Artist and cartoonist Halldor Baldursson’s take on the fall of Ronald McDonald in Iceland, published in Morgunbladid. Reference of Saddam Hussein is not coincidental.

The Financial Times put McD’s Iceland departure on its front page today, and the central role of McDonald’s as the prime example/metaphor for the costs and benefits of a global economy The pros: as per Thomas Friedman: “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its [...]

What the company actually said was that it can no longer compete with Icelandic fast-food joints that rely on local produce – and which make delicious beef samlokas, as I discovered at a stand in downtown Reykjavik in August. McDonald’s imports its supplies from Germany. It is being undercut. Simple as that. The weak krona [...]

Some people think it is absolutely brilliant that McDonald’s is packing up its Big Macs and leaving Iceland. They fail to see the big picture. Crap burgers and awesome milkshakes aside, an operating McDonald’s in a country is a sign of active participation in a global community. It is surely no coincidence that McDonald’s arrived in Iceland at the dawn of Iceland’s participation [...]