Iceland



The Republic of Iceland is an island country in Northern Europe, between the rest of Europe and Greenland.

Geology
Geologically and physically, Iceland is split between North America and Europe, although it is culturally more closely tied to Scandinavia. It is made up of the island of Iceland and nearby smaller islands. Iceland is one of the newest land masses on the planet, most of which emerged around 20-30 million years ago. But the age of Icelandic landmasses can vary from a couple million years old (the West Fjords) to having emerged just a few decades ago (Surtsey). This contributes to its unique landscape and wildlife.

Iceland demonstrates plate tectonics to perfection. It is situated across the mid-Atlantic ridge and is consequently very geologically active. Several volcanoes have, among other things, created Surtsey, possibly the world's youngest island.

Geothermal (from subterranean heat) and hydro (from dammed rivers) power provide almost all of Iceland's energy needs and support its surprisingly-existent tomato industry.

The term geyser comes from the Icelandic "Geysir" in the Haukadalur valley.

A weird society
Iceland has a population of around 360,000 (tendency: growing). It has the world's highest literacy rate and was, for many years, ranked as the most developed nation on Earth. Icelanders speak Icelandic, a language that has changed little since the days of the Vikings. As a consequence, Icelandic is one of the richest languages. It has preserved many very fine distinctions, making it especially hard to learn as a second language. However, learning English is mandatory for Icelandic children in compulsory schools, so almost everyone understands it very well.

It is often said that such and such a nation is too small to be independent. For instance, this has been argued in the case of Scotland. At the end of the year 1918, there were 91,633 Icelanders. Iceland became a sovereign state on the 1st of December that year, maintaining a with Denmark. This is a more important date than the 17th of June 1944, when the republic was proclaimed. The inhabitants then numbered about 127,000. Iceland has been doing well since &mdash; given the occasional ups and downs &mdash; providing a hint that the minimum population for a feasible state is lower than most seem to think.

Every year since 2008, Iceland has ranked first on the annual an attempt to measure the peacefulness of societies.

Over the last years, the total number of intentional homicides has always been between zero and three killings per year, resulting in a rate of 0 to 1 homicides per year and per 100,000 citizens, which is contested only by a handful of other (not ultra-small) countries. In contrast, Iceland has about 0.3 firearms per capita, ranking it 15th worldwide. Other crime rates in Iceland are equally low; in fact, ordinary police on patrol carry no guns in Iceland, the only regularly armed forces being a small elite unit called Viking Squad and the coast guard. 2013 was the first time ever that the police shot dead a person, and this was not until making numerous attempts to end his attack more gently.

Possibly along with other factors, this remarkable absence of crime results in perceived security so strong that parents leave their babies outside on the street unattended, and car drivers ask utter strangers whether they would like a lift. Icelanders perceive their society as equal in terms of social class: 97% consider themselves upper-middle class, lower-middle class, or working class; only 1.1% call themselves upper-class and 1.5% lower-class.

Government
Iceland was originally settled in the 9th century CE chiefly by Viking tax-evaders Norwegians fleeing political turmoil in that country.

The Icelandic parliament, the Althing, is the longest-sitting national parliament in the world, continuing the old arbitration courts set up in 930 CE (which, however, had been discontinued at some time).

Iceland's military is so small as to be nonexistent; there is a tiny uniformed counter-terrorism force and a few lightly armed boats for protecting fishing grounds. It was considered strategically valuable enough during World War II that its official neutrality caused a continuous hosting occupation of Allied troupes: British, then Canadian, then the US - for defense. There was a large contingent of NATO troops stationed on the island during the Cold War due to its usefulness as an air base. For example, maritime patrol aircraft can monitor and possibly block the passage of Soviet submarines trying to break out into the North Atlantic via the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap in case of war. In fact, Iceland is a founding member of NATO.

