Author: Magnús Sveinn Helgason
Cleaning Up The Countryside By Killing Vagrants: Iceland’s History Of Executions
by Magnús Sveinn Helgason and Andie Sophia Fontaine
In 1550, when the King of Denmark took over the right to administer justice from the Catholic Church and added…
A Pink But Toxic Gold-Rush
The controversial salmon farming industry In the past decade, the fjords of Iceland have been the site of a gold…
Can We Place A Price Tag On The Central Highlands?
The Icelandic Environment Association and the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA) recently held a conference to bring together a diverse…
Iceland Strikes Again!
The conventional wisdom says that Iceland is a happy, prosperous place with that strong Nordic welfare system. But if things…
A Tycoon Lays Claim To His Palace
Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson, the last remaining tycoon of the Icelandic financial miracle, has announced that one of the most iconic…
Who Knew Banking Was Really About Dead Cats?
The Reykjavik District Court is now one week into what has been dubbed the “large Kaupthing market manipulation case.” So…
Is The Fear of Showering Naked Preventing Tourists From Enjoying The Best Iceland Has To Offer?
Visits to the great public pools of Reykjavík have not increased anywhere near as much as city officials would have…
Bankers On Trial, Again
The Reykjavík District Court began hearing oral testimony on Monday in the largest case relating to the events leading up…
Every Swimming Pool In The Greater Reykjavík Area, Rated
Any visitor to Iceland simply must visit one of the island’s ubiquitous public swimming pools. This is not a request….
Bankers Behind Bars: Is Iceland Living Up To That Meme
One frequently encounters foreigners who believe that Iceland offers a unique model of how to deal with a financial crash….
Islamophobia In Iceland: Dog Whistle Politics And Outright Xenophobia
Flirting with the hater contingentThe last few weeks have seen a major outbreak of Islamophobia in Iceland. Following the attacks…
The Curious Case Of The Banned Toothbrushes
Last month, visir.is ran a story with a headline tantamount to “Children in Reykjavík not allowed to get toothbrushes,” prompting…
How To Incriminate Yourself Through Inaction
After weeks of mounting pressure and criticism, Iceland’s Minister of Finance, Bjarni Benediktsson, finally came out on Wednesday in support…
The Christmas Sweater: Another Awful Imported “Tradition”
Christmas is probably the best example of the power of globalized consumer culture, to be exact: how “traditions” are constantly…
WAR ON CHRISTMAS: Finally, An Icelandic Front
Anyone who’s followed American politics, or switched to Fox News over the holidays, knows that a full blown war is…
Iceland’s Economy Shrinks In Third Quarter
Austerity delivers anaemic growth: No surprise thereAfter years of growing at a respectable rate, the Icelandic economy seems to have…
The Nature Pass: The Stupidest Tax In History
According to official estimates, the number of foreign tourists in Iceland will top the one million mark for the first time…
Military-Lite
What the hell was going on with that whole machine gun affair? The biggest news item in Iceland during the…
The Endless Bubble Of Overblown Expectations
In the spring of 2007, when the Icelandic financial bubble was reaching its peak, the Ministry of Industry held a…
Everything Counts
Calculating crime’s contribution to Iceland’s economy Statistics Iceland (SI) raised a few eyebrows when the institution announced that it would…
Foreign Policy For Profit
Last week, the Russian government announced they would respond to Western sanctions over the situation in the Ukraine with some…
Protestors Force The Police To Break The Law
Last week, the National Audit Office of Iceland published a report criticising the National Police Commissioner for having violated laws…
Re-Imagining Money And Banking
For the last three decades, Dr. Margrit Kennedy has been advocating for a transformation of the world money system, for…
THE ICELANDIC EDUCATION SYSTEM: A PRIMER
The Icelandic education system resembles those of Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. There are four levels of education: day-care for…
The Case Against ‘The One Big University Theory Of Academic Excellence’
One of the more common arguments heard in debates on higher education in Iceland, especially when it comes to university…