Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.07.2015, Qupperneq 6

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as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
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Icelandic Tourist Board. OPEN 7-21
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T EMPL AR A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
Foreign Minister ends Iceland’s
EU accession with a letter. Here
was a story that seemed to hit every-
one’s nerves, whatever side of the EU
question you were on, and just kept
right on going like some endless game
of volleyball between Reykjavík and
Brussels. Minister of Foreign Affairs
Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson sent a letter
announcing that Iceland was done
trying to join the European Union,
and the general public reacted pretty
strongly: protests were held in front
of Parliament in a massive show of op-
position from a people who are still
predominantly against joining the EU.
Then Brussels was all “no, your letter
doesn’t count” and Gunnar Bragi was
all “oh yeah it does, no takebacks.” Af-
ter that the EU lists Iceland as an ac-
cession nation one moment, then takes
it off that list the next. To be honest I
doubt this story is close to over, and
it continues to be highly entertaining
every step of the way.
MP “just asks questions” about Ice-
land’s Muslims. When Independence
Party MP Ásmundur Friðríksson, per-
haps capitalising on fear generated by
the Charlie Hebdo attacks, stood be-
fore Parliament and rhetorically asked
whether or not all approximately
1,500 of Iceland’s Muslims should be
investigated for ties to terror, I was
honestly not expecting the multiparti-
san backlash that followed. Last year’s
xenophobia towards Muslims from
the Progressive Party of Reykjavík
was initially met with resounding si-
lence from within the party itself, and
then with a lot of backpedalling and
excuses from party leadership. But
when Ásmundur raised his question,
even members of his own party called
him out on this. Summarily cowed,
he later agreed to meet with Muslim
leaders to get an education. This story,
in my mind, marked a turning point in
terms of using fear of minorities for
political gain. It’s a tactic that won’t
likely disappear anytime soon, but
Ásmundur’s very public scolding from
his own colleagues—one of the largest
parties in the country—might make
would-be xenophobes think twice be-
fore using it.
The “Nature Pass” dies. Probably
the most hotly contested issue within
Iceland’s hottest new industry died a
natural death in the home of its birth,
Parliament. As the number of tourists
passed the one million mark last year,
the Nature Pass was meant to balance
revenue with preserving some of Ice-
land’s most treasured spots of natural
wonder by charging people admission
to sites that had always been free. A
great many balked at the idea, not
least of all when it turned out people
who live here would have to buy the
pass to see Geysir, too. Even though it
was a ruling coalition bill—normally
an almost sure-fire guarantee of pas-
sage—it seemed no one could come to
any agreement on the particulars, and
the whole effort lost steam.
Iceland buys tax dodger informa-
tion. This story is a grenade with its
pin pulled. Last year, an anonymous
source contacted Icelandic authori-
ties, saying they had information
about hundreds of Icelanders and
Icelandic companies using tax shel-
ters to avoid paying taxes. However,
the informant wanted to get paid, so
the Icelandic government hemmed
and hawed on how to handle the situ-
ation. Last June, the deal was done
and now the Directorate of Internal
Revenue has their hands on the data,
and has set upon the task of combing
through it. Knowing what we know
about some of the shadier aspects of
finance, I think we can expect to see
some big names come out of these
investigations. As I write this, I am
convinced there are bankers, traders
and financiers all desperately trying
to cover their tracks any way they can
before the Tax People get their hands
on them.
Bankers go to jail. We’ve all seen that
image macro of Iceland’s president
and how Iceland jailed its bankers,
unlike the US. For the longest time,
we scoffed at this image, because it
just wasn’t true. Until it was. A slew
of high-ranking Kaupthing officials
were sent to real and actual prison for
their crimes; once in February, and
again in June. Some of these guys got
hit twice, in fact. The president still
didn’t have anything to do with this
(in fact, he’s been pretty cosy with a
number of our tycoons), but at least we
can now proudly say that this image
macro is at least partly true.
6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9 — 2015
Hard to believe that 2015 is already half over, but it is.
Maybe it seems like only yesterday since the calendar
turned because this year has just been so action-packed.
Some of that even included good news. It might be hard to
qualify which were the best good-news stories of the year
so far, but I’d still like to give it a try.
5Best News
Stories Of 2015Words by Paul FontainePhotos from The Grapevine Archives
Best of| News