The Drop-In #15: The New City Majority & the Dismantling of the Reykjavík Human Rights Office With Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir

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Hello and welcome to the drop-in where we here at the Rick of a Grapevine talk to people who have dropped in at this point, usually by request.
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Yep.
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Yep.
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But every now and then somebody just drops in and we talk to them anyway.
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For better or for worse.
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Not kidding.
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Usually for better.
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With us today is Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdottir.
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Thorbjörk has been uh well and is in municipality politics for eight years, I think we talked about.
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Yeah.
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Thorbjörg used to be the chair of Samtökin 78 which will explain in a bit what it is.
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And you're a linguist on top of all of this.
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And you are, and I'm sorry to say this, but you you you you do pop up in Icelandic media quite regularly for your writing and your commentary.
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Yeah.
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And most importantly, she's our featured writer in a current issue.
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And on that topic, you wrote about a specific issue for the latest issue of the regular grape van.
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Uh the the cutting of the Human Rights Council or Yeah, the Council and the Office.
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Or the committee and the office.
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Yeah.
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Well, I was mostly talking about the office though, but yes.
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In in in the uh new majorities, municipality majorities uh move to appear to be cutting costs.
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Um at least that's the aesthetics they were hoping for.
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In that uh specific announcement of cuts, they also cut the what we kinda could refer to as the communications office of the uh of the city hall, which was in numbers a lot more people, if I if I'm not mistaken.
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15 or 18 people or something like that.
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But nonetheless, we're gonna talk about human rights and the city really quick, a topic you are well versed in, and hence the hence the uh the excellent op-ed.
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So where should we start?
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Can we start with the op-ed real quick and just start with because you had an interesting point about what it means in Reiki because this department and what that means for people from outside the city?
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Yeah.
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Okay, yeah.
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Do you mean what what it means for uh for other municipalities?
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Can I can I start by cont like we should begin completely at the beginning here, I think, and contextualize okay, what is this thing that's called the case?
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What is the office that was caught?
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Okay, okay.
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How long had it been around?
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Forever, or was it rather recent?
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And what were its sort of main tasks?
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Because I I believe a lot of the audience wouldn't know these things necessarily.
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Yeah.
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And I must also like just say that I'm not like I'm not an expert on the human rights office.
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So like all of the tasks, I don't really have them like lined up.
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No, no, no.
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Yeah, so so it's an office that was founded uh almost 20 years ago uh in uh the city of Reykjavik, and it had to do with gender equality, uh, but also equality in a broader sense, of course.
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So when it comes to disability rights, uh queer rights, um immigrants, um multicultural issues, stuff like that.
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Um so it's an office that kind of um it worked across the departments, so it was like it was his its own uh island sort of in the bureaucracy of the city.
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Yes, yeah.
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Um so they essentially worked with everyone or anyone, um, and it's where where people could also file complaints or you know um or or get advice.
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Um they had a lot of projects going on.
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Uh one good project, for example, that the city of Reykjavik has done is um it was a really, really good brochure on uh domestic violence and how it looks in queer relationships.
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Okay.
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For example.
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Um so they've just been tasked in in sort of um making sure that the city of Reykjavik is upholding human rights, that they are working in line with the human rights policy of the city.
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Um And this is happening like the past 20 years have seen a lot of change in Reykjavik and in Iceland.
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We have had a significant influx of immigration.
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Yeah.
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So they were I uh they they went from being that portion of the population went from being a few percentages uh twenty years ago into a fifth of the country.
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Yeah, exactly.
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And I think uh I think the the similar like in the country all together and it's a similar statistic for the Reykjavik specifically.
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Yeah.
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Uh we're also I think that's a great it just makes me think about another project that I know of from the from the Human Rights Office where they uh where where they did a report on um how kids with an immigrant background were like whether they were uh entering sports and stuff like that.
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This was the fascinating report that was discussed a great deal by the former mayor, yeah, and trying to increase the participation.
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She had ideas of uh granting um extra extra um what would you call it, like uh refund of fees for people uh requiring under hardship.
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Yeah, that's a fascinating point.
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I forgot about that.
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Yeah, there are just so many, so many, like, so many initiatives, so many projects.
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And I think like for people outside of Reykjavik, so people that are working within municipality politics or just within municipalities in general, the data that they have aggregated and that they have analyzed uh is useful for everybody.
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Yeah.
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Um because the same trends happen everywhere.
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Yes.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yes.
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So um so Reykjavik really has been a pioneer when it comes to all of these issues and has often just set the bar.
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And I guess keeping the reports you just mentioned, they've also kind of been at the forefront on reporting on whether or not integration is happening.
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Yeah.
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As an excellent example.
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Whether or not these ideals that we have in or claim we have in in government are actually uh working out.
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Yeah.
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So make them work.
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To make them work, yeah.
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The Human Rights Office then would be for our readership extremely important for the local readership, right?
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We have we serve three main functions as a paper.
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We help tourists, we help locals with um difficulty with the language, and then we uh help people who are just interested in culture.
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So um if you're not a tourist, if you're the other two, you probably really need the human rights office more often than you maybe thought of before.
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And now it's gone.
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Yeah.
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Or it's been split up.
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So two people were let go, and the weren't there, I think there were six people and four of them were moved elsewhere.
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Yeah, for the the other four went into the, I guess, the basic the office that takes care of schools and such administration.
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Yeah, schools and welfare.
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Yeah.
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I think they were split up.
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Um and I think that's like as I tried to convey in the op-ped, it just feels really it it gives a really simplistic view of of human rights considerations.
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And because you can't like for example, disability rights, you can just put them under welfare.
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Because disability rights have to do with all facets of life.
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It's not only like if you're a recipient of welfare services.
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Do you know what I mean?
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It also has to do with pools, it has to do with planning, it has to do with uh so many other things.
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Yeah.
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Um so I think that is I think like the the overview uh is what's being lost.
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And this kind of um yeah, this working across the departments that I think was a really, really good uh setup is being lost.
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So and people aren't working together, and I think that's also something that needs to be addressed because you can be disabled and queer, or you can be disabled and queer, and you can also be uh have an immigrant background, or you can, you know, that there's just so many overlapping uh factors here.
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Um, and it has to do with all, as I said, all facets of uh uh of of city city management.
