Исландия - фермерская страна

Исландия - фермерская страна. Страна сельского хозяйства. Это, может быть, звучит парадоксально для холодного климата Исландии, но это действительно так. Население страны 330.000 человек, из них примерно 220.00 живут в исландских "мегаполисах" - двух крупнейших городах - столице Рейкьявике и городе на севере, Акурейри. Оставшаяся часть - это фермеры, домики которых рассыпаны по всей Исландии. Фермерских хозяйств в Исландии около двух с половиной тысяч. 

на фото: заброшенная ферма на севере Исландии

Исландия отличается от большинства стран с развитым сельским хозяйством тем, что тут нет деревень, сёл, посёлков, того, что приходит на ум, когда мы говорим о сельско-хозяйственной стране. По всей стране рассыпаны фермерские хозяйства, попросту фермы. И территориально страна поделена не на районы и области, а на восемь регионов (landshlutar) и около семидесяти фермерских союзов (sveitarfélagar). Распределение ферм по фермерским союзам неравномерно: в одном фермерском союзе можете быть от двух до ста ферм.

Наиболее заселенный фермерский район на юге страны (очень даже понятно почему), потом на востоке и севере.

Фермы имеют долгую историю - многие из них фамильные и насчитывают более тысячи лет. Они были основаны при первом заселении Исландии.

Наша ферма на севере в регионе Хунавасисла. Это в северной части Исландии, между западными фьордами и регионом Миватн. Ферме нашей пятьсот лет, впервые она упоминается в летописях пятнадцатого века.

Не смотря на такую удаленность друг от друга социальная жизнь в провинции кипела, и новости еще в доинтернетную эру распространялись мгновенно - многие фермеры (я бы сказала фермерши) устанавливали на крышах домов подзорные трубы, не стеснялись использовать морские бинокли и так наблюдали за жизнью соседних ферм.

С появлением телефонной связи жизнь на фермах обрела новые краски и расцвела белым цветом. Телефонная линия была одна на двадцать-пятьдесят ферм, поэтому при звонке трубку брали все, кто успел. Что примечательно, обратно клали трубку далеко не все явные и не явные участники разговора. Так, быстро разлетались новости о рождении детей, изменах, браках, удачных и неудачных сделках. И все это было не так давно, в двадцатом веке.

Социальная жизнь очень важна для исландцев, наверное, это типично для любой провинциальной жизни, но такого как здесь я еще не видела. Когда моя свекровь идет в магазин, она проводит там не меньше двух часов. Столько же времени в день она уделяет разговорам по телефону - уму непостижимо пропустить какую-нибудь новость с фермы в тридцати километров от нашей! Или еще хуже - узнать ее последней!

Печально то, что сейчас молодежь покидает родные фермы, хотя набирает силу и обратный процесс: молодые семьи из городов по специальной программе покупают или берут в аренду опустевшие фермы. А еще европейцы, особенно немцы - покупают, переезжают и начинают работать.

Дедушка наш - потомственный фермер, старший сын. Всей его судьбой, всем его предназначением было стать хозяином фермы. В семнадцать лет его отправили учится в сельскохозяйственный университет, после которого он вернулся на ферму уже не один, а с нашей бабушкой. Бабушка - отдельный разговор, и когда-нибудь я о ней напишу именно отдельно. Она - дочь моряка из Изафьордура.

Сейчас им по семьдесят лет. Они много работают: дед в коровнике, на поле в тракторе и часто ездит в Рейкьявик. Он - один из главных акционеров и состоит в совете директоров самой крупной молочной компании Исландии.

Бабушка на кухне, дома, с внуками, которых сейчас уже тринадцать, а младший сын еще только женится в эти выходные. Наша бабушка - директор музея текстиля Исландии. Музея, который она сама сделала в девяностые: приняла первую коллекцию от одной собирательницы, продолжила её труд, со спонсорской помощью построила здание музея и получила орден "За заслуги пред Отечеством" от президента Исландии.

За свою жизнь они родили пять детей, четыре мальчика и одну девочку: это умные, порядочные, красивые исландцы с индивидуальными личными недостатками и необходимыми наборами неверных решений в жизни. За их второго мальчика я вышла замуж и родила ему двух детей.

