The Ground Of Intense Cold Under The Pole Star

Newspapers, TV channels or anyone you can meet is talking about the Icelandic “Kreppa“. There is nothing else than that in people’s mouth. This is everywhere. Some people cry, some other laugh and both get drunk. People are going bankrupt all over the place. Of course you will still find some people who seem not affected by that. Everybody has actually lost something. But most of us have lost hope as confirms this running joke:

An American said:
“We have George Bush, Stevie Wonder, Bob Hope, and Johnny Cash.”*

And an Icelander replied:
“We have Geir Haarde, no Wonder, no Hope, and no Cash”.

My company, which is one of the healthiest in the stock market and relatively not affected by the banking sector has however merged with another one. As a result I’ll have to switch from a 5 min walk to a building near by the sea to a 20 min drive somewhere lost in the countryside.. ..er, Reykjavik’s suburb.

It’s too early to see how this tremendous chain reaction will affect Iceland’s daily life. But I suppose the first effect will be a rising unemployment, a stucking economy and in near stop of influx of migrant workers. I think lots of people like myself are already on their way to move abroad.

I am personally touching wood. 3 weeks ago, a friend of mine tipped me off of the market uncertainity and advised me to sell all the stocks I have. That’s what I did the next day. I could sell 90% of all I have within a week. The next week everything crashed and banks collapsed. I could have lost everything. That wouldn’t be so horrible. I am young and far from having a fortune, I wouldn’t have lost much anyway. Still…

I realized how much this topic has flooded SmokeyBay this past few weeks but yet again, there is nothing else going on right now in Iceland but this. It’s crushing any attempt few people had to change one’s mind with what Iceland has best like art for instance.  Yesterday at the Sequence festival opening, I’ve seen a devasted empty room during Johann johannsson concert. I suppose Iceland Airwaves will be slightly different since it’s generally one of the biggest toursit influx of the year.