Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.02.2005, Síða 4

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LETTERS
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letters@grapevine.is or send your mail to: The Reykjavík Grapevine, Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík
Dear Mr. Gunnarsson,
Greetings! My name is Amia Srinivasan, and I’m a
second-year student at Yale University in the U.S.,
though I studied and continue to live in London. Over
New Year’s I had the good fortune to spend some time in
Reykjavik with my family, and was really blown away by
the natural beauty and unique culture of Iceland. While
I’ve lived in and visited many countries in Asia, Europe,
the Middle East, and the Americas, Iceland really took
my breath away. Outside of the modern art museum
there, I chanced upon a copy of the Reykjavik Grapevine,
and immediately read it cover to cover--I found it fresh,
sharp, and amusing, and was thoroughly impressed by
your young venture.
All the best,
Amia Srinivasan
Yale University
Aye, forget Asia, Europe (the rest of it), the Middle East and
the Americas. The Reykjavík Grapevine is all you need.
Hi,
I was reading my Grapevine and noticed the article about
Nightmare Before Christmas/Martröð á jólanótt (page
19). How do I get tickets to see this show? Where is it
playing? I planned on trying to go to the 23.Jan show.
Also, thanks to Paul Nikolov for the awesome politician
quiz. I took the quiz and I was Steingrímur Sigfússon
(no surprise). Thank you.
James Barlow
Sandgerði
Sorry man, it’s over now. Maybe they’ll make a film of it
someday.
Hi, can you send me information about this jiu jitsu?
Takk
Birna
Take opponent, squeeze throat until head turns purple and he
starts singing “The Final Countdown” by Europe. Repeat.
Dear Editor:
I was so moved by the ad in the New York Times I did
not know what to do; the website listed had no contact
address, and only the link to your publication had a
contact on it.
It is so nice to know that Icelanders enjoy living in a vital
democracy and that one can be proud to be an Icelander.
I have only one question: How can I be one too?
Mickey Davis
Professor of Law
Cleveland State Univ.
Come over, play a game of chess, leave wait 30 years, break
some international law, and you’re half there (or here). Look
forward to seeing you around.
A friend gave me this address, and I’d love to find
out who in Iceland even knows me! I saw the issue
of Grapevine that had something about the ten or so
Americans who would be forgotten in ten years (or was it
already forgotten - I don’t have the paper in front of me).
Anyway, this is from snow-bound Manhattan, hope
to hear from someone there. Tried to check out www.
grapevine.is but could not access it.

Peace,
David

David McReynolds
david.mcr@earthlink.net
Paul knows you. Say hello to Paul. Paul, say hello go David.
Paul: “Hello David.” And try the link again. It should be
working.
I will start by saying I am half-Icelandic and half-
African American. I am glad to see that two children can
speak their mind, however uninformed and uneducated
they sound. I am also appalled at how these two
youngsters do not know that non–white people fought,
bled and died so they would have the chance to be so
ignorant. I know that when they say “we” they refer to
a minority of “white” people that do not realize that
African people along with Asian people helped build
the United States with hard slave labour (yes, the Asians
built railroads that connected the east to the west and the
Africans farmed the lands that made the south so rich),
and to simply say “we just do not want them around” is
not good enough.
White America did that with the American Indian.
The tribes that were not completely wiped out by this
genocidal force were given an “area to stay “ “because
they were born there” Mighty white of them! This
separatist ideal did not work then and it will not work
now. If this minority of separatists doesn’t think so, then
maybe they should have their own reservations where
they can inbreed amongst themselves, revert into deep
depression, rampant alcoholism and then we will see how
they feel about it in years to come. Lest I forget; they
already have a lot of those, they’re called trailer parks.

Frank Lárus Sullivan
I think and hope most Icelanders are.
Some belated response to Chris Shillock’s article in the
December issue, “Why the Bush regime will bomb Iraq
but never ban abortion.”

Chris,
With all my heart I hope you are right about “the
dangerous game” they’re playing with Southern
Fundamentalists and the backlash. On the other hand
you would think that lying to the American people about
WMD and too many other things to mention would
have caused a backlash as well. Watching Bush et al this
election I began to wonder, “What does this guy have to
DO to lose? Kick a dog? Rape a toddler on prime time?”
Moore may be right about the baseball statistics but I
don’t know...Anyway the piece was great, really enjoyed
it.

Chris,
In the Grapevine piece the analogy between American
attitudes to the war and the psychology of an abused
woman is worth mining a little further, and your
characterization “fascism lite” towards the end of the
article reminds me of Arendt’s famous remark about the
banality of evil.
Again, I think you’ll find it useful to read the two books
of George Lakoff in order to get more insight into
the two, usually competing, ‘frames’ of mind of many
Americans. Bush may be a charismatic imbecile but
Karl Rove and Grover Norquist are highly intelligent
borderline personalities (aka psychopaths) as insightful as
Machiavelli.
Tom Shillock

It makes Brave New World and 1984 look like bedtime
stories, doesn’t it? Personally I think I am going to retreat
into the mindless world of Porno for a while were I can’t
see the world upset about tsunamis, as if millions haven’t
been dying in Africa for a long time.
Sharol
PS - For a little-known perspective on what we are
doing in Iraq, take a look at this one:
http://www.gene.ch/genet/2004/Oct/msg00040.html