The country is Iceland - the butt of politicians sarcastic comments since the bankers pulled the UK and more of the financial world into the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Prior to the collapse of the banks Iceland was often mentioned as part of an 'arc of prosperity' (along with Norway and Eire) by Alex Salmond, but since 2008 the opposition parties in the Scottish government have been scathing about the First Minister's judgement of prosperity.
No more though. The opposition have been silenced. Iceland has now returned to strong growth and has spared its population many of the austerity measures seen here in the UK and throughout Europe.
Iceland was thought a basket case when it refused to placate international investors and bail out its banks and make its people pay the price. It let the banks go bust and expanded its social safety net.
This week it has been announced that Iceland is not returning the money invested by UK local authorities - although I'll never understand why these authorities were permitted to invest so much in another country, when they could have invested in UK banks. Greed appears to have been the motivator as the Icelandic banks offered a higher interest rate.
It can't have been easy for the Icelanders in the past few years, but with the majority of the population agreeing the methodology, they are now in a position which is the envy of many countries who allowed - and still do - banks to push them around. It pushed losses onto bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of the welfare system shielded the unemployed from desperate poverty.
Now world-reknowned economists and even the IMF are praising this small country's recovery as 'impressive', although praise from Westminster has not been forthcoming.
I remember Gordon Brown, in one of his 'saviour of the world' speeches saying bank bailouts were the only resolution and Iceland's only chance of survival was to join the EU as soon as possible. Now the Icelanders are reconsidering their plans about being a full member of the EU. Sensible indeed.
Of course Iceland got it right. As one commenter said, 'You have to chop the head off the beast and not just change its diet as we did.'
And it was all done by people power. The people sacked the government, prosecuted the bankers and bought some time in which to make their decisions. Their first loyalty was to each other and not to outside opportunists.
That's true democracy.
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