Someone should take away all their toys and make them scrub toilets

Soon after the first news hit about the serious financial crisis the Icelandic nation was supposedly in the midst of, word started circulating that the whole thing was an elaborate set-up, orchestrated by unscrupulous individuals who stood to gain from the plummeting value of the Icelandic krona. I must confess that this sounded rather implausible, to my ears at least, and I more or less dismissed it as ineffectual spin by the Icelandic banks, since all over the world financial news reports were going on about their precarious positions and claiming they were on the verge of collapse. In the end, of course, the entire nation would go down the economic tubes with them.

Meanwhile, this was in no way mirrored in the day-to-day lives of the people. It was completely surreal.

A few weak voices tried their best to protest: the banks, of course, contested this the best they could [which one took with a grain of salt; if it were true that they were in trouble they would obviously be loath to admit it], and the government sent a delegation to New York [which included the Prime Minister] to hold press conferences and meetings in an attempt to dispel the rumours. However, nothing seemed to work, talk of Iceland's economic woes snowballed and before you knew it there was a kind of hysteria happening. Everywhere but here.

In the midst of all this, Iceland had one staunch ally, Dr. Richard Portes, a Professor of Economics with the London Business School, who had prepared a report for the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce about the state of the Icelandic economy. He has been a frequent guest on chat shows worldwide speaking about with the state of our economy, and has presented a vastly different picture than most other people, reiterating his opinion that Iceland is a well-run country with a strong institutional framework. He moreover maintains that our banks are healthy and strong [there is an excellent video here that well demonstrates the sensationalist media hype as well as Portes's level-headed take on things]. The main problem, according to Portes, is that "Iceland is being talked down because a lot of people stand to make money." I'm not an expert [by no means] but from what I understand, speculators bet on the devaluation of a particular currency and when it depreciates, it's ching-ching for them.

A couple of days ago, Kaupthing, one of the three main banks here, published the results of an investigation it had launched into the alleged attacks on the Icelandic economy. It named four UK hedge funds: Trafalgar Fund, Landsdowne Fund, Ako Capital and Cheney Capital, and claimed that they had systematically launched attacks on the Icelandic economy, primarily by spreading false and harmful rumours about it and the Icelandic commercial banks.

Now Richard Portes has come forth and revealed that sometime in the last two weeks he received a phone call from a large hedge fund in the UK [he has confirmed that it is one of the four that Kaupthing mentions] in which he was advised that if he valued his reputation he should stop talking so favorably about the Icelandic economy. Portes, clearly a force to be reckoned with, says that he immediately realized what this meant and decided to listen very carefully and take notes. He has since passed on his information to the Financial Authorities of both the UK and Iceland, who one hopes will investigate further.

To me, this is just outrageous. I mean, how can this be legal? The way I see it this is no better than some subversive mafia racket - underhanded, detestable, designed to feed off someone else's vulnerability. And Iceland is an easy target - a small economy that is undergoing temporary difficulties. If I wasn't such a pacifist, I'd say OFF WITH THEIR HEADS. But I'll settle for having them scrub toilets for the rest of their lives. In Guantanamo Bay.

IT'S ANOTHER GORGEOUS DAY
The light is slighly subdued, the sun covered with a thin layer of cloud, but make no mistake: spring is just around the corner. Walked to the bakery at noon and, as always, there was a fairly cool breeze by the sea, but no matter, the sun was out and hearts were buoyant with the promise of brighter days. Indeed, the day is growing longer and longer, and at 9.30 pm last night we actually still had daylight. Which always seems equally amazing, even though it happens every year. Right now 5°C [41F] and sunrise was at 6.09, sunset due for 8.50 pm. W00t!

Bumbling idiocy, thy name is politix

Gahwd. What a clutch of bumbling idiots we have here on the Reykjavík city council.

Some of you may remember a post from about three months ago when – without warning – a new majority was formed in the city and before you could say whostabbedwhointheback we had a new mayor and a new city council. Well, today – some 100 days later – we had a switchback, meaning that once again we have a new local government. Except that, well, it's pretty much the old local government.

