Moody’s Iceland rating remains unchanged

The international credit ratings agency Moody’s has decided to keep Iceland’s rating unchanged, one level above ‘junk’ status. The news has been welcomed in Reykjavik after the company indicated that a ‘no’ vote in the recent Icesave referendum would likely result in a downgrade for the country.

Iceland’s Minister of Finance Steingrimur J. Sigfusson says he is satisfied with the outcome of last weekend’s meeting with Moody’s in Washington DC.

A statement from Moody’s explains the decision saying that it has now come to light that Britain and the Netherlands will get paid out from the estate of the

Iceland celebrates first day of summer

Not only is it Maundy Thursday, it is also the first day of summer in Iceland. Both are celebrated as public holidays each year — meaning that this year has one fewer holiday, as they both fall on the same day.

Sumardagurinn Fyrsti is what Icelanders call the first Thursday after the 18th April each year; and that means today is the first day of summer. Snow be damned!

Spring in Iceland has done its all-too-usual trick this year of appearing in early to mid April and then running and hiding again towards the end of the month as “summer”

Unemployment affects young the worst

The number of unemployed people in Iceland increased by around 200 in the first three months of the year compared to the first quarter of 2010. An average of 13,700 people were searching for work in January, February and March and unemployment measured 9.9 percent among men and 5.5 percent among women.

Unemployment is a more serious problem among the young, with 15.9 percent of 16-24 year-olds on the job market unemployed. The figure is 6.2 percent among 24-54 year-olds and 6.7 among the 55-74 age group. The figures cover those looking for work and do not cover people

Morgunbladid urged to apologise for controversial cartoon

A cartoon of Icelandic MP Siv Fridleifsdottir as a prostitute, which appeared in the Morgunbladid newspaper, has caused outrage within the party. The cartoonist has now apologised; but the newspaper has not.

Birkir Jon Jonsson, the Progressive Party deputy chairman, says the newspaper cartoon crossed all reasonable boundaries. The deputy chairman continued, saying that the unkind portrayal of Siv Fridleifsdottir was also undeserved.

The cartoonist has apologised; but Jonsson is also calling on Morgunbladid to do the same. Otherwise, he says, a new line has been drawn on the acceptable media treatment of politics.

Morgunbladid editor, David Oddsson, would not

A New Reign of Terror Over Iceland

A relatively new group of Vikings calling themselves, Skálmöld, plan to terrorize Tjarnarbíó with their big bad, Viking metal on February 24. The occasion? They're celebrating the release of their inaugural album, 'Baldur'. In Norse mythology, Baldur is the son of Odin, who is killed by his blind brother, Höður, who is tricked into the deed by Loki, who is the god of mischief. In fact, Skálmöld tell the whole story in their album. So, if you're fond of the idea of having a Viking saga belted at you, Skálmöld may be worth the gander. Also of note, Tjarnarbíó was

School’s fake rune stone makes media the fool

A Swedish school has admitted that a rune stone it advertised for sale last week – causing much media excitement – was faked as part of an exercise in source criticism. News of the apparently rare artefact spread rapidly across Swedish internet, TV and radio after the local media in Filipstad were first tipped off about the online advert.

The notice, which was deemed by onlookers not to be an April Fool's joke despite being posted on 1st April, gave a detailed history of the stone which lent credibility to its authenticity. It also, however, gave the impression that

Media law passed by Icelandic parliament

A new media control law has been accepted by the Icelandic parliament.

 

In the vote yesterday 30 MPs voted to support the bill, 14 against and 19 MPs did not vote. 13 of the votes against were from Independence Party members and the 14th was the Progressive Party’s Vigdis Hauksdottir.

 

The new law seeks to protect children from obscene content and to ensure freedom of speech. To uphold its goals a new media committee will be created to mediate between the media, the public and government.

 

The bill has honourable intentions, but it is still proving controversial — not

Couple die in shower electrocution

A Swedish couple have died after apparently being electrocuted while taking a shower together in a hotel room in Thailand. The 23 year-old woman and the 25 year-old man were found dead on Saturday 2nd April by their friends from a neighbouring room, who rushed in after hearing a scream.