Economy
Iceland currently exists as a social democracy, but since the 1990s initiated a crapload of neoliberal reforms to spur the economy. Everything went all fine and dandy until this happened. The culture of greed and incompetence became so bad that in the fall of 2008, the three largest Icelandic banks defaulted (and later had to be nationalized), nearly bankrupting the entire country. It's also possibly the first time the Golden Arches has disappeared from a Western nation, as it closed all three of its restaurants during the mess. No more fast food! But, in a country that exported  for American kids, who cares?

The resigning Prime Minister barely escaped being convicted of mass fraud, and Iceland's constitution was nearly rewritten. Let's just say if anything similar were to occur somewhere else, we wouldn't be calling the 1930s the Great Depression anymore.

Despite being one of the hardest-hit countries by the banking crisis, Iceland has since made almost a full recovery, thanks chiefly to not listening to calls for austerity programs and state-funded bailouts. Instead of laying the costs of the bailout on taxpayers, the Icelandic program forced the creditors themselves to pay the bill and refused to protect them from their mistakes, allowing it to preserve its welfare state. It also restricted currency flow out of the nation, preventing currency speculators from playing games with the Icelandic krona. How did it work? Unemployment stood at 3.8% as of August 2015, so there's that.

The Cod Wars
The virtually military-less Iceland is famous for winning three naval wars against the British from 1958-1976.

In short, Iceland widened its exclusive fishing grounds three times (expanding the zone from four to 200 miles), which the British especially did not like (less fish for fish and chips). The story was roughly the same thrice: When the latter continued to fish there, the Icelandic coast guard severed their cutters' fishing nets, even when they were protected by warships. While no bullets were shot, several rammings took place. Britain would respond with a large naval deployment, then Iceland would threaten to leave NATO. NATO would then tell Great Britain to stop being childish and accept Iceland's demands.

All three crises were solved by negotiations, mostly affirming Iceland's demands. At least in the second crisis, political pressure from the US against the British played a major role because Iceland's partnership with NATO is of great strategic importance to them.

Press freedom and Whistleblower protection
Over many years, Iceland has ranked first in the Press Freedom Index and still reaches top positions. Iceland especially has robust protections for whistleblowers and investigative journalism. These were substantially worked out and pushed forward by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic Pirate Party, and other activists from around WikiLeaks, including Julian Assange himself.

Religion
According to a new poll, less than half of Icelanders identify as religious. (...) And the younger generation in Iceland is the least likely to identify as religious, with more than 40% of young people claiming to be atheists. (...) And 93.9% of those under 25 believe the big bang created the universe and 0.0% believe it was created by God. Zero percent! Not a single young person they asked said that God created the universe—not a single one. Iceland was very lightly Christianized; the country only adopted Christianity under heavy pressure from the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason.

Although Iceland today has a state church (the Lutheran Church of Iceland), it is pretty tolerant and liberal, with a former prime minister (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir) having been the first openly gay head of government in modern times.

It is also the country of origin for most forms of Norse neopaganism (Asatru) that are not thoroughly tangled up with neo-Nazi bullshit. It is one of the few countries in the world where Asatru has official status and entitlement to a cut of tax money. A guy and a girl, who had just met in a bar, once thought it would be funny to have a wedding after leaving the pub in the wee hours after drinking since they saw the late Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, then chief of the Ásatrúar congregation on the street. He married them. To their surprise, they woke up, probably hung over — and legally married.

In 2015, some Icelanders formed a new religion called Zuism, based on Sumerian gods, to protest against the tax that goes to the National Church of Iceland by default.

Icelanders and fairies
The Icelandic Tourist Board claim that 80% of Icelanders are prepared to believe in fairies or elves, or at least not dismiss their existence. Furthermore, polls find that 54% express a positive belief, and 25% even claim to have seen them. Indeed, a high proportion of Icelanders take these beliefs seriously.

Roads in Iceland have been diverted to avoid their homes, the chief of which is a rock formation known as "Álfaborg". Furthermore, it is common for experts from an "Elf Medium" to be called into construction sites and cable laying to negotiate with the elves, and buildings and cables are often moved as a result. This will usually happen after problems with workers being taken mysteriously ill or equipment failures.

