IT'S CHRISTMAS, BUT NOT AS REYKJAVIK KNOWS IT

"The Crunch stole Christmas!" shouts the front page of Reykjavik's lifestyle newspaper, alongside a picture of Dr Seuss's character, the Grinch, clutching a bag of Icelandic krona. "The Crunch took our jobs, homes, businesses and savings. But unlike the Grinch, he is not likely to give anything back."

A wander through Reykjavik shows you Christmas has not exactly been stolen. The city shimmers with fairy lights; shops sell festive fermented fish; a brass band toots out carols from the snow-piled pavement.

But beneath the surface, Iceland is floundering. In October, the country's wealth-engines - its debt-bloated banks - collapsed, taking the currency with them. To avoid national bankruptcy, Iceland borrowed $10bn (€7.2bn, £6.8bn) from the IMF and others. The debt burden means higher taxes and spending cuts just as the country heads into a brutal recession. GDP is expected to fall by 10 per cent next year; unemployment to triple.

"It just feels as if your uncle or your father was a secret alcoholic," says Halldór Hreinsson, who runs an outdoor gear shop. "It is as if he was drinking away the family savings, remortgaging the house, selling the car without you noticing, and then one day leaves you and your mother and brothers and sisters with nothing."

Services have been packed out at Hallgrímskirkja, the scaffolding-shrouded church that teeters over Reykjavik. African children stare plaintively from posters on the walls. "Vilt ?ú Hjálpa?" they implore: will you help?

This Christmas, though, much of the money clattering into the church's collection plates will go to Icelandic families - home-owning, car-driving families who have suddenly found they cannot make ends meet.

Few can believe how far and how fast their country has fallen. Three months ago, the nation enjoyed some of the best living standards in the world. Poverty was something that happened to other people.

Jon Omar Gunnarsson, a youth pastor at the church, was ordained the day before the crisis hit. One of his jobs is to visit schools and teach about bereavement.

"A lot of the young people recognised themselves in that cycle. They had the shock, the numbness, the anger - wanting someone, anyone to be punished," he says. "We are all bereaved. This is a national tragedy."

Most do not need to rely on food parcels from the church to feed themselves, but everyone is going back to basics. The days of sashaying out to smart hotels for Christmas banquets are over: this year people want to stay at home with their families.

The full force of the recession will hit in February, when the thousands who have lost their jobs finish their three-month notice periods. Few expect to find new jobs here to replace them.

The newspapers are full of adverts from Norwegian construction companies trying to persuade Icelandic workers to migrate. It is a humiliating climbdown for a country that, until a few months ago, imported Polish workers to do its grimy jobs.

Self-pity doesn't wash here, though. In the queue for a charity food parcel, and some toys to give to her children, one woman says: "What I like about the kreppa [crisis] is people start to be cosy, more human.

"Anyway, we have warm houses and cheap hot water. When I feel bad, I can stand under a hot shower for as long as I want."

　　 特写：危机偷走了冰岛人的圣诞节

"危机偷走了圣诞节！"，这几个字赫然出现在雷克雅未克一份生活时尚报纸的头版上，旁边的配图是苏斯博士(Dr Seuss)所创作的卡通人物格林奇（the Grinch，译者注：该人物最初出现在一本题为《格林奇如何偷走圣诞节》的儿童读物里），手里紧紧抓着一袋子冰岛克朗。"危机剥夺了我们的工作、房子、企业和存款。但与格林奇不同的是，它不太可能还给我们任何东西。"

在雷克雅未克的街上逛逛你就会发现，圣诞节还没有完全被偷走。城市里闪烁着童话般的灯光；商店出售着专供节日用的发酵鱼(Fermented Fish)；一支铜管乐队在满是积雪的路面上吹奏着圣诞颂歌。

但在这种节日气氛的表象下，冰岛正在艰难挣扎。今年10月份，该国的财富引擎--银行--因负债累累而崩溃，该国货币也随之大幅贬值。为了避免国家破产，冰岛向国际货币基金组织(IMF)和其它方面借资100亿美元。这一债务负担意味着，正当该国步入严酷的经济衰退之际，它不得不增加税收和削减支出。预计明年冰岛国内生产总值(GDP)将萎缩10%，失业人数将上升两倍。

经营一家户外运动用品商店的霍尔多•海瑞森(Halldór Hreinsson)表示："这种感觉就像你的叔叔或父亲私下里是个酒鬼，他在你未察觉的情况下喝光了家里的储蓄、转按揭了房子、卖掉了汽车，然后有一天，他让你、你的母亲以及兄弟姐妹们变得一无所有。"

雷克雅未克大教堂(Hallgrímskirkja)的礼拜仪式已经排满，包裹着教堂的脚手架在雷克雅未克的上空摇摆着。教堂墙壁的海报上，非洲儿童正悲哀的凝视着人们，哀求着："Vilt ?ú Hjálpa?"（你能帮帮我们吗？）

不过，今年圣诞节教堂捐献盘里叮当作响的大部分款项将捐赠给冰岛家庭--那些贷款购车购房、却突然发现自己入不敷出的家庭。

几乎没人相信这个国家会陷得这么深、这么快。三个月前，冰岛人还在某些方面享有全球最高的生活水准。"贫穷"还是发生在其他人身上的事。

乔恩•奥马尔•贡纳森(Jon Omar Gunnarsson)这位青年牧师是在危机袭来之前得到该教堂任命的。他的工作之一是拜访学校，讲授有关丧亲的内容。

他表示："很多年轻人都承认自己处于这样一个心理周期，从震惊、麻木到愤怒--希望有人、或者希望所有人都受到惩罚。我们皆有所失。这是整个国家的悲剧。"

大多数冰岛人并不需要依靠教堂施舍的食品来养活自己，但是每个人都正回归低标准的生活方式。那些走出家门、到时髦酒店吃圣诞大餐的日子已成为过去：今年，人们想与家人一起呆在家里。

经济衰退对冰岛造成的冲击将在明年2月份完全显现，那时，成千上万失业者的三个月通知期就将届满。几乎没有失业者指望自己能找到新工作。

报纸上充斥着挪威建筑公司的广告，这些公司试图说服冰岛工人移民到挪威。对于一个直到数月前还在引进波兰工人干脏活的国家来说，这是一种令人屈辱的倒退。

然而，自哀自怜在这里并不流行。一位在队列里等待领取慈善食品包裹及一些给孩子的玩具的妇女称："Kreppa[危机]让我感到满意的地方在于，人们开始变得亲近起来、更有人情味。"

"不管怎样，我们还有温暖的家和廉价的热水。当我心情不好时，我可以站在喷着热水的喷头下，想站多久就站多久。"
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