abroad and pissed off the Scots, Faroese, and the Norwegians, who are supposed to act as babysitters for Iceland in the quota world. Honestly, it’s getting to the point where every Icelandic businessman who ventures abroad turns into Super-Kleptomaniac-Man and every Icelandic government official spills out a bucketful of lies whenever he opens his mouth. The only explanation they didn’t try was that the fish jumped into the Icelandic boats when no one was looking.

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:14:12 +0000

Oddsson texted the IMF on his cell phone?

Surely Commander Volestrangler must have a special award for that one!

Lessee… my dog ate my cell phone?

By: Grif

Grif — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:09:21 +0000

Heya Alda,

Just wondering… you received my mail (with more details) about those comment transfers?

pls let me know.

Cheers

By: James

James — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:35:33 +0000

“Swiss representative in IMF says no formal request for assistance has been received from Iceland” but Oddsson emphasised he had full confidence his mobile phone records would prove he sent a text message on 3 November.