Iceland Roundup: Physician Shortage, Hitler Apology Videos, North Korea & More News

The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Grapevine editor-in-chief Bart Cameron and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to round up the stories making headlines in recent weeks.

Too Few Physicians In North Iceland
It was reported before the weekend, that the Akureyri hospital in North Iceland was hardly operational because too few physicians currently work there. Three doctors quit because they were overworked. The situation is also connected to how hospitals and health clinics have been staffed over the past decade or so, which is to hire doctors as  short term contractors, a practice which has turned out not to be strictly legal. Staffing generally is a problem in the Icelandic health care system, and the Reykjavík hospitals have been running in an emergency mode for over a year.

Half of Municipalities In Iceland Without Policy Towards Disabled People
Fifteen years ago, municipalities in Iceland took over responsibility for services to disabled people. Since then, only half of them have even taken up a policy regarding those services. This has in legalistic terms, not been a problem, but just recently Alþingi ratified the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which in turn will make some of those lackluster policies regarding disabled persons, illegal.

55% of Icelanders Want An Investigation Of The State’s Special Prosecutor
The office of Special Prosecutor, set up after the 2008 economic collapse, has had tumultuous moments, and now 55% of Icelanders want that particular office, to be investigated. This recalls some parliamentarians interest in investigating the investigation committee that wrote a report for Alþingi in 2010, on the reasons for the economic collapse. Investigate the investigation is a perpetual motion machine, of sorts.

CEO Of Beloved Hot Dog Stand Shares Questionable Videos On TikTok
Local news outlet Heimildin reported on Bæjarins Bestu CEO having reposted a TikTok video which defends the actions of one Adolf Hitler. The CEO in question said he did not remember reposting the video.

North Korea Is A Prosperous Country According To One Icelander
Last week it saw a report on Icelander Kristinn Hannesson, who visited North Korea for the 80th anniversary of that country’s communist party. The former socialist party candidate said that negative news about North Korea were often just South Korean propaganda and that UN reports on Human Rights violations there, were “outdated”.