Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.03.2009, Síða 4

4 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 3—2009
LETTERS
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SAY YouR pIece, voIce YouR opInIon, SenD YouR LeTTeRS To LeTTeRS@gRApevIne.IS
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After reading your second editorial I felt
like sharing a thought or two about the
current situation in our countries. So I
considered coming to live in Iceland.
See, the view that many of us down
there have about Northern European
countries is that they are... better. Their
governments work properly (hold on, I'll
come back to that), the bureaucracy is
not narrow-minded and idiotic, people
are respectful and highly civilised, in-
frastructures are impeccable, equality is
achieved by all, rights are respected and
fought for, etc. Wonderland. I speak as an
un-informed person, I am sure. I recogn-
ise I am pretty naive and for a second I
thought Iceland was a sort of fairie-filled
Sigur Ros-singing country were all is well
and fine. No, okay, I am not that naïve.
One thing gives me hope though. I
quote from your article: "Folks were los-
ing their jobs, losing their homes, rush-
ing to the streets in protest. And for our
noble Alþingi's first day in session after
their month long Christmas vacation,
their chose topic of discussion was... the
availability of alcohol beverages in gro-
cery stores?" I can't help but notice how
familiar this is. Our PM is has rushed a
judiciary reform so he could save his
arse and the ones of his own buddies
from guaranteed jail sentences. He has
been accused to have paid some guy to
lie in court for one of his trials but they
can't arrest him because the law he just
pushed in the Constitution won't let
them prosecute the four highest politi-
cal authorities of the Republic. Oh, and a
law on biological testament. And, uhm,
a law encouraging doctor to report im-
migrants without visas.
Anything being done about the cri-
sis. No. Well.. a 'Social Card'. It was some
sort of a debit card, topped up with 40
euros every month (mindblowing!) to
give disadvantaged people. Needless
to say, the bureaucracy behind was im-
possible to follow. The point is that I feel
you Icelanders stilll have hope. By hope I
mean this: You do truly expect your Gov-
ernment to do something about the cri-
sis. You do genuinely get horrfied when
availability of alcoholic beverages in
groceries is being taken care of instead
of something else. And you do believe in
protesting, because why shouldn't you if
it led your administrators to pack their
bags and leave? In Italy we wouldn't have
that. I don't expect them to do anything.
Wanting and expecting could have never
been more apart. Of course I want them
to fix it, but I simply know they won't. And
after screwing things up, I know nobody
will pay, while you get reasonably angry
because they don't. They do everything
else but discuss the crisis, and I am not
at all surprised. Of course there are pro-
tests, but I know they will stay just where
they are. So what I am saying is, at least
you should feel a little bit lucky you have
high expectations for your Government,
and that still equals to fairie land to me.
Because I guarantee you you wouldn't
want to live in a country that has never
given you reason to build such high ex-
pectations in the first plac

Thanks for your time,
Valentina
Dear Valentina,
you make some good points. Speak-
ing of political apathy, I am actually
quite apathetic here, as are most of my
friends. We don't really expect our gov-
ernment to be able to take care of any-
thing, to tell you the truth, but we'll be
damned if we allow them an existence
as incompetent fuck-ups without letting
them know our feelings.
This morning, when I was drinking my
coffee and eating my breakfast it hit me.
The reality. I am foreigner. I work as a
cleaner lady and get my monthly salary
from cleaning the toilets of rich Icelan-
dic people.
You could argue if they are still
rich but at least they used to be, until
this famous financial crisis. After seeing
thousands of people loosing they jobs I
started to worry. I was preparing myself
to leave this country because I was think-
ing that now there are going to be all Ice-
landic people lining up and wanting my
job. But what happened? I still keep on
working my as off and cleaning. Nobody
has come to me wanting my job.
And I keep on paying taxes. What
are these all former bankers and flight
attendants doing? They still live in their
50 milj. Krona houses. Drive their 6 milj.
Cars and what else? They are getting fi-
nancial support! Living with unemploy-
ment support! The very same money
that I am paying as taxes! There they are
sitting in they fancy sofas and complain-
ing how poor they are and how they had
to get their house loan frozen. They are
like big fatty bears. Sleeping over the
winter. Waiting for the warmer days and
time they can sell they houses and make
profit again.
