Peace on earth ... or even just in my head!
Yesterday was a good day at school for Jolyon ... proper good. Today was his first morning of home schooling with his mum and he did really well, I'm told. At lunchtime he went to school where he will play outside for a bit and then go to a party at his friends house where the whole class is invited. It has all the makings for a second good day and a little growth in self-confidence. I remain positive and my faith in my eldest son is intact.
Thinking about how I feel about Iceland. The only way I can think to describe my feelings toward it are like this: If a close relative for whom you have unconditional love lets you down or turns out not to be the person you thought for all the wrong reasons, what happens? You don't stop loving that person. You don't stop being their close relative with the unconditional love. But you feel dissapointed and your faith and trust is gone. And you may choose to live further away from that person and have less communication with them. It doesn't mean you have less communication with your other close and unconditionally loved relatives or friends living in this persons house. It just means you meet and communicate with those people in ways that minimises your contact with the person (i.e. the Icelandic authorities).
This is how I feel about Iceland and it's government ... although I certainly don't love the government unconditionally ... in fact I dislike most politicians unconditionally. I say most because my late grandad was a politician and I firmly believe that he was always true to his beliefs. I think that was why he was eventually forced to step down ... refusal to take part in the political back-stabbing game which is common practice these days. I'm also not naive enough to think that he was the only politician ever to be true to his beliefs. I think Bill Clinton is. I think John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill were. I think Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson is. On a more negative note, Hitler probably was as well ... that's the other extreme. But I also think that although most politicians get involved because of beliefs, too many of them succum to money and more so, power.
I went to school for many years with a guy, Björn Ingi Hrafnsson (we called him Bingi). He ran in the mayoral elections this year. He's one of those who has succumbed to this sleaze. His party has no policies as far as I can tell other than to remain in power ... and they do. Thankfully he didn't become mayor. As an example of their lack of true-to-self, one of their agenda items was fuel efficent and environmentally friendly cars. This former school mate of mine drives around in a Ford Explorer jeep. The smallest one of these has a 4 liter 6 valve engine ... not environmentally friendly. On top of that, for their election campaign, they drove around in a Hummer ... it makes the Explorer seem like an electric scooter in regards to fuel consumption and CO2 poisoning let into the air. Oh, and there was a picture of this Hummer outside one of their rallies, parked in a handicapped zone ... they really know how to sell it to you, those whacky politicians! Through negotiations with the biggest party, Bingi got in and is now a big shot on the council. Head of sports and leisure in Reykjavík! ... that's all the kids football clubs, playgrounds etc. It's great to see your old school mates do well ... I just wish it was done honestly!
But Iceland as a country and society I do love unconditionally ... but I am dissapointed in it's racism and lack of caring toward other unconditionally loved relatives. It's a strange contradiction to carry around inside you but I think I'll be able to put it more in perspective once we've left and can look at it from a distance ... and maybe even laugh ... or at least grin over the fact that ... as our T-shirts will say ... "We Survived Iceland"... By the way ... we are now due these T-shirts a month earlier than we first anticipated, as we're going to be moving on or around the 3rd December rather than in January next year.
So, as I am always looking for reasons to be angry at my native country, here is another one ... Iceland has, as from today, started commercial whaling again! Maybe they'll raise them in captivity in the new lagoon at Kárahnjúkar and then harpoon them from there and eat them. That's much more sensible than letting the wildlife at Kárahnjúkar live and letting the whales roam free ... alive!
When I was a teenager Iceland whaled commercially. I didn't think much of it until a few Greenpeace blokes came and sank some whaling ships. 'Bastards' I thought. 'Do they not think about all those poor fishermens families and their loss of income?' Now I might join them, if I wasn't hoping to get into the UK Police Force. My dislike of Greenpeace and their tactics have actually been kept intact but my opinions on commercial, or scientific for that matter, whaling has flip-flopped completely. The same has happened to my enviromental awareness, as regular readers will know. When did this happen? When I met the first woman I ever truly loved.
Before then I didn't think twice about putting my cigarettes out on the ground and leaving them (I don't smoke anymore) nor did it bother me to throw rubbish out the car window. Why did I think in this selfish manner up to the age of 27? I had a good upbringing and was intellegent (I think I still am!?) but environmental and animal welfare education went in one ear and out the other. I blame it largely on my self-destructive impulses. As a teenager and young adult I didn't care what happened to me and not much about those around me, people, animals or the planet. I thought I did ... but I certainly didn't behave in that way. So ... littering and killing whales was fine with me. It wasn't till I met Joanna and our oldest son, moved in with them and got married that I had to honestly think about other people and what would happen to them in the future. It took a while after getting married for me to become this aware but I'm glad I am. I am by no means as passionate about these things as Joanna or Jolyon but have alot more respect for things around me and would like to leave a nice, clean, peaceful earth to my children and (hopefully) grandchildren. That said, I'm too much of a hypocrite to ever become a vegetarian, like my wife and children ...
Talking of peaceful earth ... are we heading into yet another war? North-Korea versus Japan and America. Will the Icelandic authorities oppose it now that the American army has left ... not if Bingis friends have anything to say about it, which they do! Will Britain oppose? I didn't go to school with Gordon Brown but I would still hazard a guess at: No, they won't oppose it. France might, Germany might, Russia probably will but that's about it.
