Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.01.2016, Page 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2016
Politics | Bright?The Year | A visual presentation of by-whizzing
#VULNICURA_SNAP_RELEASEGATE
Iceland’s 2015-in-gates-and-hashtags got off to a
fast start when Björk’s eighth LP, ‘Vulnicura’, leaked.
She responded by “going nuclear,” snap-releasing
the record via iTunes. The shock-and-awe strategy
worked, and the album shot to the top of the iTunes
charts in 30 different countries. Good work, Björk!
––––– January –––––
The year started off with some long-awaited
news for immigrants and asylum seekers
alike—namely, the creation of the Immigra-
tion Appeals Board. Designed to be an inde-
pendent body that reviews cases rejected by
the Directorate of Immigration, the board
had been a long time coming. In theory, it
was to make things run more smoothly. In
practice, the Board soon reported they were
backlogged with cases pending review, claim-
ing a lack of funding and manpower to meet
the demand. A step in the right direction,
nonetheless. January also saw a crucial step
in Jón Gnarr finally getting his name legally
changed to Jón Gnarr in Iceland’s National
Registry, as he had his name legally changed
in the US while serving as a guest professor at
Houston’s Rice University. This proved to be
a laughably simple, easy and financially pain-
less ($100 USD, to be exact) process that puts
our local bureaucracy to shame.
NEWS × HASHTAGS
A Sexy Infographic View of
the National Discourse 2015
By Paul Fontaine × John Rogers
#BANKERSLAMMERGATE
The gavel of Lady Justice fell upon four of Kaupþing’s
main men this February, to great applause. Two of the
company’s former CEOs, the chairman of the board, and
the owner of 10% of the company, were each sentenced
to four years or more of jail time, as investigations into
Kaupþing’s activities revealed the company’s shenani-
gans were a contributing factor in the 2008 economic
collapse.
––––– February –––––
In this month, a comparatively easy-to-pronounce
volcano, Holuhraun, finally stopped spewing crap
into the sky. Having dominated headlines through-
out 2014, it might not have been as spectacular or
confounding for anchorpeople as Eyjafjallajökull, but
we were still glad it finally wound down. Holuhraun
would have the last laugh, though, as it came to light
later in the year that the sulphur dioxide it had been
puking up was very likely responsible for killing off a
great number of sheep. At the time of writing, reports
are coming out that the area is rumbling again... so
send your prayers to our sheep. Undeterred by our
geological shenanigans, tourists in this month gen-
erated enough revenue to make tourism the largest
industry in the country, beating out such perennial
heavyweights as fishing and banking. In fact, in 2015
tourist numbers crossed the one million mark, with
final numbers showing four times the population of
Iceland visited the country in this year alone.
#PIRATESAREPOPULARNOW? -GATE
In what would become one of Iceland’s political stories of the year, March saw the small but forward-thinking Pirate Party
leap to the top of the national opinion polls. Even the Pirates themselves were surprised by this development, but it was no
blip—nine months later, they’re still at the top, with a wider margin than ever.
#EU_LETTERGATE
After years of discussion about Iceland entering the European Union, Iceland’s post-collapse, left-wing government for-
mally applied to join in July of 2009. The discussion didn’t end there, and Iceland’s bid to join was one of the 2013 parlia-
mentary election’s most heated topics. Despite both of the currently ruling parties’ campaign promises that the applica-
tion’s fate would be determined via referendum, Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson single-handedly attempted to
repeal the EU accession process. He did this by sending the EU a letter which he wrote without the consent or knowledge
of the nation’s Parliament. He was roundly slammed for the undemocratic, eccentric, off-piste gesture, which was ulti-
mately not accepted as a formal withdrawal by the EU.
