Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Page 8

Iceland | For Dummies
Fortunately for us, the Hol-
urhraun eruption (discussed
on page 6 and 34) has not produced
airplane-choking ash clouds nor led
to devastating glacial flooding. There
have, however, been continuous
plumes of sulphur dioxide wafting
through mostly North and East Ice-
land from the site of the Holuhraun
eruption, giving police another reason
to cordon off a large swath of Iceland
from public access. Not that this hasn’t
stopped a few idiots from blithely driv-
ing into an eruption site anyway. New
forms of natural selection ahoy!
Minister of Health Kristján Þór
Júlíusson is exploring the le-
galisation of drugs, going so far
as to agree with a recent Global Com-
mission on Drug Policy report that the
War on Drugs has failed. Instead, he
believes Iceland should emphasise
education, prevention and treatment
for addicts. Oh, he also wants to ex-
tend health coverage to refugees.
Kristján proves once again that Ice-
land’s most conservative politicians
are still to the left of most American
Democrats.
The fun never ends at the Ministry of
the Interior. One of the Minis-
ter’s former assistants, Gísli Freyr
Valdórsson, is now on trial for his part
in leaking a memo about asylum seek-
er Tony Omos to select members of
the press. Gísli Freyr’s legal team have
been pretty creative when it comes to
his defence, arguing at one point that
the office cleaning staff at the Ministry
might have, for whatever reason, print-
ed the memo themselves and sent it
to the press. Sure, that’s possible. Or
maybe it was the ghost of a pirate,
or maybe Gísli Freyr has an evil twin.
Anything’s possible in Legal Town!
BY PAUL FONTAINE
8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2014
NEWS
IN
BRIEF
CONTINUES
OPEN 7-21
BREAKFAST,
LUNCH & DINNER
T EMPL AR A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
A number of promi-nent Icelanders cheered on the Scottish indepen-dence movement during the run-up
to the September 18 referendum de-
ciding whether Scotland should leave
the United Kingdom. Among notable
Icelanders who expressed support for
the Yes movement were comedian and
former Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr,
the band Sigur Rós, and a smattering
of politicians, including both the Presi-
dent and the Prime Minister. None of
them caused deep ripples, unlike when,
on the eve of the election, Scottish inde-
pendence received the endorsement of
the most famous Icelander of them all:
Eyjafjallajökull.
How can a volcano support any-
thing? Did it ash out a Scottish flag
or something?
Sorry, that was a typo. I meant Björk. In
the heat of an election campaign, peo-
ple are quick to jump on famous peo-
ple's words. There have been cases of
celebrities being misinterpreted, such
as when BBC film critic Mark Kermode
tweeted: "I know I'm not the target au-
dience, but it's a Yes from me." He was
talking about the new Doctor Who, but
happened to tweet during a televised
independence debate.
So Björk wore a tartan scarf and
people took it the wrong way?
Björk's endorsement was not really
open to interpretation. On the eve of
the election she went to her Facebook
page and posted the lyrics to her song
"Declare Independence." In case there
was any shred of doubt that this was not
a coincidence, she wrote "Scotland!"
three times in a row at the beginning.
Maybe she had copy-pasted the
wrong text, and meant to say: "Scot-
land! Don't make the Queen sad!"
Björk has a long history of supporting
national sovereignty movements. "De-
clare Independence" was written in
support of Faroese and Greenlandic in-
dependence. Most famously she shout-
ed "Tibet" while performing the song
in China. Chinese authorities were not
pleased. In an article on the govern-
ment's English-language China Inter-
net Information Center website, it was
noted that "many western entertainers
make use of politics to create their im-
ages" and "what Bjork did was simply
another ludicrous political show."
Doesn't the budget of the Chinese
government stretch so far as buying
umlaut keys for their keyboard?
Apparently not. Sadly the government
did not stop at calling Björk a poseur,
but they tightened regulations for art-
ists who had supported Tibetan sover-
eignty even the slightest bit. This is not
the only time her support for national
self-determination has caused contro-
versy. During one live performance she
dedicated the song to Kosovo, which
caused a festival in Serbia to cancel her
scheduled appearance.
Okay, so Björk is really keen on in-
dependence.
She is not an outlier among Icelanders.
The government is often very quick to
recognise new states, notably being
the only Western European country to
have full diplomatic relations with Pal-
estine. In the case of Scotland, she was
firmly in the middle of Icelandic public
opinion. The referendum was covered
closely in the media. For instance Bogi
Ágústsson, the main news anchor of
state broadcaster RÚV, analysed every
twist and turn on morning radio, as
well as reporting on it on TV.
What's strange about that? Scotland
is a neighbour of Iceland.
Scottish news was not common in the
Icelandic media before. The referen-
dum campaign caught the imagination
of Icelanders, many of whom have lived,
studied and visited there. The percep-
tion is that Scotland is pretty close to
being one of the Nordic countries. Per-
haps most importantly, Iceland gained
independence within living memory,
in 1944, making independence move-
ments sentimental favourites.
Ah, so it was affinity for Scots, and
not anti-English views that lay be-
hind the support?
No, there was some anti-English feel-
ing too. Many Icelanders still have not
forgiven the British government for
freezing Icelandic banking assets fol-
lowing the 2008 financial crash. Bank-
ing authorities used anti-terrorism
legislation, which in the heat of the mo-
ment was interpreted by many Iceland-
ers as amounting to having the nation
labeled as terrorists.
It's not fair equating terrorists and
bankers. Terrorists haven't caused
nearly as much misery.
Now, now, no need to be mean. Banks
serve an important function, like the
colon. Punctuation would be poorer
without it. It also helped to shore up
Icelandic support for Scottish indepen-
dence that the leading anti-indepen-
dence campaigners were Alistair Dar-
ling and Gordon Brown, who in 2008
were British Chancellor and Prime
Minister respectively. To Icelanders it
was like Luke Skywalker and the Re-
bellion going up against the Evil Em-
pire.
But in the end the Empire won.
Yes, to much bafflement in Icelandic
social media. To a nation of 320,000,
it seems odd that a nation of millions
would hold itself back. The indepen-
dence of Iceland is guaranteed by being
hundreds of kilometres from anyone
else, but it is maintained by an ironclad
belief that anyone can be independent,
even a nation of 320,000.
So What's This Support
For Scottish Independence
I Keep Hearing About?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Inga María Brynjarsdóttir