The scenario last time around went something like this: The Independence Party, which needed one seat on the council to form a majority, decided to recruit the single member that had been elected from the Progressive Party to form their majority coalition. Pretty precarious business, since the balance of the majority hung on that one seat BUT clearly they trusted the man. [Note bumbling idiocy factor.] Before too long those two parties were enmeshed in a major dispute too tedious to record here and, well, long story short, the single council member from the Progressives decided to abscond, swung over to the other side, and presto! a new coalition was formed, and the Independence Party was in a minority.*

Predictably, the old coalition was pissed as hell, and now it appears they’ve gone out and recruited someone they thought the could persuade to cross over to the other side, to give them back the majority they needed. They found their man in one Ólafur F. Magnússon, one of two representatives for the Liberal Party on the city council, enticing him [some would say 'buying'] by promising him the office of mayor for half of the remaining election term. He’ll sit until the end of this year, when the former mayor [who incidentally during the abovementioned dispute signed away a Very Significant Document With Serious Implications without reading it because it was written in English – note BIF] will take over once again.**

Friends: these are the people who are now going to be running our affairs in this fair city. Delightful, wouldn’t you agree? So, what I’d really like to know is, how the hell do they expect the people of Reykjavík to take them seriously – to say nothing of trust – with machinations of this sort? [BIF] Of course their argument is that they’re simply doing what someone else did three months ago, but hey, at least the guy from the Progressives had an ideological clash to use as an excuse. Whereas these people evidently have no excuse, except their blatant yearning for power. And their bumbling idiocy.

APPROPRIATELY WE HAVE A MAJOR STORM FORECAST FOR TONIGHT
With gusts up to 28 m/s and rain or sleet. Temps are crawling upwards, currently 4°C [39F], with sunrise at 10.41 and sunset at 4.37 pm.

INCIDENTALLY!
Apropos the last post – old Bobby Fisher did not have his state funeral, nor was he laid to rest at Þingvellir – apparently he had a quiet burial this morning somewhere near Selfoss, attended by his Japanese partner and four of his close friends. This was in line with his own wishes. Which begs the question why his friends were prattling on about the whole state funeral thing in the first place. Which I will not consider now because my head hurts too much. Goodnight.

* This is the short version – there was lots more dirty intrigue that we won’t get into here because actually we don’t give a damn.
** And incidentally, the other member of the Liberal Party is staying where she is. Confused yet?

Who needs TV when you have message boards

As I expected, posting yesterday’s blog entry was akin to firing a rocket into the thick of Nicelandic society and watching fires ignite. Within a couple of hours Mr Mike Trent’s comment was burning up message boards across the land and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the ensuing discussions entertaining [the serious nature of the subject matter notwithstanding]. They ranged from the banal to the philosophical and reflected the full spectrum of human intellect – and stupidity. Some people wondered why an Assistant D.A. in Texas would be writing such potent stuff in a commonplace comment box on some “foreign” blog [because, you know, if it’s written in English it must be foreign], others questioned whether this Mike Trent character was really who he said he was and dared other members on the board to phone him all the way in Texas [oooh!] and ask if he was for real. Still others questioned the validity of his claims and called for a media investigation [!], and of course the argument over the humanity vs. inhumanity of Aron Pálmi’s sentence raged on.

Meanwhile, in YT’s opinion the best thread was on a chick board called barnaland.is [“babyland.is”] in which a juicy debate about YT’s writing skills and command of the English language was initiated.

CHICK 1: This [aka the post] is written in such terrible English that I can barely read it.
CHICK 2: Terrible English? je ræt*
CHICK 1: yes, that’s what I think, I think this Alda writes really poor English.
CHICK 3: It’s not terrible English. Give us a break [CHICK 1].
CHICK 1: comon,** the grammar is correct, but there is absolutely no flow. No flow whatsoever.
CHICK 3: Still, it’s not terrible. Could be more eloquent but this person is still relatively fluent.
CHICK 1: vocabulary is fine, grammar is fine, but the writing is totally stiff.. I’ll admit that terrible is a bit too strong..
CHICK 3: HAHA! I won :þ

Next up was a critique on Mr. Mike Trent’s use of the English language:

CHICK 4: I seriously doubt that an educated American would write like this: " 'I'm proud of having prosecuted him and my only regret is that he did not get a bunch more time". Note the word "bunch".
CHICK 5: Exactly.
CHICK 4: Still, maybe it’s standard legal English. What do we know? [English:] "Your honour, I think this man should get a bunch of time in prison for what he did".
CHICK 6: maybe he doesn’t take his work home and talks like a bleedin' redneck when he’s at home.....
CHICK 4: Sure, he tries and tries to use big important words at home, in between using slang like "bunch". Very likely.
CHICK 1: still, you never know, though, he might want to say something else in a court of law it might be a different story with a letter he sends out.. that is, if it is him who wrote that letter [aka comment].
CHICK 4: No, there’s many strange things in the cow’s head***. Still, I suspect it’s an Icelander who thinks he’s being really clever and is trying to use all the words he’s heard on Law and Order.

... You see? Infinite entertainment value!