#FREETHENIPPLEGATE
In protest against the double standards for nipple-baring, Icelandic woman began baring their breasts on social media
under the hashtag #freethenipple. The movement quickly gained traction, as news of the endeavor went global—prompt-
ing weird, sweaty men from all over the world to try and glimpse them some Icelandic booby—with everyone from singers
to politicians joining in. Although hardly critical to the campaign’s widespread success, Grapevine’s online coverage of it
reached hundreds of thousands of readers all over the world, culminating in that time Facebook determined Grapevine.is
was a pornsite and blocked the entire site for a couple of days. Oh, we also had a lot of fun rickrolling the aforementioned
weird, sweaty men via the classic April Fool’s post “PHOTOS: The Hottest Icelandic Titties From #FreeTheNipple".
––––––– ––– ––––– March ––––– ––––– –––––
Perhaps jealous of all the attention #FreeTheNipple was getting, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi
Sveinsson sent a letter to the EU announcing that Iceland was no longer seeking accession. As the matter had
never been put to a parliamentary vote, many Icelanders were upset by this side-stepping of the democratic pro-
cess, and organised protests at Austurvöllur to voice their displeasure. In the end, the EU grudgingly accepted
that Iceland just wasn’t that into them, while leaving the caveat that if we changed our minds, we could totally
hit them up anytime for Netflix and chill.
#PLANEVOMITGATE
In April, a pukey Progressive Party politician (known henceforth
as the PPPP) projectile-vomited all over passengers on a flight to
Washington DC, citing illness as the cause. What was he eating? We
don’t know. Maybe more to the point was what was he drinking—
numerous fellow passengers claimed he was wasted. If so, perhaps
he should perhaps have played the rehab card, to garner sympathy
rather than disgust.
#PINKGEYSIRGATE
As part of an ongoing project called “Pink State,” Chilean artist Mar-
co Evaristti dumped pink fruit dye into everyone’s favourite geyser,
Strokkur, resulting in a few hours of pink eruptions. Marco claimed
to love nature (that’s why he decorates it), and even though the ef-
fect was temporary, he was punished with a 100,000 ISK fine and
two weeks in jail. And lots of angry comments to our Facebook.
#GENERALSTRIKEGATETHRONE
With big companies reporting great profits and boards getting
massive pay bumps, several labour unions banded together this
spring for a general strike, calling for something resembling a liv-
ing wage for the workers. After some 50,000 stopped work, deals
were struck. And everyone lived happily ever after. Lol.
–––––– April ––––––
This month had one dominant theme, and that theme was
general strike. While trade unions engaging in work stoppag-
es and strikes is not an unfamiliar phenomenon in Iceland,
it’s been a long time since so many unions vowed to engage
in them. In fact, tens of thousands of workers were set to walk
off their jobs, in fields from wholesale food service, to the tourist
industry, to general labour. The show of solidarity, and just what
kind of impact all these people clocking out would have, would
lean on management throughout the year. Even public opinion
rested solidly with the workers, which isn’t always the case.
In the end, many new collective bargaining agreements were
drawn up, while others are still pending.
#FEMINISTSIGNAGEGATE
The 2015 edition of The Reykjavík Art Festival focussed on the
role of women in Icelandic art, and began by commissioning a
new work from the feminist art troupe Guerilla Girls. The result-
ing billboard, located by the harbour, noted that only around
10% of Icelandic film funding goes to female-led projects, rais-
ing awareness and sparking a much-needed debate.
#CAKEGATE (also known as #FATTIEGATE)
2015 was a landmark year for politics. We saw the beginnings of
a major refugee crisis across Europe, new and important envi-
ronmental campaigns—such as Björk and Andri Snær’s #Pro-
tectThePark—and, of course, a range of major new challenges
for policymakers in Iceland as abroad. With so many difficult
problems to worry about, who could then blame our Prime Min-
ister, Sigmundur Davið, for turning to the buffet table? He was
so overwhelmed by all this important parliamentary business
last summer that he needed to skip a debate in order to go and
grab the last slice of yummy pear cake from the parliamentary
cafeteria table. Solidarity, Siggi, for caring about the real issues
so much. May your #cakethrone never grow stale.
