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19 Nov

Dear Girls!

Screen Shot 2015-11-19 at 10.16.38 A group of strong, courageous feminists won this year’s Skrekkur, which is an annual talent contest, held by the secondary schools in Reykjavik.

Hagaskoli, a school in the West Side District of Reykjavik, won the prize with their feminist poetry and dance. The piece was written and choreographed entirely by the teenage girls themselves, with Una Torfadóttir, Erna Sóley Ásgrímsdóttir og María Einarsdóttir leading the team.

Icelandic women are a force of nature, fighting for equal rights with all means. The winning piece sort of embodied the recent revolutionary campaigns, like #freeTheNipple and #outload. HERE you can read more about what’s been happening this year.

As I’ve said it before; the fight for equality is far from over, but at least the future is bright when young people are as strong and courageous as this!

07 Nov

Björk Calls to Action!

Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 15.13.37 Last week I wrote about David Cameron’s visit to Iceland and mentioned how worried I was about speculations of building a power cable from Iceland to provide the UK with energy. As much as I love living here, and wish this country all the best, I cherish the nature of my homeland more. These plans are dangerous. UK has already negotiated getting power from Norway as you can read in Guardian; ‘The UK and Norway are to build the world’s longest undersea interconnector – a method of linking up electricity and gas networks – to provide enough low-carbon energy for almost 750,000 British homes.’

The world famous musician Björk has for years been a spokesperson for keeping Icelandic nature untouched and now she has called to action. ‘Iceland has a deadline!’ she says.

Björk and Andri Snær Magnason, the prestigious writer and activist, held a press conference yesterday about ‘the latest skirmish in the war to protect Iceland’s highlands from industrialisation’. You can read more in Grapevine. They ask the world to join them against the government to help protecting the Icelandic wilderness. The deadline is in 10 days and if you want to help sign the petition HERE.

The news has already reached international media like BBC, Guardian and Pitchfork.

This is not the first time Björk calls to action, in 2008 she teamed up with Sigur Rós in a concert to raise awareness for Icelandic nature. I’ll never forget that magical day.

And here’s her song Náttúra (Nature)

We can only hope the world will listen this time!

http://heartoficeland.org/

https://www.facebook.com/gaetumgardsins/?fref=ts

http://www.framtidarlandid.is/en/natureiceland

29 Oct

David Cameron Visiting Iceland

Davidcameron British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is visiting Iceland and will be attending the Northern Future Forum in Reykjavík. A British Prime Minister hasn’t made an official visit to Iceland since 1941, when Winston Churchill met with the Icelandic government.

Iceland isn’t inside the EU, but is a member of the EFTA, a grouping of four non-EU European countries. It’s also part of the European Economic Area EEA. Through the EEA, Iceland participates with a non-voting status in certain EU agencies and programmes, including enterprise, environment, education and research programs. Here you can read about the ongoing debate on if Iceland should join EU. Regarded as one of the biggest benefit of being ‘outside’ of the EU is the ownership of the fish in Icelandic waters.

Fisheries management in Icelandic waters is primarily based on catch limitation (output control) through individual transferable quotas. The reality is that only a few families in Iceland own the quota and therefore are the only ones getting rich from it. The rest of the nation scrambles to get by. So instead of other countries getting money for our fish, the Icelandic ‘quota kings’ – as we call them – get rich. Can’t see a lot of difference for the majority of Icelanders. I bet David Cameron and Iceland’s Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson will not discuss this. There is another subject Cameron will be eager to discuss with the Icelandic PM, the possibility of an undersea cable between the two countries.

Iceland gets around 95% of its power from hydro and geothermal energy. An undersea cable could supply UK homes with geothermal energy from Iceland’s volcanoes within a decade, they say. So, other countries might not fish in our waters but now they will probably get our energy. That worries me.

At a press conference, held midday, Cameron will probably take the opportunity to announce that he hopes Britain will remain in the EU and talk about the cable as well.

Last year ITV’s journalist Tom Bradby was in Iceland. ‘What’s life like in an European country that’s not part of the EU?’, he asks. ‘Iceland has often been held up as one of the primary examples, so last year I travelled there to see how the country fares’. I recommend reading and watching Could Britain ever truly be free of the EU?

23 Oct

Your Heart Just Beats!

