Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2012, Blaðsíða 16

Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2012, Blaðsíða 16
16 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 5 — 2012 Ragnar seems like a pretty nice guy! Want to help him help Kenya? He plans on selling Icelandic dried fish (harðfiskur) in bars all over Reykjavík this summer with some of the proceeds going to Kenya. You can find it right now at Kaffi Haítí and Volcano House. Harðfiskur is a must-try anyway, so you should definitely go for it. All eyes were trained on Iceland during Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao’s recent two-day sojourn. Many were particularly curious of the fact that Ice- land was the first nation on Wen’s Eu- ropean trade agenda. I mean, Iceland’s hardly on the way to the Bundestag, is it? Why then, would Wen be so inter- ested in visiting this so-called bankrupt nation teetering on the edge of the Arctic Circle? And although Iceland’s geother- mal resources are certainly of interest to energy-starved China, would one think it necessary for the head of the Chinese Communist Party to make a personal visit? The Chinese media seem keen to tell us that Wen’s university education as a geologist is why he holds a special inter- est. Others are perhaps rightfully more wary. The Stefansson Arctic Institute’s Em- bla Eir Oddsdóttir told Reuters, "Given China's investment pattern around the globe, people have asked questions. Is there some ulterior motive? [...] For the next decade they are going to be battling some sort of suspicion as to their motive, because people have a tendency to link them to some type of regime.” What sort of a regime would that be, Embla Eir? Mia Shanley of Reuters said: “China’s interest in ties to resource rich lands is no secret. Its businesses have also been on the lookout for opportunities in a Europe weakened by financial crisis—a crisis felt nowhere more sharply than Iceland.” And the fact of the matter is that the polar cap is receding far quicker than may have been initially anticipated. Sci- entists say we could already face rising concerns as early as 2040. A free ice pas- sage over the top of the world “could slash the journey time from Europe and the east coast of North America to Chinese and Japanese ports by well over a week…” (by all conservative estimates 6.400 km of sea voyage). “I wonder if under the surface the race is already there, to gain a foothold in the Arctic,” Embla Eir says. As Deutsche Welle was keen to point out, “around 46% of the Chinese gross national product is linked to shipping. China also imports 85% of its energy from abroad.” A lion’s share, of course, is currently imported from that bone-of- contention nation, Syria. According to Taiwan’s Taipei Times, “The Arctic’s oil reserves were high on the agenda…during the high-powered delegation’s visit to Iceland [despite the fact that Prime Minister Jóhanna] Sig- urðardóttir touted the…deal as [nudge- nudge] ‘research collaboration.’” So it’s not just rocks that Mr. Wen is interested in, but the potential of Icelandic oil? “Es- timates suggest around 13% of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves and at least 30% of its gas are buried under arctic ice,” says Deutsche Welle. Or perhaps Chinese scientists have found a way to harness the power of the Aurora Borealis? In an April 21 article in China’s Xin- Hua News Agency, Iceland was touted as the untouched jewel of the North Atlan- tic: a premier destination for adventure- seeking nouveau-riche Chinese. Could it be that Chinese investor Huang Nubo’s thwarted plans for purchasing a giant slab of Iceland’s north were actually quite kosher? China Daily shows that “around 7,000 Chinese people visited Iceland in 2009 [and] the number is on the rise.” FYI, 7.000 Chinese isn’t even an apartment complex in Shanghai. Taiwan’s China Post noted that the same Huang Nubo had recently urged the Chinese government to promote overseas Chinese firms and investments in the wake of Wen’s visit to Europe. “Ris- ing Chinese investment in Europe—hit by a sovereign debt crisis—has caused concern, although Wen earlier this year sought to allay fears, saying Beijing did not have the intention to ‘buy Europe.’” Whether we like it or not, China’s foreign currency reserves are high; and they’ve got to do something with all that foreign capital aside from buying up mines in Africa. More recently the slowdown of China’s domestic growth has been of growing concern, and it may well be that diversification of Chinese in- vestments, and in particular investments abroad, are of greater interest. On April 19, China Daily said: “…Premier Wen stated earlier this month that the nation would…begin fine-tuning its policies to promote continued economic growth…” Which rather sounds like someone’s in an investment mood. Shortly before leaving for Iceland, Wen called for a domestic crackdown on governmental corruption following the suspected murder of a British business- man by politician Bo Xilai’s wife. Appar- ently Iceland-based Bloomberg journalist Ómar R. Valdimarsson got a right wal- loping from Wen’s bodyguard for even broaching the subject. A trip to Iceland is probably just what Wen needs to take his mind off things. Cui Hongjian, head of the European department of the China Institute for International Studies, recently told re- porters: “…China insists that the Arctic belongs to everyone just like the moon.” Insistence, of course, gets you every- where—especially somewhere between the moon and the Arctic. Surely everyone needs an Aurora to light up these