Heimskreppa!

Kreppa is what they are calling it in Iceland, also known locally as Kreppaland. Kreppa is a common word uttered by Icelanders and roughly translated it means “Crisis” and is derived from an old Norse word. Icelanders have been living in a state of kreppa for these past months well chronicled from various blogs out of Iceland and especially my favorite online publication Iceland Review, you see frequent references to kreppa. Heimskreppa is a new variant and translates as Worldwide Crisis. To paraphrase John Kennedy, “We are all Icelanders, now. Icelanders are in a state of shock trying to grasp how they could have fallen so far as a country because of the utter evil greed and folly of their unregulated bankers who have destroyed the future of a proud nation. Businesses of all stripes are failing or will be failing in Iceland and even Iceland Review is at risk with staff being laid off. Sadly, some of the staff are immigrants who have lived there for many years and in a new twist of fate, may soon be deported. Manitoba is even advertising for skilled Icelanders as the largest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland reside in Manitoba which last accepted a wave of immigration from Iceland in the 1880’s. But what is an Icelander to do if they lose their job in a collapsing economy hopelessly in debt? The horrible scenario in Iceland desperately needs a Deus Ex Machina but that is a forlorn hope at this point and I suspect there are many Icelandic Citizens who will take Manitoba up on their offer to have a job and a home in a community of Icelanders even if it is in Canada. Perhaps some day they can return to their splendid icy island in the North Atlantic. I wonder if we will see other waves of immigration from the other countries on the verge of collapse like Ireland and Greece and Ukraine and a good portion of Eastern Europe but few countries will be eager to have more mouths to feed if this kreppa is a heimskreppa.
Meanwhile over here in bushobamaland things are not yet as grim as Reykjavik. A recent poll had over 30% of Americans opining that we are already in a depression but I wonder if those 30% even have an inkling of what a depression is or what it could mean as only people my mother’s age still remember the Great Depression. There are now many commentators starting to say that the actions being taken by the current assemblage of Keystone Cops are turning a bad recession into a depression and I would Like to examine those actions in a future blog.

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