And I am stupid enough to work and pay
their food.
Sour Selma
Dear Selma,
yeah, it’s true. You having to work hard
to pay for complaining fatty bear food
sucks. Sorry about that. Kinda the na-
ture of capitalism, though, isn’t it?
Hi, I have been following your country's
recent announcement that it will not only
continue whaling, but will increase the
kill quota. I see this includes Fin whales
which are considered by the internation-
al community to be endangered.
I am glad that your caretaker gov-
ernment has decided to reconsider this
position, but am dismayed that your
unions are still pushing the slaughter of
these mammals as the part answer to
their members financial problems.
Is anyone in Iceland aware of just
how against whaling people in other
countries are? Do you have any idea how
backward and cruel you come across as,
when two thirds of your people polled
say that they think it is a good idea to
butcher endangered whales? It is bad
enough that you still conduct whaling
without this extra Fin whale issue.
If the unions think that this will
help jobs in the long term, then they are
mistaken. Your country will experience
worldwide boycotts and might even be
barred from joining Europe until you
completely give up whaling if you ever
decide to formally apply for member-
ship.
I have personally sent a petition
to Brussels to ask that Iceland is barred
from any future membership until it
ceases whaling and MEP's have helped
by tabling the question to be debated by
the commission in 6 weeks time.
I have taken such strong measures
not because i dislike Icelandic people,
on the contrary, but because if this world
cannot look after the creatures that are
easy to love, what hope is there for the
rest of our ecosystem and the health of
mankind?
If you publish this letter, there will
be a rush of hateful rhetoric, calling me
a meddling outsider who knows nothing
of the needs of Icelands people. This may
be true, but as a young man, I worked in
a small town in Australia where the last
remaining whaling operation carried out
by a Southern Hemisphere country was
still active.
I witnessed the slaughter and pro-
cessing of Sperm whales, which are
now endangered. I remember the whal-
ers telling outsiders that it was none of
their business. That was 30 years ago
and the income from such activity was
soon replaced, even though there were
few employment opportunities visible
at the time. People adapted and found
they were not as tied to whaling as they
thought.
One thing is for sure and that is
the needs of Icelands people are firmly
tied to a healthy planet. Your collective
choice to have embraced the damaging
and wasteful lifestlyes of the developed
West has now left you very exposed. For
the world to support you in your time of
need, you will have to change and give
up whaling. It is your choice.
Marty Wyness, UK
Dear Marty,
I hope you don’t take this as hateful
rhetoric, and I sort of agree with you on
the whole whaling issue. It’s un-neces-
sary, and it certainly won’t create lots of
jobs. But still, man, why should “being
easy to love” entitle one species status
over another? Have you looked into
the mass-farming of cows, chicken and
pigs? There’s some seriously uncool
stuff going on right in your backyard.
Go there. And give up colonialism and
war and stuff while you’re at it, if you
want our support.
Stuff We Liked In February
• Café D’Haiti.
• The view from our new office.
• Going to Norway.
• The Condé Nast Portfolio profile of
Dorrit Moussaieff and her husband.
• ‘All of Them Must Go’ – Naomi Klein’s
recent column for The Nation.
• Arnljótur Sigurðsson.
• Scoring free pylsa every now and again.
• Our February issue.
Especially the cover.
• Double latté in a whisky glass at Hressó.
• All of the awesome people that
contribute to GV.
• Singapore Sling, DJ Musician and
Evil Madness at Grand Rokk.
• Sam Amidon at Kaffibarinn.
• Alcohol and cigarettes.
(c’mon. It’s dark all the time).
• Trying to figure out why the new
Simpsons suck so bad.
• Composer Steve Reich.
• The Northern Wave film festival.
• The revamped Já.is.
• The hot tub at Sundhöll Reykjavíkur.
• Sökudólgarnir at Rósenberg.
Rósenberg in general.
Like what we like? Check out an
updated list at www.grapevine.is