Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.02.2011, Blaðsíða 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2011 Magnús Sveinn Helgason is a regular Grapevine contributor. He is married to Sólveig
Jónsdóttir, one of the accused nine. He is one of the administrators of the web page
rvk9.org and participated in the liveblogging of the trial.
Collage photos taken from www.rvk9.org, where folks from around the world have
been showing their support by sending in photos of thenselves with RVK9 related
paraphernalia.
Farce | Magnús Sveinn Helgason
While a verdict is still pending in the
trial of The Reykjavik Nine, it’s safe
to say that the prosecution has lost
the case in the court of public opin-
ion. The decisive blow came during
the court hearings in January, de-
livered by the prosecution itself.
The state prosecutor, Lára
V. Júlíusdóttir, had called to
witness numerous police
officers, parliamentary se-
curity guards as well as the bureau
chief of parliament, Helgi Bernódusson.
The plan was no doubt to have the wit-
nesses attest to the violent nature of
the supposed attack and the determi-
nation of those accused to inflict harm,
to prove that the accused were mem-
bers of a conspiracy to compromise the
“independence and sanctity” of Alþingi,
a crime carrying a minimum sentence
of one year in jail.
“WE dO NOT LET THESE KINdS OF
PEOPLE INSIdE”
What emerged from the testimony of
these witnesses was a completely dif-
ferent picture. It was revealed that the
staff of the Parliament had deleted
most of the footage the security cam-
eras recorded that day. Only about four
minutes had been preserved, while
everything that transpired after the po-
lice arrived at the scene has been lost,
meaning it is impossible to get a com-
plete picture of what happened. This is
all the more serious, as several of those
accused have described scenes of po-
lice brutality, and everyone (including
the police) has described the scene as
“chaotic”. Under questioning, none of
the police officers could say who had
been in charge of operations, nor could
they say if the guests present had been
given a clear order to evacuate the
building. What they could say was that
they received a message from Alþingi
that the house was “under attack,” a
message that seems to have prompted
every available officer in the greater
Reykjavík area to rush to the scene
without any clear idea of what was re-
ally going on.
The police officers and security
guards admitted that none of the ac-
cused—or the larger group of people
who attempted to visit the public
benches that day—had been armed,
that in fact none of them had carried
anything that could be used as a weap-
on. So why had their visit been flagged
as an “attack”? The parliamentary
security guards said that the people
had not hung up their coats, and one
of them remarked that they “do not let
these kinds of people inside,” without
further explanation.
CLASSIC BUMBLING OVERREAC-
TION ANd INCOMPETENCE
Far from depicting a careful anarchist
conspiracy to attack Alþingi, what
transpired was a classic picture of the
kind of bumbling, unnecessarily brutal
overreaction and incompetence that
characterises the way governments re-
act when the public seeks to exercise
its constitutional right to protest.
News accounts of the trial focused
on the lost footage from the security
cameras and descriptions of police
brutality, as well as one of the judicial
precedents the prosecution referenced.
Arguing that the supposed attack was
an organised criminal act—and it was
therefore unnecessary to establish
exactly how each of the accused had
participated in the ‘attack’—the pros-
ecution pointed to a judicial precedent
where a gang of Polish criminals had
recently been sentenced for a brutal
attack in one of Reykjavík’s suburbs.
Of course Lára was not arguing The
Reykjavik Nine were a Polish criminal
gang. Nevertheless, this was seized
upon by the press and the public, who
saw in this an apt illustration of how
the government had overreacted in this
case, and how the prosecution had lost
all sense of proportion. Commentators
pointed out that the entire case and the
revelations during the trial about “lost”
security camera footage had seriously
damaged the image of Alþingi, and that
the entire trial was a farce.
THEY HAVE MOST CERTAINLY
FAILEd
We have yet to see whether the judg-
es view the case in this light; whether
they were convinced by the prosecu-
tion that the nine had indeed conspired
to attack Alþingi, in the process at-
tacking policemen and parliamentary
guards. Or, whether they were swayed
by the defence, which argued that the
nine had only wished to exercise their
constitutional right to visit the public
benches, and that the supposed vio-
lence amounted to scuffles resulting
from the chaos caused by the overre-
action of police and guards.
