Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2018, Síða 6

Iceland is proud to have
been nominated as the
most gender equal coun-
try in the World Economic
Forum’s Global Gender Gap
Index for nine years in a
row. But let’s not get on
our high horses, because
there’s still work to do un-
til we achieve true equal-
ity.
If Iceland wants to legit-
imately be the nation with
the highest gender equal-
ity in the world, we have
to address the obvious
lack of a vagina museum
in Reykjavík. The Icelandic
Phallological Museum is
the world’s first and only
penis museum, founded
by longtime phallus col-
lector Sigurður Hjartar-
son in 1997. Almost every
tourist who comes to Ice-
land ventures all the way
up Laugavegur to see the
phallic wonders of mam-
mal penises. There are
literally hundreds of mem-
bers on display, including
a human specimen from
the deceased Icelandic
neo-nazi Páll Arason.
“What about
the wonders
of mammal
vaginas?”
When Florence Schechter
discovered that there was
a penis museum in Ice-
land, she also realized that
there was no equivalent
space for vaginas. Thus,
she founded The Vagina
Museum in the UK. Howev-
er, it doesn’t have a perma-
nent exhibit yet.
As Florence clearly real-
ized, vagina representa-
tion matters, and we need
it now. It’s time for Iceland
to have its very own per-
manent display of hun-
dreds of mammal vaginas
in all of their glorious co-
lours, shapes, and sizes. .
JIW
Sirkus—a nightclub that once defined
Árneshreppur (population 53), located
on the northern coast of the West-
fjörds, is normally not a magnet for any
kind of attention at all. However, this
year the region has become the focus
of potential election irregularities that
have drawn the attention of national
authorities, and appear to revolve
around the building of a controversial
power plant.
Some background: Árneshreppur
is one of several regions in the north-
west of Iceland where every resident
is a candidate for a regional council.
So instead of people voting for parties,
they vote for individual residents and
their individual platforms. This elec-
tion season, one of the hottest topics in
Árneshreppur is the proposed building
of a power plant on Hvalá river.
“Moving” to Árneshreppur
Things were proceeding normally
until something caught the attention
of the National Registry: the popula-
tion of Árneshreppur increased by 40%
between April 24 and May 4. Before this
period, there were 44 legally registered
households in the region, but 17 indi-
viduals reportedly moved their legal
residence to Árneshreppur during this
10-day period alone.
Kristinn H. Gunnarsson, a former
MP and a Westfjords native, published
a list of names on his blog that actually
shows that 18 people moved their legal
residence to Árneshreppur. He points
out that of special interest is that 11 of
these people have “moved” to Drangar
alone. However, some of these new
arrivals actually do have connections
to the area – as Kristinn points out,
Hrafn Jökulsson and Sif Konráðsdóttir,
both of whom do have familial connec-
tions to the area, have moved their
legal residence to the region, along
with their respective children. But this
certainly isn’t the case for everyone
who “moved” to Árneshreppur within
this 10-day window, and it has raised
considerable suspicion.
Legal action
Vísir reported that where the other
names on the list are concerned, the
law offices of Sókn put together a
memo stating that they believe there is
an attempt at influencing the elections
being made here. Furthermore, the list
of names that Kristinn has leaked is
not available on any publicly accessible
website.
It’s a complicated situation, and the
clock is ticking to resolve the matter:
elections will be held on May 26.
Wild, Wild North:
Shady Election Deal-
ings In Árneshreppur
How a sleepy North Iceland region
became a news flashpoint
Vagina
Museum
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photo:
Art Bicknic
First
T EMPL A R A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
BREAKFAST FROM 7
LUNCH FROM 12
Djúpavík - not always a source of controversy
Words: Phil Uwe Widiger
What do you do when you get lost
in an Icelandic forest? Stand up.
That ’s one of the lamest jokes
about Iceland but it portrays
the Icelandic landscape very
well. We asked forester Brynjól-
fur Jónsson to enlighten us as to
why Iceland is missing forests.
“The main reason is that the early
settlers cut down and burned trees
for cattle and charcoal production,
which was a huge industry in Ice-
land in former times. Forests used to
cover around 35% of Iceland’s land
area, but due to deforestation, we
ended up with less than one percent.
“Another thing is that Iceland is
very young in geological terms, only
15 million years old. The very vulner-
able ecosystem wasn't ready for
this invasion of man and cattle. Even
now, there are less than 500 taller
species, like flowers and trees.
“Also, without forests, other el-
ements of nature were easily dis-
turbed. Without protection from
wind, soil erosion from the high-
lands all the way to the sea became
another problem and the process
of deforestation escalated. Most
of the forests had disappeared in
the Middle Ages, around 1500/1600.
“In 100 years we have only man-
aged to plant trees on 0.4% of Ice-
land’s land area. That's not much.
Hopefully, we can get 4-5% of the
land area covered in this century.
Unfortunately, after the bank col-
lapse in 2008, the subsidies to the
forestry project were halved, re-
sulting in less trees being plant-
ed. We are importing all the wood
and paper from other countries
but if we would put more effort
into it, we could grow everything
that we use here in Iceland.”
ASK A
Forester
Q: Why are there so
few trees in Iceland?
6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 08 — 2018
MISSING IN ICELAND