Well, lots more to talk about today than I thought when I sat down ... sorry if it's a bit whittery and ranting ... it's just as it came out of my head.
Thinking about how I feel about Iceland. The only way I can think to describe my feelings toward it are like this: If a close relative for whom you have unconditional love lets you down or turns out not to be the person you thought for all the wrong reasons, what happens? You don't stop loving that person. You don't stop being their close relative with the unconditional love. But you feel dissapointed and your faith and trust is gone. And you may choose to live further away from that person and have less communication with them. It doesn't mean you have less communication with your other close and unconditionally loved relatives or friends living in this persons house. It just means you meet and communicate with those people in ways that minimises your contact with the person (i.e. the Icelandic authorities).
This is how I feel about Iceland and it's government ... although I certainly don't love the government unconditionally ... in fact I dislike most politicians unconditionally. I say most because my late grandad was a politician and I firmly believe that he was always true to his beliefs. I think that was why he was eventually forced to step down ... refusal to take part in the political back-stabbing game which is common practice these days. I'm also not naive enough to think that he was the only politician ever to be true to his beliefs. I think Bill Clinton is. I think John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill were. I think Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson is. On a more negative note, Hitler probably was as well ... that's the other extreme. But I also think that although most politicians get involved because of beliefs, too many of them succum to money and more so, power.
I went to school for many years with a guy, Björn Ingi Hrafnsson (we called him Bingi). He ran in the mayoral elections this year. He's one of those who has succumbed to this sleaze. His party has no policies as far as I can tell other than to remain in power ... and they do. Thankfully he didn't become mayor. As an example of their lack of true-to-self, one of their agenda items was fuel efficent and environmentally friendly cars. This former school mate of mine drives around in a Ford Explorer jeep. The smallest one of these has a 4 liter 6 valve engine ... not environmentally friendly. On top of that, for their election campaign, they drove around in a Hummer ... it makes the Explorer seem like an electric scooter in regards to fuel consumption and CO2 poisoning let into the air. Oh, and there was a picture of this Hummer outside one of their rallies, parked in a handicapped zone ... they really know how to sell it to you, those whacky politicians! Through negotiations with the biggest party, Bingi got in and is now a big shot on the council. Head of sports and leisure in Reykjavík! ... that's all the kids football clubs, playgrounds etc. It's great to see your old school mates do well ... I just wish it was done honestly!
But Iceland as a country and society I do love unconditionally ... but I am dissapointed in it's racism and lack of caring toward other unconditionally loved relatives. It's a strange contradiction to carry around inside you but I think I'll be able to put it more in perspective once we've left and can look at it from a distance ... and maybe even laugh ... or at least grin over the fact that ... as our T-shirts will say ... "We Survived Iceland"... By the way ... we are now due these T-shirts a month earlier than we first anticipated, as we're going to be moving on or around the 3rd December rather than in January next year.
So, as I am always looking for reasons to be angry at my native country, here is another one ... Iceland has, as from today, started commercial whaling again! Maybe they'll raise them in captivity in the new lagoon at Kárahnjúkar and then harpoon them from there and eat them. That's much more sensible than letting the wildlife at Kárahnjúkar live and letting the whales roam free ... alive!
When I was a teenager Iceland whaled commercially. I didn't think much of it until a few Greenpeace blokes came and sank some whaling ships. 'Bastards' I thought. 'Do they not think about all those poor fishermens families and their loss of income?' Now I might join them, if I wasn't hoping to get into the UK Police Force. My dislike of Greenpeace and their tactics have actually been kept intact but my opinions on commercial, or scientific for that matter, whaling has flip-flopped completely. The same has happened to my enviromental awareness, as regular readers will know. When did this happen? When I met the first woman I ever truly loved.
Before then I didn't think twice about putting my cigarettes out on the ground and leaving them (I don't smoke anymore) nor did it bother me to throw rubbish out the car window. Why did I think in this selfish manner up to the age of 27? I had a good upbringing and was intellegent (I think I still am!?) but environmental and animal welfare education went in one ear and out the other. I blame it largely on my self-destructive impulses. As a teenager and young adult I didn't care what happened to me and not much about those around me, people, animals or the planet. I thought I did ... but I certainly didn't behave in that way. So ... littering and killing whales was fine with me. It wasn't till I met Joanna and our oldest son, moved in with them and got married that I had to honestly think about other people and what would happen to them in the future. It took a while after getting married for me to become this aware but I'm glad I am. I am by no means as passionate about these things as Joanna or Jolyon but have alot more respect for things around me and would like to leave a nice, clean, peaceful earth to my children and (hopefully) grandchildren. That said, I'm too much of a hypocrite to ever become a vegetarian, like my wife and children ...
Talking of peaceful earth ... are we heading into yet another war? North-Korea versus Japan and America. Will the Icelandic authorities oppose it now that the American army has left ... not if Bingis friends have anything to say about it, which they do! Will Britain oppose? I didn't go to school with Gordon Brown but I would still hazard a guess at: No, they won't oppose it. France might, Germany might, Russia probably will but that's about it.
Well, lots more to talk about today than I thought when I sat down ... sorry if it's a bit whittery and ranting ... it's just as it came out of my head.
posted by Tóti Freysson at Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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