Reykjavík Grapevine - feb. 2022, Blaðsíða 6

Iceland has had its fair share of celebrity
visitors over the years; Justin Bieber got his
kit o$ in a glacial lagoon, Kim K ate a hot dog
at Bæjarins Beztu and Ed Sheeran played a
concert that a staggering 14% of the popu-
lation attended. But of all of the superstar
tourists that Iceland can boast of, there’s
only one who we seem to have driven to the
brink of absolute madness.
Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
Enter Will Smith, or more accurately, this
headline about him on the website of Ice-
landic newspaper Morgunbla&i&. The article
seems to claim that ‘Big Willy’ was so frus-
trated while filming his documentary ‘Wel-
come To Earth’ in Iceland that he went a bit
feral, and ended up in an ‘Icelandic swamp’.
To make matters even more confusing, fur-
ther into the column it’s claimed that Mr.
Smith actually published a video of himself
‘fighting’ the aforementioned swamp. All
of this raises a number of questions. Is the
swamp sentient? Can it indeed be fought?
Have we somehow witnessed a bizarre ex-
traterrestrial interaction and are about to
be neuralyzed by one of Agent J’s Men In
Black colleagues any sec–
I, Translation Robot
Well, perhaps not. It turns out that this
is less a case of alien invasion, and more
some harmless robots messing up menial
tasks for humans. Google translate took
one look at the word ‘m",’ and decided that
it was meant to say ‘m"ri,’ which translates
to swamp. In reality ‘m"’ is short for ‘m"flu-
gur –the annoying midge-like flies that are
growing in numbers all over the country.
While they do indeed congregate in marshy
areas, it’s good to know that Will was just
trying to fight them, and not an entire wet-
land. JG
The now-former director of the
National Center of Addiction Medicine
(SÁÁ), Einar Hermannsson, resigned
from his position late January after
admitting he had responded to an
ad and paid for the services of a sex
worker.
However, the sex worker in ques-
tion reached out to Stundin to dispute
Einar’s story. Sharing screenshots of
her message history with Einar, she
stated that she did not advertise being
a sex worker, but had engaged in the
practice through a dating site that
anonymises users. Einar apparently
learned of her through word of mouth,
and contacted her through a page she
created on Facebook.
Whether the Directorate of
Health knew
Most damning of all is that the woman
in question told reporters she had
started sex work specifically to fund
her drug addiction at the time, and
would later become a client of SÁÁ.
When she raised the issue with lead-
ership at SÁÁ, where Einar was at the
time a member of the board, no action
was taken.
Stundin also reports that the Directo-
rate of Health was made aware of the
matter in 2020. The Directorate, in
response to questions from Vísir, said
that they had no prior knowledge of
this case, and were not contacted about
it, neither formally nor informally.
“A case of immorality”
Women’s welfare association The Root
released a statement on the matter
yesterday, in which they condemned
Einar’s behaviour.
“Einar’s violation against the woman
is a gross abuse of power from the
director of a social organisation that
the government has trusted for about
40 years to attend to the bulk of health
care services for people with addic-
tions,” the statement reads in part. “In
this group are many of the country’s
marginalised people, and it is a case of
immorality that has certainly affected
Einar’s work as chairman, despite his
statement to the contrary. In few jobs
do ethics have more value than in jobs
for people with substance abuse prob-
lems and marginalised people.”
For their part, the board of SÁÁ
has condemned Einar’s behaviour.
!óra Kristín Ásgeirsdóttir, currently
the spokesperson for deCODE, is
campaigning for the SÁÁ directorship.

ASK AN
Expert
Q: How Are Ice Caves
Formed?
Words: Josie Anne / Joaquín M.C.
Belart
Photo: Gu"ni Hannesson
Ice caves are a popular winter tourist
attraction here in Iceland, with visi-
tors travelling from far a wide to wit-
ness the other-worldy beauty of these
incredible natural structures. Grape-
vine journalists even had a chance to
visit one themselves for this issue. But
how are ice caves actually formed?
We reached out to Joaquín Belart, a
postdoctoral glaciology researcher
and Coordinator at the National Land
Survey of Iceland, to explain all.
Glaciers contain networks of subgla-
cial rivers that merge and unify into
a main river when exiting the glacier.
Ice caves are most commonly formed
at the edge of the glacier, where the
subglacial rivers melt the ice as they
carve their way out. Other ice caves
can be formed as vertical tunnels (also
called “moulins”) near the glacier mar-
gin. Moulins are created when a river
runs over the surface of the glacier,
and eventually sculpts its way into the
glacier, creating a series of galleries.
The glacier rivers reduce their flow
drastically during the winter, leaving
these caves nearly empty of water
and making them easier to access.
The colder temperatures also make
the ice stiffer, which makes the ice
caves more stable and safer to visit
during the winter.
Ice caves in Iceland often have a
unique feature: they contain tephra,
or volcanic ash layers visible within the
ice. These are the result of the coun-
try’s various volcanic eruptions, and
mark the date that the ash originally
fell on top of the glacier. So if you see
a black line running along the wall of
an ice cave, you are looking directly at
a piece of volcanic history. °
Shake-Up At Addiction Centre
Followin! Scandal
The old director is out, a new director is comin! in
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine

Photo:
ja.is
First 6 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2022
LOST IN GOOGLE TRANSLATION
One of SÁÁ's locations
Famous Swamp Dwellers
SMASHED BURGERS
AND NASHVILLE-STYLE
HOT CHICKEN IN
DOWNTOWN
REYKJAVÍK
HAFNARSTRÆTI
101 REYKJAVÍK