Reykjavík Grapevine - sep. 2021, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
Some news is bad news
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Landspítali & Art Bicnick
The top story on Iceland-
ers’ minds right now
concerns the Icelandic Football
Association (KSÍ), which we go
into more detail about on Page 6.
In a nutshell: it came to light that
six or seven footballers report-
edly committed sexual assaults in
recent years. Gu"ni Bergsson, the
KSÍ director at the time, denied
ever hearing about the incidents,
but testimony from one survivor
and a leaked email proved this
false. He would later resign and,
after a lackluster apology and pres-
sure from sponsors, the KSÍ board
resigned, too. Missing in all of this
is a statement from any Icelan-
dic footballer condemning sexual
violence. The silence is deafening.
In a rare turn of events, police
shot a man in northeast Iceland.
The injured person was report-
edly firing at least one rifle at a
house’s windows—fortunately
no one was home at the time. He
continued shooting once police
arrived on the scene. When told to
drop his weapon, he shot at police,
who returned fire. He is currently
recovering from his injuries and
faces a battery of charges. The
motive for his shootings has not
been made public.
Tragedy struck the mental health
ward of Landspítali hospital when
a patient died after choking on
food that a nurse was forcing
them to eat. The immediate ques-
tion of why a trained nurse failed
to save the choking patient was
superseded by questions regard-
ing the use of force when it comes
to people struggling with their
mental health. The matter is
being investigated by the police
as a possible criminal act, and
Málfrí"ur Hrund Einarsdóttir, the
director of Mindpower, an NGO
focused on mental health care in
Iceland, told reporters that the
health care system needs a drastic
change in policy when it comes to
when and whether to use force.
Iceland’s Delta-driven spike in
COVID-19 cases has been accom-
panied by more COVID patient
deaths. Iceland had not experi-
enced a single coronavirus death
since May, in large part due to a
successful vaccination drive, when
three COVID-related deaths
occured within the span of a
week in late August. While it has
not been disclosed if any of the
deceased were vaccinated, we do
know they were all middle-aged or
older and at least one had underly-
ing health conditions which may
have made them especially vulner-
able to the virus. A tragedy either
way.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2021First
NEWS
The mental health ward of Landspítali
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