Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.06.2006, Page 6

Love Valgerður – Not the Highlands
Minister of Industry and Com-
merce, Valgerður Sverrisdóttir
has filed police complaint over
protest signs used in a protest
march organized by The Friends of
Iceland on Election Day. The sign
read: “Drown Valgerður – Not the
Highlands”.
Sverrisdóttir has been a leading
proponent of heavy industry in
Iceland and is as such an obvious
target for protestors.
On her website, Sverrisdóttir
explains that this obvious threat of
violence directed at her personally
as a public official, dutifully serving
her country, is a public encourage-
ment to violent acts and the threat
is intended to cause her self, her
daughters and family to fear for
their life, health and well-being.
Sverrisdóttir goes on to hold
the parliament opposition party the
Left-Green Movement responsible
for the protest, saying: “I hope the
Left-Greens are proud of these ac-
tions when they and their support-
ers encouraged that I be drowned.”
On her website, Sverrisdót-
tir also reprimands the media for
showing the signs on photos and
on TV without mentioning it as an
atrocity.
Silvia Nótt Eliminated, Finns Win
Eurovision by Default
Eurovision hopeful Silvía Night
(the artist formerly known as Silvía
Nótt) did not make it into the final
rounds of the Eurovision Song
Contest, though she apologised to
eventual winner Lordi, as, having
won without direct competition
with Silvía, they knew they were
losers.
Among the highlights of Silvía
Night’s three-minute song, a lyric
hoping that her song wasn’t “totally
gay,” in a context suggesting the
slang for of inferior quality, a brief
goose-step dance, an interlude dur-
ing which the songstress stepped
below a drain, pulled a cord to
reveal yellow confetti, and shouted
“oh no, a golden shower,” and a
prolonged phone conversation with
God.
She was met with thunderous
boos, the worst response com-
mentators remember hearing in the
50-year history of the competition.
Ms. Night, interviewed after-
wards on RÚV, was seemingly in
tears, saying that she intended to
leave Europe and move to Los An-
geles to put out an album. She also
cried out, repeatedly, for her daddy.
Silvía Night’s audience may
have changed significantly during
the week of the Eurovision com-
petition. The webmaster of the of-
ficial fan site, www.silvianott.com,
announced that she had taken the
site down. Text on the site stated
that “stjörnustæla” (diva behaviour)
had gone too far, and that the final
straw was when Ms. Night failed
to show for an autograph session at
an Esso gas station where dozens
of children were expecting her.
The same site had earlier sup-
ported kiddie star Birgitta. At the
same time, older fans found Night’s
performance bizarre enough to keep
Eurovision interesting, while grant-
ing that it might be nice if she took
a vacation for a while.
Investigation Reveals Government-
Approved Wiretapping
According to a thorough investiga-
tion conducted by historian Guðni
Th. Jóhannesson, there were many
incidents of politically motivated
government-sanctioned wiretaps
made between 1949-1968. Al-
though evidence is inconclusive,
several of the victims of these
wiretaps insist that such monitoring
continued well into the 1980s.
Among these victims were
the leaders of socialist publica-
tion Þjóðviljinn, the now-defunct
People’s Alliance Party and other
leftist political and social move-
ments. Ragnar Arnalds, former
minister and leader of the People’s
Alliance and current chairman of
anti-NATO organisation Heimssýn
said that the wiretaps are nothing
short of an insult to democracy,
and hinted that a more conclusive
investigation would reveal Guðni’s
findings to be merely “the tip of the
iceberg.”
Social Democratic party MP
Björgvin G. Sigurðsson said that
once the mayoral elections are
complete, he will make a parlia-
mentary appeal that not only should
the matter come under thorough
investigation, but that a special
commission be established to moni-
tor the considerable amounts of
wiretapping done today by Icelandic
police, much like the committees
News in Brief
by bart cameron, paul f. nikolov, sindri eldon and sveinn birkir björnsson
photos by pallih and skari