More on that food line scandal...

I know you're all bored with volcanoes already, so here's an update from the Reykjavik Grapevine on that scandalous food line story from yesterday:

The food kitchen Fjölskylduhjálp has apparently been giving Icelanders priority over foreigners in terms of who gets food first, inspiring strong criticism from city council.

The newspaper Fréttablaðið broke the story, revealing that food lines had been divided up between Icelanders and foreigners, with Icelanders given priority. Ásgerður Jóna Flosadóttir, the director of the facility, told reporters that the decision was made because foreigners tend to show up early, prompting Icelanders who arrive later to not feel like waiting in line and go home. She added, "We will not stand by and watch while senior citizens, who have toiled their whole lives, are turned away because of the demand of foreigners, many of whom only have a residence permit and some of whom don’t even receive welfare benefits."

The news brought a strong reaction from Marta Guðjónsdóttir, chairperson of the Reykjavík Human Rights Council. "As long as the city is supporting Fjölskylduhjálp, they cannot discriminate the needy based on national origin."

Flosadóttir denied ever saying that she had divided the needy in this fashion, which prompted Fréttablaðið to print a transcript of the recorded conversationone of their journalists had with Flosadóttir, showing the contrary to be the case.

In addition, as our own Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl points out in a new opinion piece, Flosadóttir has been in the news before. First, in 2007, by running alongside Magnús Þór Hafsteinsson of the LIberal Party, during a time when both the party and Hafsteinsson especially were campaigning heavily on a nationalist platform. Second, by having to resign as chairman of another charity, Mæðrastyrksnefnd, when it was revealed that she had used donations to finance a vacation to Portugal.

Flosadóttir has since stated that the policy of separating the poor by national origin will no longer be utilized.

I'm glad the Icelandic media exposed this lady (because the media has been under a lot of scrutiny for questionable objectivity lately) but what's sad is that she'll probably get to keep her job, just like all the other corrupt businessmen and politicians who should be given some time out to rethink their current career choices. I'm sure there are plenty of other Icelanders who, if given a chance, could do a better job.

As some of the comments eluded to in my last post, there should absolutely be priorities for need (elderly, disabled, kids first, etc.) and I think it's reasonable to demand some proof of need (from everyone, citizens and foreign residents alike) but it's a really awful PR move (not to mention poor human rights) to separate the needy into "us" and "them" lines based on nationality. In which line would the half-Icelandic people stand? It's a slippery slope...

For a brilliantly scathing, satirical take on that subject, check out this blog. (But don't read it if you're extremely sensitive, mildly xenophobic, prone to hiccups, or cannot handle sarcasm.)

It's not just volcanoes erupting...

...it also looks like a lot of hate is bubbling up to the surface lately.

Let's look at some fun examples of racism, sexism, and general ignorance from today's domestic and international news, shall we?

Here's a lovely excerpt from the Associated Press in Washington D.C., regarding the threats against lawmakers (in BOTH parties) after the epic health care reform bill was signed into law this week -- it clearly demonstrates why I'm often embarrassed by my home country:

The actions against Democrats have included racial slurs thrown at black lawmakers, e-mail and phone death threats and bricks thrown through regional office windows.

Ohio Rep. John Boccieri, one of eight Democrats who switched to "yes" on the most recent House vote, said he had received threats. "Having flown missions in and out of Afghanistan, I know what it's like to be in harm's way. But I never imagined serving in Congress could feel the same," said Boccieri, a major in the Air Force reserve. He did not elaborate on the threats.

E-mails sent to Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla., another member who switcher her vote, urged her to commit suicide and said she and her family should rot in hell. Another called her a "two-timing, backstabbing whore."

Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat and chairwoman of an influential House committee, said someone had left her a voice mail that used the word "snipers."

On the Republican side, the office of Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio released a tape of a profanity-laced phone message in which the caller said Republicans were racists and, referring to an accident two years ago when Schmidt was hit by a car while jogging, said, "you should have broke your back, b... ."

Way to be classy, people!

And closer to home, in Iceland, where the chief of an Icelandic family assistance program decides that Icelanders should not be forced to stand in the same line as immigrants at the food bank. (I translated this article as best I could) This has not gone over well with most in the community and from what I've heard, the City of Reykjavik is not pleased with this woman.:

Icelanders a priority for family support services

Family Help Iceland now directs that people hold two rows for its weekly food distribution: In the second row are foreigners Icelanders in the first row.

Ásgerður Jóna Flosadóttir, Chief of Family Help, says this system started yesterday and it will remain permanent, even though it seems offensive to foreigners with whom aid remains so strong.

