Iceland has its eccentrics like any other country. There are media reports in Iceland referring to the distraction and complete fiction regarding this road being carried by foreign media, the article under reference being among the milder cases. Because protesters (almost all simply environmentalists and "not in my back yard" folk) have lodged a case in court, an injunction has been issued, that's all - the works are already well advanced and sit-ins did not succeed in halting it. I am unsure exactly whether there is more than a single person speaking up for the hidden people, but I know there is one prominent woman there. None of this has anything to do with banking. Icelandic banks began to collapse slightly behind the British ones but were put on a fast track by Gordon Brown's diversionary tactic of officially putting Iceland (yes, the country and nation, not just the banks) on a terrorist list. The whole issue eventually went to a European court and Britain not only lost but was admonished along with the IMF and others. Meanwhile recovery from the crisis is going much better in Iceland than in the UK, for example with a 4.2% unemployment rate in November.