Does Iceland have a history of public upheaval?
The recent throwing of rocks through Parliament was the third time there had been anything remotely resembling a riot in the country’s history. That hadn’t happened since Iceland joined NATO in 1949. Mind you, the riot police in Iceland use pepper spray and shove people around, but that’s about it. No violence. They’re Nordics after all. You were there last November. What was the mood on the street? Tense, but not impassioned. It’s not like what Greece had with the students being killed. What the people are most unhappy about is that the government has not confided in them. There’s an IMF plan, but you’d be hard put to find out what it is, and Geir Haarde, the former prime minister, kept saying they were going to follow the IMF plan. Well, what is that? The chief director of the central bank has ducked all responsibilities. Then there are the individuals who were the high flyers, the high rollers, multimillionaires, and a billionaire. They’ve almost disappeared from sight. I’m a little
