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Iceland Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean, is just South of the Arctic Circle and is close to Greenland that is in North America than mainland Europe, but is part of Europe for cultural reasons mainly. Iceland is also on both continental plates of the North American and European plates. Iceland’s closest bodies of land are Greenland and Faroe Islands. The closest body of land to the European mainland to Iceland is Norway.
 * Government**

Iceland has a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Prime Minster is the head of government with a multi-party system in the Althing. It is also one of the world’s oldest parliamentary democracies where the executive branch’s power is used in the government, while the legislature power is use in both the government and parliament. But their judiciary system is separate/independent from the executive and legislature powers. The president, which usually represents as the head of state for Iceland, has a 4 year term, but with no term limit, has limited powers, it also includes the cabinet and the town council. The only person that has more power than the president is the Prime Minster, but the Prime Minster cabinet is only appointed by the president after general elections have been held. But usually, the political parties appoint the cabinet. They also decide which parties can have or form one and how the seats are even out, but if they come up with agreement in time to decide who is in the cabinet, the president will decide who will be in the cabinet.

Iceland’s government has been in coalitions with two or parties involved which cause no single party to have a majority in the Althing and has 63 members that are elected every 4 years. The Althing is elected from the basis of the same representation from six constituencies but it wasn’t until 1991, when it became a unicameral system, which means there is no upper or lower house. The only political feud the government had was in 1995 when the Independent Party and the Social Democratic Party fought about over their evolvement in the European Union which change their evolvement in it, including the economy. Then in the beginning of the 21st century, all the left parties merged to form the Social Democratic Party. The Althing was founded in Iceland in 1845 and was advisory body to the Danish King and was seen as reestablishment of the formal assembly that was founded in Demark in 930 AD during the Commonwealth era, but was suspended in 1799. The judiciary is the Supreme Court and the justices are appointed to life by district courts and the president. The constitution also protects the judiciary system from the executive and legislative branch.


 * Demographics **

Icelanders are descendants from Norway, Ireland, and Scotland and about over half of the male population is from the Norse ancestry, while over half of the female population is from the Celtic ancestry. Almost 99% of the population live in urbanized areas and about 84% of the population belong to a state church, but has other religions as well that people go to. The Icelandic language is oldest and closest language to Old Norse language of the North Germanic languages that has been unchanged since the 12th Century. Iceland surnames are based off the patronymic, which either follows the son or daughter and it is only a designation of fatherhood, which is redundant in their social life except, it is suppose to differentiate people by first name. All Icelanders and foreign citizens that have a permanent residence in Iceland, have their own personal identification number to identify them in the National Registry that is made up of a 10-digit code. The first six digits in the identification number, is the person individual birth date, then the next two digits are chosen at random, after that, the 9th digit is a check digit, and the last digit indicates a period of hundred years when the individual was born. This process makes the National Registry very extensive in Iceland.

Culture

The culture of Iceland is rich and varied and is well known for its literary heritage from the 12th-14th century. Their other traditional arts they have are silversmith, wood carving, and weaving. Iceland’s people have the most general traditional liberal Nordic outlook; they almost look like and are in the same traditional way of Norway and Sweden. They are also very proud of their Viking heritage and language by taking a great part in preserve it with all other traditions in Iceland.

When the Christianization occurred in Iceland, many people still held the Viking beliefs that are still around today. The religion of Iceland was mostly from the Viking religion and believed in Norse mythology in the beginning, but later on it became half-Christian, then turned into a full Christian state. Today, most of the people in Iceland are Lutheran, but there are other religions that are around Iceland.

Iceland has many varieties of traditional cuisine. One of the traditional cuisines is the Nowadays, which is eaten during January and February. In this cuisine are ram’s testicles, putrefied shark, singed sheep heads, and other stuff. Iceland’s cuisine is centered on the fishing industry.

Iceland’s music would be mostly related to the Nordic music forms. This kind of music is vibrant folk and pop traditions, with medieval music groups like the Voices Thules. Iceland is also home to the Nick Jr.’s Lazy Town band that was very successful from 1980s-1990s, including The Sugarcubes, and the SigurRos. The national anthem, the Lofsongur, was written during the 1,000th anniversary of the settlement on Iceland in 1834.

