Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.10.2018, Side 4

What Are
Icelanders
Talking About?
The latest hits of Icelandic social media
Words: Andie Fontaine Photo: Adobe Stock
One topic that has been setting
Icelandic social media alight lately
has been homelessness in Reykjavík.
Shortly after a statement from
the Parliamentary Ombudsman
revealed that homelessness in
Iceland’s capital has increased by
95% from 2012 to 2017, the public
was on fire with calls to action.
The issue was front and centre in
City Council, but the opposition
parties for Reykjavík’s legislative
body were critical of the majority
reaction. While the opposition had
called for a special session with the
Welfare Council over the matter,
the majority reportedly told them
that the issue could wait until
summer vacation was over. This, as
you might imagine, sparked even
more criticism, especially from
the general public, as majority
councilpersons scrambled to
explain that they totally take
the matter of homelessness in
Reykjavík seriously.
Few subjects about Iceland
fascinate people more than
earthquakes and volcanoes, but
for Icelanders the most consistent
geological threat is glacial
flooding. Last week, considerable
geological activity was recorded
around and on Skaftárjökull, with
tremors increasing in frequency
and intensity in the area. Within
days, a part of the glacier appeared
to have collapsed by several metres,
and that only means one thing: hot
air rising from a volcanic caldera,
melting the ice on top of it,
resulting in a flood. Waters swept
down the mountains, washing out
roads in southeast Iceland, even
closing part of Route 1. Predictably,
no one was injured or killed. Never
a dull moment in Icelandic geology.
In the world of Icelandic
football, the end of the World Cup
hasn’t put a damper on breaking
news. Mamelodi Sundowns FC,
a South African football team,
announced that their Head of
Technical, Erik Hamrén, would be
taking over as the national coach of
the Icelandic men’s football team.
Hamrén has experience working
with Scandinavian football teams.
He led the Swedish team to the
Euro Cup of 2016, but the team’s
lackluster performance compelled
him to step down. Here’s hoping
he’ll get a better result out of the
Icelandic men’s team.
Tourism may not be headed for
a crash anytime soon, but it has
been slowing down. New data
compiled by Statistics Iceland
shows that the number of visitors
a n d t h e i r a c c om m o d a t i on s
bookings have settled into a more
comfortable slight incline between
years, indicating that the sharp
spike over the past eight years may
finally be levelling off. The news
actually comes as a relief to many
locals. It will allow us the time to
make the necessary upgrades to
our infrastructure, help housing
catch up to local needs and guest
accommodation alike, and will
probably just be more comfortable
overall.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14— 2018First
This place seems pretty vacant
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