Salvör Gissurardóttir
Icelandic edublog
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The workers outside my house on October 25th.
Outside my house they are building a big hotel in two twin towers. This will probably be the best and the biggest hotel in Reykjavik. Outside my living room I can also see the Nordica hotel far away. I live in the quarter I was brought up in and it is changing rapidly into the hotel and financial sector of Reykjavik. I remember few years ago when I noticed flats in this quarter were advertised as being in the center of Reykjavik and I was amused. This has never been the center to me, this is a sleepy neigbourhood but somehow this is now turning into the center.
Outside my house I also see the greenhouses.
They used to grow plants there because I live in the area of Reykjavik were the hot springs are which Reykjavik is named after (Reykjavik means white smoke town - the smoke from the hot springs greeting the first settlers). Right now there is no activity in the greenhouses except this is a temporary outlet warehouse they are selling stuff from the americal naval station in Keflavik, Icelan which closed down on the first of September. The greenhouses are owned by the biggest building company and it is just a matter of time ... and demand I guess... when they will start to tear down the greenhouses and build another office tower building or a hotel.
The situation in Iceland has changed since I was child.
Now Ekstrabladet in Danmark has lots of articles about Icelanders and Icelandic companies.
Not all is flattery though.
Some of the articles with the most provocative titles.
Money laundering and corruption
Putin's minister received million doller bribe
This has something to do with competition in the Danish media. Icelanders are buying up newspapers and have started free newspapers... Danish media companies are afraid.
I do not follow what happens in the financial underground in Iceland but it is apparent that American influence in Iceland is now minimal. The cold war is over and the big naval base in Iceland (Iceland was invaded by Britain in World War 2, then came the Americans) seem to have done nothing in many years except create jobs for thousends of Icelanders. Now they have closed down and removed their army tools to other areas. Iceland is now leanind towards Europe and the situation towards USA is more hostile than it has been since I remember. Perhaps Iceland will became a member of the European union in my lifetime. Some are sceptical and do not want that , they think Iceland is better off standing outside EU because of interests in other parts of the worlds ie. China. When the glacier melts in the polar region of the world ships will be able to travel that route all year from China to Europe and America and perhaps Icelandic harbours will be profiting of more traffic.
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