Even though the country keeps on changing through many years, it is still a very healthy country and children and teens do participate in many activities to stay healthy. The sports that they are in are soccer, basketball, handball, golf, tennis, swimming, chess, horseback, and glima, a form of wrestling, which originated from the Vikings, still do it in Iceland. Chess is a recreation favorite by Iceland’s Viking ancestors while the game of golf is so common that 1 of 8 Icelanders play it. Their handball is a national sport that has one best team in the world and is ranked number one, while their national soccer team is 18th in the world in the FIFA. Iceland’s other favorite sports are ice and rock climbing.

The main language in Iceland is Icelandic, which is a highly North German language, but they also teach Danish language and the English language at schools and intuitions. Linguistic purism is so heavily supported in Iceland that it is supposed to prevent loanwords from going into the language but are still some loanwords that escape and are in the language. Neologism is so coined into the language; it is supposed to create compound words to describe a new meaning while the old words are recycled to make a new meaning in the Icelandic language.

Iceland’s education system is based off the American education system. It also has four levels like the American system but is named differently and from ages 6-16 are required to have to go to school education. The schools that they have in Iceland are institutions that are funded by the state. The other schools they have are private schools but there only a few of them around.

In the beginning, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture use to have control over all the schools, but over the years have decentralized the system which started giving the power to the local authorities to take care of the primary and lower secondary schools and make them enforce their own education laws on these schools. The upper secondary schools and higher education institutions, however, are still controlled by the state and have to apply to state laws of education that have enforced.

Icelanders are so famous in prose and poetry that their authors, Halldor Laxness Guomundur Kamban, Tomas Guomundsson, Davio Stefansson, Jon Thoroddsen, Steinn Steinarr, Guomundur, Iorbergur Ioroarson, and Johannes ur Kotlum did very good on their stories and poetry. Iceland’s best-known classical works are sagas and with their most famous saga is the Njals saga, which has epic bloodshed. The first painters in Iceland came around the 19th century, which include Sohannes Svesnsson Kjarval that is famous for his portrait paintings of village life in Iceland. The silver workings with all old traditions have been preserved by a person named Einar Hakonarson. He was pioneer at Icelandic art scene and art education and he was later called the crusader of painting. He also developed the Icelandic Printmaking Association and became the first president of the Association. Iceland’s architecture was influenced by Scandinavian area because of the lack of trees on Iceland and they were grass houses. The original grass houses were constructed by the Vikings that where the original settlers of Iceland. Even though there are no railways in Iceland, they have a very extensive road network that goes all around the island along the coast and if you are on this road, you might find geothermal spas and pools on Iceland that are all across the island. They are very popular spots to go if you get the chance.

Economy

Iceland Economy during the 2007-10 period was a decline of GDP and employment although it remains to be determined on how the next couple years look like. Iceland has a mix economy with different levels of free trade and government intervention. Their government consumption, however, is less than other Nordic countries. The free market reforms in the 1990’s that help the economy to grow strong with economic growth which caused Iceland to have one of the world’s highest level of economic growth and civil freedoms and was ranked on a list of nations by the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2007.

From 2006-10, had economic problems with growing inflation and a rising deficit. The blame of problem went on the government response to it and how they fix or not fixed it, but it also had to do with some the reforms they passed that also caused this. The major reason that they had economic problems were that the financial system expanded to fast, before collapsing entirely which caused the financial crisis. During this crisis, Iceland had to borrow money from the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) and from the other European countries in 2008, so that they wouldn’t fall into a recession.

Icelandic Banking System had a huge role in the financial crisis that happen in Iceland and around the world because they were expanding to fast overseas with deregulation, which caused the assets they had excessed farther than the country’s GDP. It caused the government get involved and take them over and bail them out before they went over. The three banks that were saved were the CGlither, Landsbanki, and the Kaupping Bank in 2008 and was under the control of the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority.

The thing the continued the financial crisis was the speculation in the financial market about how healthy the banks were in the Iceland Stock Exchange (ICEX). The another one that help create the financial crisis was the high inflation that continued to effect fish production, equity markets, and public ownership of commercial banks that had a slow development, which included the all bonds, equities and mutual funds in the ICEX.

Its economy is highly-export driver are marine, aluminum, ferro-silicon alloys, machinery, and electronic equipment for the fishing industry, software, and woollier goods while their major imports are machinery and equipment. Most of their exports go to the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, including the U.S. and Japan while their major imports for Iceland are Germany, the U.S., Norway, and Demark.

