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Skalanes Nature and Heritage centre
The act that tipped the last Icelandic bank off the edge of the cliff was delivered by Gordon Brown, who froze Icelandic assets in the UK using our new, gleaming anti-terrorist legislation. The Icelanders mind that — they’re hurt by that. You see, they always imagined they were one of us, not one of them. But Gordon needed to do something cheap to look competent, so he beat up a smaller kid. Not just a bit of a slap, but a vicious kicking. Showing off to impress the girls. He would never have started it if the banks had been German or French, or even from Liechtenstein.
The Sunday Times 14th Dec 2008
We all listened to the news when our councils and public institutions kicked and screamed about loosing their money, but what now of the Icelanders? Well its not a pretty picture, a hand full of Icelandic bankers, by taking loans they could not repay, caused the economy of their country to collapse. This leaves a lingering bad taste in the mouths of the other 299 995 citizens who are left with a currency that is near worthless, loans and credit that one day were realistic the next day crushing burdens forcing many people into financial problems. The dust is still settling but not on economic terrorists, just on average people like you or I who are paying for the fallen banking system.
For the last four summers i have been working with a family in the east fjords to set up a field studies centre and nature reserve. Have a look at the newsletter and the Skalanes website in the right hand menu to get an idea of what we get up to. My time is spent guiding and looking after guests, running volunteer groups, managing the 1250ha reserve and developing key aspects of the project - academic and volunteer opportunities, eco-tourism potential, policy development but most importantly getting all our guests to connect with the natural world.
I will be returning late this summer to continue working on the development of a management plan and will be doing all i can to help ensure the project survives these testing times.
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