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We all we we both want to jump into quote.
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I just want to highlight one more sentence that I found uh especially compelling in your in your op-ed.
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As you said, this is also seems to be symbolic.
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And what is communicated by this gesture of cutting this?
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Can you speak a little bit to that?
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Yeah.
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It um I think the message that's being conveyed is that it's like that that it wasn't that it was useless, sort of, or that it was um not important enough to keep, uh not important enough to highlight or to emphasize.
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And I think um that really it does send up a powerful message to people that belong to minority groups in Regioik.
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Like, hey, your rights aren't really, you know, much of worth uh worth prioritizing.
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Your rights seem less of a priority than parking.
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Yeah.
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If we're looking at the current discussion.
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Yeah.
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And as I also said in the op-ed, it's really infuriating that the majority still says, like, oh yeah, of course, like we uphold human rights, and of course they're really important, and of course it's really important that everybody feels at Homer Echoic.
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But we're just not willing to do the work for it.
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No.
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No, no, I mean I uh not just not willing to do the work.
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This is the first major gesture they did.
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Exactly.
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And it is it's like it is an appeasement of the far right, it really is.
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This is what's confused me a little bit because Myth Flokren, the far right party, was not granted to seat in in the majority.
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However, many of their policies seem to have been enacted um of pretty immediately and with some fanfare.
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Like this was really Isn't this just like this is happening all over that you see parties that historically have been against all of that all of that stuff kind of just shifting a little bit, just moving a little bit in that direction in the hopes of gaining their votes or their case we're talking about or not being um not being criticized as vogue, you know?
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That's of course like the worst thing you could possibly be.
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It feels like sometimes.
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I've been shocked to hear how many times we've with the word woke has come up and uh a fear of woke has come up.
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I thought that discussion was over, but it's so crazy, isn't it?
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It's just a vogue thing to say.
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Uh what does it even mean?
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But uh No, this is a trend definitely that you can see in in happening all over Western Europe.
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And you can kind of grasp the logic of it, which is like we'd rather like let's rather have us moderate centrists move a little bit to the right than then you know make space for the the mat right.
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That seems to be the logic of it.
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But does it really work?
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Is what I'm which is gonna be answered sooner than later, because it doesn't seem to ever work.
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Because like if people dislike your quote unquote vokeness, they're just gonna hate you more if you move that way anyway.
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And also whether people who would like you and would vote for you will feel betrayed.
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It's a really weird mix of things.
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You can't both eat the cake and keep it in a sense.
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But it also it also has like it also has an effect on people's opinions.
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Yeah.
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And I think that's also what I that that I'm most scared of is just watching.
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I I I I can see the shift happening.
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Yeah.
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Because I'm like so I've always been like, I don't know, progressive, rather to the left, um human rights oriented.
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My views haven't changed at almost at all, or like they've stayed pretty solid for the last maybe 15-20 years.
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So I haven't moved, but I've watched everybody else move.
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Um and I think that's what happens like in increments really slowly.
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That and and things like, for example, accessing the Human Rights Office as the first thing that you do, um, it it does undermine the work that is being done all over the country in the benefit of human rights.
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Um and it just Yeah.
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So it also has it when politicians shift like this, they also have they they also have an influence on people's opinions.
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Yeah.
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Um so it it becomes like a cycle.
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It is confounding.
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Uh and we I spoke with the new mayor, Hill Hilder, and um I I had expected uh let's see, a more stilted dialogue, but she was outgoing with the Reykjavik grapevine, which surprised me a great deal because so many of the policies don't seem to be friendly towards our our readership.
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Friendly towards our readership.
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And I say that because I feel our readership that that's not tourists um are again the people who would be represented by the human rights office, in that they have a foreign, uh often have a foreign or I don't I don't mean to use that in a pejorative, but they have non-Icelandic parent or non-Icelandic background.
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And there are significant obstacles when you don't have with that are unique to Iceland, uh, if you're not uh third generation Icelandic, right?
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Because the language takes a long time to learn the habits.
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It's actually a family-based culture.
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Absolutely.
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We were just talking about uh how few people we know who weren't raised by their grandparents because the grand, you know, the family is really involved in the child care, for example, because we're in Reykjavik where there's limited childcare resources.
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Um massive waiting lists for childcare, which is one of the things that uh Selfstadt Plochin is supposed to be addressing, but we'll see.
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That wasn't one of the first announcements.
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They didn't announce childcare day one, they announced cutting human rights office.
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So yeah, I was surprised that they're willing to have a dialogue, and yet at the same time, their j their actions have not s suggested um consideration of our readers.
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Um I'm surprised.
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That's why it's also like that that also gives gives me the impression that it's symbolic.
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That it's not it's not like some ingrained, like it's not like uh um something this majority really believes in.
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They're not like against human rights.
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They aren't.
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No.
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As human beings, right?
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As you as human beings and as parties.
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They aren't.
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They um so it has more to do with the with the message that you're that's yeah.
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Yeah.
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That makes sense to me.
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I guess can this be corrected then?
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Can we just say that's not okay?
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And would it go back?
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Oh.
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But there was not an out out.
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I mean, we we ran your op-ed.
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I did not see many other magazines running an op-ed saying stop, stop this.
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No, nobody did.
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And uh people people aren't really like, and that's also what I sort of wrote in the op-ed as well, that there wasn't really any opposition to this cutting in the in the campaigning.
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It seems like it it seemed like a hot potato that nobody wanted to touch, you know.
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Yeah.
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Um Nobody wanted to be called quoke.
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No.
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You don't want to be like and one well one of the reasons why this confounds me a bit is uh I mean if we simplify the tasks of this office down to uh helping immigration uh helping immigrants um get oriented and uh fit into society and making sure that minorities such as uh well you know people with disabilities or people with uh different sexual orientation than than I don't know, you or something.
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Right.
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Uh will uh to assume Yeah, I'm I'm making assumptions here.
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Um it's it's kinda like also saying, you know, this this is all fine, we don't really have to do anymore, everything is good.
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Everything's been solved.
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Everything has been solved, let's move on.
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Yeah.
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Which is like like it's it's a it's a mad way to look at it, but it may be if you don't really follow these issues and you and if you are actually like not against human rights, maybe you just don't realize that this is actually um in many ways a fight that doesn't seem to ever end to an extent, if that makes any sense to you.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Never never ends.
