January 2010

Another polar bear visitation

January 27, 2010

So I go to the gym for a few laps on the treadmill — and what happens? A POLAR BEAR happens! It was spotted in Þistilfjörður [or Thistilfjördur, if you prefer] by a local farmer. It then disappeared but was located a couple of hours later near a flock of sheep. It was shot by [...]

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About those nicknames

January 27, 2010

As a slight respite from all the gloom and doom around here, I thought I’d share a delightful post I found by chance over on the Iceland Review website, written by my friend Eygló. It seeks to decode some of the more common nicknames in Iceland [and yes, nicknames are VERY common here] and also [...]

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The ties that bind. And make you incompetent.

January 27, 2010

So, the Office of the Special Investigator into the bank collapse carried out a series of raids yesterday in conjunction with the Serious Fraud Office in the UK [as Andrew mentioned in the comments to the last post]. The raids are aimed at brothers Ágúst and Lýður Guðmundsson, former owners of Kaupthing bank, and in [...]

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One more dispatch from the cesspool

January 26, 2010

This evening, Kastljós ran an interview with one Ásbjörn Óttarson, an MP for the Independence Party.* Alongside his parliamentary duties, Ásbjörn runs a fishing company on Snæfellsnes. A few days ago, DV reported that Ásbjörn had paid himself dividends from his company amounting to ISK 20 million in 2007, despite the fact that the company [...]

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Nip and tuck

January 26, 2010

Notice anything different? That’s right, we’ve undergone … if not a proper facelift, at least a little cosmetic surgery. This has been imminent for a while and I must say I’ve been reluctant to take this step because I’ve been so fond of the rotating photos. However — unfortunately they’ve been positioned in the optimal [...]

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German ambassador dies in car crash

January 26, 2010

I don’t know why I was so shocked to read in the news this morning that the man found dead in his car in the Norðurá river yesterday was Dr Karl-Ulrich Müller, the German ambassador to Iceland. He had been driving up to the north of the country and apparently his car went off the [...]

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Black Report delayed. AGAIN.

January 25, 2010

The government’s “truth commission” – a parliamentary committee investigating the economic collapse – called a press conference this morning and announced that the so-called Black Report, due to be released on February 1, would be delayed. Again. It was first due to appear in November, but its release was put off as the task turned [...]

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In support of those about to lose their homes

January 24, 2010

Yesterday afternoon I headed out to a demonstration — the first time I’ve taken part in the Saturday afternoon demonstrations for almost a year. Those of you who have been reading for a while may recall that in the midst of the meltdown in 2008-2009 there were demonstrations every Saturday, that eventually morphed into the [...]

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Best known for his 2006 study praising Iceland’s economy. OUCH.

January 23, 2010

Looks like it’s not only folks round here who have a reputation to live down. The Man Who Praised Iceland’s Economy Supports Bernanke Frederick Mishkin, the former Federal Reserve Board Governor who is best known for his 2006 study praising Iceland’s economy to the sky, endorsed Bernanke’s reappointment as Fed chair. According to the NYT, [...]

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Maybe I Should Have, aka Follow the Money

January 23, 2010

A couple of nights ago we went to the premiere of a new Icelandic film about the collapse called Maybe I Should Have. The title is a throwback to a remark that then-PM Geir H. Haarde made on the programme Hard Talk last year. The host asked why he had not called Gordon Brown when [...]

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