Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.07.2004, Blaðsíða 12

COLUMN
WHERE IS THE MULTICULTURAL
SOCIETY by Hassan Harazi
A man named Hassan has been
sending us letters, his output putting
most of our (barely) paid writers to
shame. We like him so much we´re
giving him a column. But we´re not
paying him. At least not yet.
If G. Pomrenke travelled from
Virginia, USA expecting to engage
in the social and cultural activities
and expected to find them Icelandic/
Nordic and not African, and
presumably disappointed, it would
be very easy just to infer that he/she
was some sort of racist/bigot/white
supremacist or whatever, and dismiss
his/her opinions as such. What
might be more useful would be to
seek to understand why he/she was
obviously under the impression
that Iceland was not a multicultural
society, if indeed it is. It may have
something to do with how Iceland
is marketed to potential tourists
in other countries by the Icelandic
Tourist Board and Icelandair. If
tourists are sold holidays which
promise to take them to the Land of
the Vikings/Sagas/Fire and Ice/most
beautiful women in the world who
all have long blonde hair/a place
where the language has remained
unchanged for centuries, then why
should they not be confused when
they find a black woman wearing
the national costume, kids wearing
American sportswear and rapping
and everyone else traipsing around
shopping malls while talking on
mobile telephones?
As for Reykjavík being a
multicultural city, where is it? It
seems to me that the City council
and a fair number of its inhabitants
would like Reykjavík to be thought
of as a multicultural city simply
because of a desire to be ‘more like
other European cities’. It takes
more than a handful of ‘ethnic’
restaurants, shops selling Moroccan
slippers and Tai Chi classes. Where
are the mosques, synagogues,
halal and kosher butchers, Diwali
celebrations, and the acceptance of
these things that a true multicultural
society has? It appears more like,
“We like your food, nice fabrics
and music, but not your traditions,
customs and you”. And at the heart
of it all, an immigration policy that
discriminates on race.
Reykjavík and Iceland have a lot to
offer tourists - it does actually have
a history from 1700 to the present
day - but it seems not many people
want to make a feature of it. Could
it be because a lot of it is not very
glamorous or fits in very well with
the romantic ideals that they assume
tourists are seeking? In my opinion
the history of Iceland of the past
300 years is far more interesting and
has done more to shape the modern
Iceland than anything the Vikings
did.
I found the article about
protesting very interesting, but
surely Reykjavíkians are amongst
the world leaders in non-violent
civil disobedience. I was under the
impression that all protests took the
form of wearing a t-shirt, for one
day only, emblazoned with a slogan
such as “Men say no to rape”, or “I
am a feminist”. Or maybe, if it’s not
raining, even a gathering outside the
Parliament when it’s empty. And
surely the police never have to worry
about dragging away protestors as
come 7pm they all go home for
dinner anyway.
The photograph with the article
shows a poster (a reference to the
dam construction at Kárahnjúkar),
which reads; “It is the duty of all
countrymen to protect the country
from their government.” Following
Birgir Örn Thoroddsen’s comment
in issue #3 complaining of ‘the
population’s inability to protest
against anything’, and Guðbergur
Bergsson’s interview in The
Guardian Weekend Magazine
of November 29, 2003 in which
he states: “If the international
community can show them
[Icelanders] how truly ridiculous it
is to destroy nature, the very thing
they love most, for one aluminum
smelter, they may start to think
for themselves. They might finally
have the guts to speak up and tell
their dictatorial government how
absolutely they have got this wrong.
You have to shame us into change.”
Then surely a more appropriate
poster would read, “It is the duty of
all non-Icelanders to protect Iceland
from the Icelanders.”
For any tourists that would like to
see this part of the country, there is
now a range of postcards available.
Reykjavík City Shot
The Grapevine is happy to accept
submissions for the city shot. H
.S
.
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