Marketing Safari

I'm Not a Terrorist

Just in case anyone was in doubt. Gordon Brown may have a different opinion, but he used the UK anti-terrorist legislation to confiscate the assets of Icelandic banks in Iceland, resulting in the collapse of the two largest ones. I owned stock in the banks. But I'm not a terrorist!

The results of this act is more serious than people realize. Icelandic companies were black listed as they were all of a sudden linked to terrorist organisations (Icelandic banks). The government and all Icelandic companies lost their credit. Since then Icelanders have had to pay everything in cash up front. Our currency doesn't exist anymore on foreign trade markets and is only traded in Iceland. This has made the recession in Iceland far more serious than necessary.

My son. Does he look like a terrorist? He's not!

I know the general public abroad doesn't perceive Icelanders as terrorist. But the "system" seems to do so.

Last weekend we had elections here in Iceland, were we got to vote for the Icelandic parliament. The Icelandic parliament is the oldest democratic parliament in the world and has been operating since the year 930, when the early Viking settlers who came here to flee the Norwegian king's monopoly, established a democratic parliament to run the country. Even when Icelanders converted from paganism to Christianity, that was done by a decision at the Icelandic parliament in the year 1000. No bloodshed and no cheating.

In those 1.079 years there has never been a reason to doubt the Icelandic democracy. We do not have an army and have never had an army. In the protests and riots following the crash and leading to the fall of the government, one broken arm was all the injuries. We fought the Brits over the Icelandic fishing territories and won with out firing a single shot. Iceland has topped the list of least corruption in the world.

Yet, the OSCE has seen a reason to send a team to Iceland to monitor the Icelandic election. Of course they did not find anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. But I find the fact that they considered it necessary to send people to Iceland to monitor the Icelandic election very humiliating.

We are a proud people with a strong record of democracy, gender equality, gay rights and human rights in general. We've topped lists for best life quality, highest life expectancy, lowest rate of child death, very low crime rate, least corruption, never had an army and we do not need to be treated like terrorists. Yes, our banks collapsed, yes, they participated in the hedge craze on Wall Street and in London City, yes, the government failed to put up safe guards strong enough to resist the failure of a bank system ten times the size of the national economy. Those are bad things but do not make us terrorists or criminals. It does not justify the treatment of the nation as a second class nation ran by terrorists and hooligans who's money or credit is no good. The main reason why so many are in favour of applying for inclusion in the European Union, is to rebuild confidence in the Icelandic economy and the Icelandic government.

We still have excellent infrastructure, world class health care, excellent education system, high technology level and well educated human resources. The situation in Iceland isn't as bad as people might think, because things were so extremely good. Unemployment rate has now peaked at 8,9% which is still far less than in many of the EU countries, foreign debt has sky rocketed but was merely existent before. Our governmental institutions, our media, our freedom of speech, is still intact and uncompromised. Our main problem at the moment is the treatment we are getting abroad.

So give us a break.

Hjörtur

Catch of The Week - April 26th

Each (ok, almost) Sunday I post links to the most interesting articles I've come across that week. Most of them are found via Twitter, Sphinn or my RSS reader. Enjoy!

Marketing, SEO and Social Media

ShoeMoney sues Google employee for AdWords violation!

From Cnet: Brits use SEO strategies to fight terrorism.

SearchCowboys reveal the pitfalls of PPC advertising.

WikiPedia has a pretty good page rank. You can improve your rank too, by applying some of the thinking and strategies that wikipedia does: How to Create The Wiki SEO Effect.

Twitter has proven to be the most efficient PR pitch tool for me. Steve Rubel writes about why Twitter could one day replace email PR pitches on his blog.

The Wild Catch
(other stuff than marketing that I still find interesting and worth sharing)

We sometimes forget the revolution that has taken place in the last years when it comes to access to information. Do you remember how it was to search for something in the 20th century?

Page not found? That doesn't have to be such a boring experience. Here are 60 brilliantly designed 404 error pages.

Happy reading

Hjörtur

If this is your first time on my blog, you might want to consider subscribing to my feed or email updates (here on the left). You can also follow me on Twitter.

The Results of the Icelandic Election

The results of the Icelandic elections were clear this morning. The social democrats under the leadership of Johanna Sigurdardottir won, with 29,8% of the votes, up 3,0 points from last election in 2007. Sigurdardottir has been the prime minister for the last 84 days.

The conservatives' Independence Party lost 12,9 points and got 23,7%. They have been the largest party for decades but for the first time in the history of the Icelandic republic left parties got majority. They are being punished for the economic crash, as could be expected.

The left-green gained 7,4 points (got 21,3%) and so did a new party led by protesters (got 7,2%). The left-green formed a minority government with the social democrats 84 days ago and both parties had said they planned to continue their coalition if they got enough votes. They did.

