Iceland is a country of two nations. The wast majority that lives in and around the city of Reykjavik, which you might call the urbans and the tiny pockets of population that live in small towns around the coast, the rurals if you say so.

The rural areas used to be larger and more important to the whole, normal in a farming and then a fishing society where prosperous land and access to the fishing areas was key. But in the last few decades as fisheries have become fewer and larger and automatization has come to agriculture, people have migrated towards the city.

But the four dominant political parties have made sure that the old time is still honored by granting the rurals a larger part of the democratic vote than the urbans. It is actually calculated to the share of 1 to the people of the south-west, 1,22 to Reykjavik, 1.49 to South Iceland, 1.71 in the north and 2.05 in the north-west.

So this is the reason why Kristjan Möller is the minister of transportation. From the north like a series of his predecessors, Kristjan has just made sure that his voters will be first in line for yet another ridiculous traffic-tunnel in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile continuing to stall on installing two lanes on the route between Reykjavik and Hella/Hvolsvollur in the south, one of the largest traffic areas in the country and the worst killing zone.

Kristjan’s predecessor Sturla Bodvarsson stalled in the same way on the road to Keflavik (and the airport) until it was impossible to stall longer and the death toll, once very high has all but disappeared.

So nothing much has changed in the priorities of politicians. A vote in the north is worth more than a life in the south.

Photo above is of a memorial to those that have lost their lives in the traffic in the last couple of decades on the road Kristjan is stalling on.

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2. Why I´ll Vote For…
3. The Monkfish That Destabilized Iceland
4. A War Cry From the North
5. How Much Is A Krona Worth?