Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2004, Side 6

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Highland National Park?
According to a recent Gallup
poll, 70% of Icelanders support
the idea of a national park north
of Vatnajökull, up from 65% in
2002, and 66,6% support making
a preserve of the river Jökulsá
á Fjöllum. The Iceland Nature
Conservation Society has been
trying to make a national park of
the highlands since 1997. Making
a national park of the area north
of Vatnajökull would mean halting
construction of the Kárahnjúkar
dam.
When Ice Attacks
About 50 people were admitted to
the accident ward of Landsspítali
hospital due to injuries sustained
from slipping on ice – in a single
day. There were no serious inju-
ries, but there were a few breaks
and sprains, and some bumps
to the head. Maybe now they’ll
start putting salt on the sidewalks
instead of sand.
Iceland Might Withdraw Sup-
port for War in Iraq . . . Or
Not
Solveig Pétursdóttir, the chairman
of the office of foreign affairs, said
in parliament today that it’s un-
certain whether or not Iceland will
withdraw its support for the war
in Iraq. This was said in response
to a surprise statement made by
the chairman of the Progressive
Party, Hjálmar Árnason, on the
television show Silfur Egils that
it was “very possible” that Iceland
withdraws it’s support from the
war in Iraq. Sólveig, however, said
that the office of foreign affairs
considers it very important “to set
the goal to establish democracy in
Iraq.”
ICELAND’S HOMELESSNESS PROBLEM
– AND SOME VERY SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
by Paul F Nikolov
Consider the numbers. It is
estimated that there are between 40
and 50 “literally homeless” (people
living on the street) in Iceland,
with somewhere between 80 and
100 people in some form of near
homelessness. Even if we look at
these numbers from a per capita
point of view, only a little over one
tenth of one percent of Icelanders are
literally homeless, as opposed to one
percent of other western Europeans.
Among European countries with a
stable social system, Iceland’s GDP
per capita is $30,900, compared to
$27,700 in the UK and $27,600 in
France and Germany. In a country
where the average person is making
more money - and where there are
ten times fewer homeless people -
than the rest of western Europe, one
would think that literal homelessness
in Iceland wouldn’t even occur in
the first place; that the unfortunate
few who did land on hard times, for
whatever reason, would find multiple
resources at
their disposal to
turn their lives
around. Sadly,
this isn’t the case.
The bar or jail?
The most popular shelter for the
homeless in Iceland is the police
station. Most can just show up there
and get a place to sleep for the night,
although on some nights committing
a small crime is necessary if one
wants to get a bed. There are no day
centers for the homeless which, in
most countries, provide job training
and placement as well as substance
abuse councilling. Rather, the
daytime options in Reykjavik range
from hanging out at the bus stations,
Kaffi Austurstræti (known as “Kaffi
Skítur” to many), or Kaffistofan on
Hverfisgata. On top of all, almost no
member of parliament has even so
much as mentioned that addressing
the homeless problem in Iceland is
necessary.
One of the more popular arguments
made against using more state
money to help Iceland’s homeless
bases itself, oddly, on how few of
them there are. Because Iceland is a
wealthy nation with a strong social
system, the line goes, these few
people on the street must obviously
be drunks and junkies who don’t
want to be a part of society. But as
with the question of the chicken and
the egg, there are no figures which
show whether these people became
homeless because of their substance
abuse problems, or if the substance
abuse came about after they became
homeless. One thing that’s for sure is
that it’s almost impossible for most
Homelessness is, for most countries, a
problem which seems nearly insurmountable. The
solutions have proven temporary at best and at
worst, callous and cynical. In my home town of
Baltimore, for example, the problem of homeless
people sleeping on steam grates was “corrected” by
bolting down steel, pyramid-like structures over
the grates, effectively eliminating the only warm
place to sleep on the street. Conversely, Iceland
is in a position to eliminate their homelessness
problem – which makes it all the more bewildering
that the government does so little to try to solve it.
of us to imagine what it must be like
to live day to day without shelter or
income, cut off from our families
and rejected by the society which
raised us – many of us would most
likely crack and turn to some form of
self-medication or another. It’s even
more impossible to think of a reason
why a country as rich as Iceland with
so few homeless people would decide
to turn its back on them.
Cheaper than a chunk of ice
In all fairness, the city of Reykjavík
does own three temporary shelters in
town – one on Miklabraut, one on
Þingstræti and the Red Cross shelter.
Yet these places serve as a place to
sleep and little more, which seems
entirely unfair when we compare
Iceland to Denmark (as we are often
wont to do).
Denmark and Iceland have about
the same per capita GDP and
about the same percentage of
literally homeless. Yet in addition
to shelters, Denmark also provides
its homeless with job training and
job placement programs, drug and
alcohol councilling, and numerous
day centers. For Iceland to ignore
the opportunity to save what few
people that have fallen through the
cracks now only opens the door
for Iceland’s homeless to grow in
number. Instead of filling in these
budding cracks, Iceland is letting
them spread.
The government was able to find 80
million kronur to send a chunk of
ice to France as part of an exhibition
and has set hundreds of millions of
kronur aside for a new music hall.
The funds for tackling homelessness
effectively do exist.
One idea finds its inspiration in the
numerous large and empty buildings
downtown which are currently up for
sale. The state could buy one such
building and renovate it into the first
state-run shelter for the homeless
in Iceland. Within this same
building there could be employment
councillors, substance abuse
councillors, job training classes, day
care, and a general daytime activity
center where people won’t have to
spend their time drinking beer and
staring out the window at the world
passing them by. Rather, such a
“turn-around centre” would be there
to bring people back into a society
that had, until then, considered it
acceptable to let some of its citizens
fall to the wayside. Hopefully, the
day will soon come when such a time
is just a distant memory.
"Best Mexican food in Europe."
--David Grohl, Foo Fighters
"Worth the trip to Iceland."
--Viggo Mortensen, Lord of the Rings
Opening Hours:
Sunday-Wednesday: 11-23
Open Late-Night
Thursday : 11-02
Friday-Saturday : 11-07
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