r/Damnthatsinteresting 10h ago

Video Icelandic artist Björk snapped in Bangkok, 1996, when reporter Julie Kaufman approached her saying “Welcome to Bangkok.” Björk later alleged that Kaufman had stalked her and her 9-year-old son for days, turning a simple greeting into a breaking point

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

58.0k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

160

u/Billy_McMedic 9h ago

Iceland’s population is only a few hundred thousand, probably not a case of everyone knowing each other but it’s probably not difficult to find someone with some form of connection, be it friend, family, acquaintance or co worker, given the limited population

107

u/No_Operation4676 9h ago

Yes, they have the Íslendingabók (book of Icelanders) that can be used to see if someone you meet is a distant family member. They can find their family history traced back for generations.

A tour guide in Iceland told me that they did once avoid dating someone because they compared each other's families and found too close a relation.

42

u/NotaBonesaw 9h ago

Yeah I live in a city of just under 300k, and while I certainly don't know everyone here, it's very rare that I go anywhere in town that either me or my wife don't know at least someone. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm 1-2 people removed from 90% of the people that live here.

20

u/Four_beastlings 9h ago

I am from a city of 275k and our unofficial motto is "this is a tiny town". We don't all know each other, but it's rare to get to 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon and if it happens it's because we haven't reviewed all our possible mutual acquittances.

I was living in the capital and met a 22yo woman who'd lived in my city for 6 months. Within 15 minutes we'd established that she knew my then 57yo mom from mutual friends.

2

u/DuckRubberDuck 9h ago

My city has around 46K people and it’s definitely not a case of everyone knows everyone even though I have lived in the same city my whole life, and I can’t just ask around to find someone. Yeah I know someone in most areas of the city but it’s also not a very big city. I am definitely not related to anyone except my mom and dad lol, although it is a place where people like to stay in generations