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?

Hey there black pot...

So Saturday Icelanders went to the polls and elected themselves a couple a new people and a lot of the same old pack.

Whoopdeefuckindoo.

I spent the day cleaning up both "my" garden and the upstairs neighbor's garden, put a second coat of paint and some more plaster up in my kitchen, studied for my tests, did laundry, and cleaned the place up.

All this after putting up a sign about the futility of elections in the driveway right across from the polling station.

I spent the day with a slightly guilty feeling of moral superiority.

After all, I don't vote. I don't vote because I hate having to choose the lesser of multiple evils, and because taking part in such a system legitimizes said evils. Basically, I have to go with Ol' George Carlin on this one. Its not people who don't vote who "can't complain", its the people that do. After all, they took part in and helped legitimize this bullshit.

I had planned on the sign reading "The definition of irrationality is to do the same thing over and over but expect different results", 'cause really, in the long run, that's what politics is. It didn't quite fit.

Then later that night, Ragnar unexpectedly arrived from Caracas looking to hit the town. So I met him at Rosenberg, listened to a great concert, started blowing money on beer, went with him to friggin' B5 of all places (where my intense hatred of all things Yuppie nearly got me thrown out), then English pub (where I blew 3000+ krona on the magical beer spinny thingy) and finally wound up on my own at Dubliner, where I proceeded to get my Capt. Ahab on*.

It didn't work.

I wound up tired and cranky and broke at 7am in friggin Amsterdam of all places before finally deciding to haul my ass home.

Now, going out to see a friend I rarely get to see is one thing. Going out a concert, ditto. But I don't even like going out when I'm shizzle-faced anymore.

But I keep doing it.

Following exactly the same pattern.

Hoping beyond hope that this time the result will be different. Some heavenly creature will fall into my arms and all will be hearts and orgasims.

Just like the voters I quietly mocked earlier that day.

Hey, I'm black kettle...

* C'on! If you can't figure that one out, you're reading the wrong blog...

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!

Do as I say and not as I do.

So there’s a couple interesting little factoids I've picked up from the slew of free daily papers that are chucked on my doorstep.

A lot of it has to with the poorly thought out Nanny-State smoking ban that went into effect last June. Some of the bars in town, most notably the reanimated corpse of the once-great 22, Barinn are allowing smoking either inside in specially built smoking sections, or outside in gardens and court-yards. Now, while the special smoking rooms may be a rather direct challenge, the amazing thing is how they are also bitching and moaning about smoking in courtyards (the one at Hressó has been singled out a few times). Why you ask? Because the law says that smoking is only allowed "undir beru himni" and some bars have put up roofs for the already compromised comfort of their tobacco indulging/addicted customers.

The rank hypocrisy becomes evident when one realizes that the law only applies to restaurants, bars, stores and the like, and not to other institutions, like say, I don't know...

THE FUCKING PARLIMENT!!??

So the same elected officials that passed this stupid law wrote themselves a handy little exemption.

Fucking hypocrites.

But then again, the world is awash in hypocrisy. Last month I blogged about the authorities plan to send foreign convicts "back home" to serve out their sentences, which considering the humane and lenient (for a prison) Icelandic penal (hehe, penal...) system, basically amounts to stiffer penalties and harsher treatment for foreigners. Compare this to a country that fought a long-running campaign to bring a convicted child-molester over to Iceland because they found his sentence too harsh, and offered asylum to a mentally unstable chess player so he wouldn't have to serve a term in federal prison for breaking a boycott and tax evasion. Not to mention went completely up in arms when a woman was detained for more than 24 hours and escorted in shackles and a orange prison jump-suit to an Icelandair flight for deportation because she over-stayed her visa 12 years ago.*

So Icelanders and Íslandvinur should be saved at all costs from harsh and inhumane treatment at the hands of foreign authorities, but foreigners should be handed over to their tender mercies?

Then there's me. I'm an anarchist; I truly believe that coercion is the mother of all evils. Yet I work at a place where it has been made crystal clear that they don't want me here to educate children, to facilitate of love of books in the library, or anything else of the sort. They want me here to control them. When I recently requested a cut in my hours at the school in order to work more and the better paying, and much less ethically fucked up AST, my bosses had the choice of either letting me show up at 8am, open up the library and work there until 11:30, and then do an hour's worth of kiddy-copping in the lunch room, or close the library every morning until 9, and have me kiddy-cop until 1pm.

They chose the latter.

I mean, talk about a harsh light shined into a dark place. This is like a laser mounted on a colonoscopy scope. The school cares more about having someone telling the kids to shut up and eat quietly and clean up after themselves (except the little ones, who I have to clean up after because the janitors can't be assed to do their job, and who can blame them when they get paid 158,000 before taxes for fulltime work*) and stand in line (practically impossible with Icelanders) than have the library, the preferred fount of knowledge, open for the kids to use.

The worst thing is, I know this is wrong. I hate it. And I'm still too much of a fucking coward to quit. Which hit pretty hard yesterday when I realized I was wearing my "Anarchy is for lovers" T-shirt under my hoody as I busted a kid for acting up at the pool.

Do as I say and not as I do...
*for the record: I think the treatment Aron Palmi received was horrible, a typical puritanical persecution of a child in order to further the Christian-Right's ongoing war against sex. I also think that the U.S.S.A. has no business banning citizens from traveling to whatever country they damned well please, even if it’s under an embargo (which I think they have no right to enforce) as in the case of Bobby Fischer. Finally, I think that the INS and DHS are a bunch of right-wing fascist jack-boot brownshirt thugs and that the woman so shamefully "deported" was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the inhumane, unethical, and down-right genocidal treatment that foreigners can be subject to in the U.S.S.A.

*for the record: I make almost as much working 50% at the AST.