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It never ends.
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And that it actually takes work.
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And I think that's the people think that it just happens on its own.
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It never does.
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It never does.
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And and then and talking about the immigration in a lot of people.
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So is there are they a victim of their own success, the Human Rights Office, because people think, oh, they've accomplished so much.
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It just happened automatically.
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It wasn't the opposite.
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Is that is that possible?
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The other thing I noticed about this this discussion though, um, and again, the mayor was very, very uh approachable and polite, but I do feel um that there's an economic and a class division that maybe um can be can result in blinders.
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These the uh the Office of Human Rights and Sabtaken Sutya Auta.
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Something should do on that, yeah.
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Uh which again, I apologize.
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I just said attempted to speak Icelandic and ruin the day.
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But it's the National Queer Organization of Iceland.
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Maybe we should clarify.
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The National Queer Organization of Iceland.
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Um if you're wealthy enough, you um you can be protected from some of the difficulties that other people don't have.
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Yeah.
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Uh so I just feel like the ultra-wealth that's creeped into politics, or maybe has always been a part of politics, is really blinding people to the difficulties that um human rights offices and other government agencies were able to protect people from.
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Yeah, but what what I was trying to set up here is first of all, like the the the what do you call it?
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The not the pushback, like the the general um r regression in a sense of uh well.
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You you you'll have to help me out here.
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But uh We're asking for help because we know we get to it later.
00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:09.759
You are a linguist.
00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:10.640
Yeah, yeah, no, right.
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:20.400
So in schools and in like with young people in Iceland, we've seen hate speech towards uh gay people, yeah.
00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:25.680
Which had kind of fizzled out completely for a long time and it's been building up again.
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.119
And that freaks at least me out and a lot of other people.
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:30.880
So you were having that moment there.
00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:53.759
And then when it comes to immigration, uh, which is the other one of the other tasks of this office, we like, you know, we can uh pretend like everything's fine, but if you look at the stats and you realize uh they're not great for like people who have immigrants have the lower paging paid paid jobs, they don't have enough money to buy apartments, they're paying rent that's too high.
00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:01.039
And on top of that, they're not even s properly polled like or surveyed, so nobody really knows what they're doing or thinking.
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:10.000
Like trying to like put up a make-believe face that these things are all now fine is completely opposed to the evidence on top of everything else.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:17.200
And actually things have been less fine in the past five years than they were the previous 15 years in in many ways.
00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:17.519
Yeah.
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.680
So it's not a it's not great timing.
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:21.200
No, it's terrible timing.
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:26.559
This this should be the like they should be putting more money into these projects right now.
00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:30.640
And and we're kind of giving them a lot of leeway by saying, well, they don't know any better.
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:36.559
They actually like human rights, but I mean they must also keep up with reading what's going on around them.
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:42.240
So you would think there's a little bit of the Eddie Cochran song, uh, summertime blues, I'd like to help you, son, but you're too young to vote.
00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.480
And so I'd like to help you, but you didn't vote.
00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:51.119
So and we know that we know that voter turnout was low for the municipal elections for non-native speakers this year.
00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:52.559
Yeah, I can imagine.
00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:52.960
Yeah.
00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:53.440
Yeah.
00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:59.279
And also, I don't know, like have have you seen any, like have you seen any A breakdown of those numbers?
00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:02.000
No, a breakdown of who was running.
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:08.960
Because I felt like there were not many people with immigrant backgrounds uh high up on the lists.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:13.920
No, the 11th seat in Samfylkingin was uh Polish.
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.680
Yeah, they would have sort of token foreigners.
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:18.880
Would you say that?
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:19.359
Like almost.
00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:21.200
I thought she was an outstanding candidate, but she wasn't.
00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:23.839
Yeah, no, what I'm saying is like that was their view of it.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:25.519
Let's let's have one there.
00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:29.839
I mean, that was sometimes I mean I'm that's a terrible thing to say, but you know what I mean.
00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:30.559
I know what you mean.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:30.960
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:33.440
Like, yeah, let's let's you know, we have a foreigner.
00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:34.000
Check.
00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:35.039
Absolutely.
00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:38.559
I'm not saying that she's like, but you know what I'm saying.
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:44.960
I've spoken with people on background uh foreigners because obvious foreigners stick together.
00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:54.079
No, I I have talked with foreigners who ran who considered running and ran uh for political office, um, and it was um the Pirate Party.
00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:54.400
Yeah.
00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:54.640
Yeah.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:58.000
And then uh Suffolkiking, which is Social Democrat Party.
00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:09.680
Um You know, the difficulties of of uh acclimating to Icelandic culture are enormous, and I know that they had a lot of culture shock.
00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:16.079
We we probably need to someday get a grapevine office together to help people acclimate to politics because I they just had a lot of shock.
00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:21.440
I don't know that they were mistreated or in any regard, but you do need to give a lot of background information when you're doing this.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.680
So some of them had some problems with their campaign.
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:25.680
So I don't know if it was tokenism.
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:35.839
I think it's just um uh with the same with the same shot as everybody else without the full background, you can end up uh running a troubled race.
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:36.319
Right.
00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:38.720
Which would have could have been avoided, I feel like.
00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:46.640
But I think like so what I'm what I was trying to get at is that I think there was a I I think there were fewer people.
00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:48.000
Than usual.
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:48.799
Than usual.
00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:49.200
Yeah.
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:54.240
And I think maybe yeah, so I I would just like somebody to look into it.
00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.119
Well, there could be a lot of fewer women in leadership position.
00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:05.039
That is that's a definite I mean the uh the lists are out there, they're easy to touch on.
00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:08.960
I guess some somebody could just feed them into uh AI or something.
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:11.519
Uh yes, oh my god.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.279
Um look at them for like twenty minutes, ultimately.
00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:18.079
Yeah.
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:20.079
What has the experience been?
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:22.160
But it's like sixty three minutes of politics.
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:23.519
Yeah, that's a lot of people, actually.
00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:25.359
Yeah, if you look at oh god, okay.
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:27.279
Feed them into the machine, fine.
00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:28.559
Uh it's a lot of lists.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:30.720
Used all of these resources.
00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:33.839
How how many people was it actually that nominally ran?
