Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2011, Page 12

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2011
I've lived in Iceland for nearly 12 years
now, and have been a citizen for the
last four. Along the way, I've met other
foreigners who moved here for various
lengths of time, and have always been
fascinated by the transformative process
people go through as they try and make
a life for themselves here. In the course
of my studies, I've noticed three distinct
stages that foreigners go through after
they make Iceland their home. If you're
new here, you'll want to keep this article
handy. Take notes if you have to.
STAGE 1: WONDER
You're freshly arrived and can't believe
you have finally moved to this golden
land. At last, the country that you've
only visited on vacations for short visits
is all yours. You imagine you'll go to the
Blue Lagoon every week now, and take
many excursions into the countryside,
clad in your lopapeysur while munch-
ing on harðfiskur and drinking lýsi like
it's Gatorade. You also believe you'll be
spending many weekend nights in any
of Reykjavík's amazing clubs, dancing
to Icelandic music and drinking Víking,
partying harder than anyone has ever
partied before.
You know that the locals, once they
see how much you love this country, will
welcome you as one of their own and
that you'll have loads of friends within
a week's time. You can't wait to take
photos of yourself to send back to your
friends and family, who are unfortu-
nately deprived of the blessing you have
received to be living here. You avoid
other foreigners as if they were smeared
in seagull droppings, but Icelanders are
just the most darling little dearies. You
could just pinch their cheeks! Surely,
this is the first day of what will prove to
be a rollicking and joyous adventure.
Distinguishing characteristics: CD
collection includes a mix of everything
from Sálin to medieval rímur. Often sighs
and smiles dreamily at television com-
mercials.
Notable quote: “No, really, shark is de-
licious!”
STAGE 2: DISGUST
Turns out moving to a whole other coun-
try isn't so easy after all. You haven't
been out to the countryside because
you're too busy working a shit job for shit
pay, i.e., the sort of jobs immigrants do.
By the same token, you don't have the
money to go out partying every week-
end, and when you do manage to get
downtown, you're appalled by the be-
haviour of Icelanders in the wee hours
of the morning. The Icelanders you work
with tell jokes about other ethnic groups
that would get you fired back home.
You've given your number to everyone,
but hardly anyone calls you to go out,
and when they do, they all speak Icelan-
dic with each other and seldom bother
to translate the conversation.
Now the casual bragging Icelanders
make about their country sounds boor-
ish and obnoxious rather than endear-
ing. Every time you hear someone say
“Ha?” you want to break something.
When you do meet other foreigners, you
can't wait to talk about all the various
and sundry ways in which Icelanders
suck. You hate this primitive, medieval,
backwater, podunk rock in the north At-
lantic with every fibre of your being.
Distinguishing characteristics:
Smirks and shakes their head a lot.
Notable quote: “Well that's just typical.
Icelanders. Pfft.”
STAGE 3: REALISATION
As you start to become bored with your
own scorn and ridicule for Iceland, you
eventually give up and decide to make
the best of it, doing your own thing
whether these people accept you as one
of their own or not. You find yourself
discovering little things you like about
Iceland that you didn't notice or appre-
ciate before, like intermission during a
movie, blár Ópal (rest in peace) or this
great little café that looks like someone's
grandmother's living room.
You get more curious about obscure
bits of history not covered in travel
books. You discover that the oft-used
saying, “These people seem very cold at
first but once you get to know them they
are quite warm” is bullshit—people who
start out cold stay that way, but others
are warm from the get-go. You start to
make real friends among a couple Ice-
landers, and find that you have a lot of
things in common with them.
Soon enough, the next time you hear
a foreigner slagging Icelanders off, you
feel the urge to defend the country, not
because you believe it's a magical elfin
paradise but because this is also your
home, and you know Icelanders that you
personally care for and about. My God,
could it be Icelanders are really just or-
dinary people, not cute little huldufólk or
drunken trolls? Could be!
Distinguishing characteristics: Mu-
sic collection now includes Ellý Vilhjálms
and Ham. Goes to Eurovision parties and
has unironic fun.
Notable quote: “Æi ég nenn'ess' ekki.
Þetta reddast.”
By mid March, the case against
the Reykjavík Nine (who had
been accused of conspiracy
to attack Alþingi with the in-
tent of compromising its “inde-
pendence and sanctity”) finally came to a
close when the state prosecutor decided
not to appeal the Reykjavík district court
ruling in the case. The nine had been
acquitted of all the major charges of the
prosecution.
