Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.03.2018, Blaðsíða 6

Iceland is not a
country friendly
to gambling.
Sure, there are
digital slots
and scratch-off
tickets, but there
are no casinos.
Even underground
gambling is scarce
at best. But even in
the most intensely
anti-gambling
countries in the
world, in any given
major city you
can usually find
policy betting,
also known as a
numbers racket,
or gambling in its
purest form.
Arguably, policy
betting would take
off here. Any smart
bookie can offer
500:1 odds on a
randomly gener-
ated, publicly
available, 3-digit
number that can’t
be easily manipu-
lated - like, say, the
last three digits of
the day’s closing
trade-weighted
index for the
króna. As the odds
of actually hitting
this number are
really far greater
than 500:1, book-
ies could make
a killing, while
bettors could get
a pile of tax-free
cash. Everybody
wins.
Sadly, we’ve
asked around
and could find no
action of this kind
that we could get
in on. Take note,
aspiring gang-
sters. Until such
time as someone
takes this impor-
tant step, policy
betting remains
yet another thing
missing in
Iceland. PF
Policy Betting
The news of the death of Haukur Hilmars-
son, an Icelandic activist and anarchist
who in all likelihood was killed fight-
ing Turkish forces in Afrin, Syria last
month, has sent shock waves through
the Icelandic community. His death has
brought the Kurdish cause and Turk-
ish abuses to the forefront of attention
and discussion,
and his legacy as
a tireless crusader
for human rights
has been cele -
brated. Some of
the ways in which
his memory have
been honoured have raised criticism, if
not outright condemnation, from the
people who knew him best.
One prime example of this was a
conference held last Saturday on the
Syrian situation. Attended by amongst
others Prime Minister Katrní Jakobsdót-
tir, the guests of honour were blogger
Vanessa Beeley and writer Tim Anderson.
Both of these people have been outspo-
ken supporters of Bashar al-Assad, the
Baathist leader of Syria whose heavy-
handed response to popular protests
calling for his removal has prompted
a civil war. The flag of Assadic Syria
graced the podium of the conference,
and Anderson’s book, The Dirty War On
Syria, was dedicated to Hilmar’s memory.
An anarchist would not
back Assad
Beeley’s theories about the reality of
Syria, which includes the belief that the
well-documented chemical weapons
attacks on Syrian civilians are a hoax and
the White Helmets employ crisis actors,
deviate so greatly from all evidence that
not even journalists for public broad-
casting wanted to interview her. More
importantly, pretty much everyone
Haukur stood and fought for is diametri-
cally opposed to the rhetoric of Ander-
son and Beeley.
Haukur was not just a human rights
activist; he was also an anarchist, and
opposed authority in all its forms, let
alone that of a brutal dictator like Assad.
In Syria, Haukur fought in the Interna-
tional Freedom Battalion, a group of
communists and anarchists from around
the world lending tactical support to the
YPG, also known as the People’s Protec-
tion Units, a Kurdish fighting force that
has virtually eliminated the Islamic
State from northern Syria and are now
battling heavy shelling conducted by
Turkey. Furthermore, the Kurds in
the region have organised themselves
within the framework of “democratic
confederalism”, an anarchist form of
direct democracy on a municipal level.
As such, it is highly unlikely that Haukur
would have felt honoured by having his
name attached to Assad.
Family & friends displeased
The meeting had been organised in
part and was conducted by former Left-
Green MP Ögmundur Jónasson, who had
invited Katrín to attend. She has since
told the press that she had not famil-
iarised herself with the work of Beeley
or Anderson. Benjamín Julian, who had
been a friend of Haukur’s for many years,
took to Facebook to express his grave
disappointment with the whole affair.
“This would have been a ridiculous
ceremony any day of the year, but today
it’s just bitter and cruel,” Benjamin
wrote. “Haukur was killed alongside the
rebels, fighting dictatorship, fascism,
oppression, nationalism, chauvinism
and stupidity, while Assad looks at the
country as his own personal property.”
Whatever can be said of Assad,
one thing is certain: everything Assad
stands for, and Hilmar stood for, find no
common ground between them.
wrote. “Haukur was killed alongside the
rebels, fighting dictatorship, fascism,
oppression, nationalism, chauvinism
and stupidity, while Assad looks at the
country as his own personal property.”
Whatever can be said of Assad,
one thing is certain: everything Assad
stands for, and Hilmar stood for, find no
common ground between them.
Pro-Assad Writers
Hold Conference In
Iceland
Prompting outrage from friends & family
of pro-Kurdish fighter and anarchist
Haukur Hilmarsson
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photo:
International
Freedom Battalion
First
T EMPL A R A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
BREAKFAST FROM 7
LUNCH FROM 12
Haukur Hilmarsson fought for freedom; not Assad
“In Syria, Haukur
fought in the Inter-
national Freedom
Battalion”
Words: Kinga Kozłowska
A: Iceland is famous for being a
leader in the fight
for gender equal-
ity, topping the
World Economic
F o r u m ’ s G l o b a l
Gender Gap Index
for some years. On
the occasion of International Wom-
ens’ Day, I reached out to a sociolo-
gist from The University of Iceland
to delve a little bit deeper into the
subject of equality between wom-
en and men and to find out what
could be the next pending issue.
“The situation of women in Ice-
land looks very good when you com-
pare it to some of the other coun-
tries (the United States, for example),
but there is still room left for im-
provement,” says Berglind Rós Mag-
núsdóttir who specialises in gender
issues in the context of education.
“Women are welcome to participate
in male-dominated sectors and we
are treated more or less as equals
there, but our work done in the
traditionally feminine field of care
- like being a nurse or a preschool
teacher - is just not valued enough,”
she emphasises. It seems that the
wage gap between men and women
is closing only in those male-domi-
nated areas, while the more feminine
professions are left behind. “It is im-
portant to remember that becom-
ing a nurse requires as many years
of education as becoming an engi-
neer and that it might be seen as
a much more labour-intensive kind
of work. Still, it is neither compen-
sated nor valued accordingly and
this needs to be changed in order for
the society to become truly equal,”
she concludes.
ASK A
Sociologist
Q: What Could Be
The Next Step In The
Struggle For Gender
Equality?
6 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 04 — 2018
MISSING IN ICELAND