Posted on 04/07/2010 8:02:03 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Icelanders opt for exile
Anna Margret Bjoernsdottir never thought she would be forced to leave her once wealthy homeland. But taking out a loan in a foreign currency was a disastrous decision.
By Marc Preel, in Mosfellsbaer for AFP
Published: 10:52AM BST 07 Apr 2010
After 18 months of economic upheaval she has decided to join the biggest emigration wave from Iceland in more than a century.
"I just don't see any future here. There isn't going to be any future in this country for the next 20 years, everything is going backwards," lamented the 46-year-old single mother, who plans to move to Norway in June.
The former estate agent who lost her job when Iceland's housing market disintegrated two years ago said that she feared she could soon be forced out of her large house in Mosfellsbaer, around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Reykjavik.
"I don't want to sell it," she said, vowing to "fight to keep" the comfortable wooden dwelling she, her daughter Olavia, their cat, Isolde Tinna, and their dog, Candit the Bandit, have called home since 2004.
Bjoernsdottir is not alone in planning to leave Iceland's economic mess behind and seek a new future abroad. Most people in Reykjavik have someone in their surroundings who has already packed their bags and gone.
Emigration has rapidly picked up speed since the Atlantic island nation's economy crumbled in late 2008, dragged down by the collapse of its major banks. Last year it marked the largest exodus from the country since 1887.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Icelandic surnames are gender specific; the woman’s has the suffix `dottir’ (Bjoernsdottir). But if she has a brother, his surname is Bjoernssen.
Anyone know how Ms. Bjoernsdottir’s name would change if she were to marry?
I have heard that it is the norm for Iceland and has been that way for a long time. It is part of their culture.
I don’t believe it would.
I was going to comment on the “dotter” suffix on her name. Interesting they still use patronymics. It makes genealogy a pain.
No, not at all!
Rather, it's more like "no future for single Icelandic mothers who took out big, foreign-currency-denominated loans while expecting [hoping] to pay back the loan with [now bombing] Icelandic currency from a job very susceptible to economic downswings.
On the other hand, for foreigners with sizable assets denominated in foreign currencies, Iceland might be a very cushy place to settle down - or, at least, to establish a "pied-à-terre*."
This woman's story serves merely to illustrate, once again, that poor decisions usually end up biting you in the butt.
Regards,
*A pied-à-terre (French, "foot on the ground") is a small living unit usually located in a large city some distance away from an individual's primary residence.
>Very few allow foreigners to become gainfully employed. Also, the US is stopping capital at the border. There is now fees (30%) in place just in case you may be trying to dodge your tax liability
**
Based on experience, well..when there’s a will, there’s a way (cough)
Hmmmm. A pied-à-terre in Reykjavik. Has potential.
Now to figure out how to hide it from the wife! :-)
“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.
- Ayn Rand
Right, I should have mentioned that.
Anyone know how Ms. Bjoernsdottir’s name would change if she were to marry?
Pretty sure she keeps her maiden name.
I suppose so, but they are very diligent about documenting their genealogy nonetheless. 80% of all the Icelanders who have ever lived can be traced back to specific Norse immigrants over a thousand years ago. This plus the relatively small gene pool makes them an ideal population for genetic studies.
Ahhh, but those laws (controlling/limiting/taxing the passage of cash across America's borders into foreign countries) were (allegedly) put there to combat the drug trade and terrorism. It was never expected that the majority of all people who are stopped at the border and fined and/or jailed for not declaring every last cent they had on them would be "regular" Americans simply trying to rescue their hard-earned savings from expropriation via exorbitant tax rates. Rather, that was an unintended - but very pleasant - side-effect.
As always, America is the world’s last best hope for freedom.
The U.S. is still undoubtedly freer than most other countries - but, for Heaven's sake, I wish Uncle Sam would respect my privacy and keep the !*#X! out of my pocketbook.
Regards,
Actually it was Eric (Eiríkur) that founded Greenland, his son, Leifur ;) was the one that found the mainland of North America.
Someone might say to me that, well actually it were the indians that found it first, and then again it might have been some proto-natives that the indians replaced. But that all is of no consequence as Leifur, found it, in the sense of making the western civilization aware of it, and thus the subsequent transfer of that knowledge to documents (i.e. Grænlendingasaga and more of our saga´s) that surely found its way to the archives of the builder of western civilization, the church in Rome.
And the ITALIAN, Christopher Columbus, quite likely had knowledge of found lands in the west, and stories of fishermen that had wandered upon it over the years.
Thanks all for the interest in our cultural heritage of patronyms, you are correct about our siffix, alhough they are written as such:
-son
-dóttir
and the first name of the father takes the dativ form which often adds another s in front of the suffix. Sometimes the mothers name is there instead, although you can guess that happens mostly where the father is unknown or not given up, or some arty hippy feminist circles, where f.e. both are given up, f.e. in the instance of one of the leaders of the social democratic party: Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson, with the middle name most often shortened to just B.
As to the article, the most important sentence in it is near the end, which reveals the single worst thing about this collapse and the reason hope is squashed and people see little future in the next decades, even though they voted for it, not in a sense that they would fix it, but to punish and vent their anger:
“Iceland’s first ever Left-wing government came to power last year after the previous Right-wing administration collapsed following a wave of protests blaming it for the state of the economy.”
Thanks for your clarification on Eric and Leif. I am aware that Leif brought Christianity to North America in the year 1000 AD.
I am also aware that Christopher Columbus was probably in contact with northern Africans who had previously visited North America. It is written that Portgal and Spain had already decided how to split South America before it was "discovered" because a map was available.
God bless you and your wonderful country. I hope that you can dig out of your economic mess -- but you will do this; Icelanders are rugged people.
Thanks for that mlocher, hopefully you are still right.
I thought thou that in bad times we would stick together, but instead we got a political crisis on top of the financial one. And that is the one that is still hindering our resurgence as a people.
In their anger they voted for the two most left wing parties (one of which was in the previous government, but was somehow exempted from criticism, although that is changing TODAY, as a committe tasked to reveal what happened was publishing its results today) that could for the first time ever form a government without a center party in the coalition to moderate them.
And now the only thing they are doing is NOT reducing our government expenditures, as that would hurt their loyal constituents of public servants, but increasing ALL taxes that they find, and creating new ones.
They have also done their best to reduce people´s hopes for the future by accepting responsibilities for a political decision in the UK and Netherlands to pay those that had funds in the Icelandic banks (one of them at least) out of government coffers, and sending our government the bill.
But worst still is that they have applied for membership in the EU, thus raising fear that we will loose our hard won independence.
I just wish the US was still a strong assertive ally of freedom and democracy that would, like in the past, deter regional bullies from praying on the weak nations.
It is a scandal what is happening to our country's federal gov't. Fortunately, many voters are waking up to what is happening to ourselves. What we do not appreciate is that much of the world relies on us and wants a strong US. Some understand it from a military standpoint, but we sometimes lose perspective on the economic issues.
Thank you very much for your explanation.
i dont think they marry in Iceland, or most of the scandinavian countries.
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