Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2020, Side 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
News and views in the Icelandic
discourse
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Adobe Stock & Art Bicnick
One of the more concern-
ing news stories of late
has been the arrival of the coro-
navirus to Iceland. An Icelandic
man in his forties was diagnosed
on February 28th and was quaran-
tined at the Landspítali Infectious
Disease Department in Fossvogur.
In the days following that first
confirmed case of COVID-19, 34
more Icelanders were diagnosed
with the virus, which first emerged
in China in late 2019 and has since
spread to 70 countries, with roughly
90,000 cases band 3,000 deaths
being reported. All of the diagnosed
Icelanders are confirmed to have
recently returned from Northern
Italy, which has become a hub for
the virus in Europe, or Austria.
Almost 400 Icelanders are currently
being quarantined in their homes.
The Department of Civil Protec-
tion and Emergency Manage-
ment announced an “Alert Phase"
in response to the emergence of
COVID-19 in Iceland, and the Direc-
torate of Health is regularly updat-
ing information about the virus on
their website. Their recommen-
dation for the general public is to
focus on good hygiene, washing
hands with soap and water, using
alcohol-based hand sanitisers,
and coughing or sneezing into the
crook of your elbow.
The weather continues to be
a hot topic in Iceland, as it seems
we’re hit with a yellow or orange
warning from the Icelandic Met
Office one or two times a week
now. There have, in fact been two
cyclones since late January, with
violent storms closing roads, shut-
tering schools, cancelling air travel,
and generally making everyone
miserable. This is especially the
case in the countryside, where the
woefully outdated infrastructure
has meant power outages for
many communities during these
storms, sending electrical work-
ers scrambling to get the juice back
on. No one is looking forward to
summer as much as we are right
now.
Strikes have also been a topic of
great contention in the news lately,
regarding two unions in particular:
Efling, a union comprised of some
of the lowest-paid workers in the
country, and BSRB, comprised of
municipal and state employees.
Negotiations between Efling and
the City of Reykjavík are at an
impasse at the time of this writing,
which has affected play schools,
elderly care, and even garbage
collection. Meanwhile, BSRB work-
ers are slated to begin striking on
March 9 if no collective bargaining
agreement can be reached. Could
be dark times ahead for the city if
they can’t make a deal with these
unions.
Finally, the case of a trans teen
and his family, seeking asylum
from Iran has been hitting many
Icelanders hard. The family is
slated to be deported to Portu-
gal, their last point of departure
within the Schengen area, on the
grounds of the Dublin Regula-
tion—a controversial and arguably
obsolete agreement that gives the
Icelandic government the power
to deport people without looking
at their cases if they were regis-
tered in an EEA country on their
way here. Maní, the trans teen in
question, has a lot of supporters,
ranging from the National Queer
Organisation to the Bishop of
Iceland herself, and the case has
even attracted the attention of
international news outlets. The
Immigrations Appeals Board is
now reviewing the case, and so the
deportation has been postponed,
for the time being, but the family
isn't out of the woods yet.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03— 2020First
NEWS
Wash your hands for 30 seconds, you dirty boy
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