Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.06.2004, Side 4
Hi,
One of our editors was in Reykjavik recently and he
picked up a copy of your newspaper. I really liked the
pull-out center section, “Guide to the City Center,” and
I’d like to get in touch with the person who wrote that.
Do you think it’s possible to send me that writer’s e-mail
address, or to give mine to her or him?
Thanks!
Jason Cochran
Senior Editor
Budget Travel magazine
We would, but it sounds like you want to give him an assign-
ment. We find that when people start offering our writers
money for their work they become much harder to deal with.
So we´re sorry but we are unable to help you.
Hello
I wanted to thank you for an amusing article on the exhi-
bition in our museum in your paper in issue 1, year 2. It
was nice to get such a lively commentary on this exhibi-
tion, I hope you´ll pass that on to the writer involved.
Regards and thanks
Harpa Þórsdóttir
Head of Exhibitions
National Gallery of Iceland
Fine, praise them if you must, as long as you don´t start offer-
ing them money.
In the style of “101 Reykjavík”, I tried to ‘live’ in Hall-
grímur Helgason’s head and share his thoughts and
observations. I found it a rather mystifying place to be.
In particular I had a problem with the Icelandic society,
which apparently is the “best the earth has ever seen.” I
wondered if the society where ‘nobody goes hungry to
bed, no one is cold at night, the healthcare system covers
everybody, most people travel abroad three times a year
and every home has an Internet connection’ was the
same society that I was living in. Then it struck me that
I did not have the benefit of Hallgrímur’s rose-tinted
double-glazing. I was also puzzled that he spent five
years in Paris and ‘there was nothing going on’ and that
he felt more isolated there than in Reykjavík. But I guess
when in Paris he was an unknown wannabe, whereas
later in Reykjavík, a celebrated author, artist, essayist,
playwright, competition judge and town planning expert,
clearly a serious case of Big Fish/Small Pond Syndrome.
As for his theory about a small society turning against
one that becomes too big, I feel confident that he has
nothing to worry about.
Hassan Harazi
101 Reykjavík
Dear Hassan
In response to your query, we sent a reporter and a Catholic
nun on location to see if poverty exists in Iceland. See page
8. They failed to find it in the first attempt, but that doesn´t
mean its not there. Anyone wanting to send pointers or even
write articles about the subject please get in touch.
Grapevine -Here to help.
Dear Grapevine,
I’m delighted that you’re back! I missed your fresh com-
mentary on Icelandic society during the winter months.
As chairperson of the Multicultural Council I was happy
to see an article about the new law about foreigners re-
cently passed by the Icelandic Parliament. I was involved
in the month-long protest against the passing of that
law, along with 12 other organizations, and was one of
the people who testified to Members of Parliament about
some of the clauses which would violate the human
rights of foreigners.
Unfortunately, there are a number of inaccuracies in the
article that appeared in the Grapevine and I would like to
clear them up.
This law has nothing to do with what age a foreigner
must be before being able to apply for a bank loan to buy
a house or apartment. The 24 year age limit has to do
with residence permits for foreign spouses of Icelanders.
It says that foreign spouses of Icelanders who are younger
than 24 can no longer automatically get a residence per-
mit solely on the basis of being married to a native.
1) The author mixed up the names of 2 different institu-
tions as well as the people who head them. He said that
a meeting on Friday May 21st was held by the Multicul-
tural Centre. There is no such place in Reykjavik. There
is an institution called the Intercultural Centre. In fact,
the open meeting was held by the Reykjavik Cultural
Committee.
2) Later in the article the author gives the name, phone
number, and e-mail address of Halldóra Gunnarsdóttir
as the contact person This woman does not work at the
Intercultural Centre but in fact works at City Hall as an
information task manager in the Development and Fam-
ily Department of the city government.
3) The open meeting about cultural activities had noth-
ing whatsoever to do with the new law about foreigners.
4) Neither did the Multicultural Carnival which was
advertised as being held in first Ingólfstorg and later
Lækjartorg and NOT at Stjórnarráð, as mentioned in the
article.
I would like to point out that if anyone is interested in
more information about services for foreigners, to drop
in at the Intercultural Centre on Hverfisgata 18, directly
across the street from the National Theatre and pick
up the current and back issues of their magazine which
has articles in many languages, including English, about
foreigners’ services and rights.
Respectfully yours,
Hope Knútsson
chairperson, Multicultural Council
Paul Fontaine-Nikolov responds:
I was pleased to hear that someone was fighting for us, the
forgotten Icelanders, when this dreadful set of laws was
passed. While I appreciate your clarification on the “age 24”
law, I would like to point out:
1) This group was called the “Multicultural centre”, in
English, several times in the meeting.The name Halldóra
Gunnarsdóttir was given several times at this meeting as the
person to contact if any foreigners had any ideas as to how to
make Reykjavík more multicultural. I spoke to one Halldóra
Gunnarsdóttir about this meeting, told her what was said,
and asked if she was indeed the contact person for this group.
She confirmed that she was.
2) The open meeting might not have had anything directly
to do with the new laws, but the purpose of this meeting - to
make Reykjavík more multicultural - is both pertinant and
relevent within the context of these new laws especially.
3) They did indeed discuss providing services to foreigners,
e.g., a datebase website of every foreigner organisation in
Iceland, and not just involving foreigners in more cultural
activities, as you assert.
3) In no point in the article did I say that the festival took
place at Stjórnaráð. I said that I went to a “meeting” (which
ended up being a hoax) at Stjórnaráð, while “the festival set
up across the street” - which would be Lækjartorg.
While these laws seek to marginalize, these events seek to
include. Aren´t we all working towards the same goals, after
all?
WULFFMORGENTHALER
see more at www.wulffmorgenthaler.com
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