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:35.359
It was fifteen hundred people or something.
00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:36.160
Yeah, so many people.
00:23:36.160 --> 00:23:37.119
It was a lot of people.
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:45.680
I think you you have twenty people or almost at every list, and then you have sixty or fifty municipalities, and then you have so and so many parties running at each point.
00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:47.519
Yeah, it's a lot of people.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:49.440
It's hard to find all these people, I guess.
00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:54.880
Anyway, it would be interesting to see that that's and I'm sure they're compared to previous years.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.039
Yeah, because you can the lists all exist.
00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.440
It's easy to run, but nobody's bothered yet.
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:06.880
Even in in the world of um generative AI, it doesn't seem to be happening.
00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:19.519
What has the experience been for you of of I'm sorry to ask this, I mean this seems so navel gazing, but of writing in English in the in the grapevine compared to you're obviously a well-established media personality in other forums.
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:22.880
Have you noticed a difference in the in the uptake and the response?
00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:32.480
Um because I know that we I I wanted your op-ed for the content.
00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:37.759
Because I was so I really appreciated your uh that you're uh from a different municipality coming in.
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:43.039
I thought that was a really interesting aspect of the Reykjavik discussion because they have to be a leader for the community.
00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:52.799
And we know separately that we have some some um yeah, I mean, as my myself, I am American and I'm from a flyover state, right?
00:24:52.799 --> 00:25:01.680
And I know that when you're from I'm from Wisconsin, if you're from someplace that's not at the core of cultural change, you need somebody else to lead the way sometimes.
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:10.960
And especially for things like um, as we mentioned, gay rights, even um even uh dealing with people with disabilities, you can get leadership from other places.
00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:17.920
So I thought that angle of if Reykjavik eases, it does not, it it can really put out a torch that could otherwise be there.
00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:31.440
Um but so I was happy to have the piece, but I was surprised by the response when we when your article went online, it was immediately immediately shared, a lot of discussion.
00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:36.559
I mean more than like a whale story.
00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:43.039
You know, usually it's not a puffin, it's not it's not to name the sheep, and and yet people were really engaging with it.
00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:52.319
So um that could just be what you're used to though, because you obviously your your pieces in V Sir always have engagement, so maybe it's just this is just normal for you.
00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:54.240
Yeah, I think so.
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:58.319
I but I didn't really like uh I was in Copenhagen when it came out.
00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:02.160
Um so I didn't really like I didn't look into the shares.
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:13.359
So I but um from what I saw on my feed, I saw like quite a lot of people, like uh queer people with foreign backgrounds that I know were sharing it.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.759
Um but uh yeah.
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:32.400
So I don't really know there wasn't really uh I I guess uh uh a noticeable difference uh in in in the uptake or in the It's a lot of extra effort you had to do, and I appreciate it because you it's not your native language and you know you have other outlets, right?
00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:41.599
But I think from my perspective, um a voice of support from somebody, and I I apologize for saying this in the establishment, which you somehow are, right?
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:43.119
You are of the establishment.
00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:43.440
Yeah.
00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:49.759
When you reach out and use a language that's um used by those of us on the outside, it makes a difference, I felt like.
00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:51.920
So I really appreciate the effort in that.
00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:53.200
Thank you.
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:54.400
I think it was a lot of fun.
00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:57.039
I think it was uh it was a challenge for me to write in English.
00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.559
I haven't written written a piece like this in English ever, I think.
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:01.839
Or maybe maybe twice.
00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:02.720
Or uh well.
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:03.279
Yeah.
00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:12.160
So I haven't really written in English since I since I did my master's, or maybe yeah, so I did a few years of or a year and a half of of doctoral studies as well.
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:13.279
So my goodness.
00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:20.799
But so I was writing I was writing about linguistics, but that's so that's a completely a completely different uh different sort of language.
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:22.000
But yeah, thanks.
00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:24.400
I enjoyed read uh writing it.
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:27.200
Keeps us alive um and keeps us relevant.
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:36.400
So um I guess one one more thing, maybe, but I mean like uh it's just adding to what I was saying before.
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:44.640
Like, you know, this council or office also dealt with with people uh to took care of people with disabilities and monitored them.
00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:53.519
That's that's also something that the municipalities have been kind of not doing great at over the past two decades.
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:59.279
Uh there are massive waiting lists, people are not getting the services that they should be getting by law.
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:08.960
I mean, maybe it's just convenient to not have somebody monitor it well enough to write a report to point out uh how it's an open wound.
00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:20.720
But I mean it's it's kind of like a it's like I know people who do these pro bono cases which have to do with the with people with disabilities not getting the services they need.
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:24.400
And it's uh that the way they describe it is a kind of a demoralizing thing.
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:38.480
They say like the only thing I know uh will happen if I take this case that I get to kick somebody in front of the line just to make the line stay as long as it used to be, and then I take the next person and try to keep it kicking in front of the line, but the line stays the same.
00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.720
It's kind of a demoralizing situation.
00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:41.119
Yeah.
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:51.759
And uh I don't know if it's a funding problem or uh or uh anything else, but it's it's it's just another element that this it's a funding problem and a priority problem.
00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:52.559
Yeah.
00:28:52.559 --> 00:29:02.240
It's another it's another issue that this office was in charge uh was monitoring and facilitating and has not been well, and that's not been axed.
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:04.880
Um I guess we could figure it.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:12.720
We I guess we could pick out more things that they were doing that still need to be have like a spotlight on them, but won't have that.
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:17.359
And will those be addressed in in your municipality?
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:24.960
Sorry, are they are the disability rights of those with disabilities uh correctly addressed in your municipality?
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:26.559
Because you're outside of Reykjavik, right?
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:26.960
Yeah.
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:29.519
You've wrote both from a different pot, right?
00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:31.039
A different funding pot?
00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:31.519
Yeah.
00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:32.720
Yeah.
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:33.279
Yeah.
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:35.680
How how are you able to manage it in Gardbar?
00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:37.920
Okay.
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:38.960
Yeah.
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:42.079
Um from what I know.
00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:42.400
Yeah.
00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:47.200
Um, but of course there like there are always things that can be done much better.
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:47.839
Yeah.
