...Deric D. Jackson International Trade & Policy, ECO 466 Spring 2014 Term Research Paper Outline I. Introduction II. Geography a. Location b. Physical Features c. Climate III. History IV. Government d. Country’s official name e. Type of government f. Current government leader i. Name, Title, residence V. Economy g. Major Industries h. Major agriculture i. Trade ii. Exports iii. Imports iv. Trade policies j. Currency VI. People k. Statistics v. Population vi. Ethnic Groups vii. Major Religions l. Language m. Education viii. Literacy rate ix. Length of Schooling x. Funding The island country of island is situated several hundred miles northwest of the British Isles and directly below the Arctic Circle. Iceland is often known for its natural Beauty; volcanoes, hot springs glaciers, and auroras are prominent features. It is affectionately called the land of fire and ice. Iceland is relatively small yet modern and industrialized state with a modest population of just under 340,000 and total area of 103,000 km2 (39,769 sq. mi). Iceland has a varied topography but it is one of the most volcanic regions, in the world. Iceland started to form in the Miocene era about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it lies...
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...International Business January 10, 2015 Iceland Iceland was settled by the Norse settlers in the second half of the 9th century who migrated from across the North Atlantic. The migration was because of a shortage or arable land in Scandinavia, and a civil strife brought about by the Norse King Harald. When the Norse settlers migrated the land was unsettled and they could claim the land because there no inhabitants. The settlement last from 874 to 930 at that point most of the island had been claimed by Alþingi, the assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded in Þingvellir. In the original manuscript that was made it listed 435 men as the first settlers and a lot of them settled in the northern and southwestern parts of the island. Iceland is an island that is located in the Atlantic Ocean near the Article Circle. It is also located between Greenland and Norway. It is the second largest European island behind Great Britain. Iceland is about the same size as Kentucky and Virginia. It takes about five hours to fly from the US to Iceland. Iceland has a population of 317,351. The median ages for people in Iceland are 36.4 years old. So the people in Iceland are of the younger generation. Icelandic is the official language that is spoken in Iceland. It is a sub-group of North Germanic languages. The Icelandic language is a cornerstone and a large part due to a strong literary heritage. The Republic of Iceland’s political system is similar to the United States by having...
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...JoAnne Castonguay Professor Brooks Introduction to Geography GEO-102/Z1 19 October 2013 Isolation Leads to Prosperity Iceland is a highly urbanized Nordic island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean, known for beautiful glaciers, ice caps and volcanoes. It is a country of pure contrast in climate, geography, and culture. “A place where ice and fire co exist”, ("The Big Picture") Iceland has been shaped by forces of nature with active volcanoes, roaring rivers, and glacier cut fjords. Island isolation has allowed Iceland to develop a highly prosperous country, the most distinctive culture of the Western world, and the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy, where everyone is treated equally regardless of gender. Iceland’s 320,000 close knit homogenous population is primarily Icelandic with a primary language of Icelandic, a North Germanic language. Icelanders are primarily a mix of Scandinavian and Celtic cultures that discovered their isolation on an island to be advantageous, not only to keep enemies away but to establish and maintain their culture. Even the name Iceland was chosen to deflect visitors. Icelandic blood lines have been so stable geneticists use them to study the human genome. ("Iceland Society and Culture Complete Report”) Extremely urbanized, at 94%, most of the population lives in the country’s capital, Reykjavik (118,000), and other cities Kopavogur (30,000), Hafnarfjordur (25,000), Akureyri (17,000), Reykjanesbaer (14,000). The rest...
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...Leif Eriksson has always been closer to me than his dad. His father was always out, finding new land or simply picking fights. The fact is, I’ve lived with Leif Eriksson and Erik the Red my whole life, they’re my family. One day, Erik got into a fight with one of our villagers. One thing led to another and soon enough, Erik realized he had just killed one of our people. When the King found out about his crime, we were banned from our home forcing us to find new land to live on. Erik had heard of a land mass to the West of Iceland a while ago, so we decided to set sail to this mysterious land mass. Once we got there, Leif was with me while his father went out exploring Greenland, mysteriously, around the same time the natives were killed off....