Screen Shot 2015-10-22 at 16.11.40 At the moment I’m incredibly proud of being Icelandic. The reason is the same as often before, that matters regarding LGBTQI+ rights are quite progressive in Iceland. I’ve written about it before, here and here.

Last Sunday the longest running TV program for children, ‘Stundin okkar’, (Our hour) aired an episode in the afternoon, just like most Sundays during the wintertime for more than three decades. However, this episode was different. It featured the Pop artist Paul Oscar as the main guest, touching on the topic of being gay. The conversation was open, very natural and heartfelt. The fact that this was aired on RUV, The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, makes me very happy.

‘Some guys like other guys, some guys like girls. Some girls like guys, some girls like other girls. – You don’t decide what makes your heart beat, it just beats.’

We’re one step closer to equality. Well done!

Gay Pride last August, Paul Oscar singing.

07 Sep

Congrats Iceland!

Last night was a night of celebration in Iceland. For the first time, the national team in men’s football has secured a spot at a major international tournament thanks to their point from a goalless draw with Kazakhstan. They are through to the UEFA Euro 2016, held in France next summer.

I’m happy for the men’s team to finally be able to celebrate what the Icelandic women’s football team has celebrated three times already, in 1995, 2009 and 2013.

Well done!

02 Sep

Who is this Baltasar Kormakur?

Photo: Petr Novák, Wikipedia.

In a sunny and warm Italy the highly anticipated film Everest opened the Venice Film Festival yesterday. The last two films to open the festival were Gravity in 2013 and Birdman last year. Everest is made by the only Icelandic director ever to make Hollywood blockbusters, Baltasar Kormakur.

The film is based on a true story of a climbing expedition on Mt. Everest, that is devastated by a severe snow storm. The film has already gotten several reviews. Time Out praised the ‘astonishing’ craft of Kormakur’s 3-D spectacular and The Hollywood Reporter called the movie ‘gripping and immersive’. Peter Bradshaw from Guardian is not as content and says it’s a ‘thriller that’s light on thrills’. Variety and ScreenDaily have also published their reviews.

Updated on the 18th of September

Here are reviews from The Independent, Belfast Telegraph and The Irish Times.

Who is Baltasar Kormakur?

Kormakur is born on the 27th of February to an Icelandic mother, Kristjana Samper, and a Spanish father, Baltasar Samper, both respected artists in Iceland. Baltasar Kormakur started out as an actor and became well-known at a young age, but found passion in directing early on and has since staged plays, directed films and has recently added TV to the equation. Furthermore, he is a very productive producer. You can read about his body of work here and I personally recommend this interview and this one.

Then there are trailers for some of his films. First up is 101 Reykjavik, his directorial debut.

White Night Wedding is loosely based on the play Ivanov by Anton Chekhov. Baltasar also directed the play at the National Theatre of Iceland.

The Deep

2 Guns

Contraband

The TV series Trapped, coming up soon.

09 Jul

Tube romance

11713776_10205937902860769_2331837453524767084_o It’s complete chaos in the capital due to a tube strike. All major lines are completely closed, making this the first total shutdown in 13 years. The bus queues are endless.

Fortunately it will be over by midnight.

I love the London Underground. For an Icelander, not used to this luxury, it’s so brilliant to be able to get from one part of the city to another so easily and in such short time. It can be madness during rush hour but apart from that it’s splendid.

However, I’ve never thought about the London Underground as a replacement for Tinder or whatever people use these days to find love. Apparently one can find romance on the tube, or so they say on ITV, where they also list top stations to find singles.

Wonder if commuters will find love in the chaos today!

02 Jul

Strange days

11415470_10205826143266849_1252669487698795569_o The internet didn’t melt away yesterday, nor did I. However, roads melted as the mercury clocked 36.7C, the highest in July since records began in the mid 1870s. The hotspot was Heathrow. Very fitting.

This has been a sad and strange week over here. In the sweltering heat yesterday the first bodies of the victims killed by a gunman in Friday’s beach attack in Tunisia were flown back to the UK. Most of the victims were from here; it hasn’t been confirmed yet but it’s likely that 30 of 38 victims were British.