00:29:47.839 --> 00:30:06.880
Um and also like okay, so just to just to point out like one small example uh when it comes to uh um d disability uh rights, is that for example there was a youth house opened in Garaber uh the spring and it uh it w opened and it wasn't accessible to wheelchairs.
00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:10.559
The spring of the spring of twenty twenty six.
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:11.680
This spring.
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:21.839
So I think now they've put up like a like an elevator that climbs the stairs, but I don't think that uh that makes sense for all types of wheelchairs.
00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:28.400
And it's just like this shouldn't this shouldn't happen.
00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:29.920
No do you know what I mean?
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:34.400
Like number one, I think it's illegal and number two it's just a shitti.
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:40.319
Um and and it's because somebody thought like, yeah, sure, like we can we can do it.
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:43.200
That the disabled kids can go somewhere else.
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:43.519
I don't know.
00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:44.960
Like it's just where could they go?
00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:45.599
Ricky Dick.
00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:47.039
Where would they go?
00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:56.000
It's just really, really like it's it's just uh a small example that could have a severe impact on somebody's life.
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:57.039
Do you know what I mean?
00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:57.599
Yeah.
00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:02.880
So uh a disabled kids want to go with their friends to the youth house and they can.
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:06.720
And it's on the regulatory uh checklist if you're building something.
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:07.039
Yeah.
00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:08.000
So it shouldn't happen.
00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:12.880
So it's yeah, it's only so that that felt uh really off.
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:19.119
And but like I I have also seen like how it how it happens in Garabay.
00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:33.920
So um we had a very uh very good action plan uh that often revol like many of the actions revolved around just data gathering because that's what Reykjavik has been doing for years and that's what we knew we needed.
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:39.599
Like, okay, so we need to know where we stand uh in regards to different different things.
00:31:39.599 --> 00:32:05.599
Um data gathering to make sure that people are visible in the materials that are published, that um when you choose somebody to um to perform at uh at a function uh uh that you're thinking about, you know, that you could, for example, uh hire a disabled person to do something, or you would uh make sure that there's uh there's equality between men and women, stuff like that.
00:32:06.160 --> 00:32:10.799
Um you laugh, but I mean I think that that has to be addressed, and I and I it does.
00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:23.279
And but but the thing is that we had this really, really nice action plan, and then I was like I was looking over it uh by the end of the term, and I just knew that many, many, many of the things hadn't been done.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:35.279
Um because there isn't like there there isn't like an equality um officer with uh with a title and with a mandate to kind of follow up on these things in Gardapar.
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:36.160
In Gardaver.
00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:49.599
So when the new mayor of Reikev Kiltipostus says, like, oh, it's not like human rights are being trampled in Gardaper or Kopovo, like sure they aren't, but still, like we have so many blind spots.
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:51.680
There are so many things that we don't know.
00:32:51.680 --> 00:33:00.799
So we get like we get um data on how kids are doing at school, and you see that like okay, so maybe like 85% of the kids feel like they belong.
00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:04.319
We don't know anything about the 15% that don't.
00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:05.519
Who are they?
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:07.839
Yeah, we don't have that information.
00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:15.599
Um and that is like so this is how it happens that everything, everything just revolves around like the majority.
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:22.319
We don't know how the queer kids are doing, we don't know how the disabled kids are doing, we don't know how the immigrant kids are doing.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.960
Uh so you just have like a black box there.
00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:30.319
Yeah, and then you can be like, yeah, you mean 85% of the kids are really, really, you know, are really happy.
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:31.200
Yeah.
00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:34.400
And what about the rest?
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:35.839
This is all concerning.
00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:39.039
Uh I can't remember if in your background you were ever a teacher.
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:40.480
Were you a teacher at any point?
00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:40.880
Yeah.
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:42.799
So I have a teaching degree as well.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:42.960
Yeah.
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:43.359
Yeah.
00:33:43.519 --> 00:33:50.000
And this is, I mean, I think people maybe wonder if they look at or hear me speak and know that I'm a very boring Midwesterner.
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:53.039
Why are we so concerned about the rights of everybody?
00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:55.359
And I think it's because I was a teacher, as you were.
00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:08.639
I mean, if you have a student who's struggling and you know that you can do something, and seeing them have to uh deal with obstacles that they that they could be resolved otherwise, um, is the wasted opportunity is is staggering.
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:11.440
So uh I think that's probably the background.
00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:23.039
Uh one way of looking at this is if you if you don't understand why we need to take care of people who don't fit the fit the normal fit the normal description of a human being that you interact with.
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:33.760
It's it's because um because you just imagine trying to help people and trying to help people realize their um their uh inner possibilities.
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:36.400
And it it just financially makes sense.
00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:39.920
If you lose people, you you lose people, you lose a taxpayer.
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:41.679
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:42.719
That's one way of looking at it.
00:34:42.719 --> 00:34:45.199
But yeah, if you like the other mental anger she comes.
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:45.760
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:45.840 --> 00:35:00.559
I mean I feel it feels stupid to like to do this sort of like argumentation of being like, yeah, financially it makes sense for it to to uphold human rights and to be you know really inclusive and stuff, but it it's true.
00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:02.719
It makes sense financially.
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:05.039
It also makes sense from a moral perspective.
00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:05.440
Yeah.
00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:14.000
And but I think like we're dealing with kind of the erosion of just like empathy in general.
00:35:14.239 --> 00:35:14.800
Yeah.
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:31.440
Yeah, and that's what they and that's what they're seeing, for example, with like Icelandic kids when they do like these these big surveys and the PISA survey and all of that, that empathy is going down in Iceland among kids.
00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:33.280
Like how chiefy is that?
00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:36.000
And empathy is something that you can teach.
00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:43.760
Um I know uh probably I learned empathy by human interaction and maybe by reading reading uh fiction.
00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:45.199
Yeah, and I think that's a good idea.
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:50.639
One of the best ways to develop empathy for others is reading fiction.
00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:51.599
It's such a good point.
00:35:51.599 --> 00:35:52.159
Right.
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:55.440
Yeah, I w I worry about the decline in reading of fiction.
00:35:56.559 --> 00:35:59.760
I I have nothing uh nothing to add to that.
00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:04.559
That's that's my my school in a sense, too, just read a lot.