dark, Arctic times. News | Iceland in the international eye: AprilAfrica | Kenya Somewhere Between The Moon And The Arctic Out Of Africa MARC VINCENz Ragnar Sverrisson is an engineer and technician who has been active in the humanist movement for thirty years, both in Iceland and abroad. In recent years, Ragnar has devoted his time and money to humanitarian work in Kenya. “When I first went to Kenya, I instantly fell in love with the coun- try and its people. I've been there five times since 2004, and in fact I met my wife there,” Ragnar says. Ragnar's affiliation with the country began when a young man from Kenya named Ken sent an inquiry to the inter- national humanist movement website. The site administrator in New York was a friend of Ragnar's and the humanists' in Iceland, and he thought it might be a good idea to put Ken in touch with the Icelandic humanist sect. “Ken wanted to know if he could help out in his own homeland, so we started corresponding. Three of us visited him and that's how our humanitarian work in Kenya began. He was very ambitious but now, sadly, he's deceased,” Ragnar says, adding that in Kenya, death is very much part of every- day life. “It's completely different there; throughout my whole life I've known per- haps ten people that have died, but since I first went to Kenya I've known about twenty to thirty people that have died ei- ther from AIDS or in car crashes, which cause more deaths among children there than AIDS.” BRINGING WATER AND ICE TO KENyA Ragnar experienced the difficult way of life in Kenya firsthand when he tried rent- ing land and growing vegetables. “It went well at first, but when the crops came there were these massive droughts and we had very little to show for it. During drought season two years ago, one third of the population suffered famine,” Rag- nar says. Coming from a place where water is in abundance, namely Iceland, Ragnar has been working on a project to build water pumps in Kenya. There is a massive water shortage in Africa, and Eastern Af- rica in particular is experiencing some of the worst droughts in 60 years. “I wanted to use my knowledge of technology in helping out down there,” he says. He has also spent five years building a refrigeration system. “Basically, you can capture the heat from the sun and use it to freeze food and even cool houses. They have very primitive fishing methods in Kenya and they almost never refriger- ate their food,” Ragnar says. “To build this machine, we received a 10 million króna grant from the Rannís Technology Devel- opment Fund. We've finished all stages of development and the machine works. It might sound strange here in Iceland, but globally speaking, seventy percent of all the world’s electric energy output is used for refrigeration.” In addition to using his technological expertise to work on refrigeration and water shortage problems in Kenya, Rag- nar has been working on another press- ing social concern. Due to AIDS, Kenyan society has an overwhelming problem of orphaned children. In a nation of about 50 million people, the number of orphans is estimated at five million, a staggering ten percent of the population. “There are a lot of people who want to help by starting day care centres or sup- plying food, but they badly need money to fund these projects,” Ragnar says. “After kids finish elementary school they have to start paying school fees, so a lot of kids drop out. I started thinking how I could help these older kids and came up with a project that could make them some mon- ey. The idea was to start a young people's co-op, where the profit would be used to pay their school fees.” LEARNING FROM KENyA IN RETURN Along the way, Ragnar discovered that Kenyans have a very different way of thinking and dealing with things. “Their mentality is completely different and when I first went there, I thought I could teach them a lot, but as time passes I've realised that there is rather a lot they can teach us,” he says. “We can bring the technology and the forward-thinking to them but they can help us with living our everyday lives in a happier fashion.” However, Ragnar thinks that one of the things that hamper progress in Ke- nya is the incredibly corrupt government, which often steals government funding allocated for bettering the community. Icelanders tend to complain about the situation here after the crisis and some are disillusioned with the Icelandic poli- ticians and the current state of affairs. Compared to the problems of a devel- oping country like Kenya though, these problems are miniscule. “My friend Paul Ramses [Icelandic immigrant from Kenya] laughs at the crisis here in Iceland because they live in that situation every day. There is mas- sive shortage of food and water, poverty, corruption, AIDS and not many natural resources,” he says. Drilling for water, humanitarian work and bad politics in Kenya Words Þórður Ingi Jónsson Photography Alísa Kalyanova www.ishestar.is For further information check out our website www.ishestar.is, call +354 555 7000 or be our friend on Facebook. Come ride with us For almost 30 years Íshestar has given people an opportunity to experience the Icelandic horse on long and short trips. Horses are our passion. Come ride with us in the beautiful surroundings of our Íshestar Riding Centre. You get free transport from all major hotels and guesthouses in the capital area. ISK 500.- discount!* Name the magic word, "tölt", and you will get ISK 500.- discount on the Lava tour. Only valid when paid at our Riding Centre. *Not valid with other oers.
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