Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Qupperneq 4

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MOST AWESOME LETTER:
Sour grapes
and stuff
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Hello Grapevine,
As a concerned citizen who has had the dis-
pleasure of reading your rag of a publication,
I have to express my disconcertion over the
repeatedly offensive and racist comics pro-
duced by the inept Hugleikur Dagsson. I
feel that it is in extremely poor taste to pub-
lish this lowbrow tripe, and it is an insult to
the intelligence of not only the readership of
this paper but the editorial staff to allow this
to continue. Hugleikur ś newest comic in
which he repeateldy uses the word 'nigga'
is deplorable, and I immediatley lose all re-
spect for this paper in allowing that shit to
be printed. It is outrageously racist and he
should be ashamed of himself. Either fire
him, or continue to be the most disrepected,
amateursh paper that this fine country has
ever seen!

Sincerely
Joel Fridfinnson

P.S. If you would like to continue this debate
feel free to email me at jbfridfinnson@ho-
tmail.com
Dear Joel,
Feel free not to read our rag of a publication.
Best,
Haukur S Magnússon
Hello Haukur,

Thank you for totally disregard to the point
of my email, and FUCK YOU, show some re-
spect for your readers in regards to the rac-
ism that your paper appearently promotes.

By the way in your futue editorials, if you are
going to write in english, maybe take a fuck-
ing english language course.

