Who could have imagined that a married couple who assumed an subprime mortgage on an overpriced home they couldn't afford in, say, an Orlando suburb could result in the first openly gay Prime Minister in Iceland?
It did.
When the U.S. housing bubble burst, it triggered the collapse of a fragile house of cards that involved dicey investment schemes and creative financial instruments built on pure air. That financial storm quickly swept across the Atlantic, hitting Britain the first and the hardest.
Unfortunately for the small country of Iceland, Britain had become the destination of choice in which to invest it's precious financial resources.
Iceland isn't a country rich in resources. Aside from some fishing, whaling and geothermal technology, there isn't much else to sustain the Icelandic economy, so Iceland started a banking and investment foray into mostly-European holdings, primarily in the United Kingdom.
When British banks started folding, those assets vanished and British regulators and insurers only covered a small portion of the losses. The fallout in Iceland was devastating, resulting the collapse of the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde.
He resigned on Monday.
That means between now and May, when Icelandic voters will vote on their next government, all indications are that the country's 66-year-old minister of social affairs and social security, and openly-gay lesbian, Johanna Sigurdardottir will succeed him.
Negotiations are underway between Sigurardottir's Social Democratic Alliance Party and potential coalition partners. If they succeed, she will become interim prime minister until Iceland next goes to the polls, which must happen by May.
"We really warmly welcome that," said Gary Nunn, a spokesperson for Stonewall UK, a British gay-rights group. "At a time when we've just seen a black man elected to the highest office in America, it gives us hope that we will see an openly gay prime minister here some day." CNN 29 January 2009
Reporting on Public Radio International's "The World" on Thursday, Gerry Hadden reports that the soft-spoken Sigurardottir's sexual orientation is, for Icelanders, pretty much a non-event.
The financial crises far exceed any concern of even the most conservative voter in Iceland. Everybody is panic-stricken over the near collapse of Iceland's currency, the failure of every national bank, the disappearance of billions in investments, rising unemployment, and some tough economic times.
So does Sigurardottir's resume suggest she's up to the task?
Umm... maybe.
Maybe not.
Before her stint in cabinet, she was a flight attendant and union organizer.
After a series of failures, Iceland's voters don't seem to care. They're ready for change and this will be a sea-change. In spades.
Regardless, all expectations are that she'll soon be attending to the affairs of state in the world's northern-most nation and setting at least this one precedent: she'll be the world's first openly-gay national leader.
Who would have guessed?
To listen to Gerry Hadden's PRI Report, just click the PLAY button.
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