Foreigners tend to queue up early and Family Help Center employees have watched as Icelandic people with children and older citizens hold have given up. “We do not stand here and ignore it when older people, who have toiled all their lives, need to disappear from the line because of foreigners, many of whom only hold a permit and may not receive benefits,” says Ásgerður.

Yesterday the organization served about five hundred families, of which two hundred were foreigners.

Ásgerður says foreign queuing-up culture is different from Icelandic.[1] Brawny [sic] Polish men meet, for example, early on. Later in the day come more foreigners who maybe go into the line with them.

"It is a certain ‘self rescue-effort’ with them," says Ásgerður, reaffirming that everyone received food yesterday as usual and some unique foreign mothers have also started joining the queue.

From now on, Ásgerður explains, special Family Help organizations for foreigners will establish a special form issued by Reykjavik Social Services to display to the food bank (so that they should actually help to maintain). “They may come once a month but if they need more help, they must come with papers.”

It is difficult to monitor the situation of foreigners and to know who needs help and who doesn’t.[2] With this new system, it should reduce the ranks of people [foreigners] showing up to the queues. Icelanders should also demonstrate the need for assistance, for example by showing wage notes (i.e. pay stubs or proof of unemployment).

Jórunn Frímannsdóttir, chairman of the City of Reykjavik City Welfare Council, says this news comes as a surprise. There has been a request for clarification from Family Help why it is that way.

My two cents: I'm all for people showing some proof of need for assistance, but two lines? Really? As one of my Icelandic friends commented on Facebook, "why not just make the people in the second line wear armbands too?"

Note: People who are in Iceland on temporary residence permits may be unable to renew their permits if they have received any social support (unemployment, housing assistance, etc.) from the Icelandic government. So I may be wrong, but I'm generally assuming that these people must really be in need to show up at a food bank knowing that they could be sent home for the help they are receiving now.

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[1] From my observation, this is true – Icelanders really don’t know how to queue up. Instead, they usually just form a blob with no real indication of where the line begins or ends. They have much to learn about forming orderly lines!

[2] The system of organization is fairly loose with many government and support agencies in Iceland. It has a lot to do with the general attitude of “þetta reddast”, or “it will all just work itself out”.

Fox News: We're all gonna die!!

God bless Fox News for once again scaring viewers shitless warning people about the many dangers that exist in the big scary world. This time, your freedoms aren't just being threatened, but your whole life is at stake!

Although I appreciate the faux-sincerity of the TV host and her heightened response to the Katla volcano, I'm disappointed that this interview missed a few points:

(NOTE: if you are sarcasm-challenged, I would suggest that you stop reading now.)

1. They forgot to blame Obama for this volcano. (24% of Republicans in the US believe Obama may be the Antichrist...)
2. They forgot to mention that Iceland is a godless, Pagan-lovin' country with a socialist health care system, and that this volcano is God's wrath for living an amoral existence. (Just like the Haitian earthquake was a punishment from God, or so Pat Robertson explained.)
3. They didn't spend enough time blowing Iceland's economic problems out of proportion. They didn't mention IceSave once. Not once! They also forgot to mention that everyone in Iceland believes in elves and trolls, or that the rampant "pots-and-pans" riots have made Iceland a dangerous travel destination.
4. They forgot to talk about the benefits of the global cooling that would occur after a giant cloud of ash obscures the sun's warming rays for an extended period of time, like what happened after the 1783 Laki eruptions that many indirectly attribute to the unrest behind the French Revolution. (But would that be acknowledging that global warming exists?) Global cooling with its subsequent famines would undoubtedly have the biggest effect on developing countries -- you know, the places where them terrorists are from.
5. They also forgot to mention how great it would be for the GOP if a giant haze of sulfur dioxide from a catastrophic Katla volcano killed thousands of liberal, commie-lovin' Europeans because they're always complaining about the War on Terror and environmental damage and boring stuff like that.

Fire and Ice

This photo, borrowed from Extreme Icelandic Adventures (on Facebook), brilliantly expresses the old saying that Iceland is the "Land of Fire & Ice":

The image is of Fimmvörðuháls, location of our recent volcanic eruption. Note: that little speck you see in the bottom left is a man on a snowmobile! As if you needed more proof that Icelanders are crazy... ; ' )

Don't make me call the fashion police

My three hours spent on campus today have enlightened me -- but not in a scholarly sense.

No, my revelations today were more fashion-oriented, and involved FUGs:

1) Crocs look stupid on everyone. I don't care how young and cute and blond you are. Something that looks stupid on Americans also looks stupid on Icelanders (and cats).

