By MARK SABBATINI Editor It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. It was the age of vision, it was the FREE Weather summary age of foolhardiness. It was the epoch of in- Cloudy and partly cloudy w/ mild evitability, it temperatures and occasionally strong winds. icepeople Full forecast page 3 solfest The world's northernmost alternative newspaper ByAt MARK10, the SABBATINI Svalbard Global Seed Vault confronts its doomsday rep Editor Vol. 10, Issue 10 June 5, 2018 www.icepeople.net It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. It was the age of vision, it was the age of foolhardiness. It was the epoch of in- evitability, it “ To believe that the governor can rescue people out, regardless of circumstances, is wrong. There is no guarantee for that. - Per Andreassen, police lieutenant Svalbard governor's office PRIVATE MARK SABBATINI / ICEPEOPLE Anne Lise Klingseth Sandvik: "Patron saint, bigger than Joan of Arc." P. 21 Freia Hutzschenreuter: A lone-spirited sea wolf leaves after 50 years. P. 17 ” Related coverage Crisis? Thanks, we got our own: Justice #we are minister skips Svalbard, resigns ..............5 An employee at Svea shows the infrastrucutre inside the mine to a visitor. The now-closed mine is still being used for tourism activities until summer. svalbard FIVE ON FIVE: May sees a resident of 50 years leave, a music teacher and her student win top citizen honors, a gift from the town to the ultimate community giver, and the Bikers, blade runners, bozos: You won't SVALBARD CHURCH believe is at the N. Pole this year.........P4 Leif Magne Helgesen: A cool priest unafraid of hot controversies. P. 19 notorious northernmost priest answers a higher calling By MARK SABBATINI Are Thai, sushi eateries being forced to Editor close in favor of 'safe' restaurant ?…P? PAccording to a poll published at the end of August, 70 percent of Norwegians think it is important to preserve the country's oil and See BOOKINGS, page 8 gas industry, while only 16 percent disagree. MARK SABBATINI / ICEPEOPLE MARKSee MADNESS, SABBATINI / ICEPEOPLE page 6 MAKSYM BOREIKO Amalie Henriksen: The student becomes the honored teacher. P. 15 Liv Mari Schei: The musical voice of a generation wins top award. P. 15 In for a trashy summerSee REALITY, Dog page daze 4 of summer Shippy summer Sweaty summer Luckily, there's Will housing First of many Polar bears get always child crisis bite only big cruise ships "G" and "X" labor local vet? arrives rated workouts Page 2 Page 5 Pages 7 Pages 9, 11 https://us- mg6.mail.yahoo.c om/neo/ launch?.rand=epm v8hf4ja5bp# Why so few rainbows are seen in Svalbard? Page 2 June 5, 2018 Who's to blame and how Because we're all for promoting child labor… to express your wrath Editor Mark Sabbatini Bag lady Marion Prudhon Principal of principles Kristan Hutchison Psychiatrist Irene Gallion Accomplice Get some real dirt on icepeople! Jeff Newsom COOP NORGE Our global headquarters available for rent during the March 20 eclipse! Sleeps three on actual Mailing address Setting a fine example of corporate good citizenship, a certain supermarket chain with a store furnishings (double bed and sofa), plus a few can squeeze in on the floor. Washing machine, turbo Icepeople here in Longyearbyen is touting the tremendous toughness of tots as part of a nationwide beach wi-fi and about a 5-10 minute walk to most places. Plus, you'll be helping provide our pitiful little Vei 306 #10 cleanup that took place last month. While the campaign is emphasizing the volume and environ‐ newspaper with desperately needed funds. Contact [email protected] for details. Longyearbyen, Svalbard mental damage of plastics in the oceans, many of Svalbard's shores are strewn with items from 9170 fish trawlers such as this huge fishnet. The Co-op cooperative cleanup is one of many scheduled Norway this summer, with corporations rapidly joining efforts made for years by government and environ‐ mental organizations. Among the recently launched efforts that will continue this summer are vol‐ Telephone unteer cleanups near Longyearbyen by Project Isfjorden and cruise lines who will offer passenger Norway: +47 41 51 46 38 pickups under the guidance of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators U.S. +1 (970) 673-4472 E-mail [email protected] Icesheet Web site Random bits of the week's weirdness: www.icepeople.net “Trapped underground in the Svalbard Seed Vault, Mavin Cedarstrom is rescued by a Icepeople is published weekly (or thereabouts) band of strange women dressed in furs. The on Tuesdays (or thereabouts), with printed Peregrine scout Simone Kita was sent to recov- copies available free on a limited basis