Their trading policies they have in place have expanded and strengthen since the formation of the European Economic Area was made in 1993, including the Uruguay Round for Iceland exports, like the fishing industry. In the agricultural area, it is still much protected by other European economic acts. Iceland became a member of the EFTA since 1970, but also has a trade agreement with the European community since 1973. The only reason they are not part of the EU is because they are afraid that it will control its fishing area they have and its currency. The currency they have is the krona, that has been issued by the Central Bank since its founding in 1961.

The economy is diversified by the manufacturing and the service industry with the new development of biotechnology, software production, and financial services with tourism expanding including eco-tourism and whale watching.

Australia Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia and is in the Southern Hemisphere and is the sixth largest land area in the world with the twelfth largest military in the world. The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy and it became a country in 1901. It was with agreement with the British, that the six self-governing colonies would become six states and have the constitution embodied in Australia by British terms. But during the drafting of the Constitution, the colonies at the time were negotiating on how the Australian Parliament was going to made up and the structure of the Commonwealth. Now, the government structure is examined by two district concepts. The two concepts are federalism and separation of power in the both the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government. The separation of powers is also exercised in the Constitution which breaks down the branches of government into different but separate chapters.
 * Government**

The Australian Constitution creates a democratic legislature that is bicameral in the Parliament of Australia. In this parliament, it consists of a Queen and two houses, one of them is the Senate and the other is the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is elected on the basis of the amount of population in one state, however, the Senate has 12 members that represent the state, no matter how large or small the population is in the State. But in regular legislation, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, have the same powers, unless, if there were taxes and revenue bills involved, they become separate and the House of Representatives takes over and take cares of the taxes and revenue bills, then the Senate does.

The Constitution gives the Commonwealth Government’s power with other certain powers and responsibilities to rule and control the federal government but the remaining responsibilities go to the six states in Australia. The six states also have their own constitution, which makes Australia have seven sovereign parliaments that can’t take over or take charge of any state’s functions over any other state, however, the High Court of Australia can take charge and will figure out disputes that the states have between each other and other states, including the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Parliament can propose a change in the Constitution. But before they can do anything, they have to send to the people of Australia to vote if they want to change the Constitution and it also needs a double majority for it to pass by the people of Australia and the States in the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth Constitution can also exchange power of the government to the states if need and visa to the Commonwealth. The common powers the Commonwealth has, however, are to be passed by the legislation if they like. An example of this would be getting the States involved in the country’s wellbeing. This kind of power transfer is called the sunset clause where the power is transferred during a need time like when the country is under attack, but then it is restored to original point of power like when the war is over in the country.

The self-governing territories, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Northwest Territory (NT), and the Norfolk Island, have powers that is given by the Commonwealth, however, the can be override the power of these territories from legislation and other ways of power. The other territories that Australia has, however, are not self-governed, but are governed under federal law that the territories have to apply to.

The Westminster System, is where party leaders, or the coalition party, forms the government and chooses the Prime Minster if they have a majority in the House. Both the Commonwealth Parliament and all state/territory legislatures have to operate within the Westminster System that recognizes the Leader of Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet. These two things ask questions about the Prime Minster day-to-day matters. The business is negotiated between the Leader of the House and the Manger of Opposition. The Prime Minster and the Cabinet, (after they are formed), are responsible to the government with the members that are in it and have general elections once every three years for their spots. The Constitution, however, does not recognize the Cabinet with no legal force. The Prime Minster, (if he wants to), can give advice to the Governor-General if he wants elections for the House at any time, however, this doesn’t affect the Senate because they protected by the Constitution and will have elections that are held on a certain date.

In the Australian Constitution, the Governor-General shall represent the Queen of Australia, while it carries out all functions that regularly performed by the head of state, but does not reference the Queen. In the conventions of the Westminster System, the Governor-General’s power is exercised by the Prime Minster; however, it has similar reserved powers like the Queen in the U.K. The Federal Executive Council is mostly made up of the Governor-General, the Prime Minster, and Ministers. Their job is to give legal effect from decisions that are made by the Cabinet and carry out other functions. Governor-General is usually at most Council meetings. The Minister however, is the link between the government and Council because he is the Vice President of the Executive Council. All members of the ministry have to be sworn as member of the Federal Executive Council.


