Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Side 14

Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Side 14
Take a look around Backstage tour isk 2.500 (15 pers. max) Take a look behind the scenes. Groups only. Singing tour isk 4.500 Enjoy the acoustics — and your guide’s voice. Tasting tour isk 2.700 Tour with a treat. Refreshments await you at the end. Harpa tour isk 1.500 Every day at 11 am and 3.30 pm. Mies van der Rohe 2013 Harpa is the winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture — Mies van der Rohe Award. Guided tours daily More information at harpa.is 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

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