There is even a college, run by Magnus Skarphedinsson, called "Álfaskólinn", which awards certificates for their study. The fairies are claimed to wear traditional clothes, while the elves favor pointy hats and shoes.

According to the Álfaskól, there are 13 sub-types of elves, 3 types of fairies, 2 types of trolls, and 4 types of gnomes plus 4 hidden peoples (including the Blue People). It is not known if the trolls are fed or what variety of creature Björk is.

The Icelandic belief in elves tends to be exaggerated by foreigners. For example, it was widely reported by the foreign press that roads in connection with an Alcoa aluminum plant were delayed or prevented because of the elf-protection lobby; however, Benedikt Jóhannesson of the Icelandic Review claimed that the road issue was primarily environmental and that there was only one elf believer present at the demonstrations. Besides, everyone knows that elves and fairies are harmed by iron, not aluminum.

Iceland also has its own alleged cryptid, the lagarfljótsormur (or Lagarfljóts worm). Hjortur Kjerulf won 500.000 ISK (about 3900 USD) for a video of the alleged worm.

Patronymics
Traditionally, there were no last names (surnames) among the Norse populations, with all people having just a given name and a patronymic. This custom persisted in Norway into the 20th century, when it was outlawed. Iceland is now the only country where last names are not used; it is now illegal to adopt a last name in Iceland. It is also illegal to take a first name that has not been approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee.

Since last names are not typically used, telephone books are listed by the first name.

Icelandic patronymics take the father's first name, convert it to its possessive form, then suffix it with "son" or "dóttir", depending on the person's gender. For example, A boy whose father is named "Björn" would have the last name "Björnsson," while a girl whose father's name is "Björn" would have the last name "Björnsdóttir." All of this means that you (and particularly YOU) must be astute if you're into genealogy.

Women do not adopt their husbands' names since they are not becoming that person's father's son. This means a family consisting of a wife, husband, daughter, and son will have different last names.

Icelandic (the language) has retained the letters eth (Ð, ð) and thorn (Þ, þ), usually transliterated as "d" and "th" in English, which used them during its early days but has since abandoned them in favor of the "th" digraph.

The national anthem
The Icelandic national anthem is sometimes the subject of debate. It's not like the cheery calling for the blood of France's enemies nor the dreary German anthem, calling for unity, justice, and freedom. It is simply a Lutheran psalm to a tune that very few individuals can cope with — the singer has to be both bass and soprano and everything in between, and hence it is usually sung by choirs.

There are no snakes in Iceland
The section heading is the entire text of a chapter in a book about Iceland in the 18th century. The chapter was very appropriately called Snakes in Iceland. This was true at the time, almost certainly a spillover effect of St. Patrick's miracles due to although snakes are now sometimes kept as pets. Notes on refrigerator doors in those households are usually something like: "Milk, cheese, mice,…".

President
The President of Iceland is usually just a figurehead. As the office has evolved, it has more or less become an electoral monarchy since every president since 1944 has been reelected as long as they wished. There have occasionally been candidates opposing a sitting president, but so far, no candidate has been successful. The incumbent usually announces his decision not to run in the new year's address if the year is an election year. Some power is left in that office, most notably that the president signs bills into law. If the president refuses to do so, the legislative branch can withdraw the bill or put it to a referendum. This hadn't really been tested until the current presidency.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, president since 1996, announced on the 1st of January 2016 that he did not intend to run again. As is often the case with clear-cut declarations in Iceland, the president's namesake, Ólafur K. Harðarson -- an oft-quoted and consulted political scientist -- was asked to interpret Ólafur Ragnar's statement. Ólafur K. thought for a while and then responded that the intention of Ólafur R. not to run meant that Ólafur R., in fact, did not intend to run.

President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson (president since 2016) is perhaps best known for sparking worldwide debate when he remarked that pineapple on pizza should be banned.