 * Economy **

The Australia Economy has developed a modern market economy which in 2011 had the 13th largest economy in the world with the 17th largest PPP with the adjusting GDP, which represents about 1.7% of the world’s economy. It is also ranked 19th as the largest exporter and importer. The economy is dominated by the service sector with 68% of Australia’s GDP. Agriculture and mining, on the other hand, make up 10% of the 57% of the nation’s exports. It is very dependent on imported crude and petroleum oil that 80% of dependency is on both imported oil.

The Australian GDP is a little bit higher than the UK, Germany, and France that the UN ranked them second in Human Development Index and sixth in the Economy in 2009. Australia current GDP is more than 7% in the negative because the large accounts of high deficits for more than 50+ years while still been able to grow an annual average of 3.6% over 15+ years and having an average GDP growth rate of 3.4% from 1901-2000. Rich in natural resources, their major exports are wheat, wool, gold, iron-ore, and liquefied natural gas and coal. Australia major exports are Japan, China, India, South Korea, and the U.S.

Since 1980, its economy has been undergoing economic liberalization. In 2000, the goods and service act (GST) encouraged the level of saving among lower income earners; however, to level of the reduction in consumption for low income earners, income taxes were lowered as a trade off the GST. Overall, the level of taxation in Australia has been lowered over many years to encourage private consumption and investment as opposed to higher government expenditure.

Taxation in the country is levied at federal, state, and local governments, the taxes can vary from state to state because of different needs, populations, economics, and budgetary positions. The Commonwealth has the power to raise revenue form personal income and business taxes, however, the Commonwealth main source of income comes from the state governments. The states and territories also have their own taxes that enable them to fund services they provide. The taxes, however, vary from state to territory and from territory to state and they cannot raise income tax because of WWII. States taxes included payroll tax, poker machine tax, and other taxes.

In 1942, the Commonwealth took away the taxation power and put in the Income Revenue Act and other statues to levy uniform income tax across the board and the country. The acts where put in place to raise funds for necessary wartime expenses and to reduce the unequal tax between the states. This got rid of the state income tax so they could have a centralized tax system. The acts, however, where impossible to localized and was poisonous so the states challenged it but lost in the process. That is why Australia has one of the most unbalanced systems in the world with only 18% of the state’s income coming in and only 50% of the government revenue coming in.

Australia’s demographics is mostly about population, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religions, other aspects of the population, and covering the basic statistics that deal with populous cities.
 * Demographics **

It’s population is about 22,699,676 and it is the 50th most populous country in the world with most of the population living in urban areas. The population has grown from the time the British landed with 350,000 people in 1788.

Two people per sq. mi. of total land area is it because about 89% of the population live in urban areas, which makes Australia one of the most urbanized countries in the world. The life expectancy is the highest in world where the average person lives about 79.9 years.

The first people to actually arrive to Australia were the Indigenous people about 40,000 years ago that came from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. These people were hunter/gathers at first, but later on diversified over the years on both the continent and the nearby islands but culture stayed the same. Their social and spiritual life, however, became more highly complex because most of them spoke different languages and where linked to widely scattered tribal groups. Their range of population is actually to one person per sq. mile along the coast to one person per 35 sq. miles in the interior.

Australia was first sited by a Portugal sailors in 1701, Dutch navigators land on it in the 17th century several times before Britain claimed the East part of Australia in 1770 and settled and eventually settling on the western part too. During the settlement of Great Britain, there were an estimated 315,000-750,000 indigenous people living there that were divided up to 500 tribes. Today, an estimated 517,200 indigenous people still live in Australia, making up 2.5% of the population.

There are 4,956,863 residents that came outside the country which makes up 24% of the population of Australia. The majority of them came from the U.K. and Ireland during the colonial-era to post Australian Federation.

Australia is a religiously diverse country with no official religion but has Christianity as the main faith in the country. The biggest religion is the Roman Catholic faith which makes up 26% of the population; other Christian faiths make up 19.5% of the population while the Anglican faith makes 18.7% of the population. The minor religions that make up the rest of the population are Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. As the same of all Western countries, people that go to church is very low.

English in the main language and the national language in Australia and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. The other languages that are spoken are Italian, Greek, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Croatian, and the Australian Aboriginal.


