Iceland - Rockin' Reykjavík

So Panama would have been good, but those DJ's and their canned laughter significantly lowered their score.

Alrighty, this post was originally scheduled to go live on National Coming Out Day (10/11), but obviously we're about two months late (what else is new?). To honor (albeit belatedly) those who have been brave enough to come out out the closet, we're going to head over to Iceland, the only country with an openly LGBTQ head of state! Yay for Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir!!

go gettem, lady!

Pinky's ex-boyfriend stopped by there a year or two back. Our friends Mica and Colin went earlier this year, and Pinky's old roommate from Maryland went over with his horrible Rumpelstiltskin friend. You know, that half-French girl with the fake accent, distracting mole, clunky shoes, and unjustified air of superiority? We would not have wanted to be on that trip. Those two sucked.

this might be the only place in the world colder than Ellen's office!

Aaaaaaaanyway, Iceland was settled by the Vikings only about 1,000 years ago. They lived under the Norwegian and Danish crowns until the end of WWI. However, the independence process was well in motion before the war. Jared Diamond wrote a pretty interesting synopsis of their historical era in his book Collapse, which is worth a read if you've got the time.

oh my gawwwd!

Iceland is one of the most interesting cases of the recent economic crisis. They had built a pretty healthy economy based on fishing and farming, but in the mid-90's, they joined Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein in the European Free Trade Association, which allowed them to join the European market without EU membership. Iceland was then able to expand beyond their traditional industries without being politically tethered to Europe, and they spawned these wonder-boy banks that shot their GDP through the roof. Unfortunately, a lot of those loans were shady, and they sure had made a lot of them. These banks' debt was about 6 times the GDP of Iceland! Because their debt was so high, when the crisis hit, Iceland's central bank couldn't guarantee them, and the shit hit the fan. Without EU membership, there was no one set up to bail them out, and they had to go begging to the IMF and a handful of European countries. There was a ton of red tape and lots of strings attached, but they staved off complete collapse. Not to imply that their economy isn't fucked, just that they haven't needed to resort to cannibalism.

oh my gawd.

The government was essentially replaced under public pressure. A lot of banking executives and high government officials are facing criminal charges. Iceland has a huge debt shackled to its feet. But since Iceland's population is comparable to that of Toledo, OH, we're talking about a debt that comes out to $160,000 a person. This wouldn't be too scary for a developed nation, but that $160,000 is just from the crisis and does not include current sovereign debt. In comparison, the American bank bailout would have cost us each about $2,300, but the banks have already repaid the majority of their bailout.

ohhhhhhh my god.

This sucks because Iceland was a really cool case study with an interesting tax structure and a burgeoning service economy, but because of the work of just a handful of people, a thousand years of a conservative life style was shirked and they fucked over the entire country. The rest of the population has voted not to pay the debts back, because they had nothing to do with it. Of course, you can argue that they benefited from the GDP increase during the financial heydays and certainly from the prevention of national collapse, but they're still pissed, and the decision is theirs alone. Not ours. The credit markets will certainly make their opinion known.

OK, so today we're in the capital city of Reykjavík. We don't have a lot to say about the city other than it's name is one of Ellen's most favorite words to say. You're totally going to love this station! It's got some hard rock, straight up pop, Christmas music (for those of you who celebrate as such), Icelandic news, and general awesome-ness. Have fun in the great white north, y'all! 

Ras2

There is a big play button in the middle of the page that you cannot miss!

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Panama - Pulsing Panama City

Whatcha doin'? Just picking dog hair off your velcro-like facial hair stubble and sitting on a bag of frozen peas because you busted your ass on the ice on the way in to work? Yeah... us, too.

Did y'all have a good time in Sao Tome and Principe? That was a really, really good station - even though we heard this little ditty:

Awwwwwwwwwkward.

Come on! Let's escape the arctic blast and go visit Kenny in Panama! How long has he been down there? A year?


Ok, before we get to the canal, which is really, Really, REALLY important, let's knock a couple things out. Panama is about the size of South Carolina, has a little under 3.5 million people, and is home to the largest rainforest outside of the Amazon basin in the Western Hemisphere. Its history for the past 500 years has been intimately linked to its geopolitical importance.

Here's a little orientation

So, the Spanish come in, the indigenous Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva tribes are massacred with warfare and disease. Panama acts as a Spanish Colony for the next 300 years. The Spanish would dig up precious metals in South America, sail it up to Panama, haul it across the land mass, and pack it onto ships set for Europe.

