Reykjavík Grapevine - okt. 2021, Síða 6

According to a headline on Vísir, a writer
from Westman Islands refuses to leave their
home. This may seem like a wise decision—
a!er all, the fall is slowly but surely creeping
up on us. Why would anyone in their right
mind want to go out, when there’s a pos-
sibility to curl up on a sofa, cover yourself
with cozy blankets and enjoy a cup of your
favorite fall beverage—as long as it’s not a
pumpkin spice latte; you don’t want to be
that big of a cliché.
But then you start to wonder, what if this
mysterious writer has other reasons to stay
indoors besides the changing seasons?
Maybe they belong to a risk group and are
afraid of catching COVID? Perhaps their OCD
is getting the best of them? For all we know,
the writer might be a real life Vitalstatistix,
the village leader from Asterix & Obelix, who
is famously afraid that the sky may fall on
his head.
Upon taking a closer look at the article, it
comes to light that the main character isn’t
actually a writer but a bird called “rita” in
Icelandic. Apparently Google Translate isn’t
that familiar with our feathered friends,
since it only knows the homonym verb “a"
rita”, meaning “to write”. Thus, a bird became
a writer.
It appears that only birds have the audac-
ity to refuse stepping out of their homes.
According to Grapevine’s sources, us hu-
mans—whether we’re writers or not—must
still continue visiting the outside world. RH
All went smoothly when Iceland’s
general elections were held on Septem-
ber 25th—that is, except for one voting
district: the Northwest. Repeated
mishandling of ballots there could lead
to brand new elections being held in
that district alone.
Too close to call
It all started on the morning after
election day. It was initially reported
that Iceland became the first Euro-
pean nation to elect a parliament
with women comprising the majority
of seats, taking 33 of the 63 available.
Amongst those was Lenya Rún Taha
Karim of the Pirate Party, who was also
the youngest member to be elected to
Parliament in Icelandic history, and
the first of Kurdish descent. However,
the recount in the Northwest not only
flipped the gender balance to 33 men
and 30 women; Lenya Rún was bumped
from her seat, replaced with Gísli Rafn
Ólafsson of the same party.
It further came to light that, on elec-
tion night, the ballots for the Northwest
District were not sealed; instead, they
were locked in a room. Icelandic voting
laws dictate that ballots are supposed to
be sealed after counting. Lawyer Katrín
Oddsdóttir told reporters that this reve-
lation undermines trust in the count as
a whole.
The power of Instagram
Further complicating matters was
when the daughter-in-law of the hotel
manager of Hótel Borgarnes, where
ballots for the Northwest District were
counted over the weekend, posted—and
later deleted—two photos to her Insta-
gram showing a room full of ballots,
some of them unsealed and in open
boxes, with the caption “The count is
over!”
This further undermined the integ-
rity of the count, prompting the national
election board to request data from
all districts to prove that their counts
were up to snuff. In the end, the board
announced that the Northwest was the
only district that could not prove they
had counted in a satisfactory manner.
The ball in Parliament’s
court
Kristín Edwald, the chair of Iceland’s
national election board, referred to Arti-
cle 46 of the constitution, which states:
“Al!ingi decides whether its Members
are legally elected and also whether a
Member has lost eligibility for election
to Al!ingi.” Parliament has assembled a
committee to examine the results, and
to decide if the elections in the North-
west were valid, or if new elections there
will be necessary.
Stay tuned!
ASK AN
Expert
Q: Why are Icelandic
windows built differ-
ently to windows in
other Nordic countries?
Words: Reetta Huhta
Photo: Art Bicnick
In Nordic countries, the windows are
typically built using two double panels
of glass. This way the chilly air doesn’t
have easy access to the apartment.
However, in Iceland the windows con-
sist of only one double glazing rather
than two, even though the country is
– literally – as cold as ice. So why are
things done di!erently here?
The question turned out to be
much harder to solve than we had
expected. If we were annoying intel-
lectuals waiting for a chance to sneak
in posh idioms, we would describe
the journey as Ka"aesque. But since
we aren’t, we’ll just quickly recap the
events.
At first, we reached out to archi-
tects, but they were busy architect-
ing and didn’t have time to come up
with an answer. Next, we asked the
Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland to
see if they would have anything to say
about the critical issue in hand. They
couldn’t give us a waterproof answer
but encouraged us to contact the
Housing and Civil Engineering Institute.
We contacted the institute only to
receive speculations about the topic.
They, in turn, urged us to ask the same
question from a window factory.
Weary of the hunt for an answer, we
turned finally to Glugga og Hur#smi#ja
SB, a manufacturer of windows and
doors. From them we finally received
the long-awaited answer.
According to the owner and man-
aging director of the factory, Jónas
Sigur#sson, the main reason for the
lesser-insulated windows is the cheap
cost of heating in Iceland. He men-
tions also that Icelandic winters aren’t
as cold compared to the other Nordic
countries, which encourages Iceland-
ers to build their windows in a lighter
way.
All’s well that ends well! It turns out
that there was a simple answer to a
simple question. °
How To Count Paper Ballots
The recount scandal in the Northwest District
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine

Photo:
Adobe Stock
First 6 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2021
LOST IN GOOGLE TRANSLATION
Nevermind the unsealed ballots...
Writer Refusing To
Leave Home
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