 * Culture **

The Australian Culture is kind of a Western Culture that was influenced by Australia unique geography on the continent and the diverse input from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with other various multi-ethnic migrations that followed the British colonization of the country have popular sports of cricket and rugby as evidence from an Anglo-Celtic heritage. Today, it is a host of great diversity of cultural practices and pursuits.

The several states and territories in Australia were started by the First Fleet of British convicts in 1788 which makes the outlaw stories of Ned Kelly have an effect on Australia’s music, cinema, and literature. The gold rush also brought wealth to Australia but with all the social tensions rising to create the Eureka Stockade rebellion which caused the colonies to put in the rights of workers and women first before the establishing an elected parliament. The Federation in 1901 showed evidence of a growth of national identity with the help from painters from Heidelberg School and writers like Henery Lawson, Banjo Paterson, and Dorothea McKellar. After WWII, there were 6.5 million migrants coming from 200 nations which created a new diversity but grew increasingly aware of Asia proximity to the country.

Egalitarianism, a sense of humor, are common themes of cultural commentary with the fascination of the outback been in Australian arts. Even though agriculture has been importance to the economic sector, Australia is one of the most urbanized areas in the world that. It created the Multicultural Australia that has been this way since the 1970’s.

Since 1788, the Australian culture has been influenced by the Anglo-Celtic Western culture while other cultural features have arisen in both the natural environment and in the Indigenous Culture. Since the mid-20th century, the American culture has been the biggest influence in Australia, but only through TV and cinema area. There are still other cultural influences coming from other Asian countries, but through large-scale immigration.

The Australian arts have been thought that it started in caves and on bark paintings from the Indigenous people, but there were traditions that are largely done though oral stories. When the European settlement came, the Australian art came from the natural landscape which is still a source of inspiration for many modern artists in Australia. The Australian companies of preforming arts get funding from the federal government, that gives each state is own symphony orchestra and a national opera company. All capital cities host international renowned cultural institutions that also support a wide variety of sports.

Australian literature is also influenced by the Australian landscape and the nation’s colonial past influenced early literature in Australia which is still very popular with many Australians today.

The Australian Cinema Industry started in 1906 which produced the world’s first feature-length film but over the years, both Australian feature film and productions declined and was later taken over by American studios and distributors by the 1930’s. In the late 1950’s, the Australian feature film and production stop from 1959-1969, but would later restart again in the 1970’s. The two broadcasting companies that Australia has is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Special Broadcasting Service are Australia main networks with three commercial TV networks, several pre pay TV services, and numerous non-profit TV and radio stations and each major city has at least one newspaper with two national daily newspapers.

The indigenous Australian’s food was mainly influenced on where they lived. These groups would eat a hunter/gather diet which consists of collecting native game and fish with plants and fruit. The first settlers that came from Great Britain, introduced their own food which is now the typical Australian food that is called the Sunday Roast, but ever since the 20th century, the food in Australia keeps on changing and getting influenced by immigrants from countries that were from Southern Europe and Asia.

About 24% of teenagers in Australia participate in organized sporting events like cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby league, or the rugby union. Australia also has strong international team that has been to the Olympics or World Champions twice in each sport for both men and women for the last 75 years. Other sports that Australia has are track, cycling, rowing, and swimming and these sports have also been in the Olympic and World Championship meets since 2000.

Australia has been to every Olympic and Commonwealth games and has hosted the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympic Games including the 1938, 1962, 1982, and the 2006 Commonwealth games. Other major events that Australia has hosted are the Australian Open, international cricket matches, and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. They have also hosted the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the Australian- New Zealand Bledisloe Cup.

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Australian Boundary Disputes Australia has about 7.7 million sq. kilometers and the territories that are under this area that Australia has are the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Heard and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island, Coral Sea Island, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and with another 12,000 islands under Australia territory.
 * __ Border Disputes __**

In 2007, Australia and Timor-Leste, signed a treaty on a development zone and revenue sharing. The arrangement was with the deferred maritime boundary. In 1997, the treaty that is between Indonesia and Australia, settled the dispute on parts along the maritime boundary, however, there are still issues that deal with the Timor-Leste area, which caused Indonesian groups to challenge Australia claim to have Ashmore Reef. In retaliation, Australia closed the Ashmore and Cartier Islands that have been reserved for Indonesian fishing for years. The Timor Gap is an area of ocean that is between Indonesia, Timor, and Australia. The Gap, however, actually refers to the boundary of Australia and Indonesia made in 1972 but couldn’t be defined because East Timor was still ruled by Portugal. When came under Indonesian control 1989, Australia and Indonesia made the Timor Gap Treaty, but the treaty later on wouldn’t work because East Timor became independent in 2002. This then caused negotiations for the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of oil and natural gas that was located on the seabed of the Timor Sea between East Timor and Australia.

