iceland

[rm]

If you know me, you know I love end of the world movies. You know I love movies (and stories) about worlds dying, about people in the slide of it. You know, that over the last couple of years -- maybe it's Katrina, maybe it's our president, maybe it's being happy, maybe it's just being older -- all that stuff has gotten harder for me to look at, fiction though it may be.

Which is why these excerpts collected by insomnia from stelpa's journal are utterly, completely shocking in their familiarity and completely, totally, freaking me out.

http://insomnia.livejournal.com/834697.html

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yikes!

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

...yikes.

I mean, climatic ("Waterworld"), military ("Strangelove") and even zombie ("Shaun of the Dead") apocalypses are one thing: economic apocalypses are probably the more terrifying, if insomnia and stelpa are anything to go by.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

There's archaeological evidence that there were Polynesians living on islands that were barely out of the water. The strange and amazing human capacity to outstrip our resources is haunting.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

No man is an island, even Iceland.

I've got severe qualms about the legislation that the British Government used to freeze Icelandic bank assets in the UK but I think something has to be said to counter some of the claims being made.

First, the Icelandic Government refused to honour their explicit commitment to refund the first £16,000 ($28,000) in each saver's account. Had such a commitment not been offered, Icelandic banks would not have received their top credit rating, and local authorities, charities, hospitals and pension funds would not have been allowed to invest with them. Our local cancer hospital - one which treated my grandfather when he was supposed to have six months to live (he died 12 years later in his early seventies with a week's wage in his pocket)is over $13 million down as a result of investing in Icelandic banks. Think how many people are going to die as a result of the "long party" referenced in insomnia's journal as a result of that default alone.

Second, the legislation invoked might not have been passed had it not been for the threat of terrorism but also dealt with how to combat international financial fraud and organised crime. Given the reaction of the Icelandic Government when called on to honour its minimum financial commitments, I think we can definitely suspect a whiff of fraud.

Should public bodies have made other choices for their deposits? Yes, of course. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. Barings, Lloyds of London, Andersons, Goldman Sachs, Lehmann Bros... When I was a little puppy lawyer, setting out in the City of London in 1985, wide-eyed and tail wagging, every single one of those names had a golden aura about it.

I hate to think what the Icelanders are going through, but blindly blaming it on the British isn't the answer, either.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

"Our local cancer hospital - one which treated my grandfather when he was supposed to have six months to live (he died 12 years later in his early seventies with a week's wage in his pocket)is over $13 million down as a result of investing in Icelandic banks."

Will any of the British investing bodies get their money refunded, now that the assets have been frozen/seized?

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what the seizure is trying to achieve. I suppose I'm going for a "People do bad things to protect themselves in response to bad things" line.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I used to love apocalyptic stuff like that--all it's taken is two disastrous local weather events in six weeks and the economic slide and it's not fun anymore, even without any connections to Iceland. *reads the excerpts* Yikes.

[denn566.livejournal.com]

I love movies like that also. Have you ever seen the movie Threads? Or Testament? They're both about nuclear wars. Also, the Day After. Not to mention On the Beach. it wass based on a book written by Neville Schutte. (I don't think that's how he spelled his last name.)

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

He spelled it Nevil Shute. His Trustee From The Toolroom is one of the finest novels ever written, IMHO.

[denn566.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I never read trystee from the Toolroom.