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:22.559
Which was something that was encouraged in school by teachers who definitely were like an individual and uh helped you sort of hone your abilities and pointed you towards things that seemed like they would fit you because they cared and they were good at their jobs.
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:23.360
It was interesting.
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:23.840
Yeah.
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:30.800
Since we have you here and you're our city council person for Garthabyr, what can you tell us about Garthabayer?
00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:35.039
If can can tour sorry, can tourists go to Garthabyr and what would they see?
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:38.800
Because it is like it is a huge part of local culture.
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:41.360
I'm sorry, Garthabyr is okay.
00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:43.119
I'm a list of jokes now to make.
00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:43.440
Never mind.
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:49.840
How do we contextualize the when when the when the current mayor said they don't have problems in Coborvar, Gardhabyer?
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:51.519
People laugh when they say Coba Vogar, right?
00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:53.280
Because Coba Vogar has a lot of scandal.
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:54.960
Garthby does not.
00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:57.920
Gartherby is the opposite end of the spectrum.
00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:01.519
Garabar doesn't make it into the news as much at all, at least.
00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:04.000
No, there's a very uh pretty facade, isn't there?
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:05.360
Yeah, there's a nice facade.
00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:09.519
I mean, which is the point where I was asking, I mean, are you tourists even allowed in Gardabar?
00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:10.320
They are allowed.
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:11.679
It's not a gay community.
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:12.800
It's not a gay community.
00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:13.519
Yeah, sorry.
00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:16.960
They have they have a distillery that takes tourists.
00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:17.920
Aimberg.
00:37:18.239 --> 00:37:19.360
Yeah, Aimberg is in Galabert.
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:22.639
They have IKEA.
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:24.719
Oh wait, yes, technically.
00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:25.280
Uh-huh.
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:28.400
We have the the presidential residence.
00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:29.760
Okay, good point.
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:30.320
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:38.800
And there's also a really cool um uh like um well what what would you call it?
00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:39.679
Like an outdoor.
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:48.559
So it's uh almost like a museum, like an outdoor museum, where we have an old um um it's not, well, farm.
00:37:48.559 --> 00:37:50.719
Um bayr.
00:37:51.039 --> 00:37:52.960
Yeah, yeah, an old farmstead.
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:53.360
I don't know.
00:37:53.679 --> 00:38:01.519
Yeah, that is uh where like where you have like these you you can look through these like binoculars and then you can uh see how it looked in the past.
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:02.239
Oh nice.
00:38:02.239 --> 00:38:03.840
Uh it's called Hofstadir.
00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:06.719
So it's uh that's a really, really cool place to visit.
00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:08.719
This is so embarrassing that we didn't know about this.
00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:11.039
I didn't know about this, and that's But it's very close to Garotork.
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:20.719
So you could go and look at like how there go eat eat something at Garatork and then you could go up there and just look, and there's like um What would I eat at Garda Tork?
00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:23.840
You could eat at the Matus or you could eat at Flate.
00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:25.440
Yep, Matus is great.
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:26.960
Or you could go to the Pizza.
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:29.519
Yeah, or you could go to Tea and Cafe.
00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:36.320
So like Garatork and Gardapair has been getting a lot better than it was when I grew up.
00:38:37.119 --> 00:38:38.159
So you grew up in Gardapar.
00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:38.400
Yeah.
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.079
They also have Hunan or something, yeah.
00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:49.920
Uh the Museum of Design, which is an excellent museum, which also has an excellent sort of schedule for say like activities for kids sometimes.
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.480
I've gone there to do workshops with my kids.
00:38:52.480 --> 00:38:53.519
It's good it's great.
00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:54.719
It's a great museum, yeah.
00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:01.199
But you didn't have the harmon you didn't have the accordion festival at your The what?
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:06.800
The accordion festival at Arbar's Arbar Open Air Museum.
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:09.360
But there's there's a Jazz Festival in May.
00:39:10.159 --> 00:39:10.559
There you go.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:16.320
So we we had like a the it was a five-day festival in in May, a really good one.
00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:22.400
Um you guys also have the only uh swimming pool with a wave machine, whatever you call it.
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:22.639
Okay.
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:24.719
Yeah, the one that's in Oftaness, yes.
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:27.760
Which is also the reason why Cadapar is now often.
00:39:27.760 --> 00:39:31.440
Because it bankrupted that municipality.
00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:32.960
The wave machine, dude?
00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:33.440
Yeah.
00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:34.559
Well, kind of.
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:35.760
They got absorbed.
00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:39.360
Uh yeah, along with uh several other factors, but yes.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:41.679
Ah well it's much funnier if it's just the wave machine.
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:42.800
It's just yeah, just the women.
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:44.159
Yeah, there's a lot of other things.
00:39:44.159 --> 00:39:46.960
But then there's also a lot of uh cool nature.
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:47.440
Yeah.
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:52.000
Um so good like walking paths and go to like Hey, the mark is part of Gardabai.
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:54.400
There are like so many, so many things to do.
00:39:54.719 --> 00:39:57.039
I mean so we have to go on tour to Gardabayer.
00:39:57.199 --> 00:40:00.639
Probably that should be a well it's just good to have travel travel feature on Gardapar.
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:06.719
It's it's a lot, it's a lot to do out there, which is underappreciated, I think, at least by us, apparently.
00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:09.360
May need to ask your assistance though for for guide out there.
00:40:10.719 --> 00:40:11.920
Call call for a list.
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:14.079
Things to see.
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:18.239
Yeah, there's also there's there's also this wing uh chicken wing place.
00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:19.440
Buffalo wings.
00:40:19.599 --> 00:40:20.239
Just winging it.
00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:21.039
Just winging it.
00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:21.840
They're also there.
00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:22.880
Those are kind of everywhere.
00:40:23.199 --> 00:40:24.239
Yeah, they're also in Caploia.
00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:26.000
Vaguely successful.
00:40:26.239 --> 00:40:30.800
Um edible, which is a novelty for uh chicken wings in Iceland.
00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:34.159
Sorry, I wasn't expecting that.
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:35.760
What is a fact?
00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:37.760
And now we get to bring up your swimming career.
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:39.199
We have to close off.
00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:46.880
And the but uh is it was that do you feel like that was a start towards your uh success elsewhere, the swimming career?