2) Leggings are not a substitute for pants. Let's be clear on something: there are skinny jeans and then there are denim-style leggings that are made to look like jeans. Know the difference.

These are not denim leggings, but you get my point.

Eyjafjallajokull eruption watch: awful music alert

Eyjafjallajökull eruption update:

Fortunately, there are no fatalities or major damages reported from the eruption so far, but we have reports that the Icelandic national radio broadcast (RÚV) is killing people with very bad music.

Stay tuned for more...the death toll from the horrible music may be catastrophic. The bad music is having an especially toxic effect on Twitter users (#icerupt #eyjafjallajokull). There are some initial reports of some Icelanders wanting to throw themselves into the liquid hot magma instead of having to listen to the music on national Icelandic radio.

Serious stuff, folks.

Eyjafjallajökull eruption watch: where exactly is it happening?

The eruption is not directly underneath the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, but is located to the east in a popular hiking area known as Fimmvörðuháls: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimmvörðuháls

Here's a map from our friends at RÚV:

In other news, it's almost 4:00 a.m. and I'm delirious. I'm tired, but too excited to sleep.

And now, I'm hearing that all waterways (sea passages and whatnot) have been closed in a range of 120 nautical miles from the eruption site along with all airports except for Egilstaður in East Iceland. HOW WILL WE GET OUR SHIPMENTS OF IMPORTED AVOCADOES? The horrors!

Volcano update 3:30 a.m.

Since the last update,foreign news outlets and Icelandic reports in English have been picking up the pace on reporting of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to translate what I'm reading on visir.is, mbl.is, and ruv.is. And as always, I'm busy chatting on Facebook with other SUPER EXCITED expats here in Iceland... No one can sleep!

LATEST NEWS: So far, the eruption activity has slightly increased and there is more ash being produced. According to an update on mbl.is, a local resident describes the ash as fine -- like snowflakes -- but it is becoming more dense in the affected area and is making breathing uncomfortable. (Obviously.) Another report from a TV news reporter on visir.is mentions that the glow from the eruption can be seen for quite a distance and ALREADY traffic is increasing in both directions: people fleeing the affected area, and crazy Reykjavik people driving to go see it (D'oh!). I should mention that it's past 3:00 a.m. here and it's pretty rare to find sober people in the capital area on a Saturday night...

Also in the news: an Icelandair flight from Boston to Keflavik has been turned back due to the situation. All flights to/from Iceland are on hold at the moment.

So far, authorities are watching out for the following possible scenarios:

1) increased ash fall

2) lighting strikes (caused by ash fall)

3) lava runs

4) jökulhlaup, or a glacial flood (this seems to be less likely, now that they have found that the eruption is from an area east of the glacier).

And here's something fun...a satellite image from space tracking ash fall: http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/IPPS/html/MSG/RGB/ASH/ICELAND/index.htm

Volcano update: 2:20 a.m.

Image from RÚV web cam - view of Eyjafjallajökull from Búrfell

For anyone interested in following the volcanic eruption but (like me) has difficulties comprehending Icelandic, here is a good link: http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/. It has updates by the geologist I quoted in my last post.

From what I gather, the eruption has started slowly and is not (at the moment) creating major problems. Of course, it is the first eruption in this spot since 1823 so it's sort of "wait and see" right now. MOST IMPORTANTLY, evacuations have been going well and it appears that authorities are getting people in affected areas to safety. Thankfully this is still low season for tourists so there are likely very few tourists to evacuate from the scenic Þórsmörk area.

Here you can watch coverage live in Iceland's state channel: http://dagskra.ruv.is/streymi/

Spennó!

P.S. update at 2:35: Grapevine, Iceland's English-language news magazine, also has the scoop in English: http://grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Volcano-Erupts-Under-Eyjafjallajokull

A little background information about Eyjafjallajökull...

Courtesy of Dr. Erik Klemetti (March 4, 2010) on Scienceblogs.com:

... it looks like Eyjafjallajökull is a prime candidate for the next eruption on Iceland. Eyjafjallajökull (also known as merely Eyjafjöll) is one of a series of volcano systems on the south side of Iceland, near Katla. Amongst the Icelandic volcanoes, it has been relatively quiet, with the last known eruption occurring from 1821 until 1823, with evidence for eruptions in 1612 and 550 AD. The last two eruptions have been VEI 2, with explosive characteristics - and with a volcano under a glacier, we always have the threat of jökulhlaup - glacial outburst flows triggered by the volcanic eruption. And unlike many Icelandic volcanoes, the last eruption of Eyjafjallajökull was produced silicic to intermediate tephra rather than basalt. The larger volcanoes on Iceland such as Eyjafjallajökull, Katla andKrafla have all produced rhyolite eruptions in the dominantly basaltic land - and the rhyolite magma that was hit while drilling last year shows that you can get very silicic magmas even in a hot spot/mid-ocean ridge setting...