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...General info The history of music in Iceland has no parallel in other European countries, or, probably, anywhere else in the world. In Iceland the music of the "Middle Ages" predominated well into the nineteenth century. Due to Iceland's isolation, centuries of musical development on the European continent had gone by unnoticed. Even ordinary four-part choral singing was first heard in the fifth decade of the 19th century. Instrumental music, in the usual sense of that term, was non-existent. When the "new" music finally found its way to Iceland, the population, with certain exceptions, especially as regards church music, proved to be more receptive than might have been expected. Latent creative talent soon emerged, and musical development has been exceedingly rapid in the twentieth century. In the 1980’s Icelandic music was on the world music map with the emergence of artists such as the Sugarcubes. In more recent years Iceland has seen international success of many more artists, such as Sigur Rós. Classical music Jón Leifs (1899-1968) is one of Iceland’s best known classical composer writing many of his works about Icelandic nature which bore titles such as Hekla, Dettifoss and Geysir. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1950 and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009. Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has garnered an international reputation as well as cellist Sæunn Þorsteinsdóttir and Daníel Bjarnason, a young classical composer and conductor. Opera The Icelandic...
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...The Greenland-Norse are a perfect example of a society who couldn’t adapt to a new lifestyle. They identified themselves with the European and Christian culture, and when they arrived in Greenland they had no intention of changing that, even if that particular lifestyle wasn’t suited for their new environment. Their perseverance in trying to maintain a European and Christian culture identity led them to their collapse. In the book Collapse, Jared Diamond provides details about the collapse of the Greenland-Norse. According to Diamond, Greenland was founded by Erik the Red, a hot blooded Norwegian, who was charged with murder and forced to leave for Iceland (221). His violent behavior continued, and he was eventually kicked out of Iceland for three years. After exploring the Greenland coast for three years, he returned to Iceland, lost another fight and was forced to “lead a fleet of 25 ships to settle the newly explored land that he shrewdly named...
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...and their living level increased and the most important thing is that people want to avoid the substances present in coffee and soft drink. California consumed the most bottled water in the whole United States water market. The leading country importing bottle water to US is France; the second place is Canada and Iceland just hold 9.7 percent market share. In United States the bottled water business is regulated and controlled at two levels. The first level is by the federal government, and the second one is by the various state governments. For example, like California and Florida. The Iceland government was troubled by high inflation rates and low financial reserves. Iceland is highly import-dependent. As for the products exported, it has little diversity and is dangerously dependent on its fish crop and world fish prices. The participation of nonresidents in Icelandic joint venture companies may not exceed 49 percent. Problem/Opportunity: Consumer dissatisfied with the purity, taste and odor of city tap water. The living level is increasing. Question: Should import water from Iceland or other countries? Alternatives: 1. Do not import water from Iceland, take the job Citicorp offered. 2. Find a local firm to set up a joint venture corporation, target at certain...
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...2000s economic catastrophe Charles H. Ferguson. In five parts, the film delves into how changes in the policy environment and banking practices helped generate the financial crisis. Background of Iceland: Iceland had a stable environment and it was a complete structure of a modern economic society. Its population was 320,000 with a GDP of $13 billion. Gylfi Zoega Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland said that, “A fine location for families to live happily.” In 2000, Iceland’s government began a policy of deregulation. This set up the basis for the banks to upload debts when the foreign companies were accumulated. As the crisis unfolded itself the banks became unable to refinance their debts. The financial crisis of Iceland was the largest suffered by any country in the economic history. It was a political crisis collapse of all the three major privately owned commercial banks, with their difficulties in the refinancing their short term debt and run on deposits. In September 2008, Glitnir bank would be nationalized followed by the Landsbanki. Two days later another bank, Kaupthing was also nationalized. As Iceland was from a small domestic market, there bank financed their expansion with loans on the interbank lending market. Moreover by the payments from outside Iceland. The housing took on a large amount of debt which was equivalent to 213% of disposable income which eventually led to inflation. In the end of the second quarter of 2008, Iceland’s external debt...
