Monday News Edit: What Are Icelanders Talking About?

March has been eventful so far, but not always in a good way. As we step into a new week, groggy and unwilling to leave the comfort of our homes to toddle off to work, another News Edit follows, too. So what has been on Icelanders’ minds of late besides the latest music and design festivals? Here’s a round-up of fresh debates, hot topics and crazy madness from these past few days.

An Iraqi family consisting of a mother, Hanaa, and five children has recently settled in the small municipality of Súðavík, in the Westfjörds. The community seems to have welcomed them with warmth, while people from all corners of the country have wished them health and happiness on social media. Hanaa has a diploma in physiotherapy but would like to complete her studies now that her youngest son, who has Down Syndrome, can finally receive appropriate assistance through the healthcare system. When she saw the apartment she would be living in with her children, Hanaa didn’t realise straight away that it was all for her. Instead, she asked if she was allowed to choose one room for the six of them to sleep in. “We thought we wouldn’t be welcome here, because we come from such a different place and culture but it’s exactly the opposite. We already feel at home,” Hanaa told Visir. “Here I finally see people laugh, so I’m trying to forget what has happened to be in the past. When I see people smile I just smile with them.”

This is only one example of the kind of posts waiting for you on RVK Craigslist.

Speaking of smiling, it’s really the only thing you can do when you check out the new addition to the Craigslist family. It’s called Reykjavík Craigslist and so far it seems to be pretty useless when it comes to finding things like jobs, apartments or cars as nothing of the sort is listed in the website. For now, instead, the only section of the website that is actually alive is the one where individuals look for hook-ups, sugar daddies and, more often than not, men or women to marry. Pictures of ads are regularly posted on Facebook and shared by Icelanders who find them hilarious—like the Korean guy who is “willing to breed” and make babies with Icelandic women. Icelanders tend to use Tinder to find partners and local sites or social media to source their goods so only time will tell whether Craigslist RVK will ever take flight. For now, we’ll just enjoy it as is.

As far as awkward situations go, however, nothing beats the Icelandic Left Greens. After two members of the political party, namely Rósa Björk Brynjólfsdóttir and Andrés Ingi Jónsson, have distanced themselves twice from their party policies, publicly speaking against them, the party is now looking for MPs to substitute them, Visir reports. Rósa and Andrés were first and foremost against their party coalition with the Independence Party after the elections. Then, at the beginning of March, they were the only members of the party to support the vote of no-confidence proposed by the Pirate Party and the Social Democrats against the Minister of Justice. Although Rósa and Andrés’ tendency to speak up when they disagree doesn’t seem to be hurting the government, people have begun counting only 33 individuals in the current government majority, rather than 35. Consequently, the party has stressed the need to resolve these “communication problems” by looking for a vice-MP to substitute Rósa (as per her request). We wait with bated breath for more updates on this unlikely story.