Iceland Weather Report
A rundown of the Assembly results
“I’ve been going through the results from yesterday’s National Assembly and am well and truly inspired by what I see. Granted, all the work needed to implement these things still remains, and there are not many concrete suggestions — but the vision is there, and there are many of us who consider that vitally important.”

Iceland News
Comprehensive English language links and information for Iceland’s National Assembly (Þjóðfundur) meeting
“English language information about Þjóðfundur.”

Iceland Review
Integrity Named Iceland’s Most Important Value
“Integrity is the value which the estimated 1,400 attendees of Iceland’s first National Assembly, held in Laugardalshöll sports arena in Reykjavík on Saturday, mentioned most often as society’s most important value.”

Iceland Review
Iceland’s Foreign Minister Meets EEA Council
“Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphédinsson attended a meeting with the EEA Council in Brussels on Monday and meetings with the Committee of Members of Parliament of the EFTA Countries (CMP).”

Reykjavik Grapevine
230 Immigrants Will Take Language Test for Citizenship
“230 immigrants will take an Icelandic language test next month, as part of the process of applying for citizenship, Vísir reports. The tests are given twice a year, in June and December, and cost 7,000 ISK.”

When Sirry Jonasdottir found out Icelanders were struggling to send their children to school because of the country’s financial crisis, she’d had enough.

“Parents were calling their children sick for the first days as they couldn’t afford the books or the pencils,” Jonasdottir says. “There was a single mother with three sons and she could not afford to put all of them to school. That really, really, shocked me.”

Jonasdottir, 37, and her partner, Veigar Margeirsson, 37, are two ex-pat Icelanders living in Los Angeles, California. As well as running their music production company, they’ve set up a charity called Silver Lining, to help raise money for fellow Icelanders most affected by the country’s financial crisis.

Since the crisis began in October 2008, on the surface things didn’t look that bad. Yet according to Margeirsson there’s a silent problem running deep. “A lot of people who need this help are extremely embarrassed and ashamed,” he says. “So sometimes it looks like things are not so bad. But when we talk to the people who are giving out the food they say it’s worse than ever.”

One of those groups giving out the food in Iceland is the Family Help Center. They’ve been having 300 families a week use the service according to Jonasdottir. However, with the Christmas period fast approaching, they’re expecting it’s going to be more than double that number for the month of December.

“We hear from the Family Help Center they really are nervous,” she explains. “They know that in December… it’s just going to be needed more than ever because… you want a decent meal on Christmas.”

Charity origins

Back in the summer Jonasdottir and Margeirsson knew Christmas would be a time of increased need. So their charity went from an idea to a functioning non-profit within a month. Their goal is to send the sum of money they collect before the end of the year and hope people abroad can now donate without having to spend an extra $40 wiring the money to Iceland.

Since the charity began donations have come in from all over the world, including Luxemburg, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.

Margeirsson is also seeing a lot of donations from people that have lost touch with Iceland, who seem to like the fact that somebody is trying to help. “It also shows that even though they’ve been away for a long time… they still sincerely care about their home country,” he says. “Even though we live here we’re still Icelanders.”

Initial donations

The first person to donate to the charity was 33-year-old Karl Jonsson. He’s an Icelander living abroad for the past 12 years, having co-founded a business based out of Singapore, with offices in Irvine, California.

“(I’ve) always been very proud of my country and where I come from. It has been very sad seeing the collapse over the last year,” Jonsson explains. “I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything. It’s not easy to transfer money to Iceland.”

So he opened his wallet to the tune of a few hundred dollars, which with the fall in the value of the Icelandic Krona, can go a long way, he says.

It’s a generous donation, even with the fall of the currency. Margeirsson hopes that many people will give whatever they can give, big or small.

As 2010 approaches then, the problems in Iceland are worse than they have ever been in the last several decades.“Unfortunately… predictions are… it’s not going to get better for a while,” he adds.

For more information on Silver Lining visit: http://www.silverliningcharity.org/

This is a short radio piece introducing the Silver Lining charity. It’s a charity set up in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis of October 2008. It’s headed by two ex-pat Icelanders who live in Los Angeles, California. Veigar Margeirsson is an Icelandic composer who has created music for many Hollywood movies including Batman Begins, Ironman and The Da Vinci Code. His partner, Sirry Jonasdottir, is the charity operations manager. They took the time to speak with me at length about what Silver Lining is and what its goals are. Another ex-pat Icelander and first person to donate to the charity, Karl Jonsson, also spoke with me. His interview, including the Margeirsson and Jonasdottir interview will become a full audio package with complementing print story in the very near future.

