Dear writers,
reading your comments on the Jyllandspostencartoons we are sure you in Iceland never had to deal with neofascism called islam.
Hereby I would advise you to read the koran and specially sura 9 and after that the only conclusion you can draw is that islam is the problem, not the cartoonists. Hoornblazer
bugel@vrij-en-onverveerd.org
Hoornblazer,
Such a well-articulated and argued position deserves a well-articulated and argued response. No, wait! My mistake, your letter is neither well articulated nor argued. Or particularly intelligent at that either. I have no tolerance for racism and I have lost all patience with people who generalize based on religion, race or gender. Christian fundamentalists have proven to be such a particularly lenient and accommodating group or what? Religion or race has little to do with the fact that dickheads are freely available around the world. Stop the hate brother.
Editor
Grapevine can fuck off and die you racist homosexuals!
Supporting paul nikolov you commies stop wasting the time of people with lies and propaganda
anepof@gmail.com
Wow! Two such intelligent letters in the space of two weeks. Apparently, we are doing something right if we are pissing of the extremists. Anepof, I don’t know how you reached the enlightened conclusion that we are racist homosexuals – and frankly, judging from your punctuation, I am amazed that you managed to spell out such a long word with out screwing it up – but obviously you have no idea what these big and complicated words mean. I suggest you call the doctor and tell him that it is time to fill out that prescription again.
Editor
Dear Grapevine, Iceland has rather strict rules on immigration. Therefore, I was very happy the other day when I saw a sign of a milder legislation in Fréttablaðið (070504). There was an article about a Latin American girl who had come to Iceland in October 2005, just one month after I first arrived here, and she had already received an Icelandic citizenship. In the interview she told that she knew she could become a good Icelandic citizen because she was well-educated and energetic, and furthermore she loved traditional Icelandic food and the beautiful landscape here. It was also stressed that the fact that her boyfriend’s mother, Mrs Jónína Bjartmarz, is a Minister in the Icelandic Government, hadn’t affected her application for citizenship at all.
“Perfect”, I thought, and went straight to the Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, the authority in charge of immigrants’ applications for citizenship, to take advantage of the new more liberal policies myself. But to my huge surprize the woman working in the reception informed me that I would have to spend another two and a half years on Icelandic soil before I was entitled to membership in this exclusive club.
“But I’ve already been here one month more than she has”, I said, showing the newspaper with a photo of the smiling girl posing in lopapeysa. “And I’m also quite a fan of the Icelandic nature.”
“Aha, the minister’s daughter-in-law”, the woman said and excused herself and her office. “We weren’t the ones deciding about that.”
So, to keep the readers of Grapevine, of which some surely are waiting for an Icelandic passport themselves, updated on the latest laws on how long time you have to stay in this isle to get citizenship:
* Seven years for people from southern or eastern Europe or the rest of the world.
* Four years for us from other Nordic countries.
* Three years for the ones who are married to an Icelander.
* Some seventeen months for the ones who are together with children of Icelandic ministers.
And to make it even more absurd, this girl will be able to vote for her mother-in-law in the up-coming Alþingi election, 12 May. As George Orwell put it, all are equal, but some are more equal.
Best regards
Joakim Lilljegren
PS. A greeting to the geographical illiterates of the Young Independence Party, who published an election add with a mal-treated map of Europe in Grapevine #5-07: Serbia and Montenegro are no longer the same country, “Litvia” is more known as Latvia, and “Bulgaria” is not another name for
Macedonia.
Dear Joakim,
Of course, some are more equal than others. I have a very hard time believing that the girl’s mother in-law had nothing to do with her being granted a citizenship. But that is just another example of Icelandic politicians misusing their position of power. Not new there really. I am more worried that the Ministry of Education, which of course, has been ministered by the Independence Party for at least the last 12 years now, will have to take a long hard look at how geography is taught in this country. Although, Young Independents are often too focused on America to realise that Europe is continent, not a country. Editor
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