But that doesn't necessarily mean they will form a new government. One of the social democrats biggest issue has been applying for the EU, something the left-green have strongly opposed. This is immediately causing problems in their negotiations. The social democrats are standing very strong as they are big enough to form a government with almost any party. If they can't reach an agreement with the left-green they can form a government with the conservatives. That is unlikely to happen though as they have lost a third of their following and been heavily criticized.

The third option is to create a pro-EU government with Framsoknarflokkurinn (a center party) which has been growing, and the new civil movement as all those parties favor the EU. I would be very happy to see anything else than left-green in government which have promised to lower salaries and increased taxes. However that is supposed to help the homes and companies.

We'll see what the negotiations bring and what will be the plan of the new government to help us out of the economic mess we're in. If you have any questions, shoot.

Hjörtur

Election Day in Iceland

The voting has started but I still haven't made up my mind. Should I vote crap, crap or even more crap?

I'm not the only one feeling like that. According to polls 8% plan to hand in an empty vote to object the political system. I have been considering that option too. But then again, I would like to make my vote count. There's just no good option.

Background
As you may have heard, we had an economic collapse in October when the three largest banks, and the three largest companies in Iceland went bankrupt. The currency has plummeted more than 50% and with many households financed with foreign loans, over 40% of them now owe more than they own. In the weeks following the crash no one took responsibility. No one resigned. And people got mad. Protests in the street got louder and ended in riots. This resulted in the fall of the government and the establishment of a left minority government that has been running things for the last 86 days.

Campaigns
The glass seems to be half empty. No one is offering hope. Instead they're using scare tactics where they are going to come to the rescue. "If you don't vote for us, you're screwed!" But they are having a hard time convincing people they can "rescue" them. It is obvious that the parties have had little time to do their homework, campaigns are not well thought out, little creative work has been put into the ads and it consists more of statements on what to do, then plans on how to do it.

The independence party which has been the ruling party through the whole economic upswing, the last 18 years, has changed their leader, but not much else. The focus here is on more aluminum plants to solve the unemployment and boost the economy.

They, and there fellow party, Framsoknarflokkurinn which was in government with them most of the time and is now promising 20% reduction of all debts but unclear about who will be financing that, seem to have this as their mantra.

The left parties want to increase taxes to get us out of this. When people can't make ends meet, I don't know how increased taxes will help.

The Democratic Movement wants more power to the people, with people voting online for all bigger matters and don't have an agenda, it's just personal for each and everyone. A crew where each sails in their own direction doesn't get far.

The Civil Movement has failed to be convincing and is inexperienced.

The Liberal Party wants to restructure the fishing industry and focus on manufacturing.

They all fail to provide a credible plan on how we are going to get out of the economic situation we're in. There's focus on going back 20-30 years, which obviously is a very bad idea. There's lot of talk about innovation, which is good, but doesn't give return until after 5-10 years. There's too little focus on the small companies, which after all, employ most people, and have to be guaranteed a functioning currency, a functioning bank system, and access to financing. There's also a lack of focus on the opportunities this situation brings us. The improved competitive advantage of Icelandic companies where their products and work force have now become much cheaper.

Iceland of Tomorrow
It looks like we're going to get a left government. The two party leading the minority government now have majority of the votes in polls and have said that they will continue to work together after the election, if they get the majority of the votes. The problem is the EU issue. The coalition party (democrats) wants to apply immediately for inclusion in the EU while the Left-Green party does not want to do that. That will be the big issue when they form a new government.

A lot of voters are still indecisive. People are feeling they only have bad options, and people and parties they have lost confident in. I have a feeling the center/right parties will get a larger portion of the indecisive votes and will therefore become stronger than polls indicate. I'll write an update in the morning and let you know how it goes.

The flag is raised, the sun is shining. It'll still be a good day :)

Hjörtur

Catch of the Week - April 19th

Each (ok, almost) Sunday I post links to the most interesting articles I've come across that week. Most of them are found via Twitter, Sphinn or my RSS reader. Enjoy!

Marketing, SEO and Social Media

Nick Burcher has gathered some interesting statistics about Facebook which has reached 48% of the population here in Iceland. And the growth potential? Check out the article.

Adam Ostrow editor on Mashable writes on Social Media Marketing Budgets on the Rise

Big Brand Media Wants a Google Bailout from SearchEngineLand

What happens to the early adapters when things go mainstream? Check out this interesting study from a Knowledge @ Wharton.

43 Creative Link Building Tactics from the TopRank blog.

The Wild Catch
(other stuff than marketing that I still find interesting and worth sharing)

Did you here about the price a twittoholic paid? He lost Jennifer Aniston because he'd rather tweet than treat her. Bad boy, John Mayer.

Happy reading

Hjörtur

If this is your first time on my blog, you might want to consider subscribing to my feed or email updates (here on the left). You can also follow me on Twitter.