The Iceland Weather Report

Who needs dental care when you have quota barons?

2013-06-13T14:03:42Z

Some of you may be familiar with the quota system here in Iceland – whereby fishing rights were allocated to a group of individuals [dubbed the "quota kings" or "quota barons"] who subsequently became extremely wealthy by exploiting a natural resource that should, by rights, belong to the Icelandic nation as a whole. Initially the [...]

Yet another train wreck on the environmental front

2013-06-10T22:14:30Z

Some extremely alarming news today: the Hellisheiðavirkjun power plant is falling short of its production capacity, and the implications are dire. A bit of context: Hellisheiðavirkjun is a geothermal power plant – i.e. it harnesses steam from the ground. Those of you who have been to Iceland may well have seen it – when you drive [...]

My new book is in the stores!

2013-06-04T12:36:19Z

So I’ve had the cover photo of my new book pasted in the sidebar since last March, but as yet I haven’t written a proper post about it. I can’t say why, exactly … except maybe because I wrote about it on my other blog and felt it was kind of redundant to write about [...]

The IP-PP bromance turns sour

2013-05-03T22:41:13Z

Ah, everyone, these are farcical days in Icelandic politics. Old Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson still hasn’t formed a government, he made a decision that he would speak to the heads of all the other parties first, and of course the pundits have been having a field day interpreting just what this means. Meanwhile, the Independence Party [...]

What went wrong in Iceland

2013-04-29T17:37:39Z

In the wake of yesterday’s election results, a lot of people – especially abroad – are scratching their heads, perplexed about what actually went wrong in Iceland. After all, we had a “people’s revolt” four years ago, a government took over that was supposed to change everything, and reports of Iceland’s miraculous economic recovery have [...]

What Iceland’s election results really mean

2013-04-28T22:33:37Z

If you’re reading this, you probably know that we had elections here in Iceland yesterday.* The last time I posted, we were pretty sure that the Progressive Party was going to bag these elections, as they were leading quite substantially in the polls. In the end, however, the Independence Party – the main culprit in [...]

The probable results of Iceland’s upcoming elections

2013-04-23T12:37:27Z

This coming Saturday, Icelanders head to the polls in national elections. The last elections, four years ago, were historic. We had just had an economic meltdown, and the previous government had collapsed. People’s fury was reflected at polls, with the Independence Party – the party that had ruled Iceland for the previous 18 years – [...]

On formulating a strategy for Icelandic tourism

2013-04-17T21:15:40Z

These days RÚV is running a series of debates with the political parties in the running for the upcoming elections. Each debate focuses on a theme, and last night the theme was was natural resources and environmental issues. It may come as a surprise to some people that tourism falls under this category – although [...]

The Independence Party and its spectacular free-fall

2013-04-17T20:25:28Z

We’ve got elections coming up here in Iceland, and consequently there is a lot of activity in the political arena. Amazingly we’re also seeing some monumental changes – things that most people had not even dreamed of. Last night was one such happening. RÚV [Icelandic National Broadcaster] is the main election coverage medium and they’re [...]

In the belly of a volcano

2012-08-01T21:22:21Z

Earlier this summer I was invited to take a most unusual tour – into the magma chamber of the [extinct!] Þríhnúkagígur volcano. I’d heard a bit about this tour before I went and read numerous gushing reviews – mostly from foreign journos. Consequently I was more than a little curious, although to be honest I [...]