Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2012, Qupperneq 4

On the tourists complaining about
whale-watching tours and whaling, do
the same tourists get warm and fuzzy
about the sheep in the snow and then
go for lamb dinner in town?
Hypocracy is a human failing...
TW
Dear TW,
You may have a point there, but we
think the debate has more to do with
animal cruelty and humane methods
of slaughtering. People have easier time
stomaching a quick death after a whole-
some life than a slow and a painful one.
Whether or not the whales are killed
quickly seems to be a topic of on-going
debate. But in any case, who’s not a
hypocrite every once in a while? Them’s
the breaks!
Dear Grapevine Editor,
I visited Rejkjavik with my boyfriend
early in August. We loved having the
Grapevine to read over beverages of
varying toxicity (depending on the time
of day, not that one could really tell,
which happily enabled us to err on the
side of Reyka and the local stout. Your
publication has a critical edge that is
hard to come by at our end of the world
(the "arse end", in fact, according to a
previous Prime Minister). We particu-
larly appreciated your willingness to
ask the reader (i.e. white, middle-class,
university educated travellers like us)
to consider their privilege in finding
themselves at leisure in the beautiful
country of Iceland, reading an elegant
broadsheet in English at a charming
bar on Laugavegur (issue 11, I believe).
In the spirit of this criticality - and
with an eye to the autocritical hipster
clearly at work in the issues we read
(Issues 10, 11 & 12) - we wanted to ask
you: what the fuck is with that statue of
a black servant outside Dillon Rock Bar
with a sandwich board showing photos
of giggling white travellers posing with
it? (linked image suggests it has not al-
ways been there/is not always there?)
Such "retro" objects seem to persist
as outliers of the vintage aesthetic, and
we reckon that's pretty uncool. We are
sick of seeing golliwog dolls, images of
grinning "natives", and indeed, objects
showing servile, humbled black people
cheerfully incorporated into the visual
culture around the "hipster", with no
apparent appreciation that they rep-
resent the racist appropriations of the
lives, and particularly the labour, of
people historically enslaved and pres-
ently disadvantaged for no reason but
the colour of their skin.
How about a Grapevine campaign to
replace the statue with something not
based in white supremacy? It's a bad
look for the main drag of an otherwise
progressive city.
With love from Sydney,
Ann Deslandes.
Ann, we are high-fiving you through
the computer screen right now.
We know exactly the place with the sign
you speak of – it is actually not Dillon
Rock Bar, a fine and diverse establish-
ment – but a similar looking old build-
ing about a block up on the main drag.
Why aren’t we naming it here? Well,
that would be the same reason we can’t
exactly launch this campaign you pro-
pose.
Although it might not always seem like
it, what with some of our articles being
pretty heavily slanted one way or an-
other, but it is our duty as a magazine
simply to report what’s happening and
publish the views of our writers. If one
of our militant writers felt like answer-
ing your call to arms of investigating
and wielding their pen against the vis-
ible forms of casual racism that exist
in our city (and country), then by all
means we would publish. However, just
as we don’t covertly donate our profits
to certain political parties, we also can’t
lend our name to political causes. Sorry
if it sounds like a cop out, it’s just how
it goes.
We really applaud you for calling out
this bullshit though. It’s something that
people have noticed and pointed out to
each other for a long time and it’s just
not cool. IT’S RACIST!
Dear editor,
We are 25 sixth-grade students writing to you from the Qua-
tre Vents Elementary School in Manlleu, a city located in
Catalonia, Spain, about 70Km from Barcelona. Our class has
students from Catalonia, other countries in Europe and Af-
rica. Together with our teacher, we are working on a project
title WE LOVE EUROPE. The goal of this project is to know
as many cultures, countries, landscapes, and customs as pos-
sible from all over Europe. For our project we would like to
receive as many postcards as possible from all over Europe to
know what your city is like (or your landscape, your food, cul-
ture, etc.). We promise to work really hard with the postcards
and with the project. Please send the postcards with your
information about where you live to the following address:
WE LOVE EUROPE PROJECT. 6th-grade class. Quatre Vents
Elementary School. Avinguda Pirineus, 19, 08560-Manlleu.
Barcelona. Catalonia, Spain.
Thank you for your cooperation. We Love Europe!
Hi kids! Thank you for your letter.
That sounds like a really nice project you’re doing! We’re not
sure we Icelanders share your patriotism to Europe, or at least
a lot of them aren’t too thrilled about the prospect of joining
the European Union. It seems we’d much rather be our own
little island here. But hopefully people will get past this and
send postcards your way. Good luck and may you receive some
nice postcards of glaciers, elves, puffins and beautiful sunny
landscapes!
LOVE,
Grapevine
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