Facts about Iceland
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Iceland is a country in the north of the globe with 330 000 people living in an area the size of England. The Capital is Reykjavik with 120 000 people (SMALLER than GEELONG or WOLLONGONG in Australia)
- Iceland used to be the poorest country in Europe
- Iceland grows bananas in greenhouses fuelled by geothermal heat
- the word Geyser is from The Great Geysir of Iceland, which first erupted in the 14th century, It now erupts every few hours. The Geyser above is called Stroker which erupts every few minutes
- Every child has to learn to swim
- Energy consumption per capita in Iceland is among the highest in the world because it is so cheap
- Children can only be named an official Icelandic name approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee
- Your surname consists of your dad's first name with sson after it if you are a boy and dottir
- if you are a girl...so my surname would be Geoffsson and my sister would be Geoffdottir
- 7. the Phone books here are arranged by FIRST NAME
- 8. Modern Icelandic has 31 letters but not a W or a C. Toilets are labelled WC however!!!!
- 9. there is no word in Icelandic for please
- 10. a very entertaining way to meet people is at the swimming baths there are 9 scattered around the capital (120 000 people)
- McDonalds left Iceland last year ..the stores were replaced by Metro, a new local hamburger brand
- Iceland is hoping that geothermal power will fuel a hydrogen cell export market to power cars around the world
- Icelanders plan to be 100% fossil fuel-free in the near future
- Iceland liberalised iits banking system and freed restrictions on its pension funds leading to spectacular growth followed by a massive meltdown resulting from the sub prime and world economic crisis. look at these ads made before the crisis for the bank that bankrupted Iceland: John Cleese 1 and John Cleese 2 and and the Bank's meglomanic ad
- Iceland’s 300,000 citizens have some kind of responsibility for $100 billion of banking losses—which works out to roughly $330,000 for every Icelandic man, woman, and child. On top of that they have tens of billions of dollars in personal losses from their own foreign-currency losses and the 85 percent collapse in the Icelandic stock market. The news of the collapse and a Funny sketch about the situation here
- The Uk declared Iceland a terrorist state in order to freeze Iceland assets. Icelanders are very angry about this!
- Iceland will pay back the UK for their banking losses there by 2024
- A third of the population have told pollsters that they were considering emigration..mostly to Norway
- Iceland had several months of protest after the economic collapse leading to the sacking of the Central Bank President and the resignation of the government. These are some pics of the demos
- Iceland may become again the poorest country in Europe
