Micalea Leaska

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself. Name/age/occupation/where you are currently living. How long have you been/were you in Iceland?

A: My name is Micalea Leaska and I am 22 years old. I recently graduated from SMC in May 2018 with a BA in environmental studies and anthropology and decided to continue my education. I am currently living in Ísafjörður, Iceland. I am here for my master’s program which is a Master’s Degree in Climate Change & Global Sustainability from SIT Graduate Institute. My master’s program is multilocational so I have been in Iceland since August 22nd and will return to the States November 18th. My next location is Zanzibar, Tanzania where I will be for another 90 days and from there I start my thesis and practicum which is 90 days in a country of my choosing. In my future I hope to work in the realm of international environmental public health. In this field I would like to work with communities who face challenges with water security and lack or have insufficient sanitation systems and help develop these further while also analyzing how climate change is aiding the spread of diseases hosted in these suitable locations.

The town I live in, Ísafjörður, is quite unique because it is located in the Westfjords of Iceland. This is a very remote area that does not see many travelers. The total population of the Westfjords is under 8,000 with 2,700 living in my town. Some towns in this area only have 1 family or person living there and are very remote. This area faces some of the most extreme weather also and during the winter months the roads get closed so there is no way in or out of the area, only getting supplies from planes when they can land. Over 1/3 of the population in Iceland lives around the capital Reykjavík, so the majority of Iceland is open lands and windy landscapes.

 

 

Q: Are you a native Icelander? If not, why were you in Iceland? What years were you there?

A: I am not an Icelander, I was born and raised in CT, USA. As stated above I am only here for 3 months completing my master’s program.

 

Q: How do most people get their news/information in Iceland? Who controls the media?

A: Most people read online newspapers and blogs, one of the most popular is the Reykjavík Grapevine. I believe the local news program is state-owned but I am not clear on these facts. Iceland is very open to freedom of speech and actually today, October 23rd is a women’s protest which is country wide women leave work at 2:55pm because this is the time when women are working for (no extra income) because of the wage-gap. So today women walk the streets and protest.

 

Q: What social media is used most there? News outlet? How commonly do people use RUV?

A: Social media is very popular, everyone is on snapchat, Instagram, twitter, Facebook and all others. I do am unclear how much people use RUV.

 

Q: How do you think people from other countries view Icelanders based on what they see in the media?

A: Going into this program I honestly knew very little about Icelanders besides the common knowledge that they are descendants from Vikings. What I have learned being here is Icelanders are one of the most pride driven people. They are very protective of their country and often is someone says that they shouldn’t do something, they do it anyways just because they were told not to. The biggest news I followed about Iceland before coming here was about their whaling industry. As an environmental major I was very involved and angered that Iceland has continued to hunt whales. After being here I am more angered by this because whale is not a common or desired food anymore. Back when the Viking and indigenous populations were here this was one of the only ways to sustain themselves and survive, which is understandable. But now that whaling is not necessary as a means of survival I was very upset to know how many whales they are still hunting. When I asked this question to professors the topic was immediately shut down because as stated before, they do not like someone telling them what to do (as Americans and every country is also at fault for this). In addition, I think Iceland has recently been viewed in the media as one of the hottest spots to travel because of its landscapes so tourism has boomed here and at some points in the summer the tourists outnumber locals 10 to 1. (maybe check facts before postage to much about this, I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes with my strong environmental opinion)

 

Q: What is unique about the Icelandic identity?

A: Icelanders are very connected and aware of their history. An Icelander’s last name is actually broken down to mean your father’s name and location. This is why in Iceland you do not call people by their last name as we do for formal occasions because the last name isn’t actually their identity. Even the president is called by his first name.

 

Q: How important is tourism in Iceland?

A: Tourism is extremely important to Iceland. Iceland suffered from an economic crash in 2008 (not related to the States) and suffered greatly from that. Recently they have been booming in their economy because of the unregulated tourism. With this also comes some repercussions. From an environmental standpoint the number of tourists and the lack of signs, pathways, and park entrance fees has made Iceland an “explore anywhere do whatever” landscape. People camp wherever they please, on farmers land, on moss, the amount of litter and trash is piling up because tourists move from locations and don’t want responsibility to clean up, and Iceland being an island has all its trash shipped out. Also, a lot of natural landscapes are suffering from the number of tourists walking on plants, moss, anything to get the “perfect shot”.