Since the time East Timor has been independent nation, Australia and international oil companies have been accused of pushing East Timor to accept a petroleum revenue-sharing formula while deferring permanent boundary resolution and forgoing legal avenues. Now that East Timor has also signed the Timor Sea Treaty that Australia and Indonesia signed but only did it with Australia so that East Timor would get 90:10 ratio of revenue from the Joint Petroleum Development Area. Also in the 2002 treaty that East Timor and Australia signed, gave future unitization of the gas and oil fields in the Greater Sunrise gas field, where about 20% the resources are located there, which some of it given to the JPDA, while the rest of it is given to Australia.

However, the view that is given from East Timor’s standpoint, the distribution could/might be disputed if the borders between Australia and Indonesia in 1972 where not recognized, it would give the Greater Sunrise that East Timor has, to Australia.

Australia Oil Usage
 * __ Oil Usage __**

Australia consumes 960,800 bbl/day, 350,692,000 bbl/ year. What Australia has done to get their oil from the OPEC nations and it is very dependent on oil. The cost of a liter of gas in Australia is $1.60 (about $6.40 for a gallon of gas). Australia does mirror the United States historical trend of gas going up, up, and up. A cost of a liter of milk in Australia is $3.55 for 2 liters (about $14.21 for one gallon of milk). Australia has seen a 200% jump on home prices, but wages for workers, while profit from income went up. Other stuff that went down are food prices, pop, and health prices, but everything else went up like furnisher, education, transportation, and many others. I can tie the cost of milk to the cost of oil and gas that both are costing more to have but the gas isn’t as going up as fast as milk is.

Australia’s oil reserves are held publically by the government. What Australia has done to preserve and protect oil reserves is that they have put laws out stating that no one can drill oil on the Great Barrier Reef or anywhere near the Australian coast. Australia would see if they increased oil production is that the prices would go down and would be less dependent on oil from the OPEC nations. Iceland Oil Usage

Iceland consumes about 17,430 bbl/ day, 6,361,950 bbl/ year on oil. What Iceland has done is that they have used less oil and very independent on oil but still use it. The price of gas in Iceland is a $1.72 for a liter (about $6.88 for a gallon of gas) and it does mirror the United States in some of the Historical trend of gas going up and down, then up, up, up. The cost of a liter of milk is 98 krona for 1 liter (about $3.40 for a gallon of milk). The percentage change on gas has went up farther than it has on milk in Iceland and I can’t tie the cost of milk and the cost of oil and gas together because the oil has increased more than milk has on cost wise. Iceland’s oil reserves are privately and they had done everything to protect their reserves from other countries use to make oil for themselves. Iceland doesn’t need to increase oil production because it is going away from oil and using more efficient and cleaner fuels like solar, water, natural gas, and battery powered cars instead of cars that run on gasoline and that need to go places.

Iceland Gender Issues The gender roles for both males and females in Iceland, deal with macro conditions and cultural values, which included the lifestyle and the adjustments in a family level of Iceland’s culture which can be found in written sagas that reflect cultural-ethical values and social norms in Iceland. These types of sagas also bring strong ideas/ideals for the modern men and women that can be good or bad and these sagas might have some old values in them that are linked to survival and social adjustments in tough natural environments, but have pressures under poor socioeconomic conditions.
 * __ Gender Issues __**

A modern woman today see themselves as strong, independent women but assumes most family responsibilities like emotional care and survival while modern young men see themselves as the socially and economically responsible for the economic survival of the family. These Icelandic families are analyzed from the interaction of old values and modern lifestyle they have.

Equalities in Iceland have started more than a century from women’s rights and activities in different social organizations. It all started when Iceland women gained the right to vote in 1915. Ever since then, the first women to be in parliament was in 1922 with movements to help equality for women like the Redstocking Movement for sexual equality, the Women’s Slate Movement, the Women Party, the Society for Sheltering Battered Women, the Women Counseling Service, and so many others.

