Social Progress Amidst Ruination

After the titanic financial and governmental blow-out, Iceland seems to have found new footing. A caretaker coalition government has been formed, to manage the nation until elections in April. Heading the coalition is Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the first openly sexual minority national leader in modern history.

Such firsts seem to be coming faster as the Depression deepens: the United States has recently elected Barack Obama as President. Perhaps such changes will become ever more commonplace in the world, as growing financial concerns override bigotry and social divisiveness. It's a sad commentary that it took a depression to help forge these social changes...

Nevertheless, we feel Ms. Jóhanna seems to be a strong and capable leader. We look forwards to seeing what the Jóhanna Government will do for Iceland in the coming months. We also look forward to the Obama Administration over the next four years; we aren't holding our breath about his policies, but we might be wrong in our estimation of him.