Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.06.2014, Blaðsíða 10

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07— 2014
aesthetic. Eventually, the goal is to stop
gelding pigs entirely.
As it happens, reports of animal
abuse in Iceland have sky-
rocketed in recent years. In
2012, 50 possible cases were reported
to the Icelandic Food and Veterinary
Authority. Last year, however, this
number jumped to 50 complaints per
month. Chief Veterinary Officer Sig-
urborg Daðadóttir has suggested that
this increase is not due to the actual
increase of animal abuse cases, but
rather an increase in Icelanders’
concern about animal welfare.
Case in point: Dalvík resident Óla-
fur Hauksson was outraged this
month when Goggur (“Beak”),
a goose he raised from the egg,
was dyed blue by unknown assail-
ants. “That’s my goose,” read the cap-
tions on a YouTube video he made of
the bird being cleaned. “Her name is
Goggur. What the fuck is wrong with
you people?”
Shortly after, the
City of Reykjavík
issued its annual
public service an-
nouncement ask-
ing residents and
tourists not to
feed bread to the ducks and swans
at Reykjavík’s pond. Primarily this is
because the bread attracts seagulls,
which prey on duck eggs and duck-
lings. But bread also has virtually no
nutritional value for ducks and can
lead to significant health problems for
the birds. So if you can’t control your
urge to throw them a snack on your
next walk around the pond, you’re ad-
vised to opt for halved grapes, cracked
corn, or thawed (frozen) peas. (Or just
go to the Reykjavík Zoo, guys.)
And, finally for the cuddly bit. The na-
tion sighed a collective “aww” in
May when a message in a bot-
tle, written by four-year-old Henrik
Hugi from Hafnarfjörður, was dis-
covered halfway around Iceland
from where it was thrown in the ocean
a year ago. "I put this in the sea with
the help of my grandmother, grand-
father and mom," Henrik’s message
read, along with his phone number,
address, and the date. The bottle was
found by county councilperson Andrea
Kristín Jónsdóttir in Steingrímsfjörður,
in the Westfjords. In a particularly nice
twist, Andrea Kristín is herself origi-
nally from Hafnarfjörður.
— Continued —
NEWS IN BRIEF
LATE MAY
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Once again, the 98-year-old farm-
ers' party seemed to be vanishing
as a force in city politics, as polls
measured its following at 3–5%. On
May 22, however, a week before the
election, the party's top candidate in
Reykjavík, Sveinbjörg Birna Svein-
björnsdóttir, posted the following
Facebook status: “Many people have
approached me to ask what position I
have on the designation of a land plot
for a mosque...” The day after, when
pressed about the matter by the me-
dia, she made her position clear: the
allocation should be cancelled, and
a general referendum should decide
whether a mosque will be built in
Reykjavík or not.
Unlike most other Nordic coun-
tries, the Icelandic State has not
severed its ties to its Lutheran-
Evangelical National Church. As of
2009, about 80% of the population
were members of the denomination.
Due to traditional intimacy between
Church and State, legislation still de-
crees that municipalities in Iceland
must donate land to churches. As
religious variety has grown, the law
has, in later years, been interpreted
in accordance with the constitutional
decree of religious freedom, as appli-
cable to all religious groups. In recent
years, Reykjavík has thus donated
land to Buddhists, Nordic Paganists,
the Russian-Orthodox Church and so
on.
Meanwhile, a Muslim congrega-
tion, which applied through the same
procedure in 2000, was kept waiting
for years. When nothing seemed to
have happened in 2007, the Europe-
an Commission against Racism and
Intolerance declared its concern that
this was a possible sign of prejudice
within the City's institutions. Finally
in 2013, the Reykjavík City Council,
led by Jón Gnarr, designated a mod-
est plot for a mosque. The appointed
plot has finally been handed over and
The Association of Muslims in Ice-
land has opened a competition for its
design.
“We Have Lived Here
In Peace And
Harmony…”
From the outset there were some
negative reactions to the decision.
The most extreme public reaction
was a cut-off pig's head left on the
designated plot, late last year. The
perpetrators are known, but so far
police authorities have treated the
matter as legitimate protest. The act
was in line with a spiteful discourse
of hate and prejudice that can be
found in various comment threads all
over Icelandic media.
Until May 22, however, such
voices remained outside mainstream
politics, and religious practices were
hardly imaginable as a central con-
cern in a political campaign. Over-
night, this changed. “I have lived for
a year in Saudi-Arabia,” Sveinbjörn-
sdóttir publicised, “and I don't base
my opinion on prejudice, but expe-
rience.” She said Luxembourg is a
good role-model: “There are many
Muslims there, but no mosque. They
see what the situation is like in Paris.
