Akureyri - 13.05.2015, Blaðsíða 14

14 5. árgangur 18. tölublað 13. maí 2015
THE ENGLISH CORNER WITH MICHAEL CLARKE
Opinion Polls
The British elections have proved
without any shadow of a doubt
that opinion polls can be totally
and completely off course and
unreliable. Ev-
eryone forecast a
hung parliament
where no one
has a majority
and there is no
way of making
any decisions
or pursuing any
policies. Yet the
C o n s e rva t ive s
ended up with a
majority, getting
rid entirely of
those pesky little
Liberals with
a new mandate
to do exactly as
they please.
For Iceland-
ers the idea of a hung parliament
might seem a good solution except
for the fact that traditiona-
lly people have had their heads
chopped off with a blunt sword.
Certainly all opinion polls have
indicated that the present govern-
ment is now less popular with the
masses than the British invasion
of Iceland was 75 years ago last
Sunday.
Democracy is a form of public
opinion as it does give the people
a chance to express their feelings
(or vent their rage) every four or
five years. Eurovision is another.
And the more we get to know
about the opinions of the people
the more we wonder what can be
found where one
normally hopes to
find cerebral matt-
er.
The British
have elected a
party that has
sworn to make
life for the ord-
inary person much
worse. Benefits
and services will
be cut by a huge
amount. The
only people that
will gain are the
middle and upper
classes. But they
said they know
how to run the
country over and over and people
believed them. Perhaps they are
also so bad at the English langu-
age that they confuse “austerity”
with “prosperity”.
The present Icelandic govern-
ment has done everything it can
to improve the lot of the people.
But only some of the people. The
rich people. This is the most un-
popular government in Icelandic
history according to the polls. In
fact they have far less support
than the new Pirate Party despite
the fact that few even know the
names of the members nor what
they stand for. Yet I have a sneak-
ing suspicion that by the time it
gets round to the next elections
there will be a new set of promis-
es pulled out of the political hats
and a new chorus of “four legs
good, two legs bad” from the
bleating masses and we will have
to face another term of servitu-
de while Napoleon and Squeal-
er start walking around on their
hind legs unnoticed by the herd.
At least the results in U.K. do
nothing to scare them into actu-
ally taking note of the fact that
most of the working people are
now on strike and the country
grinding to a halt. People are dy-
ing before they can even get di-
agnosed and the tourists are mak-
ing their own beds and cooking
their own breakfasts at the few
hotels that are still open.
And does it worry Napoleon
or Squealer? Not really. The only
thing the Prime Minister seems
to worry about is making sure he
gets his share of chocolate cake.
We can enjoy watching him eat
it. It is a nice cake. He obviously
enjoys it, and by the looks of him
it is not the first slice he had eaten
this week. In fact it looked so nice
that we would really love to taste
it. Just a few crumbs. Yummy.
Yummy.
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Lions klúbburinn styrkir
Á dögunum afhenti stjórn Lions-
klúbbs Akureyrar styrki úr verk-
efnasjóði. Eftirtaldir aðilar hlutu
kr. 100 þús. hver: Aflið samtök
gegn heimilis- og kynferðisofbeldi,
Íþróttafélagið Akur, Íþróttafélagið
Eik, Mæðrastyrksnefnd Akureyrar
og Krabbameinsfélag Akureyrar og
nágrennis.
Einnig afhenti klúbburinn
Krabbameinsfélagi Akureyrar og
nágrennis kr. 500 þús. vegna kaupa á
ómskoðunartæki fyrir Sjúkrahúsið
á Akureyri sem félagið stendur fyrir.
Lionsklúbbur Akureyrar safnar
fé í verkefnasjóð með sölu á daga-
tölum sem klúbburinn gefur út ár-
lega ásamt sölu á jóladagatölum. a
PRESTUR GEFUR ÚT BÓK
Út er komin bókin Kveikjur hjá Bókaútgáfunni Hólar ehf. Hún er eftir
Bolla Pétur Bollason sóknarprest í Laufásprestakalli með ljósmyndum
eftir Völund Jónsson blaðaljósmyndara. Um er að ræða smásagnasafn, 40
frumsamdar samtímasögur með dæmisagnasvip.
Margt ber á góma. Þarna má finna sögur um fátækt, einelti, líffæra-
gjafir, fóstureyðingar, fordóma, ofbeldi, trúnaðarbrot, náungaábyrgð,
sorg, einmanaleika, samtal kynslóða, andríkar hugmyndir, náttúruvernd,
trú, von, kærleika, tímann og endalokin.
Sögurnar nefnast einu orði Kveikjur vegna þess að þeim er ætlað að
kveikja frekari hugmyndir og umræður um siðferðisleg álitamál, þjóðfé-
lagsmein, lífsins tilgang, Guð.  Þær gefa hugmyndir fyrir frekari skrif og
fræðslu t.d. á vettvangi kirkju og skóla.
Ritningarvers fylgir hverri sögu. Það tengist efni sögunnar á einn eða
annan hátt og það er m.a. verkefni fyrir lesandann að tengja þar saman.
Þá gefst t.a.m. rík ástæða til að fletta upp í Biblíunni. Ljósmynd prýðir
hverja sögu og þar er um sama verkefni fyrir lesandann að ræða, tengja
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Í lok hverrar sögu eru svo tvær umræðukveikjur/spurningar sem vel
geta komið hugflæði og samtali af stað, svokallaðir ísbrjótar.