JOEL

Look, Joel,
you've got to lighten up a second here, man,
and cut us some slack. What the hell did we
ever do to deserve such an impolite, intoler-
ant and generally angry message from you?
I honestly thought you were one of my
friends kidding around initially. Alas.
Now. I seriously considered your initial
comments, even though you made them
very hard to take seriously (folks that want to
bestow friendly advice - or any advice - upon
you generally don't start by telling you how
much you suck and how everything you do
sucks; why would you care what such people
think?), and I do admit that I was concerned
pre-publication about using Hugleikur's
strip with the word 'Nigga' in it.
You never want to toy with being racist.
That's not cool. So yeah, I did consider the
strip prior to publication, and I did give your
letter some thought when it arrived.
But then I remembered one thing:
-We strive to maintain and uphold artis-
tic and expressional freedom, so long as it is
not slanderous or willfully damaging.
Reading Hugleikur's comic, it is very
clear that it is not in any way meant to dis-
parage or slander any particular race, creed
or gender. He is clearly using words and
phrases common to 'gangsta rap' music to
depict the absurd personalities of the made-
up wannabe-gangstas in his comic. There
are untold examples of this in arts and litera-
ture throughout the ages. So we let it slip,
and I am happy we let it slip. It was a funny
comic (and if Hugleikur's sense of humour
is not your bag, then that's fine, too. Lots of
other folks out there like it fine).
Now, again, you start your letter with
saying you had the "displeasure of reading
our rag of a publication," and then close it by
saying we may yet continue to be the most
"disrespected, amateursh paper that this
fine country has ever seen!" (sic!)
That is, if we fail to follow your demands
and fire our good friend and long-time con-
tributor Hugleikur Dagsson.
It seems to me that you already view our
publication (sorry, rag) with great animosity
and distaste, so why on earth would I consid-
er doing something as drastic as firing our
resident comic just because you don't like
what he has to say? If he's gone, we're still
a rag, we're still disrespected and we're still
'amateursh' (whatever that means) in your
eyes.
Ehrm. So. Yeah. There are plenty of
people out there that like our paper just fine,
they pick up every publication or download
it on-line, and they write us letters telling us
how much they enjoy the various contribu-
tions of our devoted and lovely contributors.
So I don't see why we need to break our
backs getting you to like us. You clearly have
a problem with us, and that's fine. People
are different, and there are different media
outlets to serve their tastes. So my initial re-
sponse to you was to simply point out that
you were free not to read our paper that you
didn't like. Nothing wrong or disrespectful
with that.
Then you retort with a big FUCK YOU
and accuse me of not showing you or your
views respect? Now. This strikes me as odd
and slightly unnerving. Why. Ehrm. Yeah.
Just think about it for a second. Who's being
disrespectful here? I do show respect for my
readers, as does the rest of the Grapevine's
staff and contributors. You have a whole
lot of people here doing a whole lot of work
every day (and often at night and on week-
ends), for little pay, so our readers may have
something to read. And if they send us com-
ments or suggestions on how things might
be better done, we generally try and listen
hard.
And if they want to submit contributions
of their own, we happily accept them and
often publish them. This paper really isn't
anything except the sum of its readers and
contributors (often interchangeable posi-
tions) and the advertisers that enable us to
print the thing.
We do respect our readers greatly, and
we work hard to please them. But if they
want their opinions/rants acknowledged,
regarded and responded to in a respectful
manner, they better show some fucking re-
spect when they give them, and not act like
sugar-crashed three year olds in a shopping
mall (or whatever).
So fuck you too, sir.
Now, to address the points of your e-
mail, so as to show you the respect you ap-
parently deserve:
-The Reykjavík Grapevine is not racist, has
never been racist and will never be racist.
-Hugleikur Dagsson is not racist, has never
been racist and will never be racist.
-The world we live in, and the art that seeks
to reflect it, aren't dualistic, black or white,
right or wrong. Thankfully, both are much
more complex than that. A rose is not always
a rose.
-No, I will not fire Hugleikur Dagsson.
-Fuck you too.
Finally, about my 'futue editorials.' I
would love for them to be more proper and
in better English. If you would maybe give
me a 'fucking english language course' so I
will sound less 'amateursh', then that would
be great. I 'appearantly' haven't mastered the
'english' language as well as your fine self.
PS - if you ever feel like growing up and
having a calm, adult conversation about
these issues and others that concern you,
you can feel free to write us again. We en-
courage discourse of all kinds.
Hi.
I visited Iceland in September and enjoyed
reading your paper. The articles were well-
written, the art work fantastic. However,
missing from your paper (or indeed any
local source that I could find) were classi-
cal music listings. I know there was some
going on (including an opera performance
and several recitals) but from your paper it
would seem that rock and club music were
the only things worth covering--or even
listing!
You owe your readers and visitors--not
to mention local and visiting performers--a
little better coverage! (I'd move there and do
it for you, but from your article on immigra-
tion, that appears not to be an option.)
Damon Miller
Washington, DC, USA
Dear Damon,
thank you for your letter and your kind
words. We must say, you are absolutely right.
We do list classical events when we get word
of them, and we have reviewed them on oc-
casion, but the rock- and clubsters just seem
more promotion savvy, that is, they always let
us know when they are doing stuff.
That said, we will from now on try to list
classical and opera events better and give
them the coverage/exposure they deserve.
Dear Grapevine,
something has been bothering me for a
while now. I am an immigrant from Africa
and have lived in Iceland for four years.
I always thought of Iceland as a country
of equal opportunities until recently.Let me
cut the drama and say what is on my mind
and possibly minds of other foreigners, if
not only those from Africa.
If you have been to the Immigrations of-
fice or have a friend who has,you know how
well protected this nation is against unwant-
ed foreigners.One has to meet a number of
things in order to be granted a visa or per-
mit, work or resident.
Recently, I had to renew my residence
permit, as usual I presented all that was re-
quied of me, including three payslips from
the last three months.The receptionist asked
me if I had lost my job and i was glad to in-
form her i was still blessed with one.
I waited for three months as always, but
this time i did not get any answer, so i decid-
ed to keep waiting, I thought to myself ''too
many foreigners, a lot of files for those guys
to take care of.”
After four months, i decided to contact
the office. I met a kind lady at the reciption
who informed me I did not have enough
money to get my permit renewed. You
should have seen the expression on my face
as i tried to explain to the lady that i had been
earning the same amount of money for all
the years I have been here but had no prob-
lem renewing the permit.
She didn’t let me take up more of her
time since she had finished telling me what
the problem was.So, as it was i needed more
money to renew my permit. I wondered to
myself if anyone would explain to me when
this new rule had been put into action and if
it was why it had to be now when the country
is in a finacial crisis.
As i drove home, a friend who is current-
ly dating an American lady called to inform
me about how the Lord had been so good to
his girlfriend in regards to her permit. He
told me that on her visit to the Immigra-
tions office, she had been told that she only
needed to apply for a renewal of her permit a
few days before the old one expired.Also she
had to acompany the application with just
one payslip. Being that they are my friends,
I know for a fact that she earns as much as i
do.
I was happy for them but kept wonder-
ing whether some laws applied to only Af-
ricans or some officals simply dealt with
each file as they please. I do not want to give
you the impression that I need special treat-
ment, but I am not the only African that has
had the same experience. Is there some of-
fice that can explain how or maybe why ap-
plications are handled differently?
I will understand if you can not print
this letter but atleast you or someone else
who has seen it has his mind thinking and
above all, I have told someone.

Momo

Dear Momo,
thank you for your letter. Of course we’re
printing it – yours is a story that needs to
be heard. It is baffling and saddening, and
makes us question some of the ideas we’ve
fostered about our home.
Even worse is the fact that this isn’t the
first word we get of local authorities’ unfair
or inconsistent treatment of immigrants or
would-be immigrants (not to mention asy-
lum seekers). It’s all kinda nauseating, re-
ally.
We urge others out there that have simi-
lar stories to share them with our readers.
Let’s spread the word.
What? No Free Beer?
Yes, there's no free beer for this issue's MOST AWESOME
LETTER, even though the guy that wrote it probably needs a
cold one more than most people out there. We're sorry about
this lack of free beer. What happened is that our deal with the
kind, kind sponsors that provided us with free cases of beer
expired last month and we haven't been
able to locate any more free beer.
We're still looking, though. If you read this and you happen to
be in the beer business, why not drop us a line? The first one
that does will secure this nifty space to get his name out. We
also pledge to start vocally liking your particular brand of beer
more than any other brand of beer out there.