For two British ex-pats, living in Iceland is a place of extremes whatever the time of year.

The summer nights are long where light continues to stream in through the windows at midnight. Then, in winter, it’s the complete opposite.

“You get to midday and you’ve still not woken up because there is no sunlight,” says 22-year-old Sam Webb. “It’s bizarre.”

Webb and his fiancée, Rhiannon Brown, 19, have been living in Gunnarsholt, Iceland, since October 2008. They arrived in the country after Webb was offered a job to oversee the website and databases for the government’s soil conservation department.

The seasonal changes are just one challenge they live with as they make their lives and despite the light and dark issue, they both have a lot of praise for the country they’ve come to call home.

For one thing, it’s a lot more laid back than the UK.

ICELANDIC LIFESTYLE

“People trust you be able to be ale to do something instead of you having to prove you can do something,” Webb explains. “I don’t need a certificate to change a light bulb… and everyone can fix a car, wire a lamp.” It’s self-reliant kind of place, he says. “Instead of calling someone to do it… they like to do it themselves.”

Which is rather useful because with such unpredictable weather making the hour and a half journey to Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik, from where they live in the south-east of the country, can be difficult. “We have to travel over a mountain to get there (to Reykjavik)… if the weather’s bad we don’t go,” says Brown.

This leads to people making more of an effort to get together in the evenings, she says. It’s not unusual to receive an invitation for pancakes and hot chocolate from a neighbour. And that’s one of the best things about life in Iceland. “(People) drop round any time of the day or night… sit down for a glass of wine and have a chat.”

Being British and living in Iceland after the Icesave dispute doesn’t seem to have brought them problems either. “(There were) no hard feelings once we came,” Webb says. “Everyone was accepting and kind.”

Their “town” has a population of 750, but it’s not difficult to shop or buy anything. Yet, prices are higher- almost double what you would pay in a supermarket forty-five minutes away by car.

For Webb it’s a 30 second commute from their on-site home to work where he is employed for a government department, repairing the land from wind erosion, because there are few trees in the country. They’re now using open source software because of the financial problems. “They don’t have as much money to spend on software or hardware as they did a year ago,” he says, alluding to the unfavorable economic conditions.

DRIVING AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Living close to your place of work is definitely helpful in Iceland due, once again, to the weather. Brown had never driven in snow or ice before. “I’ve got stuck a few times and got people to come and help,” she says. Now they have a new car, which handles the conditions a lot better. “The unknown is when you go out with an old car that’s not a four wheel drive,” Webb adds. “You never plan a whole day in case it snows… it is not going to stay on the road.”

Going off the road and into someone could prove all the more embarrassing in a country of just over 300,000 people. “You don’t run anyone over in Iceland because you’ll get out and you know the person… it’s that kind of atmosphere. You do know everyone and if you don’t it only takes one phone call to find someone who does,” Webb says.

If you’re calling someone in Iceland, the chances are they’ll speak English too. At least three of Webb’s co-workers have excellent language skills. As do doctors and dentists, he says. Brown’s work with children in a nursery helps her reciprocate by learning Icelandic. “It’s amazing what you pick up when you’re around it everyday even if you don’t understand structured sentences,” she explains. “You can pick out words and guess what they’re saying.”

THE FUTURE

With the end of 2009 nearing they’re beginning to look at 2010. Webb and Brown plan to get married as well as see more of the country. “Once you go up north you start to see some amazing things,” he says. “You’re basically in the arctic circle.”

And for those thinking coming to live in Iceland?

“Come and give it a try,” says Webb.

“It’s a place you fall in love with,” adds Brown.

In truth, it doesn´t effect us too much in our everyday lives. Food is more expensive here than in England but it just means you have to learn to cook better and make things last longer. Petrol here, although still expensive, is cheaper than in England. The English media would lead you to believe that people are moaning about the ´crisis´ all the time but they are not. Everyone is just getting on with it.

And…

As for the H1 N1 flu, I am unaware as to whether there is a plan to immunize people. The vaccine is available at the doctor if you want it, but you have to pay for it. Healthcare in Iceland isn´t free like the NHS.

Hats off to her for responding with these words.