16peopleapply foreveryposition–sowhatyouget
are thebrightestand thebest.AtSvalSat, theworld’s
biggestsatellitestationa20-minutedrive from town,
peoplewalkaroundwith“KSAT inBlack”T-shirts
(after thesatellitecompany thatowns it)andsay their
aim is tohave“16percentmore funeveryday”– it’s
theslightlygeeky joiedevivreyou imagineatPixar
or theGoogleplex, and it’shardlysurprisinggiven the
sheerbeautyofwhere theywork.
Then there’s thecosmopolitanism. In
Longyearbyen, the second-biggest ethnicgroup
are theThais,whohave theirown supermarket
and restaurant.Ah, theever-smiling sous-chef at
Kroa, isoneofmanywho ravesaboutwhat agreat
placeLongyearbyen is to live in, even if it’sa little
different toBangkok.What startedwithminers
comingbackwithThai brideshasgrown intoa fully
fledgedcommunity,whoarewelcomedasmuchas
anygroup inLongyearbyen,with thecaveat that
every familyhereneeds tobeworking.
It shouldn’t be surprising, asSvalbard in
general isan international place. TheSvalbard
Treatyof 1920meant that 40countries could
conduct commercial activitiesonSvalbardwithout
discrimination, albeitunderquite strictNorwegian
Polar bears
(3,000)
Snowmobiles
(2,672)
People
(2,642)
1k
2k
3k
Svalbard
numbers
legislation (thegovernor,OddOlsen Ingerø, admits
there’s evenmorebureaucracyhere thanon the
famouslybureaucraticmainland). Thenorthern
research townofNy-Ålesund, home to theworld’s
northernmostpost office, is essentiallyacollection
of scientists fromacross theworld (winter
population: 35; summerpopulation: 180),while
there’saPolish research stationatHornsundat the
southernendof thearchipelago.
Then thereare theRussians,whohavebeen
thedominantgrouponSvalbard formuchof the
timesinceWorldWar II.Since theGrumantand
Pyramidenmineshaveclosed (in1965and1998
respectively), leavingeerieghost towns in theirwake,
Barentsburg is theonlyactiveRussianmine left.Of its
490orsomostlyUkrainian inhabitants, it’ssaid three
speakEnglishand twospeakNorwegian.Arriving
thereonasnowmobile (oraboat insummer) isa
bizarreexperience (
seepage76
).
A trip toBarentsburgorPyramiden–whose
1,000 inhabitantsdeserted themine town inasingle
day in1998–makesa fascinatingcounterpoint to
all thenaturalbeautyonSvalbard,which isfiercely
protectedbysomeof thestrictestenvironmental laws
on theplanet.Strangely, theone thingwedidn’tsee
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