http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSLK12122720090120
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h-RUl6zdfvvmIjYqtmrqj2ROGbXgD95QU1DG0

Quote :

"About 2,000 demonstrators kept up the racket to disrupt the year's first meeting of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and the legislature. Some broke windows at the stone building, known as the Althingi, and set off smoke bombs in the back yard. Police used pepper spray to control the crowd. "

Surely smashing windows, throwing smokebombs, and starting bonfires will get our point across!
I am outraged at the economic crisis also and feel for the people losing their jobs. This does not mean i am going to go out in the street and smash government property. I think some people look for any excuse to be cause civil unrest and excuse this kind of chaotic behavior. Also, had this been an asian or white country i do not think riots would have broken out.

On a serious note, how is it the icelanders are flipping out about this economic crisis, and we still have people wondering if there even is a crisis?

[Edited on January 20, 2009 at 7:44 PM. Reason : ]

1/20/2009 7:43:56 PM

<-- Supports smashing windows, smokebombs, and bonfires

1/20/2009 7:48:36 PM

I read this as "Ireland" at first, and was not particularly surprised.

1/20/2009 7:50:00 PM

more riot pics:

1/20/2009 7:56:33 PM

need more hot icelandic girls riot pix

1/20/2009 7:59:48 PM

^^that doesnt look like much of a riot to me

1/20/2009 8:05:14 PM

^ So you're a riot expert now?

1/20/2009 8:10:22 PM

well, Im just sayin

all of those pictures just have a bunch of people standing around, ones holding a candle or something but mostly its just a lot of people standing around.

seems like a riot has to have some form of physical violence by definition

1/20/2009 8:47:02 PM

To be honest, I only posted the first 2 pics because of the women, and the last one because of the Obama shirt.

This hasn't seem to filtered through the media yet, and other than the first burning picture, and another picture of some stuff thrown at a wall, there aren't a lot of pictures.

The pictures aren't the point though...

1/20/2009 8:54:12 PM

I know, I know, this isn't ChitChat but:

Quote :

"Althingi"

1/20/2009 10:19:30 PM

Meh, that's tame. The Greeks put on a much better show just a couple months ago. These protesters are easier on the eyes though.

The ironic thing about blowing up government property in a democratic protest is that they're simply going to divert their tax dollars to repair the damage. I suppose that can be considered a form of economic stimulus...

1/20/2009 10:44:55 PM

This is a riot:

1/20/2009 11:03:38 PM

[Edited on January 20, 2009 at 11:10 PM. Reason : ]

1/20/2009 11:09:57 PM

*** THIS JUST IN!!!!!!! RIOTS IN ICELAND*********

black man arrested.

1/20/2009 11:32:36 PM

Iceland apparently needs some minorities to show them how to riot

1/21/2009 12:27:15 AM

1/21/2009 12:31:26 AM

Well, just like the riots in San Francisco, the government in this case is reasonably to blame for the harm done to the citizens. Had the big banks in Iceland been allowed to fail many people would have been wiped out across Europe, but the Iceland government would not have been declared bust and there would not have been the even more disruptive currency crisis.

As such, riot away. Governments need to somehow learn that bailing out failed companies makes things worse, not better (even if it is not worse in all instances, believing it to be so would be a good lesson to learn).

1/21/2009 1:02:12 AM

that seems like more of a protest or maybe even a party than it does riot.


looks like fun, even. What's really interesting is that they can walk directly up to their capital building and hang around in the yard setting off smoke bombs.

1/21/2009 11:13:48 AM

To be fair, Iceland has had an economic crash far worse than ours, their currency is on the same level as Zimbabwe's right now (exaggeration, but still). Luckily their unemployment is still low, for now.

1/21/2009 11:31:45 AM

That riot looks tame compared to the NC State football campouts of old. None of the Icelanders for example are jumping over the flames. That doesn't even go into the mighty UMass Amherst where dorm room furniture lobbed from twenty story buildings and used for bonfires combined with teargas, mounted police with batons, and pre-2003 bitter Red Sox fans made for real entertainment.

[Edited on January 21, 2009 at 12:34 PM. Reason : Forgot Zoomass]

1/21/2009 12:32:21 PM

I always thought Iceland would be a cool place to go.

Until I saw the Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations about Iceland, and saw that it was indeed a hellhole.

1/21/2009 12:36:54 PM

Riots erupt in Pittsburgh!

2/2/2009 7:13:33 PM

Would that happen in Charlotte if the panthers won the super bowl?

2/2/2009 7:38:35 PM

no.

people from Pittsburgh care about stuff.

2/2/2009 9:05:45 PM

pittsburgh riots look like they are going to create some government jobs and stimulate the economy

2/2/2009 11:50:49 PM

Gotta be hard to tell if a riot happened in Pittsburgh, much like Detroit it's already a hollowed out shithole of a city. Which ones are the freshly broken windows and which ones have been broken for a year? Hard to say really.

2/3/2009 7:46:40 AM

icelandic women are hot

and robust

2/3/2009 8:33:47 AM

They can SURVIVE, son.

