A Nation of Sleep

Schools were closed, giving 45,000 children an unexpected holiday. There were no newspapers, no television broadcasts, no mail deliveries and only intermittent telephone service. With state-operated liquor stores shuttered, restaurant wine and whisky stocks were being drained by thirsty diners. Indeed, as a strike by 11,000 government and private-sector employees crippled public services in Iceland, supplies of almost everything that makes life interesting on the edge of the Arctic Circle were disappearing faster than icicles in a spring thaw.

The strike against the government of Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson had been called over the issue of wage raises for public workers. Even though Hermannsson's coalition government had managed to reduce inflation from 130% to 13% in 17 months, civil servants, long accustomed to raises indexed to soaring inflation rates, sought 30% increases, while the government offered only 6%. So complete was the ensuing shut down that government officials had to pitch in to help keep life running. In addition to his higher duties, Chief of Police Sigurjon Sigurdsson stamped passports at Keflavik Airport.