Party of 9

As I contemplate whether or not to haul my lazy punk ass down to Austurvellir to take part in the concert in support of the Rvk 9, I'm struck by an idea.

Remember when I promised to blog about good ideas.

See, the State is bound and determined to punish nine nigh-randomly chosen individuals in order to stifle future uprising, and though I hope against the odds that the 9 are released, many feel that they will likely be found guilty.

Now, if this happens, I think that in light of the over-crowding and expense currently crippling the Icelandic prison system, these nine should if sentenced at all, be sentenced to community service. To be precise, they should be "sentenced" to serve as replacement MP's for all those named as "culpably incompetent" in the recent government report, with full pay and benefits.

I'd call that justice.

9 black lambs to the slaughter

As the Revolution bellies up to the table and prepares to eat its young, I once again feel the need to break my already utterly shattered vow of Pollyannahood and let the rant fly.

At one o'clock today, an Icelandic court will hear the case against 9 protesters accused of "attacking the sanctity of Parliament".

9 black lambs are singled out of a flock of 30 so odd protesters that day, and out of the thousands who were routinely protesting all those long months. Singled out for attempting to walk through an unlocked door into a public building to reach a public seating area where the public has the right to observe its so-called servants work in the public interest. Parliament Security stops them, denies them access, and then attempts to physically block access and expel them. A scuffle breaks out and there are minor injuries on both sides. The police show up in seconds in an overwhelming show of force, one officer gets bitten whilst hurling a protester to the ground to be hogtied and chucked in the back of a paddy wagon. The 9 singled out for sacrifice at the alter of the sacred politic are charged with "attacking the sanctity of Parliament" and face a minimum sentence of 1 year's imprisonment, and a maximum of life (the maximum sentence for rape and murder is 16 years, and has to my knowledge never been imposed on a rapist).

They will likely be found guilty.

The whole situation sickens me, and raises some disturbing questions.

For starters, why these 9? Not one news report I've found has given any reason why only 9 of the 30 odd people involved are charged. While logically the two who managed to get to the viewing area and shout at the MPs to "get the fuck out of here" could be singled out, could it not also be because these 9 were members of the loose-knit black-clad mask-wearing groups who weren't protesting for new elections, weren't tied to existing political clans, and were in fact aiming for an actual revolution, instead of the pathetic coup d'etat we got instead? Why, in the midst of massive and disruptive protest, was the door to the viewing area unlocked? Had the protesters entered in stealth, clad in suits and Sunday best and telling the guards they were there to support the parties then in power, would they have been waved through? Could it be that the police, through whatever combination of incompetence, inexperience, and outright provocation managed to engineer all of the more "violent" incidents, decided to "allow" this protest to proceed in order to sweep in heroically and salvage their faltering support whilst tarring the protesters with the brush of treason? Why has the media, which has delighted in front-page photos of the banksters being arrested at this most conveniently distracting moment, hardly found the time to name the 9 individuals, let alone publish pictures and interviews (so far I've only found one interview, in today's paper, of one of these sacrificial black sheep)? Could it be that the powers that be, who rode into their current positions by latching on to the developing revolution like a tick to the hide, are hoping to appease the reactionary conspiracy theories of the ousted parties and "prove" they had nothing to do with the pot-pounding fire-lighting skril who did the ousting? Or could it be that they are quietly hoping to slip through a precedent that will make it easier to crush future protests?

30 members of the public push their way through a public entrance to a public building to reach the public seating area to give public servants a piece of their minds and they are charged with a serious crime. 60 some odd public servants sit for years in a public building "earning" public money while gifting public resources to political friends and family, lining their pockets with "campaign contributions" and "bullet loans" from bankster cronies, creating a "all animals are equal but some are more equal than others" pension plan, and eventually bankrupting an entire nation through a wicked brew of corruption, incompetence, and selfishness and these 9 black lambs are sent to the block, whilst the Judas goats go about their business, safe in the sacred confines of power, privilege, and ill-gotten wealth?

Where's that sledgehammer and can of gasoline?

Just a quick note...

...for all the útrassavíkingur and politicos and columnist who keep telling us that "we" are to blame for the Great Icelandic Financial Meltdown. I have just 5 words for you.

Speak for your own damn self!

Also: FUCK YOU!

We didn't throw the economy down the toilet. You did. a lot of us (myself included) didn't take out any damned loans, we didn't go on a credit bender, and we don't have a goodamned flat screen or a luxury SUV. Some of us do, but mostly because "we" were doing what people who have been robbed of all control over the structure of the world the live in do.

We tried to get by, and tried to be happy with the narrow limits you allowed us.

So go screw yourselves.

We know who's to blame, and WE WILL FIND YOU!

So the good news is...

...that the government is thinking about repealing the blatantly unconstitutional, discriminatory, and, well, stupid, "24 year law" that made it illegal for foreigners under 24 to marry, and made it illegal for Icelanders under the age of 24 to marry a foreigner.

'Bout fucking time.

Of course, this isn't really a repeal, more of a reform. They aren't going to strike the law from the books, merely tweak it. Now instead of it being illegal they'll just put the couple in question through the ringer, invade their privacy and then pass judgement as to whether their marriage is "real" or not.

Its funny that for all the furor that the State Church aroused when it refused to bend to the will of the Icelandic people and allow same-sex marriage, and for all the celebrations when the government granted same-sex couples the same rights as domestic partners as unmarried heterosexual couples enjoy, HARDLY ANYONE SAID WORD ONE ABOUT THIS LAW.

It had to do with foreigners. So nobody really cared.

I personally knew a woman whose young husband was deported back to his home country, where he faced possible lynching for marrying a non-Muslim, in part because of this stupid law.

I do have to give mad props to 24 though (even if it is a sub-company of the arch-conservative Möggan), for aggressively countering the ongoing blame-the-foreigners-for-everything campaign currently raging through the pages of Frettablaðið, and the somewhat schizoid ramblings of DV (which tends to damn the foreigners, then defend them, then damn the xenophobes, then defend them...).

All told, though, this is just a small bright spot. All in all, it seems that the tide of nationalism is rising all over my adopted lava-lump, what with fuck head ignorant kids like the ÍfÍ (Idiots Fucking Idiots: Keeping Iceland inbred since 2005) actually getting face time in a major paper.

The Íf'Í, fuck. Morons. Bunch of kids too stupid to get a job, who then decide to blame the foreigners. Bunch of underachieving little shits. They're not even "good" at being nationalist, what with the standard white-kid-ghetto wear they're pictured in.

Tell you what kids, you wanna be a real nationalist? Wanna really "pure" Iceland? OK then.

No more pizza for you. No more burgers and fries, hell for that matter no more potatoes. No more rum, whiskey, or wine. Brennivin and only brennivin. No more nachos, no more pasta, no more stir fry. After all, its un-Icelandic.

No more Fifty Cent, no more Outkast. No more Rammsteinn, no more Scooter, Marylin Manson, Slipknot, or Limp Biscuit. Nope, no more. You only get to listen to Bubbi, KK, and Nylon from now on.

Oh, and say goodbye to your Levi's, your Sketchers, your Hugo Boss (believe it or not this is the web page of one of the ÍFÍ idiots interviewed in DV). Nope. Its all lópapeysur and ullasokkar for you lot.

After all, you wouldn't want to look foreign. You might have to beat yourself up.

Wankers.