Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2022, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
The machine must be fed
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Art Bicnick & John Pearson
You’ve heard of COVID
fatigue; now get ready
for volcano fatigue. A series of
earthquakes near Fagradalsf-
jall that began on December 21st
caught more attention with inter-
national readers than it did with
the locals. The quakes have since
calmed, prompting a number of
scientists to compare the situation
to the run-up to the eruption last
March—without explicitly saying
that another eruption is on the
way. This news has been greeted
with more of a shrug than a shriek,
probably due in no small part to
the current disaster we have going
on in the pandemic, which leads
us to…
As the Omicron variant runs
rampant across this country,
Icelanders were more than a little
bit confused by Minister of Health
Willum !ór !órsson announcing
new pandemic “restrictions” that
essentially amounted to little more
than slightly lowering the social
gathering limit and re-enacting
the two-metre rule. This was
followed by Minister of Schools
and Children’s Affairs Ásmundur
Einar Da"a son announcing that
he was not going to extend the end
of winter break for schools from
January 4th to January 10th, in the
face of recommendations from
chief epidemiologist !órólfur
Gu"nason. Not only that, but he
also told reporters that it was abso-
lutely crucial to send kids back to
school, despite this variant show-
ing particular virulence amongst
children. On top of all this, hospi-
tals are already stretched to the
limit, but many health care work-
ers have had to go into quarantine
or isolation on account of corona-
virus infections or the risk of it.
All this being the case, we probably
shouldn’t expect to get out of this
pandemic any time soon.
Fireworks were briefly a hot topic
in the run-up to New Year’s Eve.
As every year, there were people
pointing out how polluting fire-
works are, how they frighten
animals, and how hazardous they
can be in the hands of intoxicated
adults. Whenever any of these
things were pointed out on social
media, there was always a cadre of
people who baulked at the sugges-
tion of buying fewer or no fire-
works, with some vowing to buy
even more. Come New Year’s Day,
winds mercifully swept the heavy
metals and other pollutants away
(from us, at least), but already
overstretched hospitals reported
treating numerous firework-
related injuries, and brush fires
caused by fireworks erupted across
a significant portion of South
Iceland.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2022First
NEWS
For how long can you hold your breath...?
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