FREE Issue No 15 – 2008 www.grapevine.is LAY LOW The lessons of life. + A Plea For Dignity and Respect - Asylum seekers speak out. Downtown Reykjavík and its Problems The Great Hydrogen Swindle + Airwaves Artist to Watch YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL Complete RIFF Program AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS – INSIDE! 2 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 15—2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL MASTHEAD The recent raid on the living quarters of asylum The Reykjavík Grapevine seekers in Njarðvík has raised a lot of questions Vesturgata 5, 101 Reykjavík Articles regarding the live of asylum seekers in Iceland. www.grapevine.is Should we perhaps take a step back and look at [email protected] The Party Needs TO BE Monitored what the issue really is? The public debate seems Published by Fröken ehf. 06 You just can’t teach Icelanders to properly drink all of the sudden to centre around how much it costs the society to maintain asylum seekers while their applications Editorial: Open Letter TO the PIzzA King are being processed, or if they actually supple- +354 540 3600 / [email protected] 06 We love you, man ment their 2500 ISK stipend by black market Advertising: labour, or if there is a black sheep in the group. +354 540 3605 / [email protected] The LIquid Island Really, people? Publisher: 10 In captivity of the continental barathrum we degenerate and start fearing water. Iceland is one of the richest countries in +354 540 3601 / [email protected] the world. At current there are around 40 asylum Training FOR A Cagefight seekers waiting to be processed in Njarðvík. The Publisher: 10 A Grapevine intern mixes it up in MMA past indicates that all of them will be returned to Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson / [email protected] their homes. To this day, Iceland has accepted two Editor: More Monsters and Mythical Beings political refugees. And Bobby Fischer of course. Sveinn Birkir Björnsson / [email protected] 10 Þorgeirsboli Two! The richest country in the world! Assistant Editor: The people waiting to be processed are Haukur S. Magnússon / [email protected] 8+8=8 kept in Njarðvík, away from everything, living on Contributing Writers: 11 Designers meet manufacturers in Hafnarfjörður 2500 ISK and two bags of groceries. They are not Páll Hilmarsson / [email protected] allowed to work, they are not allowed to do any- Valur Gunnarsson / www.myspace.com/valurgunnarsson The Ghost Hydrogen Station thing apart from going to the swimming pool and Ben H. Murray / [email protected] 11 After 5 years, the world’s first public hydrogen station remains hardly used regularly check their email. They are kept in a de- Editorial Interns: facto prison. This is what the richest country in Desiree Andrews / [email protected] NOT Quite Prison the world has to offer asylum seekers. Perhaps this Florian Zühlke / [email protected] 12 Asylum seekers are kept in limbo at a Reykjanesbær hostel, sometimes for years should be the centre of public debate regarding James Crugnale / [email protected] asylum seekers in Iceland. Marcus Walsh / [email protected] The SEquences Festival Apart from getting agitated over asylum Sigurður Kjartan Kristinsson / [email protected] 32 Playing host to the Site-Specific Revolution seekers, this issue we examine the reality of Stevie Ward / [email protected] the Shell Hydrogen Station that made headlines Art Director: Rock Stars in the Making around the world when it opened a few years ago. Hörður Kristbjörnsson / [email protected] 36 Sign concert review We sit down with musician Lay Low who is releas- Design: ing the follow up to her successful debut album Jóhannes Kjartansson / www.joi.is Punk in fast forward Please Don’t Hate Me. We examine Icelandic dive Photographer: 37 Deathmetal Supersquad concert review spots and consider the future of the Pizza King. Gunnlaugur A. Sigurðsson (GAS) / [email protected] Next up: Airwaves. Marketing Director: The Cinematic Laboratory Party Safe, Kids. Jón Trausti Sigurðarson / [email protected] 38 Icelandic filmmakers experiment with time Sales Director: Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / [email protected] For A Minor Reflection Distribution: 40 Airwaves artist to watch Vigdís Jónsdóttir / [email protected] Proofreader: The Life Aquatic: Iceland Style Jim Rice 42 Hard core scuba diving THE COVER Press releases: A Journey Without A Determined Destination [email protected] 43 Bringing out art out of the galleries Submissions inquiries: [email protected] FREE Subscription inquiries: +354 540 3605 / [email protected] I s s u e N o 1 5 – 2 0 0 8 www.grapevine.is Features General inquiries: [email protected] The Lessons of Life 14 Lay Low’s fortune in the unfortunate Founders: LAY LOW The lessons of life. Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson, Hörður Kristbjörnsson, Jón Trausti Sigurðarson, Oddur Óskar Kjartansson, Destinations Valur Gunnarsson The Reykjavík Grapevine is published 18 times a year + A Plea For Dignity and Respect - Asylum seekers speak out. A Trip TO the Akranes Museum Centre Downtown Reykjavík and its P r o b l e m s by Fröken ltd. Monthly from November through April, T h e G r e a t Hydrogen Swindle + A i r w a v e s Artist to Watch YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL C o m p l e t e RIFF Program AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND 44 Where sports heroes go to be forgotten COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS – INSIDE! and fortnightly from May til October. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part Rounding up the Sheep without the written permission of the publishers. The 45 Icelandic customs die hard PHOTOGRAPHY Reykjavík Grapevine is distributed around Reykjavík, Baldur Kristjáns Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Selfoss, Keflavík, Ísafjörður and at MAKE-UP key locations along road #1, and all major tourist attrac- Helga Sjöfn Kjartansdóttir tions and tourist information centres in the country. ON COVER Lay Low You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored. (No articles in the Reykjavík Grapevine are pay-for articles. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own, not the advertisers’). Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 30.000 copies. COMIC STRIP BY LÓA HJÁLMTÝSDÓTTIR ÁSDÍS DÖGG ÓMARSDÓTTIR A PROFESSIONAL GUIDE AND GEOLOGIST WITH A TASTE FOR CROSS COUNTRY SKIING, MOUNTAIN BIKING AND LONG- BOARD RIDES IN 101 REYKJAVÍK. TECNOSTRETCH TOP: JÓNÍNA CM-524 FLEECE PANTS: ÁSDÍS CM-815 WWW.CINTAMANI.IS DRESS CODE ICELAND CINTAMANI AUSTURHRAUN 3, 210 GARÐABÆ, TEL. 533 3800 - CINTAMANI CENTER LAUGAVEGI 11, 101 REYKJAVIK, TEL. 517 8088 4 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 15—2008 LETTERS Response from the Red Cross Say YouR pIece, voIce YouR opInIon, SenD YouR Letters To [email protected] oR TexT +354 893 9589 Editor’s Note people who have different stories to tell, The Secretary General of the Red Cross in and that making comments about such a Hafnarfjörður sent us this letter for publi- diverse group as if they are all the same cation regarding the recent developments can be harmful and misleading in many documented in this issue with Icelandic cases. asylum seekers. We gladly honour their request. Those who work in different services that handle asylum seekers should be Dear Reykjavík Grapevine, aware of the diversity oft the group. It is important, especially for public employ- The police search of the residence of ees to talk carefully and not to generalize asylum seekers here in Iceland on the based on few extreme cases. No matter 11th September has triggered a debate what system we apply, there will always that has taken place both in the media be those few that take advantage of it but and within the blog community. Many of the majority should not pay for the wrong the comments made have been mislead- doing of these few. The core of our legal ing and in some cases wrong. As a voice system is that a person is innocent until for vulnerable groups in society who do proven guilty. not have many other representatives, the Icelandic Red Cross finds it necessary to Many of the misleading comments have state some facts regarding asylum seek- lead people to think that asylum seekers ers in this Iceland. live in some kind of luxury, that they have a lot of money and get free cigarettes. To begin with it is vital to underscore The truth is far from it. People applying that every person has the right to seek for asylum in Iceland are indeed nor- refuge in another country. This right is mally provided with a room and they do protected both by the Universal Declara- receive food, necessary medical care, tion of Human Rights from 1948 and by access to the library and the swimming the United Nation 1951 Refugee Conven- pool from the Social Service in Reyk- tion and the 1967 Protocol relating to the janesbær. After staying in the country for Status of Refugees. four weeks they get 2.500 ISK allowance per week. Asylum seekers here in Iceland are far from being a homogeneous group. The After few years of working with people group consists of very different people who have been forced to flee their homes that in many cases have little in common and seek asylum in another country except the fact that they have managed as refugees we know that most asylum to flee their country and have asked for seekers are just normal people that have protection in Iceland. Each case must be found themselves in an abnormal situ- looked into as a particular case, the case ation causing them to flee their homes of one person and the Refugee Conven- and leaving behind what every person tion and Protocol applied in handling loves most, their friends and family.