 

Q: What kind of television do you watch? Streaming services?

A: I do not have a TV here, but I will watch some shows from Netflix or Planet Earth episodes I brought over.

 

Q: What kind of music do you listen to? (Please share specific songs - especially if they are in Icelandic!)

A: I do not listen to Icelandic music unless it is out at the bar, which has live music going on every night. A lot of times they do covers of songs in English or Icelandic songs which I have no idea what they are about. Learning the language is not a requirement on my program and since everyone speaks English it is not hard to go without learning it, I have picked up on some simple expressions but for the most part the language is extremely challenging and with the high demand of my program I have not had time to learn.

 

Q: What kind of food do you typically eat/ cook (what is your favorite meal/ what is most popular)?

A: Iceland is extremely expensive, in fact the most expensive place I have ever traveled to (I’ve been to quite a few). With that being said I mostly try to cook all my meals. There are greenhouses in Iceland so you are able to buy some vegetables and most fruits or specific food is shipped in from far distances. I usually make veggie stir-fry, pasta, eggs… (I am a pescatarian). When I do go out to eat the fish is amazing here, since fish is the only export Iceland has and since they have such a variety of fish it is essential to have. From a non-vegetarian perspective fellow classmate eat a lot of lamb since that is plentiful here, and beef (although this is not common here and has to get shipped in which is controversial for locals but they know tourists like beef unfortunately).

 

Q:  How does media and technology play a role in family life (children especially)? Work life?

A: I am not sure if I can speak on this but from observations I think, as in America, children are changing and becoming glued to their devices and partaking less in traditional routines.

 

Q: How happy do you think Icelanders generally are? What is the cause of this?

A: I have not directly asked someone about their happiness but if I were to guess I think a lot of happiness might stem from their pride. Meaning, they are generally happy and proud of their country and happy to come from such a rich and historic island. Also, they are doing great things in terms of climate change awareness and action and many locals are aware and ready to adapt to help mitigate climate change. This is a main concern as their entire export economy relies on fishing and as climate change escalates its impacts on fishes continues to grow.

 

Q: How healthy do you think Icelanders are?

A: I think they are healthy? I am not sure but I do know they don’t really believe or depend on medication. They would rather use natural remedies and for having the winter months with less than 2 hours of sunlight they certainly do a great job to continue functioning and depend on fish for iron and using sunlamps for vitamin D.

 

Q: Are there any important cultural, economic, racial, or political rifts/tensions within the country? (These could be based on money, race, language, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.)

A: There is tension with accepting refugees settling in remote areas and they only accept 40 a year. There is a lot of tension around fishers lately that is affecting the public and government. The salmon fishers are being closed because these are Norwegian fish that are being fish farmed and there is fear that since the Icelandic salmon are free range there could be a cross contamination but by doing this a lot of people are losing jobs and way of life. In addition, racism is on the rise in Iceland along with not providing language services or social services for refugees coming in.

 

Q: Are there any other resources you recommend I check out?

A: Reykjavík Grapevine posts a lot, that will be helpful to look at. I’m not sure if this is relevant to your course but since I’m an environmental major most my knowledge is on this subject and if you wanted to talk about how incredible Iceland’s use of natural resources is and they are 100% dependable on renewable energy for their electricity and heat sector. Iceland also has incredible geothermal areas (geothermal hot pools are a huge tourist attraction), their use of hydropower because of the number of waterfalls everywhere (they have some of the cleanest and freshest water in the world and more water than imaginable which could help water scarcity in decades to come because of climate change). Also, they have some of the most extreme changes in weather, and their glaciers and what is happening to them from climate change. Most my pictures are around these areas since this is the work I am doing here… hope this helps.

Also, you could talk about their unique tradition of sheep herding which takes place in late September which I participated on. The sheep free roam (literally anywhere) and can travel far distances in the mountains and you have to gather them all up when the weather starts turning to them have some be slaughtered. I went to a town that has one person (this older woman) and she had 400 sheep we had to herd in. There was about 40 of us helping and it took 7+hours and we climbed over 12 miles to gather the sheep. t3.