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... Table of contents See report writing skills Introduction In October 2008 Iceland was one of the first countries to be seriously hit by the international financial crisis and the consequences were enormous. In Iceland, around 85% of its banking system collapsed in just a few days. One of these banks, a privately owned commercial bank named Landsbanki Íslands had been operating an online savings brand, Icesave, in the UK since 2006 and the Netherlands since 2008. After the bank was taken into receivership in October 2008, more than 400,000 Icesave deposit holders in both countries were unable to access their online accounts. The UK and Dutch authorities announced that all deposits would be guaranteed. According to Directive 94/19/EC deposits were guaranteed up to 20,887 Euros per account.[1] The UK authorities decided to pay out to depositors in full, while the Dutch authorities paid up to 100,000 Euros. It became clear that the Icelandic Deposit Guarantee Fund, established under EU legislation to cover losses in the event of a bank failure, was not in a position to cover the losses incurred by Icesave depositors. Talks therefore started on the aspects of the payout by the UK and the Dutch authorities of the deposit guarantees and whether the Icelandic government was liable to cover the minimum deposit guarantees. On this basis, formal negotiations between Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands started in February and were concluded in June 2009. Under...
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...MCG Consulting Group | Icesave Dispute: Settlement Proposal to Oddný G. Harðardóttir | International Business MGCR 382- 001 Fall 2012 | | Contents Executive Summary 3 Description of the Icesave Case 4 Overview of the unsustainable growth and collapse of the Icelandic financial sector in 2008 4 The Collapse of Icesave (Iceland’s Landsbanki) 5 Attempts of agreements and Icelandic referendums 6 Ruling: European Free Trade Association v. Iceland – EFTA Court Case E-16/11 References 8 The proposal from MCG Group (MCG) 9 Economic benefits and arguments 12 Legal aspect of the Icesave dispute 14 Appendix A 17 Bibliography 18 Executive Summary Objective MCG Consulting Group is a consulting firm specialized in banking. MCG’s goal is to provide effective solutions for multifaceted issues by researching all avenues of a problem and ensuring to always have supporting evidence for given proposals. The following paper is an examination of the current Icesave loan conflict followed by a proposal which MCG believes takes all stake holders into consideration. Important Acronyms EEA (European Economic Area), EU (European Union), EFTA (European Free Trade Association), ECJ (European Court of Justice), Research Methods * Review of the history of the crisis including previous agreement attempts and referendums...
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...Apastamb SMBA13010 Anuj Taneja SMBA13013 Sarthak Sahni SMBA13049 ISS ICELAND Summary * 2008 – Revenues of 68,829 million DKK * 7th largest outsourcing company in the world * 2009 – Integrated Facilities Management * Cleaning, Catering, Security, Property Services & Office Support * Decentralized model with financial reporting administered from headquarters in Copenhagen * ISS was not a price leader but was targeted at customers who cared about quality and were willing to pay for it A New value proposition * Post 2000 ,ISS Iceland adopted a new value proposition which has 2 dimensions. * The first is that of the classic outsourcer enabling our customers to focus on what they do best. * What is the feeling we want to create in our customers. * The new proposition says “We are creating wellbeing for our customers.” * Other 2 related issues were:- * People who don’t feel good about good about themselves are not as productive or quality-minded. * The transition from “Facilities services” to “Integrated facilities management” reflects how employees feel about their jobs * So the need came for “EMPLOYEE WELLBEING”. Gaps Model of Service Quality * Knowledge Gap: * ISS Iceland should know what it’s customers actually expect.(a solution to their problem as well their well-being). * Communication Gap: * ISS Iceland should know how to match their performance to promises.(Promise of providing...
