Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Blaðsíða 4

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Say your piece, voice
your opinion, send
your letters to:
letters@grapevine.is
4
Letters
Sour grapes
and stuff MOST AWESOME LETTER
FREE GRAPEVINE TEE HEE HEE!
There's prize for all your MOST AWESOME LETTERS. And it’s a scorcher! Whoever sends
us THE MOST AWESOME LETTER each issue will receive a cool new Reykjavík Grapevine
T-shirt, featuring the majestic G that adorns our cover. So you should make sure to keep
writing us fun and/or interesting letters
This new Grapevine tee surely is the shiznit (whatever that means)! It was designed by our
very own art director man, Hörður Kristbjörnsson, and it’s good for posing in front of a mirror,
impressing folks with your impeccable taste or picking up men or women of all ages (no
minors). DON’T PANIC if your letter wasn’t picked AWESOME LETTER. You can still get a tee
for a low, low price over our website, www.grapevine.is
Now, if you're in the market for free goodies next month, write us some sort of letter. Give us
your worst: letters@grapevine.is
MOST AWESOME LETTER:
Here's a story for you.
I have taken three vacations to Iceland over
the past several years and enjoyed my experi-
ences, until last night.
I was detained by security for three
hours prior to the boarding of my Icelandair
flight to the US. I am a mid-30s professional,
blond hair, blue eyed woman. I have never
had any infractions and did not set off any
metal detectors at the airport. All of that
said, the boarding pass I was given yesterday
in Keflavik--after a week vacation in Reyk-
javik with my husband who has a similar
background--had a special security code on
it. This code alerted the airport personnel
to perform a secondary screening of me. I
asked repeatedly why was I being held aside,
and I was told: "any number of reasons or
possibly just a random computer drawing."
I was handed a typed piece of ripped paper,
which stated: "You have been selected for
additional security screening due to require-
ments set by the US TSA. The process re-
quires your cooperation for the duration of
time until departure."
I was taken to a holding room, without
windows or flight monitors. They searched
my purse--which contained nothing more
than my travel papers, gum, airborne, and
a couple of Ipods. They patted me down
and ran the gloves they used to determine
if there were any bomb materials on me. It
was immediately determined that I did not
have anything, but I was forced to stay in this
locked security room--against my will-- until
boarding. I was treated like a criminal.
They provided bottled water. About 18
other people were pulled aside during the
time I was there. All were on planes going to
the US, most were American citizens. Two
others were on my plane to Boston--both
blond women--though they were European
citizens. One woman in her 20s was crying
the entire time--not surprising, given how
stressful this experience was.
The Icelanders were very kind; though,
they were speaking Icelandic during the pro-
cess. They would then ask you targeted ques-
tions in English, but there was a lot going on
that I did not understand. They wrote down
my passport number, name, and details. Fi-
nally, five minutes before our plane was set
to take off, I was escorted by the airline to the
plane and not allowed to purchase any food
or drink prior to boarding.
For three hours, I was imprisoned in a
room without windows. It is difficult to re-
member any good details of my trip to Ice-
land after all of this.
I have contacted my US Senator, US
Homeland Security, and the airline. In the
US, with random selection, if you are deter-
mined free of explosives or other dangerous
materials, you are let go into the airport.
They do not detain you like a prisoner. I have
never even so much as been issued a park-
ing ticket, so this type of treatment is very
difficult for me to understand. It was like I
had entered another world--one where you
are guilty without any proof or reasoning.
I have never acted like a criminal; thus,
before yesterday, I had never been treated
like one.
Thank you.
Victoria Harnish
American Citizen
Dear Victoria,
thank you for your letter. Your story sounds
horrible! Seriously! We had no idea that
the Keflavík airport had such intimidating
rooms and procedures (although the whole of
the Reykjanes peninsula is sort of intimidat-
ing, really). We thought those terror rooms
were restricted to U.S. airports, where they
are used to fight terror on a daily basis. Then
again, CIA planes full of detainees have ‘al-
legedly’ been touching down in Iceland every
now and again, and who knows what kind of
relationship US Homeland Security has with
The Leifur Eiríksson International Airport
(indeed, it was built and funded by the US
Army and everything).
But back to your horrible story. It’s horri-
ble! We wouldn’t wish that kind of treatment
on our worst enemies, no matter the colour
of their hair and eyes or level of professional-
ism (OK maybe a couple, but both those writ-
ers are blondes).
We must say that we did find it slightly
odd of you to be outraged that a “mid-30s
professional, blond hair, blue eyed woman”
would be nabbed by TSA agents for what a
supposedly random screening. Quite frankly
it would have made more sense to get a letter
from a North African Muslim who was tired
of being detained for ‘looking like a criminal’
every time he goes through security (“DO I
LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST MR. BROWN?”
HA HA HA).
Imagine, if we let this go on we might
some day reach the point where regular
blond-haired-blue-eyed-thirtysomethings
could be detained at random before being
locked up indefinitely in maximum secu-
rity facilities on questionable grounds—no
one telling them why they’re there or what
they’ve done wrong—with the occasional wa-
terboarding, genital torture or religion-based
humiliation session as their only source of
amusement.
That would be horrible.
But again, your story sounds really aw-
ful! And we wouldn’t wish it upon anybody,
whether they were blond or brunette, pro-
fessional or non-professional, green eyed or
brown eyed, spiffy or frumpy (whatever that
means).
So, we would like to apologise on behalf
of our relatives working at the Keflavík air-
port (surely we have some relatives working
there) as well as the Icelandic nation as a
whole. Sorry. Hope the free t-shirt makes up
for some of your suffering.
(Lastly, we really are sorry. This sucks,
and we would be totally furious if it hap-
pened to us. But, you know, if we wish to
subject people to this sort of treatment ‘at
random’ to ensure our safety whilst flying,
then this is surely part of the bargain. Right?)
Hey guys,
I follow your feed on twitter, and it's good to
be kept up-to-date throughout the day, but it
looks like you're posting every story twice,
once manually from twitter, then automati-
cally whenever you make a facebook post.
Maybe most twitter users have such a busy
stream that they don't notice, but my stream
is pretty quiet and this sticks out.
Could you restrict story posts to one or
the other?
Cheers,
Gary
Dear Gary,
thank you for your letter. No.
Re: Demonstrations in Spain
Dear Grapevine,

My name is Alexander and I am writing to
you from Thessaloniki, Greece. Although
my country is pretty far from Iceland, I
believe that financial matters lately have
brought the people of our countries close.
I’d like to congratulate all of you for
your very interesting articles. The one about
Spaniards and their way of protesting was re-
ally informing. Though, I’d like to add Ath-
ens, the capital of Greece, to the list of cities
where demonstrations of the “Outraged” are
occurring. There’s been 15 days since the
first demonstration of the “Greek Outraged”.
Please note that 400.000 people congregat-
ed last Sunday in Syntagma Square, Athens,
to protest about the last austerity measures
discussed by the Government.
This country is in dire straits, people are
losing their jobs and others are migrating,
while the future seems dark for us. If you
look through demonstration photos, among
flags of Greece and Spain, you might see one
Icelandic. That would be me. Takk for you
time reading this letter.
Yours sincerely
Alexander Cyberian
Dear Alexander,
thank you for your letter. It’s reassuring to
hear people are protesting BS all over the
world, although at the same time it is sorta
disconcerting to learn that the need to do so
prevails all over.
We wish you good fortune in your struggle.
Thanks again for writing.