Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2019, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talking About?
Angry reacts only
Words: Andie Fontaine/Valur Grettisson Photo: Creative Commons
It’s not often that Iceland
gets into a diplomatic
dispute with any country, but a
recent row between Iceland
and the Philippines’ president,
Rodrigo Duterte, has certainly
grabbed our attention. It started
when Iceland submitted, and
got approval for, a UN resolution
condemning that country’s police’s
extrajudicial violence in Duterte’s
“war on drugs.” Duterte, who initi-
ated and has staunchly defended
the violence, fired back against
Iceland in characteristic style. And
by that we mean calling us “sons
of whores” with “too much ice
and there is no clear day or night
there”. Touché, Mr. President. It
bears mentioning that Iceland is
certainly no angel when it comes
to human rights (see page 14) but
‘sons of whores’ really stuck in
our craw. What connection the
midnight sun has with a low inci-
dence of crime is still known only
to Mr. Duterte.
A lot of Icelanders—or, to be
fair, mostly suburban, middle-
class, middle-aged parents—are
expressing horror at a proposal,
put forward by one of the coun-
try’s leading epidemiologists,
that condoms be handed out in
primary schools. The reason for
the proposal is a consistently high
incidence of chlamydia and syphi-
lis; in fact, Iceland leads Europe
in cases of syphilis per capita. The
pushback has included nightmare
scenarios of condoms put in the
hands of little children magi-
cally prompting them to begin
experimenting sexually. In reality,
primary schools include students
as old as 15 years old, an age not
uncommon for the beginnings
of sexual activity for the modern
Icelander, raising the question as to
what’s more important: preventing
the spread of potentially damaging
diseases, or preserving the illusion
that teenagers don’t have sex.
News that Marko Svart’s busi-
ness partner—and co-owner of
SVART by Marko Svart—Momo
Hayashi is facing deportation
has garnered considerable space
in the public discussion lately, as it
seems many people are discovering
for the first time that not all immi-
grants are treated equally. In broad
terms, while Europeans are free to
move to Iceland and compete in the
job market with Icelanders, anyone
from outside of Europe may only
do the jobs that no Icelander can do
or wants to do. Momo does indeed
have specialty skills, and moreover
has lived in Iceland for four years,
with a near perfect command of
the language and a small business
of her own. Nonetheless, both the
Directorate of Immigration and
the Directorate of Labour seem set
on their decision that she has to
leave the country ASAP, thereby
demonstrating that even “model
immigrants” that white Iceland-
ers are so fond of touting are still
vulnerable to arbitrary deportation
decisions.
Lastly, it has come to light that
US President Mike Pence wants
to visit Iceland. About this, we
can only say: ice cream shops in
Iceland are plentiful, and many, if
not most, also make milkshakes.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12— 2019First
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