Reykjavík Grapevine - júl. 2020, Blaðsíða 6

On June 25th, a house fire at Bræ!rabor-
garstígur 1 killed three people and
injured numerous others. The house
had been reported on several times
before for its dilapidated and unsani-
tary living conditions. When a clearer
picture emerged of how people were
living there—exorbitant rent for a
single room, dozens sharing a single
kitchen and bathroom, and landlord
reportedly unwilling to improve condi-
tions—many people in the immigrant
community were unsurprised.
Do immigrant lives matter?
Hours after news of the fire broke,
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir
chose to tweet about the results of a
football match. She has, at the time of
this writing, yet to say a single word
about the tragedy. She did, though,
recently attend a memorial for a fire at
"ingvellir that claimed Icelandic lives
and took place decades ago. In fact, city
and state leaders have spent more time
pointing the finger at one another than
they have in shouldering any responsi-
bility at all.
Where are the candles?
Another thing that immigrants in
Iceland were quick to point out is how
the story was reported on. Tradition-
ally, when someone dies in Iceland,
media outlets will use a tasteful photo
of a candle, or several candles, to mark
the event. This is done out of respect
for the loved ones of the deceased. This
was not the case in this event, as many
media outlets chose instead to use
banner images of the grizzly aftermath
of the blaze.
What will change?
While members of Parliament’s and
Reykjavík city council’s opposition
parties have at least offered cursory
statements that more needs to be done
to ensure the safety and wellbeing of
immigrant workers, the parties in
power at the state and municipal levels
have been silent. Iceland’s immigrant
community can hardly be blamed if
they feel their lives matter less than
those of Icelanders.
Volcanoes! Everyone loves volcano
news, but living close to one when
it erupts, not so much. That’s why
Iceland has a team of scientists
who dedicate their lives to monitor-
ing their activity and letting Civic
Protection know when one of them
looks ready to erupt. But given how
notoriously unpredictable volcanoes
are, how exactly do they do that? We
asked Baldur Bergsson, a specialist
in monitoring at the Icelandic Met
O"ce, how experts know when a vol-
cano is ready to pop.
"There's no way you can say 'oh, this
volcano will erupt in two years' or
whatever,” Baldur says. “What we're
focusing on is what happens just be-
fore an eruption. This could be may-
be a month before or, in the case of
Hekla, hours before. Each volcano is
di#erent. We try to define what hap-
pens before an eruption, and a lot
of our knowledge comes from past
eruptions, document that, and adjust
our monitoring techniques for each
individual volcano. Of course, this is
really di&cult when it comes to vol-
canoes that might erupt every 100
or 200 years. In those cases, we just
have to go with how things generally
work. But for a volcano that erupts
more frequently, like Grímsvötn or
Hekla, we have a pretty good idea of
how things escalate."
You can read the full interview
with Baldur, and our adventures tag-
ging along as he measures possible
volcanic activity at a couple of sites,
on Page 36.
ASK A
Scientist
Q: How Do You Know
When A Volcano Will
Erupt?

The word “skonsa”
(the singular form
of skonsur) may
remind you of
the English word
“scone”, but that’s
where the similari-
ties end. They’re
more like Ameri-
can pancakes.
In fact, a side by
side comparison
of skonsa and
pancake recipes
indicates that
there is funda-
mentally no di#er-
ence between the
two. In practice,
however, the foods
have some major
di#erences.
While American
pancakes are
served hot o# the
griddle, slathered
in butter and
drowned in maple
syrup (some even
put peanut but-
ter and jelly on
them), skonsur are
served cold with
butter and cheese.
When made from
scratch, they are
prepared as an
a'erthought, an
attempt to get rid
of expiring ingre-
dients. Most o'en,
though, they are
bought pre-pack-
aged in stores,
usually stocked
next to packs of
flatkaka. Besides
butter and cheese,
non-traditionalists
may also eat them
with honey, peanut
butter and jelly, or
even butter and
syrup, although at
that point they’re
really just pan-
cakes.
Whatever you
put on them, these
tasty pastries will
keep even the
most intrepid hik-
er going for hours.
Although we have
nothing to base
this on, we think
that J.R.R. Tolkien
used skonsur as
the inspiration
for Lembas Bread,
which makes
sense. They’re fill-
ing, full of energy
and nutrients, and
keep sweet for
days if unbroken
and le' in their
wrappings as
you bought
them. SOD Sk
on
su
r
After The Fire
We can do more to protect immi!rants. When will we?
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine

Photo:
Poppy Askham
First 6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 05— 2020
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