“One of the friends ran in, but found both of them dead. When she tried to revive her friend, she received an electric shock,” a family friend told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

The deaths, which took place in southern Thailand in the beach resort of Krabi, have been confirmed by

Iceland volcano celebrating birthday in quiet fashion

Today is the fist anniversary of the eruption under Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier. The eruption was global news and its ash cloud caused the biggest disruption to worldwide aviation since the Second World War.

The University of Iceland is commemorating the occasion with a scientific symposium on the eruption in the Askja building. The programme starts at 17.00 and is open to all.

As previously reported on IceNews, a permanent museum and exhibition dedicated to the eruption will open tomorrow on a farm at the base of the glacier with the fun-to-pronounce name.

Although the Eyjafjallajokull eruption has been officially declared

Bottlenose dolphin washes up in Iceland

A bottlenose dolphin has washed ashore are Vikurfjara in Iceland. The bottlenose dolphin is a very rare visitor to Iceland.

The carcass washed ashore in good condition on 2nd April, according to Gisli Vikingsson, cetacean specialist. It is likely the dolphin died relatively nearby, given its condition.

The bottlenose dolphin is a rare visitor to the North Atlantic, although it is common in tropical areas. Since regular whale and dolphin counts began around Iceland in 1987, the bottlenose has only been spotted three times for certain, DV reports.

The Icelandic Marine Research Institute has frozen the dolphin carcass and will

Constitution, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma

Iceland's constitution has, of late, become something of an apple of discord. Deemed outdated and ineffective after the bank collapse, the Icelandic people gave it their best shot and tried to elect an assembly to amend the document last year, but the election was deemed invalid two months later, and it seems we're stuck with it for the time being.

To better acquaint the ignorant populace with that lovely scrap of paper, artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, working with composer Karólína Eiríksdóttir, have created a video installation/musical composition that deals directly with all 81 articles of the constitution, up

British-Icelandic documentary nominated for Icelandic Oscar

The English-language film Future of Hope has been nominated in the Best Documentary category for an EDDA award (Iceland’s answer to the Oscars).

“If you missed Future of Hope when it was released in Haskolabio in September 2010, now you have a second
chance to watch it on the big screen,” a press release enthuses. This is because, due to its EDDA nomination, Bio Paradiso cinema in central Reykjavik has already begun screening the feature-length film on a new one-week run or 1 week which began on Friday.

Future of Hope’s British director, Henry Bateman attended Friday’s screening and took

To Be Or Not To Be

Will October 6th, 2008 (the day Iceland's luckless PM Mr. Haarde, asked God to help his poor nation since he himself could not) live on in our collective memory as a "day of infamy"—a sort of Icelandic Pearl Harbour?

Pearl Harbour is today remembered by Americans because of Japan's aerial bombardment on the US naval station. And because it led to the Americans' involvement in the Second World War. Wars are inevitably both destabilising and devastating. People not only lose their property—but their lives.

In our case, Iceland's economic collapse ("hrunið") may yet claim a few lives, but in most cases the losses are less tangible. Many have lost their jobs, their property, their savings. Some have even lost their hope. Then there are those who have already voted with their feet—and emigrated.

Some say our greatest loss is our reputation as an honest and trustworthy people. Because in our case, we did not suffer an attack from an outside enemy. In our case the enemy came from within. That is what makes it all the more painful. And it explains, partly at least, why so many find it almost unbearable to face the truth: We have only ourselves to blame—and no one else.

'THE THREE WISE MEN'

The best thing that has happened to us after the crash is the truth-com- mission-report by 'the three wise men'. Nine volumes and almost three thousand pages, including appended documents on the web. The truth and nothing but the truth. They were asked to tell us the truth about the causes of the collapse and to find out who was responsible. And they did just that— fairly and squarely. They spelled it all out in painstaking detail.

