Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The best place to live?

I am now completely convinced that these studies are done wrongly. I am sure they only look at the lifestyle of natives to a country.
In fact I wonder where this study . Did they look at the education system? The difference in living standards between Icelanders and immigrants? It is terrible. I do not think that any country has the right be to 'the best place to live' when the reason it is so great (to them) is because they are in the top class here.
There are two kinds of people in Iceland. The Icelanders who live out there dreams and everyone else who cleans up after them. Or stocks the shelves so they can shop shop shop

I admit this is a huge generalization, but it is something I see everyday.

When you go to Bonus, the grocery store, you hear5 different languages as you walk down the isles. Everyone is buying food.

When you go to Toys R Us, or any other 'extra's' store, you only hear Icelandic. This is because, more often then not, only the Icelanders are a situation where they can go out and buy a bunch of new toys.

If you listen to the staff at any of these stores, they are all foreign. They probably do not have the money to shop there, they just stock the shelves and clean.

When you look at Kasper's school, I think he is the only kid there that was not born in Iceland. It is an expensive school. The parents all drop off the children in SUVs and own large houses. The children are dressed in nice clothing and are reasonable behaved.

When you go to a public school you see groups of kids talking. The Icelandic kids, the Polish kids, the kids that can speak English. The odd one from Norway or Portugal roams around alone. The Icelandic children often bring new toys to school everyday and wear designer clothing. The others are provided for with what the parents can manage, then go to school to be bullied, beaten, dragged through the mud, then neglected by teachers.

Health care is not free, we pay per visit. The fee is small for a regular doctors visit, but if you need a specialist, it is very expensive. How many health issues go untreated because of the cost? I know that my eyes bother me, I went to one doctor, she sent me to another. The Eye surgeon told me, after testing my eyes: Well this is so strange, I have never seen anything like this before, why don't you come back in a few months and we will have another look at it. Come back? I just spent 3 days wages to have you tell me to come back because you do not know what it is? I never went back. It is to expensive. Maybe someday when I am rich, I will get my eyes fixed. For now, we spend all our money on our kids healthcare.

Is Iceland the BEST place in the world to live?

If it is, then the world is a sad sad place and we should be embarrassed.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Interesting observations. I didn't have the impression Iceland was like that (from the Icelandic people I have met, anyhow). It's good to see a different point of view.

    Greetings from London!

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  2. There is good and evil in every culture, most either do not see it or try to hide it.

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