Iceland review - 2007, Page 68

66 ICELAND REVIEW
“I cannot believe they leave their babies parked in buggies outside
the grocery store before they go in to shop!” American expat
Taffeta Wood observes of a common Icelandic practice. “This they
do after they lock their cars!” Though this may be deemed poor
parenting or even blatant neglect in other national mentalities,
Icelanders will tell you that their trust in one another, when it comes
to families, is implicit.
Stances on hot-button social issues like gay marriage and abortion
are already rising to the top of campaign platforms for the upcoming
2008 presidential elections in the U.S., while the highly contested
viability of a European social model has thrown Western European
heads of government into diplomatic fisticuffs with their unlike-
minded Eastern counterparts. Smack-dab between the two sparring
continents, however, is the small island nation of Iceland, which
has blazed its own path when it comes to family values. Indeed, the
curious social matrix of Iceland – a community so small and intimate
on one hand, yet doggedly progressive and conscious of its societal
modernity on the other – has proven to support its own as the nation
diverges from Western conventions of coupling and parenting to
explore new ground.
When Icelander meets Icelander, a ritual dance occurs:
“Where are you from?”
“Grew up in Breidholt, but my people are from the West Fjords and
Strandir.”
“Aha. My mother’s side is from Ísafjördur. They worked for the
Olsen shrimping company.”
“No kidding! My grandfather was one of the shift captains there for
years.”
“You don’t say. Good people there.”
Coincidence? Unlikely. At least not with just over 300,000 people.
Once the dance has concluded, and it can go on for some time, there
Brethren Nation
With the debate over family values raging on both sides of the Atlantic, Icelandic society dances
to the beat of its own ethical drum, banding together to pioneer inroads into the terra incognita of non-traditional
families like same-sex parents, unions outside the church and interracial adoption.
By Jonas Moody photos By páll stefánsson