Suppose you live on an rather secluded island not far from the Arctic. Once in a white hillbilly moon an iceberg brings along a polar bear. After weeks and even months sailing around the ocean with nothing for company but ice it would be rather nice of you to welcome the bear with some means. Something to eat perhaps? Let the endangered animal roam around for awhile enjoying something else than glacier ice. But not in Iceland
It pains us beyond belief to report that yet another polar bear, this time a female bear quite sound and ready for a new adventures, did enjoy approximately 60 minutes in Iceland after making landfall after weeks and weeks hanging on to dear life on a melting iceberg from Greenland.[blockquote type=”blockquote_line” align=”right”]one would have thought it the right thing to do to celebrate any bear making landfall in Iceland[/blockquote]
But although this „Viking“ nation of Icelanders is supposed to be welcoming to all and afraid of nothing the poor bear met a bullet from a local in spite of threatening no one at all in a very remote area of Iceland. The seventh such killing of a polar bear in as many years in otherwise welcoming Iceland (if you have money to spend.)
With the life of a polar bear getting more difficult by the minute due to global warming one would have thought it the right thing to do to celebrate any bear making landfall in Iceland. The journey from either Greenland or the Arctic is not easy by any means. Long distance, no food, no family and no escape for the bears.
But then again, this is the tiny country where pig farmers keep livestock in enclosures small enough for a duck, where whole areas of land are kept exclusively for rich foreign hunters to kill anything that moves and where the prime minister thinks it fine to keep your money in Panama to shield it from the government taxman.
Welcome to Iceland!
