Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.01.2005, Blaðsíða 4

WULFFMORGENTHALER
LETTERS
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Hi there
I just wanted to thank you for
sending me the paper to Fréttablaðið.
It’s nice to know you can be
expecting it. How are things going
for you?
Regards,
Smári
We’re fine, thank you. How are you?
Hello Valur,
My name is Darren Adam and I
am a Scottish radio presenter who
has become mildly obsessed (in an
entirely healthy way) with Iceland
over the last few years. My partner
and I are just back from our sixth
visit to Reykjavík, and whilst in town
I picked up a copy of “Grapevine”,
which I thought was very impressive.
I was a visitor in town last weekend,
but we would very much like to live
in Reykjavík at some point in the
future; I thought the publication
served me extremely well, both as a
tourist, and the “ex-pat” I would like
to be!
All the best,
Darren Adam
Thanks. I’d like to be an expat too.
Wanna trade?
One criminal after another.
The first of December there was
a formal exchange of mayors in
Reykjavík. The new mayor of the
city, Steinunn Valdís, took over from
Þórólfur Árnason, oil crook, who
from now on will be doing his dirty
work away from the annoying beams
of the spotlight. Steinunn clearly
feels that the first of December,
traditionally an Icelandic holiday, is
way too nationalist and bigoted to
deserve to be celebrated anymore,
so the first thing she did in office
was to secure “new Icelanders” of
Vietnamese origin and the Red
Cross more of the peoples tax money
in order to launch some kind of
adjustment program for those young
gooks. In other words, throw more
money into hopeless, left-wing
cultural farting.
After this nonsense, the next thing
she did was to go to the city zoo to
open up a new section. Whether
the Vietnamese youngsters will be
on display while in their adjustment
program or the last of the icelanders
will be put there soon time will have
to tell.
Go Steinunn! We love your work!
The Discriminator
Dear Discriminator
Fuck you
Ed-
Hi.
In issue 11 of the Grapevine, page
26, someone (there is no name on
the article) erroneously says that
“Eitt lítið jólalag” was written for
Birgitta Haukdal as a promotion for
Smáralind. This song was written
by Magnús Kjartansson and was
(probably) first released on the album
“11 jólalög” sung by Ragnhildur
Gísladóttir. Today it can be found as
track 4 (disc 1) on Pottþétt Jól (the
first one). Although the quality of
the song can certainly be debated
(personally I think the Ragga version
is kind of cute) please correct the
authorship and purpose of this song.
thank you.
Áslaug Högnadóttir
Consider authorship corrected. Can we
please have some of the royalties now?
Dear Grapevinelot
The editorial from Mr. Nikolov was
very entertaining as well as pressing.
But I would like to add a couple of
thoughts on the subject.
First: The “war on terrorism”.
Both the aggressor (in this case
a bearded man living in a cave in
Afghanistan which supposedly
goes under the name of Osama,
and very surprisingly has been able
to outmanouver the entire US led
coalition for the better part of 4
years) and the defender (which
goes by the name of George W.
Bush, and currently commands the
aforementioned US coalition) claim
God as their ally and protector.
Now, for most of us normal folks
this might strike as odd. How can
the same “God” both want to “hunt
down and kill” and “protect and
guide” the same people? Either there
must be two “Gods” or somebody
made a blunder somewhere.
Maybe we are looking in the
wrong direction when we claim that
what is going on in this so-called war
on terror is a religious struggle? For
what is really driving the struggle
is the feeling of supremacy by one
cultural world over another. The
USA government claims to be
“democratizing” the Middle East but
forgot to ask anybody in the region
how they would feel about it.
When the war on Iraq was fought
the western media did not question
the cultural arrogance that the
war presented and the termology
that was to follow it. They were so
imbedded in the “ground war” and
the dodgy evidence of WMD’s that
they never stopped to ask themselves;
is this right? Best regards
Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson
Director
Ok, here you go: Is this right?
hello to the good people at the
Reykjavik Grapevine,
I’m desperately searching for some
information, and I thought that,
what with your obvious back-
of-your-hand familiarity with
Reykjavik, you could help me out.
I’m planning on staying in Reykjavik
for the month of March, and I am
hoping to sublet a small apartment
for that time, hopefully on the cheap.
I’ve been scouring the internet to
find a website that might help me
toward this end, but there seems
to be no equivalent to Craig’s List
for Iceland, or at least none that I
can find. So I was hoping someone
could tell me how I could best find
an available apartment — whether
that entails a website, a telephone
number, or your cousin’s friend’s
younger brother’s blog. Basically, any
leads would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks so much for your help.
And by the way, I greatly enjoyed
your paper during my time in
Iceland. I even brought home a
copy with me to show off. I’m from
New York City, and I like your
paper better than the Village Voice.
Seriously....
Best,
Andrew Naymark
anaymark@gmail.com
Anyone?
Dear Grapevine
I came to Iceland in May 2003 and
fell in love with the country almost
before I got off the plane. The
relationship has only deepened over
time. I have seen the most beautiful
countryside from both a 4-seater
airplane and a trike, ridden a horse
for the first time and learnt how to
mix my drinks and still walk home
safely through the snow.
Judith Shaw
So, how do you mix your drinks and
walk safely through the snow, then?
Hello,
I have just finished reading your
latest issue and wondered why
no attempt was made to include
Buddhism, a religion of about
400,000,000 people and one
whose influence is heard and felt
throughout Western popular culture,
in the new physics and psychology,
as well as a number of other fields.
(Not to mention the huge influence
on Asian culture)
Your very selection of the word
“God” certainly rules out Buddhism,
which also denies the existence
of a permanent soul, but it also
suggests that spirituality is only
that which mentions God. This is
definitely not true as any cursory
reading of Thich Nhat Hanh´s or
the Dalai Lama´s writings, or any
of a number of other wonderful
and quite well-known Buddhist
authors would demonstrate.
Buddhism has maintained itself
as an inspiring religion lending a
warm and compassionate embrace
to all sentient beings for 2500 years,
yet “God” does not figure into the
picture, nor is it necessary to find
such.
There are Buddhists in Iceland
(I personally am a Jodo Shinshu
priest who has spent over 30 years
in Buddhism, first in Zen and then
Tibetan Vajrayana and have met
some of the Buddhist community
here) who might have appreciated a
broader examination of spirituality
in Iceland (your inclusion of Ásatru
stretches the “God” thing since they
accept many “gods”).
Sincerely,
Rev. José M. Tirado
We were in fact talking about God. As
Buddhism does not really have one,
asking a Buddhist how God would feel
about the teacher’s strike did not make
much sense.