in er seeds from the top of the world and bring Longyearbyen. Additional printed copies are them south to the floating gardens of Kash- available locally and by mail upon request. phera.” Much as we try (and frequently fail) to Charges are on an "at cost" basis. be clever with craziness in this space, some- Briefly times it’s best just to let others’ words speak for themselves. Such is the case with the new PRIVATE Copyright stuff Up a creek: If this person needs rescuing from self-published book “River’s Child” by the Doomsday Vault that maybe all those Cruising: Getting out of Original contents of this publication can be Mark Daniel Seiler, featuring the plot sum- "flooding" stories aren't so absurd after all. reproduced for non-commercial purposes free mary quoted above. The rest of the pitch, via danger, but into 'death?' elsewhere might be impressed and outsider of charge if Icepeople is credited as the Amazon: “Conjuring myth and magic, this fun, Another cruise season is about to embark could so quickly discover and expose the seedi- source. The original writers, photographers action-packed novel is a delight. ‘River’s full speed ahead in Svalbard, but the smiles of er side of our existence here…Switching to Mainland town claims to be top and other contributors retain their rights to all Child’ is a wild ride into an ancient future. Fas- those greeting passengers aren't being shared factual freakiness, you might think there’s a published works. ten your seat belt as our spirited heroes ride by a lot of industry executives these days. per-person telethon giver, a title bright outlook ahead since we’re in the early icebergs from the frozen north, battle wild They took a blow last month when Britain stages of the nearly four-month-long polar held by Longyearbyen for years men, and fall in love while they race to prevent issued a warning telling travelers cruising here Corrections policy summer. But a London author and religious world war.” It’s just one more entry in the end- is too dangerous. That warning may be re- leader says we should be embracing the divini- When we screw up you'll know about it – on less range of zany fiction and non-fiction books, movies, video games, etc. about the ty of darkness as inspired by Svalbard, which is the front page. One of the big complaints apparently “a place where no matter how long about newspapers is they tend to bury Doomsday Vault, but it is touted as winning or being a finalist for a half-dozen literary awards you stay, your eyes will never adjust to the corrections and clarifications deep inside light.” Catherine Bird, a superintendent of the where few people who read the original article we’re not familiar with. Plus it has a 4.8 star out the dark. Yet darkness can live alone, without light, as the fundamental state of things from which creation sprang.” We Methodist Church in a region of London, see them. If we need to fix something, an alert rating (out of five) from five Amazon Reviews won’t speculate on whether the souls of her congregants are glowing after a sermon, but she might not be the best pick to light makes her three trips to the the archipelago box on the front page will state what story is in Who Can’t Possibly Be Shills Even Though up your next party… in recent years a focus of her new book “The error and where the full correction is printed. They All Sound Alike. Of course, there’s al- ways a risk locals who have Actual Knowledge Divine Heart of Darkness,” “the imagination about Svalbard and the vault might weigh in apparently freed as a result of a lack of optical stimulation.” She did have an enlightening mo- Submitting material and judging by this free preview of the first The Austrailian ment outside Svalbard Church when a local chapter (titled “Longyearbyen Village, Spits- https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/travel/longyearbyen-on-norways-svalbard-archipelago/news-story/ Letters, columns, photos and other material pointed out a “strong strand of light” in the bergen”), it might lose a bit of star power. The d5460ea77e1c1f854b521062c15f4034JAMAL QURESHI are welcome, but we can't offer pay for dark sky – but probably not the one the host opening scene features a Native American en- 6 HOURS AGO published items since nobody here is getting was hoping for. “‘Look,’ I was told with some during the usual racial insults from drunk Rus- It's there for the coal that the Norwegians mine nearby. paid at the moment. Submissions in electronic sians and describes a place called the Five degree of vigor, ‘the light is always stronger form (text, Word documents, JPEGs, etc.) are than the darkness,'” Bird writes in her book.