Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.02.2010, Qupperneq 4

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4
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Sour grapes
and stuff
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MOST AWESOME LETTER:
Dear Grapevine
You are worth a read! Thank you for making my recent visit to Iceland informative and enjoy-
able! Let me just say that:
1. The letter from CT in Australia to Grapevine (Issue 18) is a load of crap! Being a fellow
Australian I must say that CT must be from whoop whoop and it's evident from the letter that
CT relies too much on the idiot box for finding out what is going on around the world. Let me
put this straight - Iceland does NOT have a bad name in Australia!
2. Despite the constant mention of the financial meltdown, Iceland is a country rich in
natural, cultural and social assets (what money can't buy). So keep your head up Iceland!!
3. The upside of the financial collapse is the fact that budget travellers like me can now
afford to holiday in Iceland. I would definitely come back again to see more of your beautiful
country and ofcourse spend more Krone (note: are the extra zeros really necessary? getting rid
of some of the zeros would definitely make the currency conversion process easier)
4. I had no idea that a country like Iceland was so strict on immigration. Without the
migrant community, my nightly culinary selection in Reykjavik would have been very limited.
I hope your government becomes more open and globally-minded when it comes to immigra-
tion policy in the future.
Grapevine, you are the source of local knowledge in Iceland. Tak!
Kate from Brisbane, Australia
P.S Could you tell the government to turn on the northern lights next time I'm there? Thanks!
Dear Kate,
You were pretty much worth the read too (although we must admit we did a little bit of skim-
ming at times). Nevertheless, thank you for making our recent trip to our inbox a fruitful one.
We will respond that:
1. Good to hear Icelanders don’t have a bad name in Australia. Good, also, to hear Aussies
haven’t learned what Icelanders think about them. Let’s keep it that way.
2. Alright, alright. We’ll keep our heads up.
3. We will make sure to significantly alter our stupid, good for nothing currency to compen-
sate for your poor math skills.
4. We share your hopes!
Dear Mr Magnusson
I believe Britain and the Netherlands have
bullied Iceland into accepting responsibility
for repayment of all monies deposited into the
failed Icesave Internet-based bank by British
and Dutch residents.
The repayment, amounting to €12,000
($A20,000) for every person living in Iceland,
ensures the country will for the next few gener-
ations be in servitude. They are paying for the
mess left behind by a handful of its rogue bank-
ers and the conservatives of the previous gov-
ernment who responsible for the privatisation
process. A hefty price to pay for fast-tracked EU
membership, and it's all payable in foreign cur-
rency.
This is on top of the 5.5% interest on the
£1 billion bailout owed by Iceland to the UK
government when the latter invoked the Anti-
Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 - de-
claring Iceland as a terrorist state - in order to
freeze the assets of Iceland's banks.
To date no-one has been brought to account
for the Icelandic banks' collapse, and banking
regulations in Iceland and elsewhere have
hardly been amended. Yet another example of
a missed opportunity to reform the financial
system and to bring those responsible to jus-
tice. Instead we have an innocent public pay-
ing for the excesses, and probable breaches of
fiduciary duties, of a few.

Regards
Chris Turano
Dear Chris,
thank you for your letter. It’s pretty thoughtful.
It’s also good to hear not everyone thinks Ice-
landers are terrorist gremlins.
Dear Sir,
I see that the Icelandic people are under a lot
of pressure to cede their democracy into the
European Union.
May I tell our Icelandic kin, that they
should resist this at all costs and I say this for
the following reasons that are just the tip of the
Iceberg of ruin if you join.
1/ You have no democratic or legal control
against the European Commission who are
the one's who make the Laws. The European
Parliament cannot make nor rescind Laws, it is
just a very expensive talking shop.
2/ They wrecked our industry so we now have
no real manufacturing base, this was to protect
jobs in mainland Europe.
3/ The plundered our once rich fishing wa-
ters to the point where our fishermen are out
of business and Cod and Haddock are endan-
gered species.
4/ The EU is riddled with corruption losing £4
Billion a year yet no one does anything to stop
it, those that try to, lose their jobs for exposing
the Commissioners responsible.
5/ It is illegal for the British Government to
cede its Sovereignty to a foreign regime, yet the
tentacles of corruption now run so deep in our
Government that they are doing it illegally.
6/ You will have absolutely no say in the deci-
sion making process of the EU because those
that make those decicions are not answerable
to the people.
7/ The system on which the EU runs is exactly
on the old system run by the former Soviet
Union, those that run things are unelected and
unaccountable; those you elect have no power.
Be warned!
Please don't let your Government stab you in
the back as the British Government has done
here bringing ruin and great hardship to the
people.
Regards;
G. Rankin-Moore
Dear Mr. Rankin-Moore,
you paint a pretty bleak picture of the EU, it
must be said. But you are surely more experi-
enced in living there than we are, so I guess we
oughta listen. We are still pretty confused about
the whole thing, I mean, if what you’re saying is
even close to true then the EU is a pretty awful
union. Still, whatever you’ve got over there can
hardly be worse than the feudalist buffoons that
have been running Iceland for the past century.
Hello Iceland
The people of Iceland owe the depositors in Ic-
esave precisely nothing. Those
depositors received a high rate of interest to
compensate for the fact that
the investment was riskier than normal.
The business (bank) failed, the investors
lost their money. The people of
Iceland are no more responsible for the losses
than the people of South
Korea, Australia or the UK.
Not since Bobby Fischer played Boris
Spassky has Iceland received so much
international coverage. Iceland will be seen as
heroic by the people of the
world if it acts on principle and refuses to be
bullied by the UK and the
Netherlands.
Being allowed membership of the EU if
they bend over is a very questionable
benefit, especially when measured against the
loss of Icelandic honour and
integrity.
Philip Barton-Founder
The Gold Standard Institute
www.goldstandardinstitute.com
Dear Philip,
thank you for your letter. My, what a fancy name
you have! I wish my name had a hyphen. Any-
way, what you’re saying reflects what a lot of
folks around here are feeling, and I suppose it
has some truth to it. Still, one wonders whether
a nation that continually (and despite constant
words of warning) elected a government that al-
lowed this to happen [via neglect + corruption]
should not bear some responsibility for its ac-
tions.
I am very proud of Iceland's quick response to
the Haiti disaster! I was in your country in the
l960s and have been a "fan" of your beautiful
country and gracious people ever sense!!!
William Barton
Dear William,
thank you for your letter. We must admit, we
were pretty proud of our rescue squads too.
Hopefully they made a difference over there,
lord knows those good people make a heap of
difference over here.
But maybe pride is the wrong feeling to
evoke during such a disaster. Without dispar-
aging the rescue teams’ good work, I feel the
most appropriate emotion from the interna-
tional community should be shame. Shame for
ignoring the plight of Haiti and so many other
nations out there for far too long. And for ben-
efiting off their misery.
What? No Free Beer?
Yes, there's no free beer for this issue's MOST AWESOME LETTER. We finally found
something even more awesome than beer to give away to the folks that write us fun and/
or interesting letters. Yes, there is such a thing!
And what is it that’s so much more awesome than a free case
of beer? We’ll tell you: It’s a hundred page laser cut horse-
skin notebook, designed and crafted by the most excellent
designer (and sometimes GV contributor) Sruli Recht! He calls
the thing THY WILL BE DONE, it looks freaking awesome,
and it’s available at his boutique Vopnabúrið and through his
web-site, www.srulirecht.com, for a mere 3.800 ISK. And did
we mention that it’s hand-bound with square horseshoe nails?
Because it is.