00:40:46.880 --> 00:41:21.119
Because I uh uh you know, we've talked a lot about swimming off the record, but um it just I just uh this swimming in Iceland is is a real um civil asset, the way you know, again, we we just covered it, all the the swimming pools in Iceland, the UNESCO Heritage uh award for swimming culture, but also you know, um it still exists, and there's a community of former swimmers like yourself that go on to be your influence um is enormous, right?
00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:26.800
Because of the um queer rights organization and now and Gother Bar city politics.
00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:30.239
That is not what your average person from the suburbs gets to do.
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:38.960
And I wonder if the discipline of swimming, you know, as as I know, your practice schedule was eight times a week, I assume.
00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:40.079
Yeah, probably.
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:41.440
Are you trying to forget that?
00:41:41.760 --> 00:41:44.000
No, I'm I'm thinking whether it was eight or nine.
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:44.719
Ah, yeah.
00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:46.320
Yeah.
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:47.840
Plus Jim.
00:41:47.840 --> 00:41:49.599
But uh yeah.
00:41:49.599 --> 00:41:53.599
So at that time w we were also s swimming like insane amounts of uh.
00:41:54.320 --> 00:41:54.960
Oh, the the meters.
00:41:54.960 --> 00:42:00.480
As we talked in the article, we quoted Arn Artnerson saying he was doing 10,000 meters a day.
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:01.039
Yeah.
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:02.559
Which I hope you weren't doing.
00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:03.760
Sometimes.
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:04.559
Oh boy.
00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:09.840
But so you'd do like morning practice and then uh uh uh uh an evening practice.
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:12.880
So uh ten kilometers could could happen.
00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:14.400
And do you regret all this?
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:15.920
Do you regret all this?
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:17.360
No, I don't, no, not at all.
00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:20.960
So so me and Urton we we we swam together a little bit.
00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:32.480
Oh I was like the youngest one on the uh in the group, and uh and he was already like an an established uh uh swimmer and uh and uh um I maybe it went too quickly.
00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:42.159
Ern Artnesson is the famous backstroker, famous here as a the 200-meter backstroker uh who got fourth in the Olympics in Barcelona, I believe.
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:44.800
And uh Second in the world.
00:42:44.800 --> 00:42:45.360
Yes.
00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:54.960
Yeah, fourth is not was not great for him, but it was still I mean he unfortunately had a moment where he got upset on camera after the after the race.
00:42:54.960 --> 00:42:59.519
But um he's an extremely successful swimmer, but now he coaches in Denmark.
00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:11.280
But he did reach out to us, he did respond when I reached out and and commented on the house that Urt built, which is the um Ausfattler, yeah, in the Hapnavir.
00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:15.440
In Hapnavir there, which is a fantastic indoor facility.
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:17.519
Um kept that competition temperature.
00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:18.400
Yeah, yeah.
00:43:18.400 --> 00:43:26.719
So I started swimming when Urton was uh like at uh getting really, really good and really like making waves, you could say.
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:27.679
Yeah, okay.
00:43:27.679 --> 00:43:28.719
Making this plot.
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:34.400
But um but yeah, I um so I think the discipline of swimming really helps.
00:43:34.400 --> 00:43:42.880
Um it makes you realize like how much you can't do um because somehow I managed to also have a social life and also do okay at school.
00:43:42.880 --> 00:43:44.480
And uh do okay.
00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:46.559
I know of your school record you did more than okay.
00:43:47.039 --> 00:43:48.239
Yeah, yes.
00:43:48.239 --> 00:43:49.760
I did well at school.
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:50.159
Yeah.
00:43:50.159 --> 00:43:57.679
Um so yeah, I think it I think it does help in in in many ways.
00:43:57.679 --> 00:44:06.320
But I I also I think one of the most Kind, I guess, like formative things that happened to me was that my parents moved to uh Denmark when I was 12.
00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:09.039
So, or the whole family moved to Denmark.
00:44:09.039 --> 00:44:11.039
We were there for two years, I also swam in Denmark.
00:44:11.039 --> 00:44:16.559
Um, and that was that is something that really stayed with me.
00:44:16.559 --> 00:44:26.559
So I I basically I I lived in Copenhagen, I got to see uh a different society, albeit not very not that much different, but still.
00:44:26.559 --> 00:44:31.760
Um my best friend in school was from a Muslim background.
00:44:31.760 --> 00:44:33.199
Um, do you know what I mean?
00:44:33.199 --> 00:44:38.719
So I got to see um more of the world as a teenager, so during these really formative years.
00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:45.679
So and then I come back to Cardabay, which was then even more like more rural than it is right now.
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:46.559
Yeah.
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:55.199
Um and more homogenous uh than it than it is now, even though it still is uh in many ways.
00:44:55.199 --> 00:45:00.880
So I think that was uh that that is that is really what what kind of made an impact.
00:45:00.880 --> 00:45:13.280
I remember swimming in in class actually where I was uh where I was swimming, um and I was doing like a a long set, and I remember I was at Huyhuye.is Do you remember that?
00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:14.400
Oh yes, I did.
00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:19.679
Yeah, so I I used to write things on Huye Um as a as a teen teenager.
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:20.559
Yeah, Huyie.
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:27.840
Like a chatroom or not a chat room, like a no it's the word for this?
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:29.760
I don't know, like it's not a forum.
00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:33.360
Kind of kind of a forum, but like I had a forum setup.
00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:34.639
Yes, like so you could do that.
00:45:34.800 --> 00:45:38.159
But then you could do like then you wrote articles and you got like points and stuff.
00:45:38.320 --> 00:45:38.480
Yeah.
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:48.559
Um so but I remember swimming alongside and I was thinking about prejudice because I had um experienced the way I was treated.
00:45:48.559 --> 00:45:55.679
Um I was treated differently from my friend who was from a Muslim background, Turkish background.
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:56.000
Yeah.
00:45:56.320 --> 00:46:05.760
Uh while she was born and raised in Denmark, uh the best in our class, um, like just an amazing person altogether.
00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:16.800
And she was being treated differently than I was, somebody who looked like a Dane, but had only lived there for a few months or a year or something.
00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:20.480
Um, and the injustice of it just really got to me.
00:46:20.480 --> 00:46:26.079
So I remember swimming and thinking like, okay, how could I structure this article for Huyi?
