Well jeez

I do not suppose on a day when Iceland made international news for its treatment of an American company that I can, in all good conscious, simply ignore this. So, on the off chance anyone hasn't heard, the company that had three MacDonald's franchises here in Iceland has told MacDonalds that they would like to keep the buildings, keep the style of food, keep the same sort of packaging and staffing styles, but use Icelandic produce in the food, to cut back on cost (plus they will probably taste better). Well, to MacDonald's this means they cannot insure quality control (plus I think the franchise thing is sort of a scam, like Jenny Craig - only $10 for 4 weeks, but you have to buy all of your food there too!). Anyhow, MacDonald's said no, said you can't use our name any more if you do that. So, the company, being Icelandic, said, "Well, how about we change the name?" (because being MacDonald's here was not really doing them any favors -- Americans are not Icelanders absolute favorites. I suppose that honor belongs to the Faeroese!).

Alright, enough of a recap. Here is my pet theory on why this is international news worthy. Yes it has something to do with the Kreppa, certainly, because everyone has heard how broke Icelanders are: "My god, if they can't afford a MacDonald's hamburger they must really be broke!" Because even the poorest poor family in the United States can occasionally afford a burger off the dollar menu. But I think it also has something to do with the world wide attitude towards MacDonald's. MacDonald's symbolizes globalization, I mean absolutely, that is what the BigMac index is all about. (Californian's at this point will give me grief for using the jingle from In and Out there...).

So the news is treating this like revolution number 2 here in Iceland, as if Iceland is throwing off the shackles of globalization. I am not quite sure that changing the color on the packaging from orange to green really constitutes a revolution, but in another sense, I guess it does. Or it gives other countries they hope that they could do so, and that is really newsworthy. The spread of a feeling.

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