Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.07.2014, Qupperneq 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2011
Best Love-Hate
Relationship:
The Progressive Party &
The Media
Ever since the Progressives came to pow-
er (again) barely over a year ago, they and
the media have been locked in a tempes-
tuous symbiosis so strong you can hardly
imagine the one surviving without the
other anymore. The Progressives will,
depending on when you talk to them,
either accuse the media of “bullying”—a
word they may be deliberately overus-
ing to sap it of all meaning—or person-
ally thank them for getting them seats on
Reykjavík city council for all the negative
press they got. We the media, in turn, en-
sure that they never stop getting any at-
tention. Why would we? It’s worked out
well for both of us.
Best Animal Story:
Hunter The Lost Dog
It’s no secret that we love animal sto-
ries here, and this one was pretty epic.
Hunter is an American border collie that
somehow extricated himself from his
travel pen on a conveyor belt at Keflavík
International Airport and made a break
for it. Hunter’s owners offered a 200,000
ISK finder’s fee and Icelandair have
promised two plane tickets to the person
who delivered the dog back to the air-
port. For days you couldn’t scroll through
an Icelandic news website without seeing
those big, doleful eyes looking up at you.
Amazingly, Hunter made it all the way
to Þórshöfn, a few hours’ drive from the
airport, where he was found completely
unharmed. There was even a video of the
owner-and-dog reunion. In a news cycle
where animal stories include harpooned
whales and castrated pigs, this was a
heart-warming reprieve.
Best Comedy Gold Mine:
Prime Minister Sigmundur
Davíð Gunnlaugsson
Remember that love-hate relationship?
Part of the “love” part is that Iceland has
for a Prime Minister a man who will in-
vent or (more charitably) confuse the
facts, sometimes citing specific figures
without any evidence for his claims,
seemingly unaware that there are people
listening to him, some of whom might
check up on whether what he says is true
or not. Sigmundur Davíð doesn’t possess
the political savvy to re-word or back-
pedal when proven wrong; instead, he
lashes out at his critics for the crime of
criticising him. A few days later and the
cycle begins anew. A public figure this
consistently wrong would be more amus-
ing if they weren’t actually leading the
country. But hey, you take your comedy
where you can get it.
Best Reason To Hate
This Country:
The Ministry of the Interior
The case of Tony Omos is the kind of
thing that makes “only in Iceland” come
to mind. There are government ministers
in Nordic countries who have resigned
over using the wrong credit card or get-
ting a friend a low-level NGO position.
Not Iceland! Here, you could keep your
job as the head of a ministry despite be-
ing subjected to a criminal investigation,
with police searching computers and
phones until they find that at least one of
your direct assistants is strongly suspect-
ed of having deliberately fabricated dis-
paraging claims about an asylum seeker,
written them up as memo, and then
hand-fed that memo to select members
of the press. Why? Because that’s Iceland.
Best International Mis-
reporting On Iceland:
Gálgahraun
We would be the first to admit that even
we play up certain stereotypes about Ice-
land and Icelanders, but this story is a
perfect illustration of sacrificing the ac-
tual news for the sake of said stereotypes.
The Gálgahraun Lava Fields, a subject of
paintings by legendary Icelandic artist
Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval and legally
protected in 2009, got slated to have a se-
ries of residential roads carved through
them last year. A few brave souls went to
the site of planned construction and lay
down in front of the machines, only to be
dragged away by police, setting off a le-
gal battle that has lasted half a year. The
story abroad? They were trying to save elf
homes from destruction. We can under-
stand why the Gálgahraun story by itself
might not be the stuff of international
headlines, but add a little elf magic and
presto! It’s a quirky story about quirky
Icelanders being quirky!
Best Basket For
All The Eggs:
Tourism
Remember about ten years ago when
we couldn’t stop writing about what an
amazing financial miracle Iceland was?
How it seemed like everybody and their
grandmother was trading bonds or start-
ing an investment company, the money
was just going to keep on coming, and
anyone who doubted our methods or
stability was just a jealous hater? Happy
days are here again! Only this time, the
people giving us money are coming here,
too. Time and again, the rush of one com-
pany or group of landowners to capital-
ise as much as they can off of tourists is
met by other Icelanders who warn that
maybe we’re getting too greedy. Those
people, my friend, are jealous haters.
Best Whale-Related
Story: Hvalabjór
Sure, the current back-and-forth
between the US and Iceland over
whale hunting is intriguing, but the
introduction of Hvalabjór—“whale
beer”—seemed like it was deliber-
ately calibrated for maximum rage
inducing amongst anti-whalers. Re-
plete with claims from the brewery
that drinking the beer would make
one “a true Viking” (and what does
that even mean, by the way?), the
“whale” in Hvalabjór was mostly
dried and powdered whale bits in
quantities so minute they likely had
no effect on the f lavour whatsoever.
This didn’t stop anyone from point-
ing out that the whale bits may have
been years old, or come from the less
savoury parts of the whale. The Hva-
labjór story took an issue that has
been and is a very divisive one, for
our readers included, and provided
some much-needed and entertain-
ing cartoonishness of oblivious self-
parody.
Best Public Figure:
Jón Gnarr
Big surprise here, eh? Still, it would
be deliberately obtuse to ignore Jón
Gnarr’s impact. The media has fol-
lowed his political career from com-
edy-as-protest in the form of sati-
rising the self-aggrandising nature
of politics, to a politician (although
Jón himself would almost assur-
edly disagree with the job title) in
the scope of international focus. He
has continued to represent the bet-
ter nature of our country—its toler-
ance, friendliness and individual-
ity—while maintaining his humility.
Even though he’s left city hall after
just one term, bear in mind that he’s
the first mayor of Reykjavík to even
last a whole term in the past 30 years
or so. Whether he makes another run
at politics again or not, Jón Gnarr
has definitely been one of the most
refreshing public figures Iceland has
had in a very long time.
Best Of
The News
Words by Paul Fontaine
In reviewing the past year in news, you will see certain pat-
terns emerge: certain public figures, events and topics that
seem to ignite social media and office break room conversa-
tions for days, weeks or even months. Arguments are had,
alliances are formed, and people are unfriended over these
very stories. These are news trends that never really go away;
they just change form and come back to pay repeated visits,
for better or for worse. Let Grapevine take you back over the
past year to savour the delectable banquet that is the very
best the news has had to offer.
Best of | News
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6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 0 — 2014