This link has been bookmarked by 60 people . It was first bookmarked on 18 May 2008, by someone privately.
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21 Mar 11
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17 Sep 10
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19 Sep 09
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26 Feb 09
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13 Feb 09
Charlotte LemaitreInvestigating why the Icelandics are so happy.
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21 Jan 09
Tim SchulerIceland has the best life expectancy, the best free education and the world's biggest hot tub. Jon Carlin visits an island paradise
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08 Jul 08
Liyana DizzySpecial report by John Carlin & the Observer.
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23 Jun 08
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12 Jun 08
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28 May 08
herp a derp"Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live." Interesting article, looks at how women's rights and social support impacts happiness.
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25 May 08
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23 May 08
brian rodneyIcelanders have had the wisdom to take, or accidentally to replicate, the best of what's there, too. Without any hang-ups at all.
iceland culture happiness politics economics education travel development children inspiration
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21 May 08
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20 May 08
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There are plenty of other, more obvious factors. Statistics abound. It is the country with the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world; where people buy the most books; where life expectancy for men is the highest in the world, and not far behind for women; it's the only country in Nato with no armed forces (they were banned 700 years ago); the highest ratio of mobile telephones to population; the fastest-expanding banking system in the world; rocketing export business; crystal-pure air; hot water delivered to all Icelandic households straight from the earth's volcanic bowels; and so on and so forth.
But none of this happiness would be possible without the hardy self-confidence that defines individual Icelanders, which in turn derives from a society that is culturally geared - as its overwhelming priority - to bring up happy, healthy children, by however many fathers and mothers. A lot of it comes from their Viking ancestors, whose males were rampant looters and rapists, but had the moral consistency at least not to be jealous of the dalliances of their wives - tough women who kept their families fed in the semi-tundra harshness of this north Atlantic island while their husbands forayed, for years at a time, far and wide. As a grandmother I met on my first visit to Iceland, two years ago, explained it: 'The Vikings went abroad and the women ran the show, and they had children with their slaves, and when the Vikings returned they accepted it, in the spirit of the more the merrier.'
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Tom Woodwardthere is one member of staff whose job it is to compile detailed data on internal assessment exercises conducted with a view to keeping the school on its toes, and standards high. After consultation with pupils, teachers and parents, progress is rated on
iceland education interesting system culture economics development
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19 May 08
netlex franceHighest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. -- | World news | The Observer
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indraadnanSeems to be because they have no hang ups (such as who is the father of this child?) and put kids first.
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18 May 08
merialRice paddies, rice terraces, picture copyrighted owned by gettyimages
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'In the Eighties and Nineties right wingers in the US and UK were saying that the Scandinavian system was unworkable, that high state investment in public services would kill business,' said Dagur, a boyish, super-bright 35-year-old who, like most Icelanders, is a furiously hard-working multi-tasker - as well as a politician, he is a doctor. 'Yet here we are, in 2008,' he continues, 'and you look at the hard economic statistics and you see that these last 12 years we and the Scandinavian countries have been roaring ahead. Someone called it bumblebee economics: scientifically, aerodynamically, you cannot figure out how it flies, but it does, and very nicely, too.'
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'In the Eighties and Nineties right wingers in the US and UK were saying that the Scandinavian system was unworkable, that high state investment in public services would kill business,' said Dagur, a boyish, super-bright 35-year-old who, like most Icelanders, is a furiously hard-working multi-tasker - as well as a politician, he is a doctor. 'Yet here we are, in 2008,' he continues, 'and you look at the hard economic statistics and you see that these last 12 years we and the Scandinavian countries have been roaring ahead. Someone called it bumblebee economics: scientifically, aerodynamically, you cannot figure out how it flies, but it does, and very nicely, too.'
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'In the Eighties and Nineties right wingers in the US and UK were saying that the Scandinavian system was unworkable, that high state investment in public services would kill business,' said Dagur, a boyish, super-bright 35-year-old who, like most Icelanders, is a furiously hard-working multi-tasker - as well as a politician, he is a doctor. 'Yet here we are, in 2008,' he continues, 'and you look at the hard economic statistics and you see that these last 12 years we and the Scandinavian countries have been roaring ahead. Someone called it bumblebee economics: scientifically, aerodynamically, you cannot figure out how it flies, but it does, and very nicely, too.'
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Richard AllawayIceland, the block of sub-Arctic lava to which these statistics apply, tops the latest table of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index rankings.
ib development indicators ib_geog2009 core disparities_indicators
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It is the country with the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world; where people buy the most books; where life expectancy for men is the highest in the world, and not far behind for women; it's the only country in Nato with no armed forces (they were banned 700 years ago); the highest ratio of mobile telephones to population; the fastest-expanding banking system in the world; rocketing export business; crystal-pure air; hot water delivered to all Icelandic households straight from the earth's volcanic bowels; and so on and so forth.
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All are equal
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ken ."Someone called it bumblebee economics: scientifically, aerodynamically, you cannot figure out how it flies, but it does, and very nicely, too" - many nice stories, a place where crisis is not a catastrophe, a permanent, pervasive...
bees crisis culture economics entrepreneurship iceland life quotes uk usa
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zenbonoboHighest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation.
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