Current Affairs

A photo from 2015 that I added to this ancient post just for fun. 

In the newspaper the other day was an item on the hit and run driving over of a cat in Ísafjörður, a town way up north in the West Fjords (Vestfjörður). I liked the idea that such a crime is still newsworthy here in Iceland, especially when other, more heinous crimes are taking place here in Reykjavík, for example money collectors armed with crowbars breaking men's arms in public for not paying up a $40 tab to a bootlegger peddling rotgut, and the government not condsidering it their business to get involved in an elementary school teachers' strike that's dragged on for a month now with no end in sight (circa 40,000 kids between ages six and fourteen are the victims of this stupidity; the state government says the issue is to stay between teachers and their regional governments, which are sadly lacking funds to increase wages. Meanwhile, the state whips out some outrageous amount of money to send a big chunk of local iceberg to Paris for a promotional gig. Hmmm)

Anyway, the dead cat harks back to the old days when being responsible for the death of another's livestock meant paying it's owner dearly for the loss. I think it still goes that if you kill a sheep while driving you have to fess up the reimbursment dough, but I'm sure it's a lot harder to pin down the murderer in this day and age. It's supposed to be an honor-system thing, but who knows how many drivers still respect the system enough to track down a sheep's owner and compensate them.

I'm actually surprised that more sheep aren't victims of modern autos, given how fast people drive hereout in the country and how the sheep tend to hang out on the road for warmth. I was told that whole families of sheep are Road Sheep: they are taught by their mothers and grandmothers to hang out on the warm tarmac and never learn any better. Beware of Road Sheep when Driving in Iceland!

So, shame on the irresponsible human who crushed the poor beast and drove away, shame on evil collectors with bad weapons and shame on the government for choosing to look the other way on a very important issue affecting the entire nation!