Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2015, Blaðsíða 17

Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2015, Blaðsíða 17
Team FRI 17The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2015 somehow when faced with something like this? Isn’t there some primal in- stinct that commands a human to offer a helping hand, when many other hu- mans are dying senseless, easily avoid- able deaths in some ocean or on some prairie because of nothing important, really. Unaware of the minister’s com- ments, Bryndís thought: “I am unhappy with this plan, and I should do some- thing, anything, to express this notion, and I should maybe offer a solution. She fucked around on Facebook, as we are grown accustomed to. Bryndís grew restless or frustrated in her thoughts. She had seen those photographs—they were all over Facebook. Like many times in the past, Bryn- dís had an idea. Just a thought, really, or an inkling. She considered that idea, and then she casually thought: yes, why not? Why not. So she moved forward and spent a little time and she executed a little idea that would amuse her friends and per- haps inspire others to maybe come up with other ideas, and perhaps help her vent some of the frustration. Then, something happened. Another thing happened. Things kept happening. And here we are. Reader: there’s much much more for you. The room ran out, the ar- ticles are too many. Go on the internet, it has the rest and more: an actual conversation, with quotes and insights and ideas and information. Find everything else and that con- versation on our website, its name is: www.grapevine.is Meet The Ninja Words by John Rogers As Bryndís’s Facebook event snow- balled, the “Kæra Eygló” initiative re- ceived a wave of attention from various groups. Along with heightened positive interest from concerned and energised Icelanders—and the worldwide me- dia—the page also caught the attention of various online anti-immigration/refu- gee/Muslim groups, who launched a re- lentless attack on the page, spamming it page with inflammatory comments, memes and videos. Meanwhile, Bryndís was inundated with interview requests and queries from all over the world, far surpassing her capacity to respond in a measured and timely fashion. She determined that she would nev- er be able to do this all by herself, opting to post a simple call for help in dealing with the growing shitstorm. Almost im- mediately, her request was enthusias- tically met by a plethora of volunteers from all walks of life; old friends and complete strangers alike, all eager to offer a helping hand, all enthusiastic to make a difference. The haphazard team assembled and got right to work, managing media requests, translating documents and moderating the debate, keeping the trolls at bay by way of coun- ter-argument or deletion. We spoke with five of them, so as to learn what their duties entail and what they have learned so far, and gain some insight their motivation and drive. Jóhann Hjalti Þorsteinsson (39) Administrative aid and driver for the EU delegation “I joined the event when we had less than 500 people in the group. As it grew, I started to notice discussion threads that were full of misconceptions, and also at some points, plain racist.” “We volunteers eventually found threads on international racist groups, where they were organising to attack the event. We started by answering them with counter-arguments, unless they were simply too racist to be reck- oned with. We just wanted to allow peo- ple to come and make their pledges of support.” “I wish in hindsight that I had screen- captured some of the negative com- ments I deleted—some of it’s tanta- mount to the footage of the Hungarian camerawoman that’s been online this week, where she tripped and kicked refugees. Some people simply don’t see refugees as human beings.” Andri Einarsson (33) Bouncer and model “The event grew from 500 to 10,000 peo- ple overnight. We were monitoring it all day, on and off. We had a group chat going in real time, where we’d discuss what we were deleting—much of which was anti-Muslim propaganda from abroad. We didn’t want to censor the debate too much—ideally, we didn’t want to censor it at all, but it be- came necessary to do so.” “I think it was the generosity implied in the efforts that proved inspiring to people. As for the negative side... some people just have very strong feelings about immi- gration in general. It turned out that many commenters also had very strong feelings about Iceland—like they have a strange picture of it in their heads, and they don’t want it ‘ruined’.” “I think a lot of these people need to find something better to do with their time than spreading racist propaganda—and think- ing they know better than us how Iceland should be.” Dagbjört Hákonardóttir (31) Lawyer for the Reykjavík Citizen’s Ombudsman “The first point of the event was to address our Minister of Welfare. We wanted to have a voice on our immigration and refugee policies. But it turns out, we were maybe targeting the wrong person—so the next thing to do is put pressure on our Prime Minister.” “I don’t know if the message has been heard by the government. We have heard nothing from the committee on refugees. We are desperate for information. We want numbers—the minimum numbers of refugees that Iceland will take. Our Foreign Minister has only said he’s not engaged in a ‘pissing contest' about numbers.” “This is not primarily a refugee prob- lem—it is a humanitarian problem. I see no problems with accepting hundreds of mostly well-educated Syrians who want to live a peaceful life and join the workforce here. These people want to contribute. It doesn’t feel like something we should have to explain, but apparently we do.” Salka Guðmundsdóttir (34) Playwright & translator “Like many others, I was already emotional about the state of events, wondering what I could do to help when this came along. It was something that just needed to hap- pen—people were out there, just waiting for someone to take the initiative.” “It was very important to get it out there into the media. Bryndís pointed out that every single article we could get might spark an initiative somewhere else and spur someone into action. It has now been reported all over the world—France, Italy, Peru, Australia, New Zealand… we had people from Australia and the US patrolling the event while we slept! But I wasn’t sur- prised—people were longing to help and looking for an outlet. These things happen quickly, and it’s important to seize the mo- ment.” Óskar Hallgrímsson (33) Photographer and graphic designer “I think they government has at least heard our message. They wouldn’t have made the parliamentary committee as quickly and as rigorously otherwise, and we did get a response from the minister that we were addressing. But we have no results to show yet. I am hopeful that we’re going to, at the very least, now take more than the planned 50 people—maybe in the hundreds, or even thousands.” “It was one thing to monitor the page against racists—to be a ninja and take them out one by one—but then we also had people who were on the ground in Syria, Greece and Turkey who contacted us. Rather than watching this crisis unfold through the media, we suddenly had direct contact. One guy posted a picture of him- self and his kids on the page, and said ‘We have no money, and no plan, can you help us?’ He was just scared and just needed help. It put a whole new perspective on this, to talk to another human—just some guy who was actually there in this terrible situ- ation.”
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