The collapse was caused by a combination of fraudulent business schemes and irresponsible politicians. And by the way: the majority of Icelandic voters cannot be acquitted either. Time and again they voted for parties and politicians who did not deserve the trust put in them. Again and again. And the nouveaux riche buffoons—flaunting their ill-begotten wealth—were extolled as the nation's best sons. How many times did the President of Iceland, Mr. Grímsson—the hyper-active chef-de-protocol of the plutocrats—ceremoniously accord them the highest decorations of state, making it impossible for honest people to accept such commendations in the future? The critics' voices were simply drowned, and the warning signals—and there were plenty of them— were ignored.

No wonder how many are simply unable to face the truth: Out of 147 individuals in leading positions in government, political parties, the Central Bank, the civil service and banks and business corporations etc., questioned by the truth-commission, not a single one admitted any responsibility at all, not to mention expressing a sense of guilt or regret. "Not my department" was the standard refrain of those haughty elitists. This seems to be a nation where the blind lead the deaf.

But ours was not only the lethal cocktail of dishonest business and incompetent politics. Iceland was by design meant to become a shining example of the neo-conservative utopia; a tax haven for the super-rich with minimum government interference in the free play of market forces. If something were to go astray, the market forces could be trusted to correct it by themselves—or so they believed. This was not only the professed ideology of the Independence Party leadership; it was the declared policy of the IP-led governments that steered us, slowly but surely, into the crash.

Iceland's fall in 2008 was the direct consequence of this pre-meditated policy. It was not the failure of capital- ism as such. Capitalism cannot function at all without direction, legislation and constant supervision by

Time Travelling in Iceland

The Reykjavík Museum of Photography has recently launched a new website that allows you to view some of its specimens without having to forsake the comfort of your home and the warm glow of your computer screen. The website offers a free virtual getaway through Iceland's past and present, storing some twenty thousand pictures in eighty different picture albums.

The albums showcase various themes, photographers, regions and eras. Although the collection is not yet organized in the most English-language-user-friendly way, it is nonetheless easy to browse through the many photos, which depict scenes of life in Iceland over the

Iceland’s proposal for spinal cord injury research team approved

The Nordic Council Welfare Committee has approved Iceland's proposal to create a team of doctors and scientists to prepare proposals for improvements to spinal cord injury research and treatment.

The proposal, although submitted by the Icelandic members of the council, is the brainchild of Icelandic nurse and mother of a paralysed daughter, Audur Gudjonsdottir. Since Audur's daughter suffered a spinal cord injury in 1989, Audur has done everything in her power to raise awareness of the seriousness of spinal cord injury and has campaigned for global unity in searching for a cure.

Audur produced the television programme You Will Never

Enjoying Emptiness

Artist Sigurður Guðmundsson has been unusually prominent in the Icelandic art scene this year, publishing a new novel, exhibiting his early photographic work in Reykjavík and inaugurating a major work of public art in Djúpivogur. Sigurður maintains a busy schedule, dividing his time between Reykjavík, Amsterdam and Xiamen, China. When the Grapevine tried to catch up with him following the opening of his exhibition in Reykjavík this summer, he was already halfway around the world.

I just came home from an intense week in Shanghai, exhibiting, performing and partying. My wife Ineke and I were celebrating the anniversary of the Chinese European Art Centre, a ten-year exchange between Chinese and Dutch artists. Holland has always treated me as a Dutch artist and included me in their international activities. This was a big exhibition connected to the Expo world fair, entitled Dialogue 2010. Now I am back here in Xiamen, relaxing on my balcony overlooking a beautiful sunset over the South China Ocean.

How is the relationship between you as an Icelander and the Dutch in light of the conflict between the two nations in the aftermath of the crash?

Holland has always been very kind to me, even after Icesave. However, the image that the Dutch have of Icelanders has been impaired, and maybe rightly so. There are many people still suffering because of this mess caused by an Icelandic bank, even though it may be exaggerated in the Dutch and British media to cover up the fact that they also made big mistakes in this affair. But I have very limited knowledge of these matters. In general, regarding your question, I have little belief in the notion of nationality and I feel that we need to start thinking of something else. The need for some kind of roots or a mutual background with other people is the same as always, but today it might be more relevant in another context than nationality. But, the feeling of being a foreigner is important to me and has been for a long time. I like being a foreigner, that hasn't changed.

