A sign of defeat

Travelled from Stanford to London on the cheapest flight possible- Icelandair. Along the way I had a 10 hour layover in Iceland, and took the opportunity to explore a bit before the flight to London.

Iceland was remarkable because of one thing: it was completely bankrupt. The airport was completely empty save for the time a plane landed.   Staff were there part-time; they came to work only when a plane landed. In the 10 hours of transit I had there I walked in and out of customs completely unchecked, and was considering going out to the runway to touch the wheel of a 737 on the tarmac.

Signs in the airport (like the one above) encouraged people to “take advantage of the current circumstances” to buy from shops in the airport. The cleaner who came to clear up my meal was only 25 years old; in limited English she told me she had a university degree. The gloom of this proud, tall race of blond, blue-eyed, well-dressed people was terrible- they were so thankful for the tips I left them.

Despite all of this Iceland remains somewhat like Singapore- its airline is top-notch, with those snazzy interactive media TVs that keep you entertained, and its airport is well furnished with beautiful architecture. Wikipedia’s entry on it tells me it had one of the highest per capita GDPs (7th) and Human Development Index (1st). In that way it is very much like Singapore. Singapore must never be allowed to fail like it did; a proud nation brought to its knees by a mistake of economy.

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