Copyright © 2015 by Olga Johannesson 

One girl, one island

"The greatest is best seen from the distance" - once and quite rightly a famous Russian poet said. Last week my very good friend from quite distanced Russia was visiting Iceland for the first time in her life. Being quite an experienced traveler and having seen most of Europe and beyond, she shared her thoughts and impressions about Iceland before and after. 

...most of all I was impressed by the nature - unique, virgin, untouched and severe. I have seen Gullfoss, Geysir, all the touristic routes, I was hiking in the mountains, but the most beautifully striking place for me became Reykjanesviti. I never thought there are places so completely remote and secluded in this world, where one simply unites with the nature.

...in Russia we deprive ourselves of many things, including a simple smile. Icelanders struck me as very friendly nation, in a narrow street a complete strangers will greet you.

...people take pride that they are Icelanders. The country itself has a rather limited history compared to Russia or other big European nations; it had less than a million of population in all its history, and, nonetheless, Icelanders take pride in the smallest detail, which could easily have been left unnoticed. People take pride in the place they were born.

...the thing which struck me most was that this is a society which is fundamentally different not only from Russians, but more or less from the Europeans in general. This is a small society, everyone knows each other, the telephone book is organized by the first names, and they treat each other as one big family, where everyone is a relative - and they actually are. Even the language, as we know, reflecting the realities of life, devised a word, which defines male relatives frændi and female relatives frænka, not to go into detail of cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and so on - it is just one family.

...I have to mention the language and the concept of Linguistic Purism in Iceland. Many countries have the policy of preserving their language, but in Iceland they have special list of the Icelandic names, which you can name a child, anything else has to be approved by a special linguistic committee. Once again, they value their heritage and identity.

...and everyone speaks English. France, for example, has the policy of protecting the language as well, they also create French equivalents for the new words. At that people learn and speak English very reluctantly. Icelanders are not afraid to go beyond - to enter globalization and keep their national identity.

...I was also surprised by rather high social standards of living in Iceland. Maybe because we have a stereotype of  well-off Norway and hardly expect anything of a small nation in the North Atlantic.

...feminism is obviously not a bad issue, especially in Iceland. In Russia a man considers it beyond his self-esteem to help the woman with cooking and with a baby. Probably it is not even the fault of men, as women themselves consider proper to work, make career, and take care of the family, children, cooking and a husband. A man has to work and make money, a woman stays at home. It was very surprising to see otherwise.

...the same as the baby in the family: in Russia when a child is born a mother falls out of life for 2-3 years completely: no parties, no friends, no travel. Here life just goes on and the quality of life doesn't change much.

...the concept of Icelandic family with many marriages, all kinds of spouses, kids from all sides is another point of astonishment - it is so far out of the Russian culture. We are more traditional - of course infidelity happens and rather often these days, but men very rarely leave families. The ones which do keep hardly any contact with their children.

...Reykjavik struck me as having rather plain architecture - simple and unsophisticated. Reykjavik can not be compared with French, Italian or most of European cities, where "every stone breathes history", or even with St. Petersburg, where every house is an architectural masterpiece. Here houses are simple, plain, primitive and functional. But it goes together with the nature: severe, minimalistic, plain.

...my perception of the museums is defined by the Russian museums - you have to spend days in the Tretyakov Gallery, weeks in the Hermitage. Once again we are so proud we have so much to show, that we drown foreigners in our culture. Here, the National Museum of Iceland is fascinating in combination of simplicity, functionality, importance and interest it arises and the questions it answers. The paradox is - there's no La Gioconda in Þjóðminjsafn, but still it is the one of most interesting museums I have ever visited.     

...Russians know very little about Iceland. Of course it depends on the education but in general many people hardly make any difference between Iceland, Ireland or Greenland. Of course, they realise these are completely different countries, but in conceptual understanding "it is all somewhere there". The stereotypes include: volcano in 2010, snow and Bjork - her last name is not possible to pronounce even by people with the linguistic education. The older generation know Reykjavik as the meeting place of Gorbachev and Reagan.

...Icelanders are very active. There's a lot to do: hiking, swimming, horse-riding, music, skiing, even dancing tango. One of the paradoxes for me was that skating rinks are indoor, swimming pools are outdoor. This is shocking to me, but when I mentioned this to Icelanders, they were completely surprised, explaining that it would be too cold to skate outside.

...Icelanders take life easy and it is shown in everything. Hiking in the mountains may be quite a dangerous thing but people just go. Children are not over-treated with medicine, massages and over-care and running naked in frost and wind in the outdoor swimming-pools. Museums are not overloaded with information, but simply showing the life itself. And I can go on with many examples.