No matter the impending verdict,
the supporters of The Reykjavik Nine
were jubilant at the last day of the trial.
A large and diverse network of activ-
ists had formed during the course of
the trial. This grassroots movement
had organised support concerts, writ-
ten countless newspaper articles and
blog posts, and then live-blogged the
entire trial proceedings on January
18-20, the first time a trial had been
live-blogged in Iceland. The supporters
had also managed to get the attention
of international media and activists. At
a nearby café, which had served as a
makeshift centre for the supporters,
the air was celebratory.
If the aim of the authorities had
been to squash protest and dispirit
activists by prosecuting The Reykjavik
Nine, they have most certainly failed.
A FAILEd ATTEMPT TO dISPIRIT ACTIVISTS
The Reykjavík Nine farce leaves Iceland’s activists strong, organised
A life without skyr is a life half lived.
As a writer for the Grapevine in 2008,
while doing research for the “definitive
guide to mjólk,” I discovered Iceland’s
most delectable culinary secret. With
few dietary options as a vegetarian
in the country (has anyone invented
vegan svið yet?), the thick, delicious
yogurt became my go-to breakfast,
lunch and dinner. Since flying back to
the States, I became growingly wistful
for that creamy, protein-packed treat.
Would I ever be able to enjoy it again?
Fortunately, a brilliant Icelandic entre-
preneur, Sigurður ‘Siggi’ Hilmarsson,
brought the confection across the pond
and made the Nordic staple ubiquitous
in the States.
Siggi had a similar yearning for his
homeland’s delicacy when he moved to
the US to attend business school. He
grew disillusioned by the sugar-laden
American-style yogurts and decided
to take matters into his own hands.
Hilmarsson created his own signature
batch, dubbed as Siggi’s Skyr, in his
cramped Tribeca apartment in 2004. In
the years since, the product attracted a
loyal following and has become made
widely available at Whole Foods and
many other natural/health food stores
throughout the United States. Hilmars-
son describes the process of coming up
with his own distinctive flavour as ar-
duous. “I went through endless batches
at first... many that failed or that were
sub-optimal! I was finally satisfied with
the flavour and began selling the skyr
about a year and a half after I started
experimenting.”
Siggi’s comes in a plethora of fla-
vours including grapefruit, acai, pome-
granate-passionfruit, blueberry, orange
ginger and vanilla. Peach and straw-
berry are reportedly coming soon.
The overwhelming success of Sig-
gi’s Skyr surprised Siggi. “From the
beginning, the reception to our product
was much more positive than I antici-
pated—people are becoming more and
more aware of how food is made, pay-
ing attention to the ingredients, and
caring about where their food comes
from. There is also increasing interest
in yogurt and different kinds of dairy
products in the US. This combined with
the move towards eating less sugar and
more protein; I think people just un-
derstood that there was a market for a
healthy product like ours.” Hilmarsson
attributes much of the success of his
product with the access Whole Foods
provided. “Whole Foods was definitely
a feat. It really helped us to get on the
map in a lot of places where we didn’t
have exposure. Right now, we are in
more than 1500 stores all over the U.S.,
and we are lucky to be growing that
number every day,” he says.
Siggi’s Skyr is now produced at
Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery in up-
state New York, in my own hometown
of Norwich. “It was important for our
farms to fit the certain criteria we were
looking for—hormone-free cows that
are given access to pasture. These are
local, family farms that support humane
animal treatment—no factory farming.”
While Hilmarsson still misses the
taste of Icelandic milk, he hopes to
continue to spread the healthy side of
Iceland’s cuisine across the States. “I
think the values of Iceland—at least in
regards to diet and nutrition—can have
an impact on American culture in this
move towards more healthful eating,
incorporating a lot of the classic Icelan-
dic diet such as fish, healthy dairy and
in general, minimally processed foods.”
Gettin’ Siggi Wit It
Americans nostalgic for Icelandic-style skyr find fulfilment in Siggi’s
dairy | Skyr
JAMES CRUGNALE
ROBYN LEE