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...The Vinland Sagas are two of the class Icelandic Sagas, yet even among these extraordinary works of literature, they have a special place. They both recount the story of the Norse investigation and attempted colonization of North America, more than five centuries preceding Columbus. The two adventures recount the amazing story of Erik the Red (Erik, for the Anglicized), who was prohibited from Iceland in the tenth century, established a province of Icelanders in Greenland, and even propose that he named Greenland to attract more settlers there. The Icelandic sagas depict an interesting display of independent-minded females. Numerous have interpreted this to demonstrate that Viking ladies were fiercely independent, completely equivalent...
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...To: Paul McCluskey From: Cody Zemp Date: March 11, 2014 Subject: Iceland Culture Assignment With the communicating in cultures assignment handed out in class, I was assigned the beautiful country Iceland and am writing to you to inform you of what I have learnt throughout my research. The capital of Iceland is Reykjavik, and to my surprise is a lot easier to say then I thought, and is pronounced rake-a-vick. Reykjavik currently holds 119,000 of Iceland’s 323,000 people. The Country of Iceland has many different celebrations and holidays that occur each year. One of the biggest celebrations annually is Sumardagurinn Fyrsti, which is the celebration of the first day of summer and includes parades, sporting events and organized entertainment. The celebration is held on the first Thursday after April 18th. Now, in most countries around the world, April is considered a month of spring, with summer beginning later in June. In Iceland, April marks the beginning of summer, which has average temperatures from 4-5.7°C, and 32-42°F, which is not exactly sun tanning weather. Given the cold temperatures, visitors in the month of April will still have all of the summer outdoor activities available to them, which include: horseback riding, glacier walking, caving, and even snorkeling can be done. The summer in Iceland is comparable to Canada’s early spring. April is typically a great time to visit if you want to avoid the summer crowds and spend...
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...GEO 210 – CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY – 40H “People & the Land: Introduction to Cultural Geography” TNCC – FALL 2012 Instructor: Larry Snider – Phone: (757) 850-4912 E-mail: sniderl@tncc.edu (school); Skimmerva@aol.com (home) Office Hours: 4:30-5:30 p.m. M (Rm 947 Templin Hall), 6-7 p.m. T (Rm 131A Diggs Hall), 5:00-5:30 p.m. W (Rm 947 Templin Hall) and by appointment INTRODUCTION COURSE DESCRIPTION: (from VCCS Master Course file): Focuses on the relationship between culture and geography. Presents a survey of modern demographics, landscape modification, material and non-material culture, language, race and ethnicity, religion, politics, and economic activities. Introduces the student to types and uses of maps. COURSE CONTENT: Cultural geography entails the study of spatial variations among cultural groups and the spatial functioning of society. The course provides an introduction to the manner in which humans have modified the world, emphasizing patterns of migration, livelihoods of man, and environments in which these modifications have taken place and continue to occur. It focuses on describing and analyzing the ways population, religion, language, ethnicity and race, political factors, economy, agriculture, industry, the urban setting, and other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant from one place to another. The framework of geographic location of significant countries, regions, and physical features is also addressed in order to provide the necessary...
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...ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY Y U K O A O YA M A J A M E S T. M U R P H Y SUSAN HANSON KEY CONCEPTS IN key concepts in economic geography The Key Concepts in Human Geography series is intended to provide a set of companion texts for the core fields of the discipline. To date, students and academics have been relatively poorly served with regards to detailed discussions of the key concepts that geographers use to think about and understand the world. Dictionary entries are usually terse and restricted in their depth of explanation. Student textbooks tend to provide broad overviews of particular topics or the philosophy of Human Geography, but rarely provide a detailed overview of particular concepts, their premises, development over time and empirical use. Research monographs most often focus on particular issues and a limited number of concepts at a very advanced level, so do not offer an expansive and accessible overview of the variety of concepts in use within a subdiscipline. The Key Concepts in Human Geography series seeks to fill this gap, providing detailed description and discussion of the concepts that are at the heart of theoretical and empirical research in contemporary Human Geography. Each book consists of an introductory chapter that outlines the major conceptual developments over time along with approximately twenty-five entries on the core concepts that constitute the theoretical toolkit of geographers working within a specific subdiscipline. Each entry provides...
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