Stand up straight soldier!
It's time for Icelanders to stick together ... I know from experience that we are good at this, especially if it involves not giving in to 'foreigners' There has been a big campaign for people to vote for Magni here in Iceland and keep him out of the bottom three. Phone companies have lowered the price of text messages to the voting number by 80%, Marquees have been put up with wireless internet connections so people can turn up, watch and vote if they have brought their laptops. Because the show is shown at prime time in Los Angeles it is shown here at 1 am ... yes, that's one after midnight ... and for this reason the school near Magnis birth town has therefore given the pupils and teachers the morning off today to recover from yesterdays voting. I take full part in this and believe that Magni should win ... but ...
... it's a shame Icelanders can't be so strong and stand together when it comes to more political issues, such as the fact that despite knowing that food prices are kept up to keep a declining farming industry going, we still vote for the same government, election after election ... since way before I had a right to vote.
... another thing I could never understand about Iceland was why it supported the Iraq war? Why? It was a mystery, until I read a book called 'Draumalandið - sjálfshjálparbók handa hræddri þjóð' which I haven't finished reading yet. The title translates as 'Dreamland - a self help book for a frightened nation'. It is more like a well researched report on Iceland than anything else, stating references etc. In it the author, Andri Snær Magnason (yes his father's name was Magni) informs us that Alcoa, an Icelandic aluminium company, which is an evergrowing industry in Iceland, manufactures aluminium for the Hummers that the American Army uses in the war ... and possibly other things used there ... Could it be that the support for the Iraq war wasn't just a puppy (Davíð Oddson, then Prime Minister) obeying his master (George W. Bush) as I thought but a political and business decision, influenced by people who are making money, and alot of it, off the instability in the middle-east ... how naive was I ... I thought politicians had the good of the country on their agenda ... and mark my words, they'll get voted in again in the next elections in 2007 despite all this ... Icelanders, as me and my family well know, fear change like a child fears the dark ...
Iceland ... you can, and should, stand up for Magni ... but you should also stop bending over and letting certain political parties, i.e. The Progressive Party and the Independence Party do what they are doing to the nation ...
... it's a shame Icelanders can't be so strong and stand together when it comes to more political issues, such as the fact that despite knowing that food prices are kept up to keep a declining farming industry going, we still vote for the same government, election after election ... since way before I had a right to vote.
... another thing I could never understand about Iceland was why it supported the Iraq war? Why? It was a mystery, until I read a book called 'Draumalandið - sjálfshjálparbók handa hræddri þjóð' which I haven't finished reading yet. The title translates as 'Dreamland - a self help book for a frightened nation'. It is more like a well researched report on Iceland than anything else, stating references etc. In it the author, Andri Snær Magnason (yes his father's name was Magni) informs us that Alcoa, an Icelandic aluminium company, which is an evergrowing industry in Iceland, manufactures aluminium for the Hummers that the American Army uses in the war ... and possibly other things used there ... Could it be that the support for the Iraq war wasn't just a puppy (Davíð Oddson, then Prime Minister) obeying his master (George W. Bush) as I thought but a political and business decision, influenced by people who are making money, and alot of it, off the instability in the middle-east ... how naive was I ... I thought politicians had the good of the country on their agenda ... and mark my words, they'll get voted in again in the next elections in 2007 despite all this ... Icelanders, as me and my family well know, fear change like a child fears the dark ...
Iceland ... you can, and should, stand up for Magni ... but you should also stop bending over and letting certain political parties, i.e. The Progressive Party and the Independence Party do what they are doing to the nation ...
posted by Tóti Freysson at Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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