From this progress, modern Icelandic women are strong, but this does not the mean the same thing as been free and independent that is applied to women, including men because most women have low wages and occupational status. The poor participation and the lack of recognition in the public sphere is also a problem. The women also deal with the pressure of increasing globalization that reduces the historical isolating effects and geographical distances from other countries. Examples of these are the Internet/computer media that import scientific knowledge and convey with the latest data about the gender equality and behavioral patterns.

The ideals about personal freedoms are affected when the men/women choose and plan an educational path, have an occupational career, have children, and start a family. These things often collide with the old values that are related to personal sacrifice, hard work, and social adjustments in Iceland. This creates the inhabitants of Iceland not to do long working hours, but are expected to find themselves effective solutions for family matters which brings in a strong, informal family network that plays in when public services and support are lacking for couples that have a career.

Both men and women deal with the strong social pressure to reach their goals in Iceland but the old values have conflict for both families and couples with children every day.

After WWII, the usually small, quiet, and rural Iceland society changed to urbanization with a civil environment with a modern lifestyle. While on the other hand, the government economic contribution was lower to the social and family matters than the health services because they never took into account that people were working long hours, the number of children they had, and the number of three generation households they have to take care of. Men work around 54 plus hours a week while the women work 45 hours a week.

Iceland will always construct sexuality be related to family building, health, work, values, and moral attitudes to provide on a third domain of basic sexological premises. Icelanders do not have gender conflicts or confusion as we know but there is a chance that 280,000 people experience been transsexuals, transvestism, hermaphroditism, pseudo hermaphroditism, and intersexualism because of the sum of stuff that people find online might change their tune to what they see.

Australia Gender Issues

Gender inequality is a daily experience in Australia because women have barriers at their career progression and workforce place. Personal stories that the women tell say they are underrepresented in senior leadership position and that older women have limited retirement because they go in and out of the workforce, which causes them to go into poverty later on in life. But both men and women have the same difficulties by trying to balance work and family responsibilities, which doesn’t give them enough or don’t have paid leave, including maternity leave.

On the men’s side of the equation, the pressure that they have are been the primary bread-winner and having to work long hours that prevents them from sharing time with their families, children, and spouse. On the women’s side of the equation, they deal with the sexual harassment and long term violence at the workforce which impacts them on how long they will be in the workforce or in and out of the workforce time to time including discrimination.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to gender inequality in Australia that is interconnected like pay inequality in women’s retirement savings and it influence decisions within families that share paid work and caring responsibilities. Another example is women that are in and out of the paid workforce and it is due to caring responsibilities. The structural and cultural barriers that are in the workforce prevent women from balancing paid work and caring responsibilities.

This causes a decrease in workforce participation and economic independence for women, but those same barriers, effect men also, that prevent them from sharing that care responsibility. It is even harder for men to get flexible work due to cultural stereotypes about the roles between parents while women continue to take more unpaid care responsibilities which their needs to be a cause/addressment of one issue over another is not a very good way to solve the gender issue. The agenda over gender equality must be recognize differences between women in Australia, however, there are still other factors that cause the gender issue like race, disability age, sexuality and socio-economic status. However, the primary concern is the Indigenous Australian women in remote communities that don’t get to live safety, have access to housing, education, employment, and healthcare. Women that work in the low paid industries, however, get better pay and better workplace conditions, with tea breaks and access to toilets while women that are refugee’s, want access to an education and employment without the fear of been discriminated radically want to be socially accepted of cultural differences. Women with disabilities want to have safety and have an autonomy over one’s life decisions, that includes getting and education and be employed no matter what. No matter what the cost of it, it will not just happen and the legislation will not make an issue about it.

Changing attitudes is the key to achieving long-term gender issues in Australia and an example of that is education on salary negotiation, which means a close on the gender pay gap to increase women’s economic independence, including on educating the community on the value of unpaid work. They would also educate employers/employees on effective and flexible work practices to overcome the struggle that many men and women face every day. By making these suggestions clear, the messages to the community about gender inequality is pervasive and deep rooted that if not changed, there will not be a successful change without attitudinal change towards it.

Socio-Economic Difficulties