Iceland review - 2004, Side 89

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT,
SAYS THE WHO... AGAIN
The World Health Organization (WHO)
released their annual statistics report and
unsurprisingly Iceland did very well yet
again. According to the WHO, both young
children and mothers are among the health-
iest in the world. The infant mortality rate is
less than 3 out of 1000. Other Scandinavian
nations fared well also, with Sweden and
Norway holding at 3.4 out of 1000 and
Denmark at a slightly higher rate of 4.2.
Also included in the WHO’s statistics was a
report on longevity, with Icelandic men out-
living other men at an average of 78.7 years
and Icelandic women living slightly longer
at an average of 82.5 years. WHO-ray for
Iceland.
DOWNLOADING FROM
THE YEAR 1900
Recordings made in the 1960’s of reminis-
cences from the turn of the century have
been transferred to a digital format and
made public on the popular musik.is web-
site. The musik.is website is a directory of
information about Iceland’s culture, with
everything from agriculture to the collec-
tion of puffin eggs. Primarily though, the
site covers information about music in
Iceland.
Over 2000 hours of material were preserved
in digital format by Bjarki Sveinbjörnsson,
who told reporters that the material
includes “songs, folktales, and descriptions
of life in Iceland that have never been heard
before.”
The recordings were collected in the 1960’s
by the Árni Magnusson Institute.
GOODBYE SWASTIKA,
HELLO FOUR-STAR HOTEL
It was the first building in Iceland to contain
an elevator, and since 1921 it has been the
headquarters of Iceland’s largest shipping
company, Eimskip.
But that’s not all. The Eimskip building,
located in downtown Reykjavik, also has a
swastika plastered on its east side.
Wait a minute. Yes, a swastika, turned
counter-clockwise, was Eimskip’s original
logo, a symbol for the sun, eternity and
good fortune. After Hitler usurped the sym-
bol for his nefarious purposes, Eimskip’s use
of the symbol became prickly to say the
least. Eimskip changed its company logo
some ten years ago (duh, what took so
long?), but the symbol stubbornly remained
on the building.
Hey, we used it first, was the shipping com-
pany’s defence.
But Eimskip has sold the venerable building
to World Tours Iceland for ISK 510 million
smackers. World Tours Iceland plans to
transform the building into a luxury hotel
with 72 spacious rooms, a first-class restau-
rant and all the other fancy shmancy ameni-
ties of a posh hotel. (The hotel is expected
to open spring 2005.)
As for the counter-clockwise swastika, well,
it will be removed because hotel owners are
smart enough to understand that regardless
of how you spin it, a swastika is a swastika,
and nobody wants one on their luxury hotel.
POLAR SWIM
Ever see the Seinfeld episode where Jerry
and the gang are sitting around talking to
Elaine about whether women understand
the phenomenon of shrinkage?
Well, a new sport in Iceland takes shrinkage
to the next level. Ocean swimming. That’s
right. Icelanders are taking the plunge into
the chilly waters of the North Atlantic.
“It’s one of the most healthy sports there
is,” says Björn Rúriksson, who’s been ocean
swimming for six years. “It’s great. It’s
cleared up my asthma.”
Ocean swimming is becoming so popular
that changing rooms are popping up along
the seaside to accommodate the large num-
bers of swimmers.
Changing rooms are a good thing, because
most men don’t want to change into their
skivvies in front of women after a dip in
water that can slip down to –2°C (28.4°F)
during the winter. Regardless of the sport’s
medicinal benefits, the shrinkage would be
far too embarrassing to the male ego.
NEWS CLIPPINGS 87
CLIPPINGSS
Björn Rúríksson (far right) is not thwarted by the cold.
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