AND WHILE MESSAGE BOARDS ARE ON FIRE, IT’S COLD AS HELL OUTSIDE
Right now temps are 0°C but feel like –4°C [32°F and feels like 24F], on account of the substantial windchill. Sunrise was at 11.08 and sunset at 4.01 pm.

* Icelandic bastardization of “yeah, right”.
** Icelandic bastardization of “come on” only under normal circumstances the Icelandic bastardization is “kommon”
*** Nicelandic idiom.

Nosepicking: the national epidemic

So EPI goes into an unnamed supermarket today at lunchtime to buy some hot food. Behind the meat counter there’s a bunch of guys standing around, and one of them was blithely exploring the inside of his nasal cavity with his finger.

Needless to say, EPI had a 1944* instead.

BUT THE WEATHER WAS EXCELLENT
Really quite a lovely autumn day. Started off really bright but then a thin cloud cover moved in and dampened everything, although for some reason it still felt sunny – it was just that kind of a day, I guess. A bright kind of day. Did some work, went out for a run, had lunch, met with a client, came home and had coffee with my neighbour who had the day off and was at home with her baby boy. AAH came home and announced that she wasn’t going to her vocal academy classes today because she had way too much homework, then proceeded to go into her room and fall asleep for three hours because she’s wiped out from the weekend, which she spent alternately partying and working. Good to see the girl has her priorities straight. Did some more work, then fell asleep myself [not because I’m wiped out from too much partying, though], then EPI came home and we had dinner. – What? You think this blog is about the weather? You should know better by now. Current temps 7°C [45F] and sunrise was at 7:56 am, sunset at 6:33.

* 1944: prepared meal.

Be afraid, be wery wery ...

Earlier today, someone from the US State Department logged onto the Weather Report through the googlie weather report embassy [predictably they landed here]. They then came back and read through my profile and checked out my photo. And now there are two men in dark sunglasses sitting in a black vehicle outside my house.*

Should I be scared?

OH BUT THIS IS JUST A HUMBLE WEATHER REPORT, SIR!
And at this moment we're having overcast weather with occasional showers, temps 11°C [54F] with sunrise at 6:26 am and sunset scheduled for 8:23 pm.

* Ok I made that last bit up, but only the last bit.

Conspiracies and nasty fabrications, oh

So, The Iceland Weather Report has been the focus of considerable attention over the past few days. Thursday we had just over 1,400 hits to the site in one day, mostly to this post, and this. [Although this would probably have provided better information.]

Basically, the matter revolves around one Paul Nikolov, who just over a year ago appeared in the IWR comment box with a nasty, degrading comment penned in response to this post, under the name ‘Paul’ but with no email or website address. In fact, it was so nasty that I deleted it on the spot ... I felt quite sullied, having those words dripping with bile in my comments. Of course now I wish I’d showed more restraint – it would have been quite interesting for the world at large to have that comment as evidence.

‘Paul’ was careful not to leave an email or website address with that comment. However, as there are not many ‘Pauls’ in Iceland, particularly not who had aired similar views in a public forum, I was pretty sure I knew who it was. I put my money on a certain staff writer at alternative newspaper The Grapevine, the aforementioned Paul Nikolov, who had strongly expressed his views about Aron Pálmi Ágústsson which were very similar [albeit more controlled] to the view expressed in that comment. So after deleting it, I wrote a comment in response, in which I embedded a link to The Grapevine website, of which said Paul was editor at the time [and thus, I reasoned, presumably checked the site meter]. Sure enough, a few days later Paul appeared in my comments again. This time he didn’t even leave his name, but wrote an anonymous comment in response to mine, see here.

Then out of the blue a year later, I received in my comment box this little missive: Aron Pálmi should rot in jail [signed] Aron Pálmi. This time I was the one to check my site meter, and followed a link back to a site called cruel.com. There, someone writing under the name ‘Jadetree’ had left a message urging people to flame the Iceland Weather Report, to wit:

If you want to have some fun with this self-important twat, post a comment on her blog saying, "Aron Palmi should rot in jail!" She will delete your comment, and then hold forth at length about what a poor victim of brutal American justice he is. Repeat as often as desired.

Lovely, wouldn’t you agree? Or perhaps a little psychopathic? After all, I had done nothing but post an opinion on my own website, and had certainly done nothing to warrant such an underhanded and sleazy attack.

Of course I instantly recognized ‘Paul’. Indeed, this comment was a direct reference to our earlier exchange: I had deleted his comment, and had given him my reasons. A closer examination of the 'Jadetree' profile revealed that his home page was listed as www.grapevine.is. And, as if further proof was needed, a reader sent me this link in which a commenter named ‘Jadetree’ is identified as Paul F. Nikolov. Who, I repeat, had written angry diatribes about Aron Pálmi Ágústsson in The Grapevine. An open-and-shut case. Right?