2/3/2009 9:32:43 AM

ive only been to Pittsburgh a few times but every time ive loved it.

its a great city. alittle blighted yes but not everywhere can be Cary or wants to be.

2/3/2009 10:15:03 AM

Buffalo makes Pittsburgh look like the garden of eden.

2/3/2009 10:19:53 AM

White people riot when there's an economic crisis and the gov't screws them over or when they win the super bowl

Black people riot when one of their own is unjustly beat down/shot up by the PoPo

Muslims riot when someone makes a funny cartoon

2/3/2009 10:55:12 AM

you forgot to put unjust in quotations

"unjustly"

For Example


Rodney King after running from police and high on crack was "unjustly" beat by police officers.

[Edited on February 3, 2009 at 11:17 AM. Reason : a]

2/3/2009 11:17:00 AM

I wholeheartedly endorse what moron is doing with this thread.

The whitest country on Earth is rioting, and HUR looks like an even bigger idiot than usual.

2/3/2009 11:32:27 AM

Those Icelandic broads can stay at my place when the Trolls start rioting too. I'll make room. No trolls.

2/3/2009 11:40:32 AM

Quote :

"and HUR looks like an even bigger idiot than usual."

i mostly just enjoy pissing people like you off

2/3/2009 12:22:26 PM

I've tried to riot to Sigur Ros and have had no luck with it.

2/3/2009 1:12:50 PM

Quote :

"i mostly just enjoy pissing people like you off"

It's not really an accomplishment. I'm pissed off all the time anyway.

2/3/2009 4:08:10 PM

Icelanders are flipping out because their country is bankrupt.

Not a US-we-can-borrow-money-from-chinese-gold-farmers bankrupt, but full blown can't-even-get-a-loan-for-food bankrupt.

Seriously. They can't actually buy anything.

Do you know what they make in Iceland?

Fish.

And nothing else.

Their banks owe more then like 10x GDP and their largest export besides fish oil is a god damn MMO.

I'd be rioting too.

2/3/2009 4:14:57 PM

Yeah but I heard they all have geothermally powered hot tubs

Life cant be so bad can it, chillen in your hot tube with some fine ladies eating some anchovies

2/3/2009 7:30:47 PM

so iceland is the spot to party now?

2/3/2009 10:21:36 PM

Quote :

"I've tried to riot to Sigur Ros and have had no luck with it."

LOL... you should blast Bjork's 'human behaviour' while looting

2/3/2009 11:56:12 PM

I haven't seen too much information regarding the situation in Iceland, but here is an article from April 08.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/04/21/080421ta_talk_surowiecki

Quote :

"Until last year, Iceland’s economic track record in this decade had been phenomenal—its annual growth rate averaged close to four per cent over the past decade, and its per-capita gross national income is now higher than that of the U.S. This year, though, the country’s currency, the króna, has fallen twenty-two per cent against the euro; the economy has stagnated; and a global rating agency has put the nation’s three major banks on a credit watch."

Quote :

"So how did Iceland get in so much trouble? That’s the odd part of the story: it isn’t because its banks gambled on the worthless subprime securities that helped undo Bear Stearns and so many others. Iceland’s banks prudently avoided the subprime market, even as they embarked on a lending boom at home and expanded abroad. What got Iceland in trouble was something more subtle: its banks got their money primarily from international investors, making the Icelandic miracle heavily dependent on foreign capital."

Quote :

"In order to prop up the króna, and keep foreign capital from fleeing, Iceland’s central bank has had to raise interest rates to an astounding fifteen per cent, a move that will slow the economy to a crawl. By contrast, the dollar, while weak, has evaded the króna’s precipitous fall; the Federal Reserve, far from raising interest rates, has slashed them... If Iceland were to attempt to emulate America’s approach, its currency would be demolished, and foreign investors would almost certainly head for the exits."

2/4/2009 12:37:47 AM

You haven't found much?

Seriously?

Oh perhaps you're not using the proper search phrases:

Try 'Iceland Collapse'

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2008/gb2008109_947306.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories

2/4/2009 1:51:30 AM

Quote :

"On a serious note, how is it the icelanders are flipping out about this economic crisis, and we still have people wondering if there even is a crisis?"

first off, crisis's are relatively short term, while what is currently going on is popularly called a crisis we are past the crisis point and are now dealing with the fall out from those events that precipitated it.

second, who is still wondering that?

and third, what exactly are they rioting about/for? more money? it's not exactly anyone's fault (ok maybe ours) that their economy is in a sharp down turn (like just about everyone elses)

[Edited on February 4, 2009 at 10:06 AM. Reason : l]

2/4/2009 10:04:07 AM

Quote :

"and third, what exactly are they rioting about/for? more money?"

"We want more moneh!!"

...oh wait that's Canada, sorry.

2/4/2009 10:08:41 AM

^^^
Seriously.

Granted, I haven't searched the topic very recently; however, when I last checked international news sources, I didn't find much specific information regarding the causes of their crisis and how it is differentiated from other crises around the globe. Thanks for the the link, though.

2/4/2009 4:45:50 PM