...to me Iceland is a country where Scandinavian minimalism and functionality genuinely combine with breathtaking severe beauty of the nature, easy-going and warm attitudes of Icelanders and all these make it truly unique land, a small polished piece of lava - a beautiful gem of the North Atlantic.

My dear friend went back to Russia leaving me alone with the thoughts of gratitude for this unique opportunity of being able to live in both countries, share both cultures, enjoy both worlds the difference of which is so sharply defined by the distance.



Copyright © 2013 by Olga Johannesson

On the experience of touching burning issues or why I am never going to make a politician

Yesterday for the first and the last time in my life I joined a discussion in a social network.
The topic was strange to me (Racism in Iceland), immigrant people´s comments seemed overly angry and unfair (in my subjective opinion, of course) and so I pressed a "post" button and jumped.

Source of photo

My point was that I don´t see it as a problem in Iceland (seriously, compare that to the rest of the Old Europe or even the rest of Scandinavia). And that basically everyone is responsible for his/her own choices, therefore, for the consequences and their personal welfare. Basically it was it:
"I really don´t understand this, but maybe I am meeting "wrong" people here - I have been in Iceland since August and there was not a case/situation when I felt discriminated. Russian origin has its drawbacks in Europe, but I never felt it here. Yes, it is a closed society as anywhere else in Scandinavia, but isn´t it like coming to the other people´s house to live? I mean, you can expect support, but don´t you have to do something in return? Like at least try to learn culture and traditions and language before coming here and not whine about them not giving money for your language classes or not hugging you straight away? After all, it´s we who made the choice of leaving our home and coming to live in theirs."

In about two hours several people (understandably not of an Icelandic origin) lashed at me, accusing me of everything starting from xenophobia to not having a slightest idea that a racism actually was.

Previously a guy from France complained of being refused to take a loan as he called himself in the post "being a dirty foreigner". Another one from Spain said that he´s paying his rent, taxes and living expenses and still being racially discriminated, as "racism is Iceland is subtle but all over the place".

Particularly fascinating comment came from Mongolian-origin (am I being a racist or just descriptive here?) woman from Kazakhstan, previously in her comment claiming of being constantly harassed on the streets of Reykjavik, who said that she "with her Slavonic soul regarding Iceland her home".. "went somewhere wrong"... apparently, as people like me still exist.

And then I stopped and thought why is it so difficult to take a responsibility for your own life and not to blame parents, society, fate, the more lucky neighbour, anything else?

I come from the country which had most of its calamities and revolutions coming from the mouths of shouting petty people, and inheritantly, unconsiously  I fear deeply all sorts of shouting on the corners in the streets - shouting for "democracy", "equality", all sorts of "freedoms", because generally nothing good comes out of anger, jealousy and hate.

Someone may argue that it´s not these three, but then can I ask you, if it´s possible that a good-natured, kind, talented, and giving person could be willingly involved into something like that? Did Bunin, Nabokov, Brodsky, Stravinsky, Azimov, Dovlatov and many others bother themselves of this unproductive, self-degrading time-consuming shouting in their most miserable years of immigration?

I am not saying you have to shut up, but then again if you conveniently start to call a foreign country your home and, therefore, consider it proper to make your own rules there, putting a hiking tent in the place where a dining table stood for centuries, and if, in this case, being politely refused, start to shout about bleeding wound of immigration consciousness, then I call it plain manipulation.

And then again what happened with a good old constructive dialogue? What happened with respect for your counterparts and, first and foremost, respect for yourself? What happened with the universal values of honest work, respect for the world around you, benefiting and learning from the target culture, combining that with the source culture? I guess opportunities for this are enormous in Iceland.

I felt confused and disappointed about wasting time to being involved into such unproductive exchange of thoughts. So, I read a book, and called a friend, and sent a small present to my other friend, and had a small talk in Icelandic with a post woman, and smiled to the cashier in Bonus, and finished sawing a skirt, and cooked supper, and learned some Icelandic.
Tomorrow I will try to do something else for peace and balance, if not in the lives of the humanity and in the name of fight against racism, but to built a little bit more of my small life here in Iceland, as this was my decision and, therefore, my primary responsibility.


Copyright © 2012 by Olga Johannesson