Apparently not to Paul F. Nikolov. It didn’t take him long to find this post, and in the comments he wrote a saccharine little missive dotted with smileys in which he swore off all ties to ‘Jadetree’. His explanation: “I might've related the story of our last encounter to someone, and word got around. That happens in Iceland, as you know. One of these people, I imagine, decided to play a little joke by placing the comment about your blog on Cruel.Com.” [!] “For me to post such a comment in an online community, leaving myself wide open to scorn at a time when I'm trying to win over popular opinion, would be downright foolish, even for me. ”

Ah, yes. Here we come to the crux of the matter. Paul F. Nikolov is currently running for political office. And we’ve got parliamentary elections coming up in, oh, three weeks. He's running for the Left-Green party, which espouses views that are in heavy contradiction to Paul's fascist ones about Aron Pálmi [and, for that matter, 'Jadetree's' comments about the disabled]. Unsurprisingly, Paul’s donned a halo and done a 180° turn on the Aron Pálmi issue.

The only problem is that someone dug up the little story of his former “disagreement” with the Iceland Weather Report and has posted it on a blog, which is linked to from the front page of the most popular website in Iceland. Thousands of people have now logged on to read about it. Many are outraged. Others are outraged on behalf of Paul F. Nikolov, who they see as a terrible victim in this “conspiracy”, where dark forces are trying to sabotage his political career by fabricating lies about him and linking him to some unknown, anonymous blogger named ‘Jadetree’ out there in the big bad world. Some have even gone so far as to maintain that the profile on cruel.com and blogger, including dates, are surely forged.

Which just goes to prove that people see not what is in front of them, but what they want to see.

Nikolov himself, predictably, has again sworn off any links to ‘Jadetree’ – “as I’ve done many times before”– [?] on his blog, claiming he is the victim of a “witch hunt”, rumours and fabrications.

Unfortunately, I’d say the greatest victim is the Left-Green party. Sadly, because they have a lot of good things in their manifesto, of which Paul F. Nikolov is not one. I’d probably have given them my vote, as I did last time; however, now I wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole.

[Back to the weather tomorrow.]

Burning down the house

A week ago yesterday, EPI, AAH and I all came rushing out of our respective rooms at approximately the same time. Reason: we'd all noticed an intense smell of burning. It was strong enough for us to believe it might be somewhere in the apartment, hence our immediate sense of panic.

The smell, however, came from the building opposite ours. Horrified, we stood at the kitchen window and watched as flames devoured a flat on the third floor. It was a bizarre experience, watching someone's home burn like that. Fire can be beautiful, but in that instance it was terrifying. The flames were vociferous, sparing nothing. The window exploded, revealing a raging sea of fire inside.

Suddenly our sleepy neighbourhood - it was midnight - was transformed into a hub of activity. People came out of their homes, some pulling on coats over pyjamas. Everyone rushed down the street in the same direction, from where the flashing lights of police cars and fire engines could be seen. EPI and I were no exception - I wanted most of all to know if anyone had been hurt and couldn't imagine going to sleep without knowing. AAH meanwhile implored us not to leave her alone in the house. Watching a catastrophe like that so close to home suddenly shatters your sense of safety.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident. And the next day it transpired that a woman living in the flat had set the fire, herself. EPI, having gone out ahead of me, said he'd seen two people who looked like they were drugged being led to an ambulance. How immensely fortunate that the fire did not spread to neighbouring apartments.

Right now, at this moment, there are workers inside the flat, clearing the debris. I can see them at the window with masks on, throwing stuff down into a dumpster below. Out of the paneless window frame come the remnants of a life: blackened chairs, clothes, pictures, a printer, unrecognizable charred objects.

I know the woman who set that fire must have been severely ill. And yet, I cannot help but wonder what drove her to do it. Did she want to commit suicide? Purge the past? Annihiliate the present? Or was she just ... cold?

TODAY'S WEATHER
Incredibly beautiful to look at. Bright sunsine, blue skies, minimal wind. But very cold and very dry. This is not good news here in Reykjavík in winter, as about half the cars on the road are on studded tires that tear up the asphalt and send small particles into the atmosphere that can lodge in people's lungs and cause havoc. A growing problem, particularly in these times of global warming when the winters have become so unseasonably warm that there is hardly ever any snow or ice on the ground. Reykjavík, pristine and unpolluted? Sadly, not today. Current temps -7°C and sunrise was at 08.47 and sunset due for 18.36.