Reykjavík Grapevine - feb. 2022, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin" About?
Headlines and bylines makin! waves
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Art Bicnick & Anna Andersen
Iceland’s history as a
Danish colony is back in
the news, primarily because Pirate
Party MP Björn Levi Gunnars-
son submitted a parliamentary
proposal in late January calling
for the Danish crown and royal
insignia to be removed from the
roof of Parliament. This would
seem like a reasonable enough ask–
Iceland has been an independent
republic since 1944, and its legisla-
ture prominently bearing the mark
of a former colonial overlord is
probably not in keeping with a 21st
century nation. However, this has
created a backlash of sorts, with
the Cultural Heritage Agency of
Iceland criticising the proposal on
the grounds that it “erases history”,
evoking such slippery slope argu-
ments as fears that other Danish-
related landmarks will be removed
from town and chucked into the
harbour. These fears are probably
unfounded; Icelanders are keenly
aware of the colonial era, and
most Icelandic children are taught
Danish in school to this day.
In less controversial news, the
story of a dog rescued from a
mountainside after being miss-
ing for 20 days has proven to be
just the antidote for the torrent
of bad news about the pandemic.
Píla, the dog in question, went
missing in the northwest town of
Bolungarvík after she was fright-
ened off by fireworks on January
6th. Her owners were beside them-
selves with worry–that is, until
the 26th, when someone believed
they saw Píla far up on a moun-
tain ridge. The rescue squad was
deployed and brought Píla back to
her owners, safe and sound and no
worse for wear, despite her expo-
sure to winter weather and gale-
force winds.
Pandemic restrictions were
relaxed again. We’re now at the
point where masks are required,
there is some social distanc-
ing, quarantine has been mostly
replaced with “if you think you got
in contact with the virus, be careful
around others” and public events
are open with expanded atten-
dance capacity. These loosened
regulations are apparently not
loose enough for some people, as
there have been regular outbreaks
of small contingencies of anti-
vax, anti-mask and frankly
anti-science folks showing up in
groups to complain about unspeci-
fied oppression and tyranny. The
most cringe example of this was
during the last weekend in Janu-
ary, when about a dozen people
dressed in black and wearing V
for Vendetta masks showed up at
Kringlan. Police promptly ushered
them out of the building, the irony
of wearing masks to protests
masks apparently lost on these
folks.
Finally, Íslandsbanki is forecasting
that about a million tourists will
visit Iceland in 2022. A lot of this
will depend on vaccination and
Omicron rates in other countries,
but as things stand now, the next
few years should see tourism make
a comeback as Iceland’s primary
financial engine.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2022First
NEWS
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