Author: Kári Tulinius
So What’s This I Hear About Iceland Almost Being In The World Cup?
If you have sat next to an Icelander while watching this year’s World Cup, you will have heard that Iceland…
So What’s This City Election I Keep Hearing About?
Oh, you heard about it? It seems like a lot of people did not. Turnout was at an historic low…
So What Are These Shitballs I Keep Hearing About?
If we are to have any hope of discussing the very serious matter of an ecological collapse in the unique…
So What’s This Christmas Tree I Keep Hearing About?
Every year since 1951 the city of Oslo has presented the city of Reykjavík with a goddamn enormous spruce tree,…
So What’s This Trip To Ukraine I Keep Hearing About?
Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson went on an official visit to Kiev on March 22. There he…
So What’s This Silly Talk In Parliament I Keep Hearing About?
Politicians say the darnedest things. That has been true at least since their words were commonly recorded in hieroglyphics. For…
So Who’s This Tony Omos I Keep Hearing About?
He is a Nigerian who applied for asylum in Iceland two years ago. Late last year he was escorted out…
So What’re These Elves I Keep Hearing About?
The long answer is that it has been reported by the Associated Press, and subsequently hundreds of media outlets around…
So What’s This Christmas Book Flood I Keep Hearing About?
If you have read any guidebooks about Iceland, you will have read about the Christmas book flood, or jólabókaflóðið, which…
So Who’s This Jón Gnarr I Keep Hearing About?
The boring answer is that he is the mayor of Reykjavík. He has been in the news lately because he…
So What’s This Beautiful Word Contest I Keep Hearing About?
The Icelandic state broadcaster RÚV and the humanities department of the University of Iceland have launched a contest to find…
So What Are These Sandstorms I Keep Hearing About?
People tend to forget that Iceland is about 25% desert, or more, depending on what you consider the line to…
So What’s This Overpriced Rental Market I Keep Hearing About?
As Jimmy McMillan, founder of New York’s The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, who released the album ‘The Rent…
So What’s This Icelandic Horse Competition I’ve Been Hearing About
Since 1991 there have been world championships of the Icelandic horse. In case that sentence makes absolutely no sense, I…
So What Is This Reykjavík Mosque I Keep Hearing About?
On July 6, the Reykjavík City Council gave permission to build an 800 square metre mosque in Reykjavík, Iceland’s first…
SO WHAT’S THIS POLICE BRUTALITY I KEEP HEARING ABOUT?
A couple of weekends ago, a police officer was filmed having an altercation with a drunken woman in downtown Reykjavík….
So What’s This National Culture I Keep Hearing About?
After any election there are always surprising developments. One of those after the last election in Iceland was that the…
So What’s This Airport Dispute I Keep Hearing About?
Like many long-running political disputes in Iceland, it’s the fault of the British. During World War II, the UK occupied…
So What’s This State-Run Liquor Store I Keep Hearing About?
The Icelandic government, like governments in most of the Nordic countries, several US states and some other countries around the…
So What’s This Hunting Of Endangered Whales I Keep Hearing About?
Hvalur hf., an Icelandic whaling company, has announced that this summer it will resume hunting fin whales, an endangered species….
So What’s This Right-Wing Election I Keep Hearing About?
To put it in simple terms, the two right-wing political parties in Iceland, The Independence Party and The Progressive Party,…
So What’s This Dying River I Keep Hearing About?
A river in the east of Iceland called Lagarfljót has had its ecosystem collapse. The river originates in the Vatnajökull…
So What’s This Porn Ban I Keep Hearing About?
Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson said last month that he is considering proposing legislation that would, among other things,…
So What’s This Asylum Tourism I Keep Hearing About?
After spending a gazillion dollars convincing foreigners that Iceland in winter is not an uninhabitable rock floating in the colder…
So What’s This New Year’s Eve Sketch Comedy Show I Keep Hearing About?
There is a long answer to that question, but the short answer is that every New Year’s Eve, the Icelandic…