Is being a foreigner or an outsider an important thread in your work as an artist?

It is hard for me to talk about a thread in my work because I have always gone from one different thing to the other. I have great respect for artists who work their way up to a certain plane or level and in their work they continually confirm this level and deepen it. Some of my favourite artists are like that and I really feed on their art. But cats do not eat cats; they eat mice. So I am not worried about liking art by people who work differently than I do. My method is different, I always jump off the deep end, creating a new kind of work, letting it go and then moving on to the next one. Like a writer, perhaps, who writes one novel and then the next one, some may be good and others bad. That is why I cannot talk about my photographic work as a series, even though I made it in two different time periods and give each work group a title when they are exhibited separately. I made Situations in the seventies and exhibited the more recent Mutes just a few years ago and it turned out to be somewhat unpopular. Both include individual works that may be connected but I do not regard them as a series.

This spring you displayed Situations in the i8 gallery here in Reykjavík. You created it in the seventies and then you did not do photographs again until the Mutes exhibition two years ago at the Reykjavík Art Museum. How do you see the Situations today in relation to having taken up photography again?

Those works were very much created out of the notion of the private, going deep into what you feel. Not gathering information laterally, but entering a single feeling and working with it in depth and coming up with something that you would otherwise never really think of. In general terms, humanity and society have used art as a mode of expression where one and the same manifestation may contain a complete paradox. You can express "day/night" or "yes/no" and "this way/the other" with complete assurance in the same work. I do not use logic to reach my goal, even though many artists that I like use logic to enter a certain paradigm. For example, my brother Kristján. He works through all the logical steps and comes out on the other side with something great. There are many ways available and I cannot

Vigilant hero saves drowning Reykjavik teen

A taxi passenger in Reykjavik who saw something out of the corner of his eye is being hailed as a hero for saving a man from drowning.

“I was on my way home in a taxi when I saw something black out on Tjornin [the large pond in the centre of Reykjavik],” says Andri Vilbergsson, who saved the life of a 19 year-old who had been taking a short cut home when the ice broke under him. The young man fell into the cold water and ended up fighting for his life in the darkness of the early hours of

Iceland constitutional assembly wants court case re-opened

Some of those elected to Iceland’s constitutional assembly will today appeal to the Supreme Court of Iceland to reconsider its decision to nullify the election on technical grounds. The ruling was wrong, they claim.

The plaintiffs claim that the decision was an administrative one and not a proper legal judgement, RUV reports.

Under Icelandic law, if a court judgement is partly based on incomplete or wrong information, it should be reinvestigated. The group claims that the Supreme Court’s decision was based on incomplete information as the court did not heed its own research findings in making sure the electoral deficiencies

Icelandic fishing company playing towns off against each other?

People’s interest was piqued in the north-western Icelandic town of Isafjordur this morning when one of its biggest and best-known fishing trawlers unloaded its catch in neighbouring Bolungarvik following a decision by Isafjordur town that the fishing company opposed.

The ship, Pall Palsson (IS 102), is owned and operated by Hradfrystihusid Gunnvor (also known as HG); which is the Westfjords region’s biggest company.

When the ship failed to turn up at Isafjordur harbour this morning, instead offloading in Bolungarvik, rumours quickly started that the company was trying to punish the Isafjardarbaer municipality for throwing its support behind a proposal from

Taxi boss spanked for Christmas bottom teaser

A Swedish taxi firm is being investigated for sexism after its CEO asked staff to indentify the company's telephonists by their bare bottoms. According to local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, the boss of what has been described as a "well known" cab company in Orebro, central Sweden, sent his staff a Christmas email greeting, challenging them to match photographs of rumps to the right receptionists.

The multiple choice brain-teaser was apparently set up after the CEO managed to persuade female staff members to bend over a desk provocatively while wearing nothing but a G-string.

The unorthodox festive greeting was not,