Not for lack of evidence or because
the nine were able to slip through legal
loopholes. No, the court found that there
was absolutely no evidence to support
the case of the prosecution; that there
was absolutely nothing that indicated the
group had ever intended to do anything
but exercise its constitutional right to
protest peacefully in a public space. The
court did, however, find four protesters
guilty of relatively minor offences: dis-
obeying police orders and obstructing
public officials performing their duties.
So, why are Icelandic activists and
campaigners for civil liberties not jump-
ing with joy? For one, the verdict veri-
fies a dangerous precedent the courts
appear to follow, namely that protesters
must obey police orders, no matter how
unjustified they may seem.
The prosecution failed to produce
any evidence to justify the decisions of
the guards or police to contain and eject
the protesters—which means that guards
and police violated the protesters’ con-
stitutional rights. Instead, four protesters
were convicted of not submitting to arbi-
trary police orders.
The ruling also proves that the au-
thorities can, with impunity, drag pro-
testers to court on flimsy charges and
keep them captive in the legal system for
months.
Any sensible person who looked at
the case saw that there was no connec-
tion between the charges and the evi-
dence. And it is hard to believe that the
prosecution did not realise it had no case.
So, why did the prosecution go forward if
it had no evidence?
Well, because the prosecutor was
following political orders. It has been
revealed that the decision to prosecute
under the 100th paragraph was only
taken after someone from the offices of
the Speaker of Parliament and the bu-
reau Chief of Parliament had intervened.
The intent of the intervention was either
to have innocent people thrown in jail
for protesting, or to have them dragged
through the justice system to teach them
a lesson.
Either way, one would think Alþingi
and its chief officers owe the Reykjavík
Nine an apology. But, no. Its officials con-
tinue to aggressively push the idea that
the Reykjavík Nine are a bunch of dan-
gerous violent criminals.
Case in point: On February 28 , shortly
after the verdict in the case was handed
down, Parliamentary chief of staff Karl M.
Kristjánsson published an op-ed in news-
paper Fréttablaðið, wherein he recycled
and exaggerated every charge that the
courts had just dismissed. In the missive,
Karl stated as a proven fact that the nine
had conspired to “attack Parliament” and
that they had “violently attacked parlia-
mentary guards”. He then complained
that the media had been too favourable
to the nine, especially Icelandic State TV,
which he claimed had edited the footage
from the security cameras, thus distort-
ing the picture of what “really” happened
(in fact: during the trial it was revealed
that parliamentary officials had deleted
most of the footage before handing it
over to the police) Karl then expressed
his outrage that these criminals were
owed an apology from parliament:
“It seems that many responsible com-
mentators want the parliamentary guards
to apologise for having been beaten up.”
This is interesting. Especially the part
about parliamentary guards having been
“beaten up”. There was absolutely no-
body beaten up! The Reykjavík district
court found:
“There is no indication that the ac-
cused ever threatened either police or
parliamentary guards with violence.”
And:
“As previously stated, there is no evi-
dence whatsoever, that the accused ever
intended to do anything but reach the
public gallery to protest the social and
political conditions at the time. It is im-
possible to see how their actions could
be construed as having been aimed at
forcefully subverting the will of parlia-
ment, or to see them as an attack which
threatened parliament’s independence
and sanctity.”
So. Let’s recap. The police and other
state officials can forcefully deny people
their constitutional rights to protest in
public places—and then have people sen-
tenced in a court of law for disobeying
these unjust orders. The state can level
outrageous charges against protesters to
keep them captive in the legal system.
The office of the speaker of Parlia-
ment can instruct the state prosecution
to press the most serious charges avail-
able in the book against innocent people,
then proceed to delete relevant evidence
and—even after a court has dismissed all
charges of attack and violence—the top
civil servants of parliament will continue
to push the false charges in the media.
The 17th century Swedish statesman
Axel Oxenstierna was the greatest po-
litical mind of his time. He once remarked
that one should not underestimate the
lack of wisdom with which the world is
ruled. I would add that neither should one
underestimate the shameless, brazen ar-
rogance and cynicism of its rulers.
RVK9: WHAT DID WE LEARN?
What, if anything, did we learn from the case of the Reykjavík Nine?
The Three Stages of Integration
-adapting to Icelandic society
PAUL FONTAINE
JELENA JóHANNSSON
Opinion | Immigration Justice | Magnús Sveinn Helgason
“The prosecution failed
to produce any evidence
to justify the decisions
of the guards or police
to contain and eject the
protesters”
A lot of our Facebook-commenters seem to be in the throes of
'STAGE TWO'. This is fairly amusing. Are you currently integrating?
WHERE ARE YOU AT?