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Volcanic eruption at Eyjafjallajökull!

Just an update: We've got a real live volcanic eruption going on here! I first got word of this about 45 minutes ago.

The eruption is happening at Eyjafjalljökull, which is about 2 hours from Reykjavík. There has been a lot of speculation over the last two weeks about whether or not we'd see an eruption; apparently there has been a series of small tremors and increased magma flow measurements...so it's confirmed. It's happening!

I don't have many details yet, and obviously my Icelandic skills are fairly weak so I have to try to to translate all the news I'm getting. I'm also relying on Facebook, since every non-shitfaced person in Iceland is on Facebook right now writing updates like 'ELDGOS! SPENNÓ!' (Eruption! Exciting!)

Here are some links to get you by for now:

http://www.ruv.is/hekla (live web cam by Hekla, which is near the present eruption)

http://www.ruv.is/frett/eldgos-hafid-i-eyjafjallajokli (Iceland's state news channel - link to updates on eruption. hint: open this link in Google Chrome and let it translate from Icelandic to English for you.)

http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/03/eyjafjallajkull.php (a good blog post last week ago detailing the 'possible eruption')

Reminds me of...

I love to play free-association word games. Especially when I have other work that I should be doing. (Hurray for procrastination and mental diversions!)

When I think of the word "Iceland", it always reminds me of an ice cream shop.

I can't help it.

SNORT!

So I'm sitting here in a study room at the University of Iceland where there is currently a "nose-off" happening between two gentlemen in my near vicinity. Loud nasal-clearing sounds are a hallmark of the Icelandic male species, but today's display is just breathtaking on so many levels.

One is clearly winning. I'm not certain if he has a cold or if he just has a colossal booger that is inhibiting proper air flow through one or both nostrils. Maybe he just likes to pretend he's playing the trumpet with his nose -- since he is listening to headphones, perhaps he's snorting along to the rhythm. Maybe it's his mating call. (In which case, it's not working because there are no females flocking to his sexy nose-sounds. Although I'm having a hard time resisting.)

The other competitor has just given up -- clearly he cannot compete with the superior mating calls of the winner; he knows that females will view him as the weaker contender and will not want to mate with him.

I could just get up and hand him my unused napkin from the kleinur I bought at the cafeteria, but he would probably mistake my intent as some sort of indication that his mating calls are working on me. (I wouldn't want to send the wrong signals now, would I?) Besides, it's much more hilarious to watch the other students glaring at him, contemplating whether or not to tell him to shut up. ; ' )

SNJÓR!

The name "Iceland" often conjures up images of cute, snow-covered houses and rosy-cheeked children building snowmen as routine entertainment. Truth be told, however, it does not snow very often in the capital. It's usually too warm, so we're more accustomed to freezing rain. Last week on Wednesday night it started to snow -- much to my liking. We have to enjoy it while it lasts; snowfall doesn't usually last for more than a few days here unless you're in the north or the highlands. Everything looks nicer with a fresh layer of snow!

Here are some pictures from last Thursday - Saturday:

Baby having a nap in the fresh air: I believe this would get a person arrested for child endangerment charges anywhere else in the world, but here it's quite common for parents to park the little ones outside (bundled up, of course) while they shop or have a coffee at a store or cafe. Besides, Icelandic baby strollers are like Hummers and thus do not fit very well inside the small downtown businesses.

The mountains have disappeared! Ordinarily you could see lovely Mt. Esja in the background at this intersection, but today it's buried in snow....like everything else.

The joys of snow: My neighbor was amused that I was wearing a dress (with leg warmers and snow boots, mind you) to shovel in front of our entrance. Hey, I'm from Wisconsin -- it's totally normal.

Well-insulated tourists: It's usually really funny to see what tourists are wearing in Reykjavik. Often in winter -- when it's not even below zero or snowing -- I see tourists in full glacier-hiking gear (and sometimes with hiking poles, which I find hilarious). Today, those glacier-hiking outfits seem more appropriate. Bravo to well-prepared tourists!

Not going anywhere for a while? I'm sure that biking in shin-deep snow is fantastic exercise. But that doesn't mean I'm about to try it.