From the monthly archives:

November 2009

MY ICELAND: The Advent

November 29, 2009

Today is the first day of the Advent* here in Iceland, meaning we have now entered the season of Kitty and the Yule Lads. This is definitely one of the most magical times of year here, fully qualified to rival the season of the midnight sun. It’s the time when coloured lights decorate just about [...]

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Young Icelanders challenge government on climate change

November 27, 2009

Latest post on the THINK platform: As I alluded to in a previous post, climate change feels like a non-issue in Iceland at the moment. So much time and space is given over to the effects of our recent economic implosion and the myriad difficulties resulting from it, that climate change on a broader scale [...]

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Iceland: the land of opportunity

November 26, 2009

This just in from the Baggalútur news service: The world-famous Ukrainian investor Boris Molotov is currently in Iceland with plans to invest “like a motherf*cker”. In Boris’s view, the main business opportunities are in the following: The manuscripts, Bæjarins Beztu hot dogs, and Megas. He intends to purchase a controlling share in those three in [...]

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Are the lights going out on the hothouse farming industry?

November 25, 2009

My latest post on the THINK platform: As I wrote in an earlier post, the global aluminium industry has a strong presence in Iceland due to the country’s plentiful and relatively inexpensive green energy. Indeed, a few years ago, Icelandic authorities ventured forth into the world waving a brochure titled “Lowest Energy Prices!!” in an [...]

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iPhones to fund moguls’ debt repayments?

November 25, 2009

Big news everybody: iPhones have officially landed in Iceland, meaning we can now actually buy them here AND use them without having to hack them first. Apparently iPhones are this year’s Christmas present, or so the phone companies would have us believe. Incidentally, two of the three major telecommunications companies on the Icelandic market are [...]

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The White Book and Baugur Group

November 24, 2009

I’ve just finished reading The White Book by Einar Már Guðmundsson …yes, it’s taken me awhile, but only because I was subjected to the literary equivalent of being clobbered over the head and dragged off this book [affiliate link alert!] – pretty much as I am currently devouring this one [or as the bookstore clerk [...]

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On doling out and taking criticism

November 23, 2009

So YT has been under a fair bit of fire here lately, mostly to do with my alleged inability to take criticism, and also the moderation of comments on this site, which really seems to get up some people’s noses. First of all to the accusation that I’m unable to take criticism. It seems to [...]

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The long arm of censorship?

November 19, 2009

Yesterday, a rather embarrassing video popped up on various blogs here in Niceland. It was from the so-called “Baugur Day” in 2007, when Baugur Group threw the staff party of a lifetime down in Monaco, and it looks to be a promotional video for the company before all went tits-up [and you can pretty much [...]

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Newsflash: hidden people to be taxed

November 19, 2009

So the guvn’ment has been bizzy bizzy these past couple of days introducing us to all the various new taxes and tax brackets we’ll be subjected to in the near future. It seems they’ve found a way to tax everything, from heavy industry to biscuits, and anything in between. Predictably the media is all-abuzz with [...]

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The IMF speaks out on cough Icesave. And a few other things.

November 16, 2009

So the International Monetary Fund has started sending me mail. Press releases, that sort of thing. Entirely unsolicited. In fact, the first time they did, the email landed in my spam folder with the warning: THIS PERSON MAY NOT BE WHO THEY CLAIM TO BE – since, let’s face it, why would the IMF be [...]

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