Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.05.2017, Page 18

Poll: Most
Icelanders
Support Equal
Pay Law
Words: Alice Demurtas
Photo: Art Bicnick
NEWS Iceland made interna-
tional headlines last month with
the passage of the so-called “equal
pay law.” The law itself is complex
in structure, but one key feature
is that it would require compa-
nies with 25 employees or more to
guarantee that male and female
employees are being paid the same
wages for the same work.
While the law was rife with
grumblings and objections from
some (almost entirely male) MPs,
it turns out that most Icelandic
voters support the measure.
According to a new poll from
Market and Media Research, 60.1%
of those surveyed were either very
supportive (36.3%) or rather sup-
portive (23.8%) of the law. By con-
trast, only 20.8% were either rath-
er against (8.4%) or very against
(12.4%) it, with the remaining 19.2%
decidedly neutral on the subject.
To the surprise of absolutely no
one, the demographic breakdown
shows more women than men
support the law. It was also most
popular amongst those aged 18 to
29 and, in terms of income, had the
greatest opposition from those
making a million ISK or more
per month. Politically, Progres-
sive Party voters were the most
opposed, while Left-Greens had
the highest levels of support.
Endangered
Language
Words: Halldór Armand Ásgeirsson
They’re saying you’re killing our
language. What do you think
about that? You and the smart-
phones. You don’t understand
us, so we speak English to you,
because we all watched
‘Baywatch’ undubbed
as children. What
happens when
the Internet of
Things arrives?
Will my toilet
be able to speak
Icelandic to me?
Hardly. I will have
to communicate
with it using my pre-
cious Baywatch-English,
asking it to read me a Volvo
owner’s manual while I release my
waste into it. And this is the prob-
lem now. In all sincerity and se-
riousness this is causing us wor-
ries. Will globalization try to kill
our language? Will Facebook and
the other Guardians of the Future
try to gradually force us and oth-
ers like us into using English be-
cause, well, it’s more convenient
for them to conduct their global
control that way? Or will they see
the light and try to help us?
It is true that you hear Eng-
lish everywhere these days and,
yes, it’s flowing from the lips of
Icelanders as well. Is it
because of the smart-
phones? The lack of
proper Netflix sub-
titles? The media
is saying we need
something like a
billion krónur to
propel our ancient
language into the
digital realm. Will
that save the language?
Really? Is the problem re-
ally that Siri thinks I’m asking
for something called a “pussy
store” when I’m actually asking
her to Google “Passíusálmarnir,”
an epic 17th century collection of
hymns recounting the history of
the pain and suffering of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ?
One is tempted to think the
problem runs a little deeper than
that. Maybe it’s just the Baywatch-
curse—the other side of the coin
of learning to speak good English
at an early age. We could call it
the Seinfeldization of the Mind.
It would actually be interesting to
see research that compared how
many Icelanders have seen every
single episode of ‘Seinfeld’ with
the number who’ve read every
book by Halldór Laxness. We now
have generations that are much
more familiar with something we
could—rather naively—call “Free
World Pop Culture” than with
their own unexciting cultural her-
itage of mud farms, repulsive food
and stories of poor people. It has
its downside. Their whole world
of references, ideas and humour
comes from the FWPC, and that’s
why they increasingly use English
to communicate. It’s not that they
don’t know or don’t want to speak
Icelandic or that their smartphone
is manipulating them into using
English only, but that their inner
world can increasingly only—well,
at least fully—be communicated
through English. A nice example
is the word “actually” that now
seems to be part of common Ice-
landic usage.
This is of course the trend ev-
erywhere. We live in a world that
rejects isolation, which is a neces-
sary ingredient of everything “lo-
cal.” Local is disappearing, that’s
why it’s been a trend in advertis-
ing for years (“We’re a local nico-
tine gum manufacturer with a
passion for creating artisan gum
for addicts using only environ-
mentally friendly and sustain-
able…”). Icelandic will perhaps
sooner than we think be on the
Endangered Species list of lan-
guages. Or not. Who knows re-
ally. Right now at least it looks
destined to become a sad mockery
of itself. People were saying the
same thing in the 19th century,
yea yea I know, but at least they
didn’t have to worry about the Big
Leak, when their frequent search-
es for “Pussy Stores” and other
wonders would come to light.
18 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07 — 2017
R E S T A U R A N T & B A R