There are numerous mosques there.
But there is an essential difference
there, many Muslims come from old
French colonies and so the French
must take all sorts of things into their
country.” She added: “We have lived
here in peace and harmony since the
Nordic settlements,” referring to
Iceland's settlement in the 9th cen-
tury AD: “… first as heathens, then
Christians. … I just think that while
we have a National Church, the mu-
nicipalities should not donate plots to
building houses such as a mosque.”
“Cute”
The Progressive party has always
been populist. Mostly, however, their
populism has been about handing
out money to people. Admittedly, to
some more than others—make no
mistake about it: the party's main
commitment has never been any sort
of egalitarianism. But outright xeno-
phobic sentiments belong to a whole
different category. Artists, writers,
intellectuals and the general public
used their respective outlets to ex-
press anger, shock and disbelief. The
Bishop of Iceland reiterated her sup-
port for people's religious freedoms
and the building of the mosque.
The party's new agenda even out-
raged some of its
own members. One
Reykjavík candi-
date resigned from
the campaign. The
Progressive par-
ty's youth move-
ment impeached
Ms. Sveinbjörn-
sdóttir in an an-
nouncement, and
declared no con-
fidence in her
leadership in the
light of the de-
velopments. This
declaration's text,
which momen-
tarily appeared on
the movement's
website, reminded
candidates of the
constitutional principle of equality
before the law. Guðfinna Jóh. Guð-
mundsdóttir, the party's second can-
didate in Reykjavík, responded by
condescendingly commenting: 'cute'
on the youth movement's Facebook
thread. Half an hour later the dec-
laration itself disappeared from the
youth movement's website without
explanation.
While those anti-immigrationist
fringes that have been without politi-
cal representation openly declared
their full support for the party's
new stand, The Progressive Party's
chair, Prime Minister Sigmundur
Davíð Gunnlaugsson, remained tac-
tically silent until the first polls came
in. When he took the time to com-
ment he derided “The Progressive
Party's opponents” for overreacting,
leaving the stage for the Reykjavík
avant-garde. Daily newspaper Mor-
gunblaðið took a similar line in an
editorial, though one step further,
explicitly comparing The Progres-
sives to Britain's UKIP and France's
Front National, sympathising equally
with all of them for the harsh re-
sponses their policies receive from
“self-appointed Pharisees” of “politi-
cal correctness.” It is a spiteful little
paper, yes, but read by some. In the
week between Ms. Sveinbjörnsdót-
tir’s first comments and the elec-
tion, The Progressive Party’s support
more than doubled in polls. In the
end, the party gained not one but two
city council members, with a 10% fol-
lowing among the voting public.
Toward The Last Ballot
Iceland's immigration policies have
never been liberal. A point worth
repeating is that through a 20 year
period well into the 2000s, a total
of one refugee was granted asylum
in the country. Until now, however,
the public consensus has been that
discrimination, let
alone outright xe-
nophobia, is shame-
ful. The State does
all sorts of things,
but once cases of
obvious discrimi-
nation come un-
der the spotlight,
authorities have
repeatedly been
obliged to reverse
decisions and re-
view their practic-
es. It's a slow battle,
but on in which
we have had solid
ground beneath our
feet. Once the will
to discriminate be-
comes something
less than shame-
ful, a lot of ground has been lost. It
remains to be seen if a xenophobic
cause is to be included in the party's
agenda on the national level.
As mentioned, voter turnout was
low. It has been on the decline since
2006, decreasing by about 10% with
every election. If this trend contin-
ues, the last voter will deliver the
very last ballot in 2038. This will, of
course, expedite the counting pro-
cess. We all pray now that when they
take that eventual last ballot out of
the box and count it, the lone voter
will have had the good sense not to
vote for the Progressives.
The Progressive Party remains
the current leader of Iceland's gov-
ernment.
Out with the new, in with the old: Municipal elections were
held in Iceland last Saturday with a record low voter turn-
out. The big shock: A week before the election, the Progres-
sive Party decided to go all populist-right-wing xenophobe.
Masters Of Peace
And Harmony
The Progressive Party went
hunting for xenophobic votes
Haukur Már Helgason is a writer and filmmaker, born in
Reykjavík 1978. His critical writings have appeared in The
London Review of Books and Lettre International. His first
documentary film, ‘Ge9n,’ premiered in 2011. Helgason
resides in Berlin. @haukurmar
Opinion | Elections
“The Progressive Party
has always been popu-
list. Mostly, however,
their populism has been
about handing out
money to people. Admit-
tedly to some more than
others—make no mis-
take about it: the party's
main commitment has
never been any sort of
egalitarianism. But out-
right xenophobic senti-
ments belong to a whole
different category .”