Politics
Most read
Latest
-
When Solidarity Happens
Right now, it’s pretty safe to say there is a kind of class war taking place in Iceland, and it’s one management is waging against the working class. About a week ago at the time of this writing, Iceland’s unions got the…
-
When the SF Embassy Met Jón Gnarr
Much has been said about the, shall we say, creative style of politics as pioneered by Iceland’s mayor Jón Gnarr – a reputation that goes far and wide beyond the borders of Iceland. Having read articles about him in the (non-icelandic) press,…
-
ON THE PATH OF PUNK: The Reykjavík Punk Walk Starts Today!
Taking a tour through the local movement’s key locations and turning points with historian Unnur María Bergveinsdóttir. (Photo still from ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’.) Iceland was a very different place in 1980. Most of the population were born after World War II and under…
-
The Power Of The Unsaid
In Grapevine’s last issue, Kári Túlinius poses a question that he then attempts to answer: “What became of the far right in Iceland?” Trotting out numerous examples of short-lived right-wing parties, whose political agenda truly advocated xenophobic and racist ideologies, Kári outlines…
-
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”
The problem with the Magma deal is not that it involves a heartless foreign corporation (though of course it does) or that this corporation received advice from Icelandic regulators on how to circumvent restrictions on foreign ownership, or that Iceland is going…
-
I Am Perplexed By Life
Hi! Welcome to yet another issue of The Reykjavík Grapevine – Reykjavík’s tourist magazine for tourists! (If you are not a tourist, you shouldn’t really be reading this. This is a tourist magazine, you know. Show some respect). Anyway. There are many…
-
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
The municipal elections throughout Iceland had a strong “throw out the rascals” feel to them. And it felt good. Independence Party chair Bjarni Benediktsson, clueless as ever, expressed satisfaction with his party’s performance, as if this were some sort of horse race,…
-
Your Anger Is Not A Gift, In Fact It Is Getting Very Tiresome Even Though I Myself Am Often Outraged And Upset At What Goes On In Iceland
I have been wondering about our little community here in Iceland lately. I have been thinking about an aspect of it that seems to be growing and permeating our society like some sorta evil mushroom from a horror movie (or that Óttar…
-
The Crazy World of the Quota System (somewhat) Explained
My cousin Gummi put it best: “The problem with the quota system is that it’s always been discussed in such an obscure, specialized language that no one really understands how it works, what it’s meant to do and why.” Raised in the…
-
The Allen Iverson Election
Welcome to Iceland. You are visiting the home of the oldest parliament in the world, of some of the oldest and most revered writing in Europe, and country of pronounced natural beauty. The tradition of democracy is so strong here, that we…
-
Seeking Foreigners
Once upon a time, the Reykjavík Grapevine was packed with Germans, Dutchmen, Finns, Canadians, and the occasional American crank, all joining together to voice our curiosities about Iceland and to try to create a community of foreigners interested in sticking around for…
-
The Grapevine Presents A Spoken Word Creation Written for, But Not Performed by, the President of Iceland During the 61st Celebration of Iceland’s Independence, at Austurvöllur, Reykjavík, June 17th 2005.
Fellow citizens. It was on a rainy day 61 years ago that the youthful visionaries of an old nation came together on Þingvellir and declared Iceland’s independence. Vigorously have we marched on, on the solid foundation of the world’s oldest democracy, towards…