Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Blaðsíða 14

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But I need my Sunday morning hair of the
dog! This is brutal oppression!
You are not alone in feeling this way. Recently the leader
of the Reykjavík youth organisation of the right-wing In-
dependence Party caused a stir when she said that people
should have the right to buy white wine to have with their
Sunday lobster.
You've got to hand it to right-wingers; they
never lack that common touch.
This caused a predictable enough online bilestorm, with
some going too far because the internet ruins everything,
even the simple fun of mocking rich people. The right
wing, especially the youth organisation, has long been
obsessed with ending the Icelandic state's monopoly on
alcohol retail. In fact, it can be argued, rather tentatively
though, that this obsession triggered the 2009 protests that
toppled the government then in power.
This is my dubious face.
The protests started on January 20, 2009, when the Icelan-
dic parliament returned to session after its Christmas break.
This was during the depths of the financial crisis and people
were looking for any kind of action from parliament that
might give them reason to hope. Into that situation stepped
youthful Independence Party MP Sigurður Kári Kristjáns-
son with a bill to allow grocery stores to sell alcoholic bev-
erages less than 22% alcohol by volume, offering the kind
of hope you get from an affordable glass of wine.
There is no better companion to have in
a dark pit of despair than a large bottle of
cheap booze.
While that is true, Icelanders reacted like a cartoon snob
who had ordered Chateau Le Fancy and been served Mai-
son de Pisse. They banged their cutlery on the nearest
saucepan and demanded the head of the person in charge.
The bill that the young MP proposed could not have been
more symbolically inapt. To be fair to him, this was just
the latest iteration of a series of proposed bills that neolib-
eral MPs had tried to get passed since the mid-90s.
The freedom to booze is the foundational
principle of the two great isms today's youth
flock to, neoliberalism and alcoholism.
Quite. The problem in January 2009 was that nobody was
flocking to the banner of market deregulation, except per-
haps to rip the banner from its pole, set it on fire and then
douse it with Maison de Pisse. Neoliberalism was widely
considered to blame for the financial crash and that parlia-
ment was spending its time on a neoliberal hobbyhorse did
little to soothe the post-crash anger felt by most.
They should've gone for a little bit of
neoliberalism, after all nothing soothes a
hangover like a shot of vodka.
I think you may have a problem. In many ways it is a bit
surprising that the neoliberal right-wing never fulfilled
their ambition given that they generally had few problems
with other changes they wanted to make during their 18
years in power. One possible explanation is that temper-
ance has been a fairly popular movement in Iceland. It was
the people that voted for prohibition in 1915 through a na-
tional referendum.
Of course sober voters win a referendum,
you can hardly expect drunk people to tick
a tiny box with a blunt pencil.
Being too drunk to vote is a problem. Prohibition was only
lifted in 1923 because Spain, a major purchaser of Ice-
landic fish, made it a condition of a trade agreement that
Iceland would import Spanish wines. Icelandic parliament
decided that if they needed to go against the wishes of the
majority of the population, it would be unseemly that pri-
vate enterprise would make money from it.
What a strange decision!
Well, no one rioted over that one. Over the course of the
20th Century, alcohol sales were liberalised in stages,
starting with hard liquors and ending with beer, which
was banned in Iceland until 1989. Nevertheless, Iceland-
ers have never stopped thinking of alcohol as a forbidden
fruit. Sure, it is considered okay to get smashed every
weekend, but should you have a glass of wine with your
Wednesday dinner, be it lobster or haddock, you are con-
sidered to be well on your way to rehab.
The Icelandic government, like governments in most of the Nordic countries, several US states and some other countries
around the world, runs a chain of liquor stores. It has a monopoly on the sale of alcoholic beverages with more than 2.25%
alcohol content. The liquor stores have limited opening hours, none being open past eight in the evening, some in the coun-
tryside only open for an hour on weekdays, and all of them closed on Sundays.
So What's This State-Run Liquor Store
I Keep Hearing About?
by Kári Tulinius
Iceland | FAQ
14The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 7 — 2013
feature article discussed the need to
have a president of Iceland. At the
time, the position of the president
was highly debated as he had just
refused to sign the “media bill” into
law. This legislation was intended
to limit the influence shareholders
could have on the editorial content
of the media they owned. Despite
the controversy, Mr. Ólafur Ragnar
Grímsson won the elections. He
is still the president of Iceland and
has since then used his presidential
right to not to sign stuff on more
than one occasion.
First cover featuring
nature and Kárahnjúkar
Icelandic nature is close to our
hearts. We featured the farmer
Guðmundur Ármansson on the
cover and entered the discussion
about the hydro-electric proj-
ect and the aluminium smelter
in Reyðarfjörður. The Kárahjúkar
dam debate was raging and many
wanted it stopped. The article dis-
cusses the sandstorms caused by
the construction, reminiscent of the
ones Steinbeck writes about in The
Grapes of Wrath. The Kárahnjúkar
dam is a fact today and sandstorms
are feared this summer in the area
of Hálslón, while the Lagarfljót lake
seems to be dying.
First editor change
After having edited the first 19 is-
sues of The Reykjavík Grapevine,
Valur Gunnarsson decided to call it a
day in March 2005 and was replaced
by American born expat Bart Cam-
eron, who had previously worked
as a journalist for Iceland Review.
Bart Cameron served as editor for
the next year and a half. Both edi-
tors still contribute material to this
publication on occasion. One of the
founders, Jón Trausti Sigurðarson,
also served as co-editor during the
first summer. The Reykjavík Grape-
vine has seen six editors in its ten
years. The longest serving editors
were Sveinn Birkir Björnsson, from
2006 till 2008 and Haukur S. Mag-
nússon from 2009 till 2012. Haukur
still serves as editor-in-chief. The
current editor is Anna Andersen,
who became editor in early 2012
and is also The Grapevine’s first fe-
male editor.
First daily publication
Iceland Airwaves has been held
annually since 1999. In 2005, The
Reykjavík Grapevine decided, in
cooperation with the festival and its
Continued
Continues over