Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2018, Qupperneq 4

What Are Iceland-
ers Talking About?
The latest rages on social media
Words: Paul Fontaine Photo: Icelandic Met Office
If there’s one topic that is always
red hot amongst Icelanders, espe-
cially on social media, it’s tourism
and its inevitable decline. Public
broadcasting service RÚV reported
that, in the wake of a forecast
that there would soon be slightly
fewer tourists to Iceland than last
year, Icelandair’s stock dropped by
about 25% in value, losing around
15 billion ISK. This, of course, set
off a series of speculations across
Facebook as to what Iceland could
cash in on when the industry
crashes. Bitcoin? Exporting elec-
tricity? Maybe good ol’ fashioned
fish again? It remains to be seen.
If there is one topic of conversa-
tion you can always initiate with
an Icelander, it’s the weather. As
you’ve probably heard, Iceland has
been having the worst summer
in 100 years. Naturally, Iceland-
ers have neatly divided into two
camps: those still stuck on this
island and crying about the cold
and rain, and those currently vaca-
tioning in sunnier climates, post-
ing brag statuses and screenshots
of their weather forecast apps. If
you belong to the latter camp, stop
it. You’re not cute or funny.
One story that flew under our
radar was that Minister of Health
Svandís Svavarsdóttir blocked jour-
nalist and social critic Illugi Jökulls-
son on Facebook. This raised all
kinds of social media commentary
regarding whether or not a politi-
cian can block someone on social
media. Apparently they can, and
Svandís has contended that she got
tired of Illugi tagging her repeat-
edly in posts and comments, most
likely due to the ongoing labour
dispute with midwives. Illugi,
while initially outraged, appears to
have accepted the matter.
On a related note, that particular
dispute is reaching a fever pitch, as
12 midwives in Reykjavík walked
off the job, in addition to several
more out in the countryside. The
matter is particularly frustrating,
as not only have midwives’ wages
been flat for years now, but several
CEOs of government-run agencies
have recently received fat bonuses,
yet Minister of Finance Bjarni
Benediktsson contends there’s
simply no more money to give the
midwives. The dispute is not likely
to end anytime soon
Finally, the story of the Norwe-
gian cat who stowed away to
Iceland has ended on a happy note.
As reported, the cat wandered into
a shipping container that was being
loaded up in Norway and bound
for Iceland. Miraculously, the cat
survived the journey, and after
some initial care and cleaning,
was promptly put on a plane back
home. In the intervening time, his
name was changed; while initially
called Pus, it was changed to the
ultra-Icelandic Snorri. The cat was
not available for comment and it is
unknown if the animal agreed to
the change.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2018First
This is what the weather map looked like all June long.
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