Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.10.2017, Blaðsíða 4

The Top Stories
Oct 7TH —––––—— Oct 19TH
Words: Paul Fontaine
NEWS IN BRIEF Iceland’s smite-
ability once again made interna-
tional headlines last week when
the men’s national team utterly
crushed Turkey, 3-0, and qualified
for the World Cup for the first
time. They are the smallest nation
to qualify in recent history. And
you know what that means? That’s
right: more merciless tweeting
from us in game after game un-
til Iceland inevitably brings home
the championship, which to all ra-
tional observers is pretty much a
foregone conclusion at this point.
"STFU"
In less cheerful news, freedom
of the press in Iceland is under
attack, as the Reykjavík District
Commissioner has issued an in-
junction against media outlets
Stundin and Reykjavík Media, or-
dering them to cease reporting
on the financial dealings of Prime
Minister Bjarni Benediktsson and
his family with Glitnir bank short-
ly before the 2008 financial crash.
The matter has been condemned
by the Journalists’ Union, and
Stundin will be fighting it, but a
court might not even see the case
until elections are over. Oh, also,
the District Commissioner has
been an active member of the Inde-
pendence Party, from which Bjarni
hails. Pretty convenient, that.
Björk opened up about violence
In the wake of the disturbing rev-
elations about disgraced Holly-
wood executive Harvey Weinstein,
women around the world have
been speaking up about sexual
harassment they’ve received from
powerful men, and Björk has been
no exception. Recently, she re-
counted sexual harassment she
received from “a Danish direc-
tor”, clearly referring to Lars von
Trier, who directed her in Dancer
In The Dark. Lars, unsurprisingly,
denies everything, but come on.
Have you seen his movies? The
man hates women. Let’s just be
honest about that.
Ásmundur Friðriksson in his nightgown
Independence Party MP Ásmun-
dur Friðriksson reminded every-
one that he still hates foreigners,
saying that asylum seekers take
money away from funds that could
be spent on Iceland’s elderly and
disabled. Not only is this demon-
strably false; Ásmundur has him-
self both voted against increased
funding to these groups, or ab-
stained from voting. So who’s real-
ly costing Iceland’s elderly and dis-
abled money? For that matter, how
much is Ásmundur costing us?
Scene from Reykjavík rental market
Finally, news that Reykjavík will
form a special Airbnb commit-
tee was met with audible sighs
of relief around the capital area.
Specifically, the committee will
be working closely with Airbnb
to crack down on illegal Airbnb
listings. The hope is that this may
reduce pressure on Reykjavík’s al-
ready tightly-closed housing mar-
ket. Those of us currently renting
temporary spaces from friends in
order to avoid living in a tent at
the park wait with bated breath for
the effect to take hold.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 19 — 2017
The Icelandic football team being all great
First
Cafe Paris | Austurstræti 14 | 101 Reykjavík
cafeparis.is | cafeparis@cafeparis.is | +354 551 1020
BREAKFAST
BRUNCH
LUNCH
DINNER
§
§
§