Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.01.2008, Blaðsíða 14

14 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 01 2008 | Feature
There were many memorable events that shaped
last year. Here is a review of some of the events that
stand out in memory.
Dog Cheats Death, Photographer Escapes
Angry Mob
The most peculiar news story of 2007 is the adven-
turous tale of Lúkas the Chinese Crested dog won-
der who was reported to have met his fate last June
in a most gruesome manner.
The dog was reported missing mid-May, and
repeated search missions failed. Mid-June, media
reports suggested that Lúkas might have been
stuffed in a gym bag, which was subsequently used
as a ball-alternative in a game of football between
a group of young men during a drunken weekend
in Akureyri. A young photographer was named in
relation to the heinous act. Soon his mobile phone,
e-mail and blog-site were flooded with hundreds of
messages – in addition to various blog posts and
chat room messages – promising him a fate worse
than the dog’s, while dog lovers performed candle-
light memorial services around the country.
Two weeks later, Lúkas was found alive near
Akureyri. He was in good health, despite having
lived in the wild for nearly two months. The young
photographer has filed criminal charges against
more than 100 people for threats of bodily harm –
the highest number ever filed at once in Iceland.
Hotel Ousts Pornography Convention, Shuts
Down In-house Porn Channel
Over one hundred producers of internet pornogra-
phy and other industry insiders were scheduled to
gather in Iceland for a week-long annual conven-
tion in Reykjavík in March 2007. The convention,
called Snowgathering, is one of the largest meet-
and-greet sessions of the calendar for internet
porn-merchants.
The scheduled convention was promptly
cancelled after a collective outcry – from city of-
ficials including the Mayor, Members of Parliament,
and various women’s rights groups – forced the Ice-
landic Farmers Association, owners of Hotel Saga,
to cancel the group’s booking with the Hotel.
A statement from Freeones.com, the event’s
organisers, expressed dismay at this treatment,
stating, “It seems that being connected in any
way to pornography has become a new Icelandic
law for declaring you a persona non grata in their
country. A country that seems to care more about
adult women taking their clothes off – by their own
choice, without any pressure or threat – than about
the extinction of living creatures like whales!”
In the wake of Hotel Saga’s decision to can-
cel the pornographers’ convention, a decision was
made to shut down the hotel’s in-house pay-per-
view porn channel.
Iceland Calls Trooper Home
In September last year, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, decided to call home
the single Icelandic trooper stationed in Iraq. The
lone trooper was a member of the Icelandic Crisis
Response Unit (ICRU) and served as a media rep-
resentative in Bagdad.
John Craddock, the Supreme Allied Com-
mander Europe for NATO and the US European
Command expressed his disappointment with
Gísladóttir’s decision, stating that Iceland was an
important NATO member. Gísladóttir said the deci-
sion coincided with the government’s declaration
that it regretted the war in Iraq, and the decision
to support the invasion. She also stated that in the
future, Iceland would support development pro-
grams in Iraq, like educational programs for Iraqi
refugees, rather than war efforts.
Despite voicing her displeasure with the war
in Iraq, ICRU members are still serving in Afghani-
stan.
Art Student Jailed in Canada for Artistic
Bomb Threat
A young Icelandic art student, Þórarinn Ingi Jóns-
son, was arrested in Toronto in November for plac-
ing a sculpture that resembled a bomb outside the
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The Museum was
vacated and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS
research was forced to cancel a fundraising gala
scheduled at the museum that night.
Jónsson, a student at the Ontario College of
Art and Design, turned himself in to police authori-
ties stating that he intended the sculpture, called
‘This is Not a Bomb,’ to be part of video installation
project for college and that he had no idea the mu-
seum was hosting an AIDS benefit that night.
He was released a day later after surrender-
ing his passport, undear the conditions that he stay
away from both the Royal Ontario Museum and ex-
plosives. He still faces charges of causing mischief
and being a public nuisance. Speaking with the
Toronto Star newspaper, Toronto police Detective
Leslie Dunkley said Jónsson could face up to four
years in prison if convicted. “It’s a very serious of-
fence,” said Dunkley, noting that the bomb threat
kept about two dozen police busy and shut down
nearby streets. “We take it seriously and we don’t
want to encourage it.”
Jónsson was suspended from the Ontario
College of Art and Design and two faculty mem-
bers were suspended with pay, pending an internal
investigation. Speaking with vísir.is, Jónsson said
he was proud of the work, and pointed out that
the Canadian public had never spent as much time
talking about art.
Icelandic Teen Calls President Bush
One Saturday night in early December, Vífill Atla-
son, a 16-year-old student from Akranes, placed a
call to one George W. Bush, President of the U.S.A.
Using a secret phone number, Atlason reached the
President’s secretary and introduced himself as
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland, and
requested a meeting with President Bush.
As it turned out, President Bush was not avail-
able at the time, but the secretary promised him a
call-back from the President the following Monday.
Instead of hearing from Bush, Atlason was visited
by the police who took him to the station for ques-
tioning.
“I got this number from a friend of mine years
ago, and it is a direct number for what is called the
‘security room’ in the White House,” Atlason told
vísir.is. Speaking with ABC News, White House
spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore insisted that At-
lason did not dial a private number but instead
dialled 202-456-1414, the main switchboard for the
West Wing. That was not the case. The student gave
ABC News the number, which verified that it is in-
deed an extension of the White House switchboard
and goes to a security command post office in the
building next door to the White House.
Atlason said he just wanted to chat with the
President and invite him to Iceland. “I just wanted
to talk to him about life and existence over a good
hamburger,” he told vísir.is. He added that his par-
ents did not punish him for his prank.
Iceland’s Very Own Royal Blackmailer
In November, news broke that Ian Strachan, aka
Paul Aðalsteinsson, had been arrested in London
for attempting to extort money from a member of
the British Royal Family. According to the Sunday
Times, two men contacted a member of the royal
staff and demanded £50,000, threatening to go pub-
lic with video recordings involving sex and drugs if
their demand was not met.
The men said they had evidence that a mem-
ber of the Royal Family had supplied an aide with
an envelope containing cocaine and that they had
a video tape showing the aide performing oral sex
on the royal. A detective posing as a member of the
royal staff arranged a meeting at the Hilton hotel on
London’s Park Lane on 11 September, where parts
of the video were shown. Scotland Yard detec-
tives, secretly filming the meeting from an adjacent
room, then arrested the two suspects.
Aðalsteinsson/Strachan, whose father is Ice-
landic, has lived in Aberdeen for most of his life,
but Icelandic media has been quick to establish
him as the latest in a row of notable Icelanders
abroad, although some confusion has raged over
his actual ties to Iceland. Aðalsteinsson/Strachan
lawyer, Giovanni Di Stefano – who defended Slo-
bodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein among oth-
ers – maintains that Aðalsteinsson/Strachan has an
Icelandic passport and dual citizenship, while Ice-
land’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that he is
not an Icelandic citizen and has never held an Ice-
landic passport. If convicted, Strachan/Aðalsteins-
son could serve his time in Iceland, where he could
be released after serving a third of his sentence.
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Looking Back
He was released a day
later after surrendering
his passport, under the
conditions that he stay
away from both the Roy-
al Ontario Museum and
explosives. He still faces
charges of causing mis-
chief and being a public
nuisance.
Lúkas the dog immortalised by a street
artist in Lækjartorg.
Photo by Páll Hilmarsson
– www.reykjavik.gotuli.st