Unique Iceland uncovered during memorable trip

Thursday, June 1, 2000 | 8:36 a.m.

There is almost no crime in Iceland, an island nation in the North Atlantic that covers 39,000 square miles of mostly mountains, fjords, farmland and glaciers.

"Where can you go after you commit a crime? Where can you escape to?" asked Las Vegan Jeffery Kottler, who returned to Las Vegas from there May 17 after a five-month stay on a Fulbright Scholarship. "Prisons let prisoners out during the day and they go back at night to sleep. They can't escape. You can't leave the island."

Unemployment is practically unheard of in the country of 270,000 people, more than half of whom live in and around Reykjavik, the nation's capital.

"There are not enough people there to run the country," Kottler said. "Not only don't they have unemployment, everyone works two or three jobs."

He taught counseling for one semester at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik and in the process learned a lot about the country and its inhabitants.

Iceland, which gained its independence from Denmark in 1944, is north of the United Kingdom beyond Scotland. Fishing accounts for about 80 percent of the nation's income. Kottler said that the country became prosperous during World War II when there was a big demand for fish.

"In some ways, the country is probably more advanced than America. It has the greatest literacy rate in the world, virtually 100 percent. It is a very prosperous, materialistic country that was poor until the war," Kottler said.

Although the population generally is of Scandinavian origin the people are Americanized. They attend American movies, listen to American music and watch American television shows such as "Friends," "Beverly Hills 90210" and "The Simpsons." According to Kottler they are ahead of the United States when it comes to fashion, taking their lead from Europe to dress better and "hipper."

"They live a good life," Kottler said. "Reykjavik is very cosmopolitan and quaint. It is a gorgeous little capital city. You can walk everywhere. They have great restaurants and cafes and bookstores and bars."

He said that there may be more cell phones per capita in Iceland than anywhere else.

"I was at a restaurant once and saw a family of four, a mother, father and two teenaged children, having dinner. All four of them were on cell phones," Kottler said. "In many ways they are ahead of America. For example, they don't use checks. It is a paperless society. They use debit cards."

Their language, he said, is one of the most difficult to learn. "It is derived from the original medieval Scandinavian language. ... It hasn't changed in a thousand years," he said.

Although the majority of Icelanders speak fluent English, Kottler said that there still was a language barrier. "Their English is perfect, but the students were somewhat shy and reluctant to speak it publicly. I'm sure there were lots of things I missed as a result of not being able to understand Icelandic," Kottler said.

Scandinavian countries have a reputation of being populated by people who are depressed, some say, because of the long winters. "I found the people generally to be solitary, shy and withdrawn, not sociable, not friendly," Kottler said. "It is very hard for an outsider to be accepted. Foreigners see them as being very unfriendly because (Icelanders) don't make eye contact.

"They don't flirt at all. The people are gorgeous. They look like goddesses and gods, but they are not seductive. When they walk they look at the ground. But what looks to be rude to foreigners, it was explained to me that the country is so small, everybody knows everyone and is related to everyone so if they really made eye contact and said hello to everyone on the street they would never get anywhere.

"The only way for them to maintain privacy is to look down and not acknowledge people they pass. They're all too busy."

The highlight of Kottler's stay in Iceland was his students.

"They are among the best I ever had," he said. "They were very motivated, very eager. The quality of their work was superior. They are used to being lectured to and I don't believe in lecturing as a teaching style. I do more group work, cooperative learning and discussion. They never had an experience like that kind of teaching and they were very responsive, very grateful."

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