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| Europe |
| Iceland: Thousands demonstrate against govt, demand PM resign |
| 2008-11-18 |
| (SomaliNet) Calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde, around 6,000 Icelanders took to the streets in protest against the effects of the financial crisis. The demonstrators threw eggs, tomatoes and toilet paper at the parliamentary building. The state of Iceland may go bankrupt now that the country's three largest banks have collapsed. The state treasury can only be rescued by money from the International Monetary Fund. Inflation has increased 15 percent and unemployment has rocketed. The turnout of 6,000 people was high as Iceland only has 320,000 residents. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 A cogent point, Chief. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-11-18 23:24 |
| #11 Frank, I was thinking this same thing over the last week. What would we do if they just decided to elect some senators and send them to DC for the bailout $$$. There's 3 times as many people living there speaking English than in Wyoming. It would be hard to say no. |
| Posted by: rammer 2008-11-18 23:13 |
| #10 That's the problem with basing your contries economy on Ice. A little global warming and everything is liquid assets. |
| Posted by: Chief 2008-11-18 22:07 |
| #9 soon to be the 51st of our 57 states? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-18 21:20 |
| #8 The demonstrators threw eggs, tomatoes and toilet paper at the parliamentary building. They may miss those items soon. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-11-18 18:16 |
| #7 Little Known But True Fact: The Icelanders dislike Americans. My experience (much less than a year-long night lol!) was that they are in the main no more xenophobic than any monoethnic island race with high state-coherence. FWIW It used to be verboden for black airmen to leave the base. A stupid, patently racist rule put in place in the 1950s. There was a lot of stupid racism back then. Again, FWIW. |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2008-11-18 10:24 |
| #6 #4 Free Radical - Or at least the fairer half of the population. Little Known But True Fact: The Icelanders dislike Americans. Mike Very correct! It used to be verboden for black airmen to leave the base. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-18 07:20 |
| #5 The Text: REYKJAVIK: Iceland jacked up its key interest rate to 18 percent and announced a request for help from the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve in twin moves on Tuesday to stave off national bankruptcy. "Iceland's central bank sent a request to the ECB, the Fed and the Nordic banks on Friday," Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde told reporters in Helsinki where Nordic leaders were meeting. Haarde claims he only needs $ 6B to recover, but he can't get a loan. An interest rate of 18%. Can the Carter years be far behind? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-18 07:16 |
| #4 Free Radical - Or at least the fairer half of the population. Little Known But True Fact: The Icelanders dislike Americans. I spent a year there one night, arriving just after the curfew they imposed on us (the only one of our 'allies' to do so, BTW) . Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2008-11-18 07:08 |
| #3 What I would be interested in however, is buying it. Or at least the fairer half of the population. I'll throw in some extra money for the scenery and the aurora borealis , etc. |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2008-11-18 06:31 |
| #2 I'm not interested in the IMF bailing them out. Let them go bankrupt. Maybe they'll re-write themselves a constitution that let's them have make money instead of friends. What I would be interested in however, is buying it. Let's see if they all want to become millionaires and we can snap it up and stop Russia cold for a cool 320 billion. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-11-18 00:52 |
| #1 Iceland reportedly invited Russia to take over a former NATO airbase, but Russ declined. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-11-18 00:31 |