Panamanian jungles anyone?

In the 1880's, a French company made the first attempt at building the canal, but gave up after 22,000 workers died, mostly from disease. About 20 years later, the American Army Corps of Engineers launched a second attempt, and after 10 years and another 5,600 deaths, the canal was finally opened in 1914. Ships would no longer have to sail the treacherous Drake Passage. At first, they were puttin' through about 1,000 ships a day, and now they're up to about 15,000. Nice job gang.

Canals canaling canalers.

America controlled the canal until the late 1970's, and it was pretty contentious throughout Latin and South America. They'd helped Panama break away from Columbia just prior to building it, and there were some contentious and questionably worded treaties, as well as agreements made by folks that did not have the authorization to do so. After WWII, things really gained steam, culminating in riots in the mid-60's for Panamanian control. Negotiations began under the Ford administration and ended with a treaty signed by Carter in '77 that would turn it over to Panama by 2000, so long as the canal remained permanently neutral. This really helped relations between America and a lot of Latin and South American nations. It was finally signed over to the Panamanians eleven years ago, and remains one of the most important transit points in the world to this day, as well as a significant source of income for Panama.

still pretty amazing how they can take ships up and down in elevation! modern marvels, y'all.

The average toll paid is about $54K. The highest toll ever paid was about $330K by a Disney cruise liner. The lowest toll ever was $0.36  paid 90 years ago by an adventurer who swam the canal.

Pinky would love to get into the modern political history of Panama, including the US invasion in 1989 to turn over a dictatorship that resulted in a lot of civilian casualties, but we've all got a lot to do and we've written a bunch already. It's totally worth a read though if you want to look it up.

we get to hang out in Panama City today! and, look! there is no snow!

Enjoy your time in Panama and hopefully these disc jockeys will get over using a laugh track soon! Fingers crossed!

Caliente 97.1

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São Tomé and Principe - What a Steal!

Whoa. So, Turkmenistan was great! Who expected that?! Ellen liked how there were covers of English language songs - like when DJ Begga covered Sean Paul's Get Busy. Even the video is an homage to Sean Paul. Here are links to both videos for reasons of comparison. Ellen is now totally in love with all the skinny boys in Turkmenistan.

Begmyrat Annamyradow's (aka DJ Begga)   Şekero

Sean Paul's   Get Busy

OK, let's head back to the Gulf of Guinea and visit São Tomé and Principe!

Gotta admit, this is another nation we weren't aware of, but it seems to be a pretty great place to hang out and holy crap is this radio station good!

you have to squint to see it

Uninhabited until the Portuguese showed up around the 1470's, São Tomé and Principe was soon settled by Portuguese who were "undesirable" back home (read: Jewish folks.) They found out that sugar grew pretty well and began importing slaves to work the plantations. Within 60 years, they were Africa's largest sugar exporters - outta those tiny little islands! Who'd have thought? From just about 600 sq. miles of land! That's half the size of Rhode Island! And, only about 8% of that land is arable!

The equator crosses the São Tomé and Principe on Ilheu das Rolas

Sugar production proved easier in the New World though, and the competition hurt São Tomé and Principe to the point that they ended up transitioning their economy to become a slave trade transit point. That went pretty well for awhile, and by the time that the slaving industry was slowing down, they found out that cocoa grew pretty well there. By the early 1900's, they'd become the world's largest producer. Slavery had been abolished by then, but nasty labor practices continued well into the 20th century, culminating in riots in the mid-50's where hundreds were killed by the Portuguese.

mmm... palm trees!

An independence movement began fomenting around this time as well. And, by the mid-1970's São Tomé  and Principe achieved it. Politics haven't been all that smooth, a trend we're starting to see. Democratic reforms weren't instituted until the late 1980's. There's been plenty of leadership wrangling and two failed coup attempts. Their economy is still pretty dependent on cocoa, with little diversification, but recent oil explorations are promising. And, they're concentrating on developing their very promising - but fledgling - tourist industry.

holy shit! that stamp has dinos on it! we're in love!

Well, with a population comparable to Boise, Idaho, it looks like we're going to have to listen to a signal-boosted Afro-centric Portuguese station. But! This is a really, really good one! 


Enjoy your time in São Tomé and Principe - don't get too toasty there on the equator! And, we'll see y'all on Monday!

RTP

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