Iceland, where unpredictability has been elevated to a way of life

You mention Iceland? Images of the financial crash and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull immediately come to mind.

Two “crises” that Iceland survived without too much difficulty. Certainly the Icelanders will be paying for a long time to come for the mistakes of their financiers – these ‘utrasarvikingar’ or modern-day Vikings blinded by easy profit – and nobody has forgotten the terrible eruptions of the 18th century, so murderous that the population of the time very nearly decided to desert this land of fire and ice located just outside the Arctic Circle.   

The Icelanders have learned to adapt to an unpredictable and sometimes murderous natural environment. An ability to adapt that no doubt in part explains the relative ease with which the country has today emerged from the economic recession that followed the collapse of its three leading banks in 2008.  

Yet the financial crisis also showed the Icelanders the limits of their independence. An independence that is all the more fragile as the country’s economy depends essentially on exports of fishery products.  

One year to the day after the financial bubble burst, the new centre-left government officially submitted its application to join the European Union. Negotiations have just begun.  

M.M.B.