–––––– May ––––––
Whaling season began, again, and while this would end
up having consequences involving the hacktivist group
Anonymous later in the year, there was one big story this
month: changing the clocks in wintertime. Iceland bears
the distinction of sharing in common with Russia and
Belarus the refusal to set clocks back an hour in the fall
and forward an hour again in the spring. Everyone from
the Directorate of Health to members of Parliament hotly
contested the pros and cons of the practice. Not even our
readers could seem to agree whether “spring forward,
fall back” is a wonderful way to just adjust your circadian
rhythm with the sun, or a horrible tool of oppression from
those damn farmers. Spoiler: we haven’t changed our
clocks.
#BAMGATE
The second Secret Solstice festival hit the headlines when rapper and sunglass-enthusiast Gísli
Pálmi was videotaped throwing more than rhymes at former Jackass star Bam Margera. Bam had
purportedly become belligerent whilst seeking festival promoter Leon Hill, whom he claimed owed
him money. A war of words ensued online, with Leon denouncing the claims and Bam reiterating
them in a facially bruised Instagram post, but no charges were filed in any direction. As of right now,
Bam fans from all over the world keep commenting on our news story about it. Bam fans? Yes, Bam
fans. Those guys mean business. And they like Bam. Bam fans.
#OUTLOUD, #KONURTALA, #ÞÖGGUN
These three conjoined hashtags originated in the women-only Facebook group Beauty Tips, but
soon spread across Facebook and Twitter like wildfire. The campaign was highly visible, harnessing
social media to successfully highlight the ways that female voices are discredited or ignored on a
plethora of issues.
#BONKERSPRIMEMINISTERBLACKMAILGATETHRONE
The month’s most deliciously amusing news story involved two sisters, Malín Brand and Hlín Einars-
dóttir, attempting to blackmail Iceland’s pudgy Prime Minister by linking him to the purchase of Ice-
landic newspaper DV (the latter sister just happens to be DV-buyer Björn Ingi Hrafnsson’s estranged
lover… mysterious). In a plot reminiscent of a Coen Brothers movie, the hapless girls told the PM to
meet them in the lava fields outside Hafnarfjörður with a suitcase of money. He didn’t show up, obvs,
rather opting to send some cops, who in turn arrested the handsome twosome. What is this, ‘Burn
After Reading’?
–––––––––––– June ––––––––––––
Perhaps one of the most bizarre stories of the year happened in June, when two sisters at-
tempted to blackmail the Prime Minister. What did they want? Money, of course. What did
they have on him? That’s the bizarre part. The pair contended they had proof, in the form of
emails, that the Prime Minister took an active part in the purchase of magazine DV by me-
dia company Vefpressan. You see, Vefpressan is owned by one Björn Ingi Hrafnsson, who
used to be a Reykjavík city councilperson for the Progressive Party. Prime Minister Sig-
mundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, as you know, hails from that same party. Oh, and Björn Ingi
had just broken up with one of the two women. But more importantly, this month also saw
a grassroots movement started in the unlikely Beauty Tips Facebook group: #KonurTala
(Women Speak), wherein numerous women came forward to speak candidly about abuse
they had survived. The movement caught international headlines, and spawned similar
campaigns in other countries.
Traditional media and social media have a symbiotic relationship. Stories spread from the former to the lat-
ter, and the resulting discussion in the latter can make it back into the former. It's a fun back-and-forth. When
a news story really lights a fire on Facebook and Twitter, the results can be good: they can sway callous gov-
ernment policy and change bad business decisions, for example. But they can also backfire, as the facts of
the story become distorted or exaggerated as they pop from feed to feed. Here, we’ve collected a few of the
stories that bounced back and forth between news sites and social media over the past year, for better or
for worse (although mostly for better). Additional material by Rebecca Conway, Ciarán Daly, Hannah Jane
Cohen, York Underwood and Gabríel Benjamin.