KingdomCooperFan 1 year ago
As an Icelandic person I feel that I need to respond to this video with a few negative points about the current status of our country as the internet seems to have a curiously high amount of articles and videos that portrays Iceland as a utopian paradise with near-perfect governmental systems. The education isn't quite free but it is definitely cheaper than in some countries. There are two universities in the area of Reykjavík, one of which is government funded and one of which is a private institution. In the former, one year roughly costs around 670 US dollars and a year in the latter costs about 4400 US dollars. Now I'm no expert in the educational costs in other countries so I don't know how this ranks in comparison to that, but it's definitely cheaper than some western countries. Still, not quite 'free' education. Also, our governmentally funded national university has a deficit of around 2.7 million US dollars due to a lack of government funding and has been forced to make some serious cutbacks in the past years. Also, I feel compelled to point out that although out healthcare system is better than in some western countries, it's been going a bit downhill in the past years. At the moment healthcare costs are seemingly growing every year, to the point of people travelling to other European countries for major treatments and surgeries to avoid the high prices here.
On top of that, our national hospital has a financial need of about 590 million US dollars due to a severe lack of funding from the government in the past years. Add to that the high prices and you get personnel strikes, outdated equipment and a lack of manpower and organization so dire that patients quite literally sleep on couches and benches in the hallways due to a lack of room. It's quite a mess. Out political life since the economic crash of 2008 has also been mired by governmental instability, constant corruption and frequent public protests (large ones). To combat the economic crisis that engulfed the country the government has put all their cards on the immense tourism bomb that has occurred in the past 8 years, to the point of relying too much on it. It's currently the largest industry in the country by far. The tourism itself has also been a source of problems on its own (6.8 million tourists a year in a country of 300.000), both due to the sheer unfettered amount of it and due to the government's negligence in providing proper accomodations for it. The prices in the country are also constantly increasing due to this tourist bomb and it's caused a lot of grief for the local population who don't get a break from it. Just to reiterate, the tourism itself isn't inherently bad, just the way that the government has handled it. Plus, the country's experiencing greater class divisions now than in any point in its history, and it's still growing. I'm not quite sure why other countries consistently paint Iceland as such a utopian country. Sure, there are a lot of fantastic things here but I can assure you that Icelandic people have a far lower opinion of the country's supposed prosperity. Not trying to be Mr. Negative, just felt that these things needed to be heard. I know a lot of people that are a bit dumbfounded when they see articles or videos that praise our country like this or see Iceland at the top of the list of the world's happiest countries. It's just so difficult to believe, all things considered. But I don't mean to demean the video itself. I still enjoyed it, and yes there are a lot of great things here and a lot of things for Icelandic people to be very proud of
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