00:46:26.079 --> 00:46:27.440
I don't think I ever wrote it.
00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:27.840
Oh.
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:32.400
But uh Well, we might have room for you if you want to revive that.
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:34.400
Yeah, not too late.
00:46:35.519 --> 00:46:38.480
No, there um no, yeah.
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:49.360
Uh I had a I had similar experiences weirdly as a grown person in Sweden, where you would be immediately kind of treated as a sweet.
00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:54.159
Yeah, it's basically it's just racism and it it's it really st strikes you.
00:46:54.159 --> 00:46:56.000
And when you are an outsider, you know.
00:46:56.239 --> 00:47:17.360
And sometimes like sometimes you you wouldn't really know because you didn't have a different experience, but then you kind of realized when well, I have I remember a conversation where somebody was basically uh talking about immigration to me in a really negative way, and I was like Excuse me I'm an immigrant.
00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:20.559
It's just yeah small detail here.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:28.400
No, uh no, I that that's a prof like it's it's uh the Icelandic word for being um stupid.
00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:33.840
We were talking about this, Heimskutz, which basically means you never left home.
00:47:33.840 --> 00:47:44.320
Um and I it's it's kind of a great word in a sense, uh in a I guess in a country full of people who often never leave home, but that's a different story.
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:48.639
But because it that's exactly what gives you perspective.
00:47:48.639 --> 00:47:58.480
Like getting going somewhere else, having a contrast, seeing things from an outsider's perspective, seeing your own country from an outsider's perspective or from afar.
00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:00.480
It's completely necessary.
00:48:00.719 --> 00:48:04.159
And if you don't have the opportunity to do that, you can do that through fiction.
00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:05.119
Yeah, yeah.
00:48:05.119 --> 00:48:12.400
If you can't find the rights, you can always read like insert your own favorite one.
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:13.840
Well, yeah, what are you reading right now?
00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:21.280
I am still on Wala Gunerson's Vanished Vanished Vikings book about Greenland, and it's been uh fantastic read.
00:48:21.519 --> 00:48:22.559
That's a hilarious book.
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:24.800
Uh so what are you reading right now?
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:27.039
I can't put you on the spot.
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:27.920
Yeah.
00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:30.239
What am I reading?
00:48:30.239 --> 00:48:33.280
So I'm reading two books at the same time.
00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:39.599
Um I'm reading um Die Welter gestern, isn't it called?
00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:45.519
The World That Was Heimers Yes, uh Verendse War, the World of Yesterday.
00:48:45.519 --> 00:48:45.920
Yes.
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:50.239
By I cannot remember uh and I'm very Sweig, no?
00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:50.559
Yes.
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:51.280
Stefan Sweig?
00:48:51.280 --> 00:48:51.599
Yes.
00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:54.079
Uh the famous Austrian writer.
00:48:54.320 --> 00:48:54.559
Yeah.
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:55.840
So I'm reading that.
00:48:55.840 --> 00:49:02.000
Uh and I'm also reading uh like a a romantasy series that I can't even remember the name of.
00:49:02.639 --> 00:49:04.559
But it can be fun to just relax with them.
00:49:04.559 --> 00:49:09.519
Yeah, it's just like it's uh The World of Yesterday, I think, is the right thing.
00:49:09.519 --> 00:49:13.280
I think I've got a book by the Lincoln Lawyer guy that I've been reading at night too.
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:16.239
That I yeah, when I'm really tired but can't sleep.
00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:22.239
Yeah, but I really I really enjoyed reading like reading romantices and and just fantasy in general.
00:49:22.239 --> 00:49:24.320
I think uh I just I just love that.
00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:28.079
I've always always liked uh reading fantasy.
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:29.599
But um yeah.
00:49:30.559 --> 00:49:32.800
Historical fiction is my version of that.
00:49:33.280 --> 00:49:34.960
Yeah, I love historical fiction as well.
00:49:34.960 --> 00:49:37.360
Yeah.
00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:44.079
But why should that like uh I have a really hard time with uh like the literary sort of gatekeeping sometimes?
00:49:44.480 --> 00:49:49.599
So I I have a good thing to say about f historical fiction, which comes to the empathetic part.
00:49:49.599 --> 00:49:55.199
If you read a lot of history, uh that aspect of it is often lost on you.
00:49:55.199 --> 00:49:58.000
But good historical fiction will kind of put you there.
00:49:58.159 --> 00:49:58.320
Yeah.
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:06.079
And that is very actually I find that very valuable in terms of like trying to imagine living through specific periods of history.
00:50:06.079 --> 00:50:06.480
Yeah.
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:09.679
Yeah, that sounds kind of weird, but that's yeah, I find it.
00:50:09.840 --> 00:50:13.440
Which uh it reminds me I need to get out my Tale Two Cities to finish my editorial.
00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:18.159
And I do have to get back to my editorial because we have an issue coming out very soon.
00:50:18.159 --> 00:50:19.679
So we should probably wrap it up.
00:50:19.679 --> 00:50:23.440
But uh yeah, I'm I'm on Tale Two Cities trying to look for my the quote.
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:35.360
So the takeout of this is I guess uh if you uh if you can't imagine why uh a human rights uh office is needed, read the book.
00:50:36.320 --> 00:50:36.639
Yeah.
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:42.400
Um and then if you still have troubles ask somebody for a list of books to read.
00:50:42.800 --> 00:51:00.000
Yeah, I would say also if you feel a little bit helpless at this particular time, um reach out, and then um if you see injustice being done, reach out because it seems like um we're sitting here with somebody who has taken the effort to reach out essentially your entire life, and you're making a huge impact.
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.960
And I want to thank you for that and for for taking the time to reach out in English to help our help our readers.
00:51:05.360 --> 00:51:06.079
Thanks for saying that.
00:51:06.079 --> 00:51:06.719
Thanks.
00:51:07.039 --> 00:51:09.119
Yeah, thanks for dropping in.
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:12.639
Uh we've uh taken way too much of your time, I think.
00:51:12.639 --> 00:51:16.880
And until next time, which I hope is soon.
00:51:17.119 --> 00:51:17.280
Yeah.
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:18.559
Yeah, look forward to it.
00:51:18.559 --> 00:51:19.119
Yeah, thanks.
00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:22.960
Bye bye.