It has been agonising to listen to the survivors speak about their ordeal. It brings back memories of the 2011 Norway attacks when Anders Breivik killed 77 people. Like then, people under attack in Tunisia tried to play dead as the gunman passed and many of them were calling home from hideaways to say goodbyes to their loved ones. At the same time it’s moving to hear how people would selflessly put them self in danger while helping the injured and some even died protecting those they loved.

All of this is affecting the nation even more due to the fact that next week marks the 10 year anniversary of the 7/7 terrorist attack. The stories from those who survived back then blend in with the stories from last Friday.

Meanwhile, news from Iceland about earthquakes and a possible volcano eruption near Reykjavik are scaring the living daylights out of me. For some reason news like that affect me more when I’m over here than when I lived in Iceland.

I guess all we can do is try to enjoy each day, each moment. One never knows.

19 Jun

Celebrating Icelandic women #FreeTheNipple #outloud

I remember my grandma putting on her best clothes before going to the polling station to vote. Her face lit up when she told me how lucky I was to have the right to vote. If you don’t vote, she said, then you have no right to an opinion about the outcome.

fe9b8f40-f108-0132-44b9-0a2ca390b447 Today Icelandic women celebrate 100 years of suffrage. June 19th in 1915, Icelandic women and servants gained the parliamentary vote. However, the rights were restricted to those over forty years of age. Five years later, the suffrage laws were modified and everyone got equal voting rights. Read more about the struggle for voting rights and the amazing pioneer Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir, a driving force in the fight for women’s suffrage, which led to women being granted the right to vote at local elections in 1907, the right to education and political office in 1911, and full suffrage in 1915.

Icelandic women are still a force of nature, fighting for equal rights with all means. Recent revolutionary campaigns have left me speechless and I’m grateful for the courage of those amazing women.

The #FreeTheNipple campaign is focused on fighting double standards regarding the censorship of female breasts. It had been around for a while but when a 17 year old Icelandic girl posted a photo on Twitter showing her nipples and was mocked by a young man, countless Icelandic women rose to her defence and posted their own nipple photos with the hashtag #freethenipple. The movement grew stronger by the minute and was noticed by international media like The Independent and Buzzfeed. This was in March but the movement is still going strong: women and men soaked up the sun topless in front of the parliament building few days ago.

The other campaign was heartbreaking and empowering at the same time. When a woman asked if anyone had experienced sexual abuse, in a closed Facebook group called Beauty Tips, she received hundreds of comments. Women started telling their stories, some of them for the first time. This resulted in a social media campaign aiming to tear down the wall of silence around rape and sexual abuse. On Twitter, they used the hashtags #outloud, #konurtala (“women speak”) and #þöggun (“silenced”). Lots of Icelandic women changed their Facebook profile pictures to yellow or orange images of sad-face emoticons, or sometimes a mixture of both, to show how widespread sexual violence is. You can read more about it in The Independent and Reykjavik Grapevine.

The fight for equality is far from over, but at least the future is bright when young people are as strong and courageous as this.

Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir, photo: Kvennasögusafn Íslands

15 May

Jamie Oliver and skyr

Today it’s Jamie Oliver’s annual Food Revolution Day. For years he has been educating people about food and encouraging everyone to bring fresh, wholesome foods to the table. Cook from scratch. For this year’s Food Revolution Day, Oliver has launched a global campaign and petition to urge school boards to make practical food education compulsory in their curriculum. He has even launched a song, where stars like Hugh Jackman and Paul McCartney perform. Here you can read all about his campaign and listen to the song. The photo is from Food Revolution Day 2013.

I wonder if Jamie Oliver has ever heard of the Icelandic super food skyr. It’s possible to buy skyr in the UK now, thanks to the Swedish-Danish company Arla. They call it Icelandic style yogurt and promote it like this; “High in protein, low in fat and reduced in sugar, Arla Skyr is made from all natural ingredients, making it a great way to give yourself a boost throughout the day.” Made in Germany. Many Icelanders haven’t been too happy about this. Here you can read about that.

The skyr from Arla is not too bad in my opinion. It’s even better than some of the brands in Iceland, sold as skyr. Arla’s skyr is nothing like the “real” skyr though, the natural delicacy I grew up eating in Northern part of Iceland during the sixties and seventies. Skyr isn’t yogurt. Not originally. It’s actually a fresh acid-curd cheese made from skim milk. Read more about it here.

I think Jamie Oliver would probably like skyr and he would definitely prefer the old, traditional kind.