In an interview with the magazine Nýtt Líf, Icelandic president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his wife Dorrit Mousaieff said they were optimistic that Iceland would pull itself out of the economic situation.
Mousaieff told the interviewer that Iceland has as yet untapped potential in the area of exports. She believes, for example, that Iceland could increase fish exports, and sell Icelandic horses – a breed of their own with very strict exportation rules – to the world’s wealthy. In addition, she believes Iceland’s health care could become sought after by people from around the world, and added that Iceland has the best hatmaker in the world.
The president seconded Moussaieff’s ideas, saying, “I think one of the biggest problems that we have, such as Dorrit’s hatmaker example, is that we are too narrow-minded and don’t see all the possibilities we have. It’s a question of using our imaginations to see everything that we’re capable of.”
The president continued, saying that Icelanders ought to count their blessings. “Because I’ve traveled around the world,” he said in part, “from Europe to Africa, from Asia to Latin America, and I see what a privilege it is to be an Icelander. What a gift it is to live in a country that has all these resources, where the people are educated, the health care is open to everyone, and each individual has an opportunity.”