Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2019, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talking About?
The everlasting fire of Icelandic
social media
Words: Andie Fontaine Photo: Wikipedia
Dominating both the
news, and the conversa-
tions on social media about the
news, is the Centre Party, whose
filibustering shenanigans may be
backfiring on them. As reported,
this small opposition party ate
up a lot of time “discussing” the
so-called Third Energy Package,
delaying pretty much every other
piece of pending legislation. Now
that this particular discussion
has been postponed, very little
time remains before the end of
the spring parliamentary session,
and every other party seems pretty
annoyed with the Centre Party
right now. Other opposition parties
resent them for leaving such little
time remaining, and government
parties do not trust them. Perhaps
for good reason, as the Centre Party
chair tried—and failed—at the last
minute to get key gender determi-
nation legislation removed from
the schedule in exchange for letting
Parliament do its business. Better
still, recent polling shows that the
Centre Party’s filibuster had no
positive effect on their support
numbers. What do you do when
you’ve painted yourself into a polit-
ical corner? Whatever the sensible
answer is, count on the Centre
Party to do anything but that.
The climate crisis is having
some other, less predictable effects
on Iceland than receding glaciers
and worsening weather. Reykjavík-
area Icelanders have been plagued
by biting midges, a flying insect
that is most typically found in the
north of the country. This particu-
lar strain of fly leaves painful, swol-
len red welts, and their presence
has been attributed to unseason-
ably warm conditions in the south-
west. This has resulted in an uptick
of calls to health clinics from capital
area Icelanders trying to get treat-
ment for the bites. Medical profes-
sionals advise those hoping to enjoy
leaving their homes in short sleeves
to get some bug repellent, and to
treat bites with anti-analgesics.
As a final “fuck you” to Iceland,
Russian Instagram influencer
Alexander Tikh omirov, who
attracted national attention by
posting photos of himself engag-
ing in illegal offroading and scold-
ing both Icelandic and Russian
critics of his behaviour, has posted
a compendium video of his visit
to our country and wow. It’s pretty
much a Whitman’s sampler of
What Not To Do In Iceland. The
video showcases off-roading,
flying drones over protected areas,
trampling on moss, harassing the
horses and frolicking amongst the
deadly ice floes of the southeast,
intercut with a slow-mo pillow
fight of two women in bathing
suits. That last bit isn’t expressly
banned in Iceland, but is perhaps
more at home in a low-budget slee-
zeball porno from 1983 than a video
entitled “Icelandic road trip”. Good
riddance, Sasha, never come back.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2019First
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