Excerpts from a farewell letter from someone who’s been in regular touch throughout the year. A foreigner living and working in Iceland, someone who’s been working hard and taking the time to study the language, whose first emails showed as much bewilderment as the rest of us, ”I went from living in one of the world’s richest countries to one of the poorest and it is the same country in a single year!”.
After a year of hoping for things to improve, he’s decided to leave for a different country.
- A new life and a new place without prior planning. Sort of scary, but no worse than being in disaster struck Iceland where Bónus (or ÓB as another) has price rises constantly and the paychecks are frozen solid!
- I see that Icelanders just have to mature their own way and this kreppa is going to make maturity difficult for my teenagers as they will be forced to pay and pay even when Iceland does a belly-up. (Sovereign default.)
- I get a gag reflex when I just hear “Icesave”.
- If a foreigner owns nothing here, he is free to flee. Sad and simple, but true
- I am escaping to a different reality that is more FAIR to me. I do hope you eventually find your fairness, but I doubt it will happen in this lifetime.
Thanks for all the emails and best of luck. I really don’t blame you for leaving.
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Hansi
7 months ago
“- If a foreigner owns nothing here, he is free to flee. Sad and simple, but true”
So can Icelanders who are not indebted or minimally in debt.
“I do hope you eventually find your fairness, but I doubt it will happen in this lifetime.”
Now that just sounds rude…
Boggi
7 months ago
- I get a gag reflex when I just hear “Icesave”.
Well clearly the goberment is achiveing the desired results. People getting tired and bored of this ICESAVE thing that pople will start not careing and bodering anymore, and at the end will just be so tired that will just accept anything just to “get this over with” and “move on with our lifes” (Im starting to hear this alot), so at the end people will just vote yes, just to make this go away. This was the plan of the previous gberment from the beginning, leave this to the “new” goverment(which is controlled by the same people) block it block it untill people get bored withit they accept it, “we” were not the goberment that accepted it, and then qe take over again.
In other worsd, be carefull of what you get tired of, because thats exactly what they are aiming for.
JP
7 months ago
Well, farewell to this guy.
When he was on an arctic trip one day and meet a storm, he will probably make a call from his sattelite phone for a helicopter to take him out of this mess to cosy armchair in front of his beloved TV.
Sure, it’s much safer.
But I move to Iceland in Deceber 2009 after a 1,5 of wandering between Spain, Ireland and Poland.
Iceland is the most exciting place to live nowadays.
Dadi
7 months ago
Sure JP, if you want to live in a storm
And I can assure you that this guy won’t be hugging a TV anywhere…
JP
7 months ago
Well, and moreover, for me Iceland is THE MOST FAIR place to live
.
I think, that you, Icelanders, tend to overlooked your achievements of your society, and now you are focusing on what is really bad about Iceland, Icelandic politicians, Icelandic situation.
For one person, something is a disaster, for other this is an great chance.
I lived and worked in Iceland in the peak of “gold rush” in 2006-2008.
I came here just by accident, and before that I have only a misty image of Iceland as of sth like Greenland, probably.
From the beginning I asked myself questions – how all this money came from? How is it possible that for quite ordinary job I am paid more than a researcher with Ph.D. degree in UK ?
Now, the questions are being answered.
But does it make difference to that what has not been destroyed yet ?
Start from extremely simple life in Iceland as it comes to bureacracy.
Accept from visits to change adress or change ownership of the car almost everything could be done online or by the phone.
Small example:
When you buy a car in Poland, you have to fill 8 papers, visit 2 offices 3 times (every time waiting in a queue, 2 times to the cashier’s desk- no money transfers, no online application:)). It could take one or two working days.
Don’t ask me about what is going to be done, and how many papers filled when you start a business
And this is a country member of EU.
In fact, membership in EU only multiplies the “paper duties” for ordinary citizen.
So, back to Iceland – how free we feel here! No stress from the state impact on life and no time wasted, so we can focus on work and… SAVINGS.
This is another thing.
What a man is working for ?
To work for paying debts ?
Or to work for savings and investing?
During this “gold rush” time in Iceland not everybody took loans bigger than was able to pay. It was possible to make quite a money.
For me, starting an adult life with a mortgage is one of the most stupid thing a man can do. We live there where there is work, so it is better to be flexible.
My uncle wich is a computer scientist in Silicon Valley, bought his first house with a cash at the age of 45.
I knew some Icelanders who did the same, buying first house at 50. And they are not catched in debt. They were earning money to save, not just to spend and take more loans.
If you can’t afford sth, don’t buy it.
Now I see the funny rush for used, cheap cars in Iceland, and a huge “utsala” of these shiny, funky, expensive gimmick you used to show off.
I remember my colleague staff laughing at me when I tend to use a 10-15 y.o. cars, when they bought a new car every 6 months.
They earned twice as me, but now I have a car and money, and they have debts and no money to run these cars.
As it comes to corruption and nepotism.
It is everywhere.
I have an impression that a membership in EU makes even more possibilities to that.
And take a look at Greece.
They are in EU, they heve Euro, and they cheated about its economy like Icelandic polititians.
But the latter were not supposed to be supervised by anyone, like it is in case of Greece.
The world economy fundamentals are rotten.
So the outcome of crisis in Iceland is not only due to “inside job” of poor polititians, economists and greedy businessmen, but due to a wider problem.
So, at the end, I am really curious which country is more FAIR to this guy.
Dadi
7 months ago
JP, Norway.
Lino
7 months ago
Dadi,
Norway has oil and gas, real wealth not paper wealth as in Iceland.
Moreover, if the existence of the norvegian stabilization fund they set up with energy revenue is a sign of intelligence and responsibility, money did not went to their head… either collectively or individually.
For what is worth, “droves” of icelanders are expected to leave the island too, especially the young: it’s logic.
Lino
7 months ago
sorry, I meant “it’s logical”