Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.12.2014, Qupperneq 4

Most Awesome
Letter of the Issue!
Leave Biggi Alone!
AKA: A Reinterpretation of Biggi
Lögga’s The Forbidden Article
In the last couple of days I witnessed how Big-
gi Lögga degraded from being sort of a mascot
of the Icelandic police force, with his “funny”
videos and humongous smile, to “racist scum”.
The same people who regarded him and his
videos as “hilarious” and “adorable” are now
getting ready to lynch him. All due the article
he published last week, in which he says Chris-
tians are being frowned upon and immigrants’
rights to privacy should be limited. I believe
this is simply a misunderstanding.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Biggis.
To begin with, both his trying-so-hard to be
funny videos and teeth the size of the track get
on my nerves. Secondly, as an atheist, I really
do not feel as I am getting any special treat-
ment in comparison to Christians. Maybe by
“privilege” he means that I am not in danger of
being stoned to death for my outrageous (lack
of) beliefs. Lastly, I myself am an immigrant,
and I would most definitely not appreciate
Biggi Lögga or anyone else to mangle in my
private life on that account.
However, I feel as The Forbidden Article
was not written with hate towards immigrants
in mind. Rather than that, it was Biggi’s un-
successful attempt to criticize Cultural Rela-
tivism. It is an idea that all cultures are equal,
thus judging something as “right” or “wrong”
is unacceptable, as the concept belongs to
different culture we do not understand - we
should be tolerant to everything other cultures
bring. This is idea does seem pretty and nice
on first sight; however it does have serious
shortcomings. Biggi address it when he writes
of “the church of political correctness”. He
says that everything is good as long as one is
not a Christian. What I believe he is trying to
say is that if the ideology behind his beliefs can
be judged and questioned, than so should the
beliefs of others. His statement that increased
immigration into the country could be prob-
lematic is not entirely false. Yes, immigration
brings a lot of benefits to Iceland, this is not
in question. However, with immigrants come
bad things from their cultures: misanthropy,
homophobia, bigotry and yes, racism. People
would be shocked to find out just how racist
can one group of immigrants be towards an-
other. This does not mean that other cultures
are bad, or that the foreigners are bad. But it is
important to not deny the existence of these is-
sues. Of course, Iceland is far from perfect and
still has a long way to go, however in compari-
son to many other countries, the situation here
is not all that bad.
The anecdote from Biggi’s work does not
strike me as he hates the immigrants. Rather
than that, he seems concerned about them.
Notice that he did not mention of what origin
the particular foreigner was, as he most likely
did not want people to form prejudices against
a specific group. What he tries to say in this
paragraph is not that foreigners are bad peo-
ple, but that their cultures may support things
that are not acceptable. The man believed his
wife to be his property, because that is the way
things go in his homeland. Biggi want to show
that behavior like this is not acceptable, and
using one’s cultural background as an excuse
should not pass. Tolerance towards other cul-
tures holds great value; however it does not
mean that it should not be criticized if there
is sound reason to do so. That is why he says
“whether the cultures of those who come here
are always their private matter “. He does
not mean they should never be their private
matter. He means that they should be open to
criticism, instead of being protected by blanket
of “cultural tolerance”. This is a really fragile
topic, and through his unskilled writing Biggi
got himself a patch of a “racist”. I may be naive,
but I honestly believe spreading hate toward
immigrants was not his aim.
In the end, I advise to Biggi to sign up to
University and take a couple of writing classes
before he ever publishes any article again. And
even better, he should stick to what (kind of)
works for him, making videos.
kv
Maru
Dear Maru,
thanks so for our thoughtful letter
and thorough analysis of Biggi The
Cop’s article. There are certainly
many differing interpretations of
what exactly Biggi was calling for
in his “forbidden article” (you can
read some of them on Grapevine.is)
and, frankly, yours seems as good as
anyone’s. We will likely never know
Biggi’s true intent—but if he eventu-
ally winds up running for office on a
platform of populist nationalist rhet-
oric (currently all the rage in Scandi-
navia), that might give a hint.
Love,
Your Friends At The Grapevine
Say your piece, voice your
opinion, send your letters to:
letters@grapevine.is
SOUR GRAPES AND STUFF
Hi!
I am emailing to complain about your staff
harassing me on Facebook. I complained
about the swearing in an article about
heavy metal and now I am getting sworn at
by your staff. Can you control them at least
get them to act like adults.
Henry Curran
Dear Henry,
thank you for your letter. We are very
fuckin’ sorry. But those guys are free-
lancers, and we don’t pay them nearly
enough to make any goddamn demands
about how they choose to troll Face-
book.
#gunthrone
Love,
Your Friends At The Grapevine

There's prize for all your MOST AWESOME
LETTERS. And it’s a scorcher!
No, really! It's a goddamn scorcher
is what it is! Whoever sends us THE MOST
AWESOME LETTER this issue will receive
A FRIGGIN GOURMET FEAST FOR TWO at
TAPAS BARINN. Did you hear that? Write
in and complain about something (in an
admirable way), win a gourmet feast at
one of Reykjavík's best? THIS IS THE
DEAL OF THE CENTURY IS WHAT IT IS!
What's in a 'lobster feast'? Well, one has
to assume that it has lobster-a-plenty. Is
there more? Probably, but still... Gourmet
feast? Wow! DON’T PANIC if your letter
wasn’t picked AWESOME LETTER.
There's always next month! Now, if
you're in the market for free goodies
next month, write us some sort of letter.
Give us your worst: letters@grapevine.is
MOST AWESOME LETTER
FREE ICELANDIC GOURMET
FEAST!
Varma is available in various
tourist shops around Iceland
the timeless
warmth
of Iceland
Varma is dedicated to maintaining
Icelandic tradition in developing,
designing and manufacturing
quality garments and accessories
from the best Icelandic wool and
sheepskin shearling.
w
w
w
.a
rn
ar
tr
.c
om