No No No!

The Icesave agreement went to a referendum here yesterday and the public have said No to the deal for the second time, approximately 57% have rejected the agreement.  This latest deal has pretty much split the nation with many citizens claiming they will leave the country if the vote does not go their way. I think for many there has been more at stake than just the Icesave deal.  The EU membership for one, the no vote will make it very difficult for Iceland to become a full member and the yes vote would have openly paved the way. Of course politics is also a part of the equation and the no vote will severly embarass the Government who were in favour of accepting the new agreement.   The President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson who had to give final approval for the bill to pass, decided the public should be the ones to determine the outcome.

This new Icesave agreement was considered by many to be the best deal that Iceland could achieve around the negotiating table and was far better than the previous agreement.  However now it looks like it will go to a European court for the final outcome to be determined...this may take several years. This topic has dominated the national TV station here, but because I still do not have a grasp of the language I miss most of it, however I do follow a few English written blogs about the issue.  It is has been widely covered in Europe but I am not sure that it gets much of a mention if any on Australian TV... so if you would like to know more check out these links about the current referendum here, here and this one here is a TV interview with Lee Buccheit the chief negotiator of the deal (apart from the introduction the interview is in English).

Not to do with the referendum, but I found this interview quite fascinating, although a couple of years old, the discussion is especially current with what is being implied in this article where very very wealthy investors are trying to buy their citizenship to this country.

 

Part 1 (apart from the introduction the interview is in English)

 

Part 2

I am not giving up!!!

Well my bid for the property in Iceland has been rejected...it has not been sold...all bids apparently were too low, rumour has it that I was the highest bidder...not sure what the next step is...but I am not giving up!  Will keep you all informed...the wheels however move slowly in Iceland!

Found a few last pics of Iceland on my camera taken through the car window on our 3 hour drive to Reykjavik.  Basically I am putting these up for me as I am missing the place so much!  Some areas were covered by snow and others not.

 Icelanders vote in a referendum on Saturday on Icesave although no agreement with the UK and Dutch governments have been reached, latest polls expect that 74% of Icelanders will vote no.
Although this article is old for those of you interested it is a great read about Iceland and the initial collapse http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5329762.ece 
and these links highlight some of the issues surrounding Icesave http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dd0831a4-fafa-11de-94d8-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1 and http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/09/icesave-iceland-britain-investors

 Now for more mundane things I have been working on titivating my house to put on the market...I will continue on with that, fixing up all those things that you just put up with until you need to sell the place.  This week has been scraping flaky paint off the laundry and bathroom ceiling....today I am painting them and tomorrow I paint the used to be white picket fence that has turned a nice orange bore water stain colour!  Thankfully the weather has cooled down a tad to 28 today.

Lastly a couple snaps of my flowering cactus... flowers only open in the evening and are gone by daylight.