Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.08.2014, Blaðsíða 8

Iceland | For Dummies
Unless you’ve been literally liv-
ing in a cave for the past two
weeks, chances are that you’ve heard
of the possible eruption at Bárðar-
bunga peak. In the end (at the time
of writing), this insufferable geological
formation didn’t have the decency to
erupt even a little bit, let alone disrupt
air travel across the European conti-
nent. Instead, it rumbled, made some
tremors, fooled scientists into thinking
a small eruption was underway when
there totally wasn’t, annoyed farmers
affected by the evacuation of the area,
spawned endless alarmist articles in
the international press, and failed to
destroy the Kárahnjúkar Dam. Worst.
Volcano. Ever.
The case of the Interior Min-
istry scandal has taken a turn
for the worse or better, depending on
how you look at it. A letter from the
Parliamentary Ombudsman partially
transcribed an interview he conducted
with former Commissioner of the Capi-
tal Area Police Stefán Eiríksson, where
it came to light that Minister of the
Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir re-
peatedly questioned nearly every step
of the investigations, and threatened
to conduct an investigation of both the
police and the State Prosecutor when
all was said and done, while her as-
sistants tried to get Stefán to issue a
press statement denying the details of
news coverage of the case. In keeping
with her usual MO of defensiveness
and denial, Hanna Birna has dismissed
or downplayed every part of this letter,
remarking that the matter has been
personally difficult for her. It well might
be, but it’s still probably not as difficult
as it has been for Tony Omos, the asy-
lum seeker whose life was ruined by all
of this in the first place.
The one and only Justin Timber-
lake graced our fair shores re-
cently, performing to a standing-room-
only crowd in Kópavogur. Despite the
By Paul Fontaine
— Continues —
8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2014
Like young people the world over, Icelandic youths like to humiliate younger kids for fun. This behav-iour takes many
forms, but the one that has been in
the news lately is secondary school
hazing. In Iceland, primary school
ends at sixteen and almost everyone
starts secondary school the following
autumn, although a secondary educa-
tion is not compulsory. Traditionally,
new students are hazed by students
in the fourth and final year, with each
school having their own set of rituals.
Yes, if humiliation and endan-
germent is a tradition, then it's
okay.
These hazing rituals are generally
harmless. New students are made to
wear silly clothing and get soiled with
skyr and other food, and/or doused
in water. Sometimes, however, these
rituals border on sexual harassment,
for instance when new students are
auctioned off to older students to be
slaves for a day—and in a few cases,
they turn out to be outright sexual ha-
rassment, such as when new students
are made to place their heads on the
clothed crotches of older students.
Kids today are just the worst,
with their loud music and long
hair!
This is not a new phenomenon in
Iceland. The most venerable tradi-
tion is practised in the downtown
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, where
students in the oldest class toss first
year students in the air. This form of
hazing goes back at least to the nine-
teenth century at the school, but is
probably older still.
Being tossed in the air? That
sounds like clean, wholesome
fun!
That particular hazing is so ingrained
in the school's culture that it is hard
to imagine it stopping, but it has been
controversial. Around the middle of
the last century, female students pro-
tested against it because creepy older
male students were using it as an op-
portunity to feel them up.
Why is it that these kinds of
traditions always turn out to
be crime scenes?
Since it is such an ingrained tradition,
people mostly accept its existence. In
schools that were founded later than
the nearly 170-year old Menntaskó-
linn í Reykjavík, hazing rituals are
frowned upon by school authorities,
with most schools banning the prac-
tice. The Association of Icelandic Sec-
ondary Schools has recommended to
its members that hazing be banned.
That sounds like the set-up for
a wacky high school movie.
Hopefully, no band of rebellious teen-
agers will organize their own un-
derground hazing ritual in defiance
of the killjoy school authorities. But
many secondary school students are
against the ban on hazing. Much like
how people who open a bag to find
something foul-smelling feel the need
to ask other people to smell just how
foul the odour is, people who have
been hazed often want to have their
turn as the aggressors.
Just like how people who've
bought rotten apples at the su-
permarket put them back on
the pile of fresh apples on their
next grocery trip?
I am pretty sure you’re the only one
that does this. This autumn, eleven
secondary schools have banned haz-
ing, leaving only four schools in
the country that still allow it. Jón
Reynir Sigurvinsson, principal of
Menntaskólinn á Ísafirði, Ísafjörður’s
secondary school, spoke for many
when he said that hazing was vio-
lence and that "we do not allow peo-
ple to commit violent acts for three
days each year."
In that movie 'The Purge: An-
archy,' people only get one day
to commit violence without
legal consequences, so I guess
school hazing's three times
worse.
Some schools have a whole week of
hazing. There is another way of look-
ing at these traditions. Ethnographers
Terry Gunnell and Cilia Marianne
Úlfsdóttir have studied hazing ritu-
als in Icelandic educational institu-
tions. They point out that secondary
schools are isolated communities on
the edge of the mainstream. Like with
all peripheral societies, new members
have to be accepted symbolically, and
these rituals serve to introduce the
first year students into the larger so-
cial body.
When a group of people throw
skyr at me, I also usually want
to be their friend.
Cilia Marianne Úlfsdóttir pointed out
in an article that was published last
year in the newspaper Fréttablaðið
that the unpleasantness of the ritual
is its point. Since every new batch of
students is made to undergo the same
humiliation as older students, this
creates a shared, common experience.
No matter how you present it,
twenty-year-olds humiliat-
ing sixteen-year-olds is a rec-
ipe for skyr and apple cake. I
meant recipe for disaster.
Older students often take things too
far, but if the hazing is structured
properly, it can be made into a safe
environment with clear boundaries.
These rituals can be designed to be
like horror films: scary but not dan-
gerous. However that would require
school authorities to educate the
older students on how to behave, and
set defined rules. But since that takes
a lot of work, it is a lot simpler to just
ban hazing rituals altogether.
So What's This Hazing
I Keep Hearing About?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
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