Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.03.2018, Side 4

What Are
Icelanders
Talking About?
A round-up of fresh debates, hot topics and
crazy madness from the past month.
Words: Alice Demurtas
It’s been a busy week, with good
and sad news alike, and with a
good dose of sunshine to warm
up these icy cold days. But what
has been on Icelanders’ minds as
of late besides the latest round
of flu? Here’s a round-up of fresh
debates, hot topics and crazy
madness from these past few days
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobs-
dóttir has been harshly criticised
for attending a lecture held by
British blogger Vanessa Beeley, a
journalist better known for being
an advocate of the Bashar al Assad
regime in Syria. According to
Stundin, Katrín, who later speci-
fied she was invited to the lecture
by a friend and had not inquired
on the subject of the lecture before
attending, was reprimanded for
meeting a “net troll” who called
the Arab Spring movement “a
lie” and the Syrian rebels “terror-
ists.” Both Human Rights advo-
cate Þórunn Ólafsdóttir and
journalists from RÚV refused to
attend the meeting.

In Memoriam
The harshest criticism, however,
came from friends and family of
the late Haukur Hilmarsson,
who died fighting alongside the
Kurds, when Australian author
Tim Anderson decided to dedi-
cate his latest book on the war in
Syria to Haukur. “This would have
been a ridiculous ceremony any
day of the year, but today it’s just
bitter and cruel,” Haukur’s friend
Benjamin wrote. “Haukur was
killed alongside the rebels, fight-
ing dictatorship, fascism, oppres-
sion, nationalism, chauvinism
and stupidity, while Assad looks
at the country as his own personal
property.” Read more about
this on page 6.
Björt Ólafsdóttir during Brighter days
Politics seems to be at the centre
of most conversations these days,
but it’s not always on the serious
end of the spectrum. Disgraced
political party Bright Future has
recently announced they won’t
be running for municipal elec-
tions this year, prompting excited
comments and a particularly well-
written obituary by former Chair-
man of Social Democrats Össur
Skarphéðinsson. In the in-memo-
ria, Össur gave a nod to the party’s
chairman Björt Ólafsdóttir, best
remembered for participat-
ing in a fashion photo shoot in
Parliament and blaming people’s
critiques on the patriarchy. “The
story of Bright Future is one of the
saddest stories of modern times
in politics,” Össur wrote on Face-
book. “They leave nothing behind.
It will only be remembered for
trying to adopt daylight savings
time and for making the govern-
ment explode at a speed never
recorded before.”
Gylfi, stop smiling, this is serious!
On a less funny note, tragedy
struck in the football pitch last
weekend, when Smiter Gylfi
Þór Sigurðsson hurt his knee
while playing for Everton against
Brighton. Although Gylfi stood up
and continued to play after the
injury, the knee was visibly swol-
len by the end of the match. Gylfi
has been described by our football
reporters as “the cherry on top of
the kleina of Icelandic football,” so
Icelanders feared that the injury
might negatively affect the Icelan-
dic team’s chances of winning
the World Cup. Luckily, Everton
recently released a statement
explaining that Gylfi is expected
to be sidelined for only eight
weeks. Coincidentally, the World
Cup won’t start for another eight
weeks, either. Rejoice—perhaps
not all is lost! In the meantime,
let’s all pray to the Norse Gods for
Gylfi’s speedy recovery.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 04 — 2018
THE NEWS EDIT
First
The shockweaves from Syria reach far and wide
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