Iceland – praag.org

Iceland builds temple to Norse gods

A modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in recent years as followers see the stories as metaphors for life not worship of the gods

Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction starting this month on the island’s first major temple to the Norse gods since the Viking age.

Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christianity around 1,000 years ago but a modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in Iceland.

“I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet,” said Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, high priest of Ásatrúarfélagið, an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods.

“We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology.”

Membership in Ásatrúarfélagið has tripled in Iceland in the last decade to 2,400 members last year, out of a total population of 330,000, data from Statistics Iceland showed.

The temple will be circular and will be dug 4 metres (13ft) down into a hill overlooking the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, with a dome on top to let in the sunlight.

“The sun changes with the seasons so we are in a way having the sun paint the space for us,” Hilmarsson said.

The temple will host ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. The group will also confer names to children and initiate teenagers, similar to other religious communities.

Iceland’s neo-pagans still celebrate the ancient sacrificial ritual of Blot with music, reading, eating and drinking, but nowadays leave out the slaughter of animals.

Source: The Guardian

Iceland moves to withdraw EU application

Iceland’s government will seek parliamentary approval to withdraw its application to join the European Union, opting not to restart accession talks that were put on ice a year ago.

A bill proposing the withdrawal was sent to parliament late on Friday and was due to be debated next week, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.

The move came after the parliamentary caucuses of the ruling parties – the centrist Progressive Party and the conservative Independence Party – voted on Friday to withdraw the application.

In comments on the proposal quoted by online news site Visir.is, the government said it “did not have a support base” to complete the accession process.

Opinion polls have consistently shown a majority of Icelanders oppose joining the EU.

A year after its banks collapsed, Iceland declared it would stop observing mackerel quotas agreed with the European Union, Norway and the Faroe Islands — a small archipelago north of Scotland and under the protection of Denmark.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands argue that the rise in sea temperatures caused by a combination of global warming and natural factors has sent such large quantities of mackerel and herring further north that the allocations should have been amended to reflect that.

Observers say the main problem the EU faces is obvious: Fish go where they find the best feeding and spawning grounds, oblivious to the political rows they create in their wake.

“The fact that these fish aren’t necessarily carrying a passport and flying a flag for a particular nation means that it starts to get interesting when they start to move out of EU jurisdiction,” marine biologist Stephen Simpson of the University of Exeter said in an interview.

A meeting of Coastal States (European Union, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway) was held in London on the in October 2013 under the chairmanship of the European Union to discuss management measures for 2014 for the mackerel stock in the North-East Atlantic. The meeting was also attended by observers from Greenland and the Russian Federation.

The discussions focused on the latest scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which has recommended a significant increase in fishing possibilities as compared to 2013.

Arctic oil could wipe out Icelandic debt

Iceland, long known for its geothermal power, may become the next Nordic oil state, should predictions of an offshore deposit containing 10 billion barrels of oil hold true.

Icelandic authorities told Dagbladet, a Norwegian newspaper, that the deposit, between the country’s north-eastern coast and the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen, could be worth upwards of $1 billion.

According to an agreement with Norway, the deposits would be spilt between the two countries, but the find was large enough that Iceland could repay its foreign debt several times over.

“If we find a deposit with a billion barrels of oil, Iceland would be able to repay everything it owes,” said Heidar Mar Gudjonsson, the chair of Eykon Energy, an Icelandic oil firm.

Norway has built up an $800 billion wealth fund thanks to the profits from its oil resources in the North and Barents seas.

Iceland’s offshore areas closely resemble Norway’s and that has oil firms hoping that means there is just as much oil. One report showed that studies of seabed samples had found residues indicating that Icelandic waters may indeed be covering reserves as large as those that Norway has found in the Barents Sea.

The US Geological Survey estimated in 2008 that the Arctic contained 90 billion barrels of potentially recoverable oil, some 13 percent of the globe’s untapped reserves.

Iceland is pinning its hopes on an area about 200 kilometres north of its coast. The Dreki region is the subject of a 1981 agreement with Norway, giving each country the option to take a 25 percent share of any drilling license its neighbour issues in the region.

Norway has halted its exploration in the region, saying that it was content to rely on its agreement with Iceland.

Source: Arctic Journal

Everyone in Iceland to own cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency craze that started with Bitcoin is not over. The latest altcoin to enter the market, Auroracoin, wants to take the futurist trend back to its cryptoanarchist roots.

The altcoin was designed specifically for Iceland, and the creator plans to give every citizen of the Nordic country a digital handful of Auroracoins to kickstart their use.

Auroracoin is the brainchild of cryptocurrency enthusiast Baldur Friggjar Odinsson, and he’ll be the one distributing pre-mined coins to the entire population of Iceland at midnight on March 25 in a countrywide “airdrop.”

Each Icelandic citizen—all 330,000 of them—will receive 31.8 AUC through a digital transaction. Citizens all have a national ID number available through a public database, which will be used to verify their identity.

“So I intend to leverage this system so everyone has a chance to verify their ID and get their share of Auroracoins. For most, it will be as easy as logging onto Facebook,” Odinsson told me. “People will have (at least) a year to claim their coins.”

The meaning of this rune symbol is ‘cattle’, a vital aspect of the life of any agricultural community and an important factor in the economy of a group of peoples initially unacquainted with the use of money. The rune represents possessions won or earned and thus also material gain.

Source: Motherboard/praag

Soccer: France, Portugal nervous ahead of World Cup match

France and Portugal, two of Europe’s footballing heavyweights, face a fraught test of nerves on Tuesday with their places at the 2014 World Cup finals at stake.

France, the 1998 world champions, are 2-0 down to Ukraine after the first leg of their play-off ahead of the return in Paris while Portugal, semi-finalists in 2006, take a slender 1-0 advantage to Sweden.

Elsewhere, Greece look well set to make the finals in Brazil next year as they enjoy a 3-1 lead over Romania while Iceland, bidding to become the smallest country to reach the World Cup, are 0-0 with Croatia ahead of their trip to Zagreb.

France are clearly most at risk of failing to qualify for a major championships for the first time since they missed the boat for the 1994 World Cup.

And although Ukraine have lost their previous three play-offs — against Croatia (1998), Germany (2002) and Greece (2010) — they arrive in Paris with a two-goal cushion from the first leg, a psychological advantage and facing a home team smarting from a pasting in the press.

The manner of their defeat in Kiev on Friday prompted the sports daily L’Equipe to write off their chances.

“In terms of what we saw on Friday night … the French would do well just to draw the second leg,” offered the newspaper.

And if they are to overcome the Ukrainians, they will have to do so without Laurent Kolchensky at the heart of their defence after the Arsenal defender was sent off late on following a clash with Oleksandr Kucher as tension spilled over.

France coach Didier Deschamps, who admitted his side were undone by Ukraine’s sheer physicality in the first leg, said: “We’ve got to put them under pressure, to go at them. On Tuesday, we’ve got to be in the battle. We have the ability to turn it round and that’s what we have to do.”

In Solna, near Stockholm, things are more finely poised, with Sweden taking on Portugal in the second leg a goal down from Lisbon, predictably scored late in the game by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Swedish hopes rest even more squarely than ever on the broad shoulders of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, especially with his phenomenal goalscoring record at the Friends Arena, where he has found the net 10 times since the stadium was inaugurated a year ago.

Elsewhere, Greece should complete the formality of qualifying in Bucharest, having racked up a surprising 3-1 advantage from the first leg in Piraeus.

But little Iceland travel to Zagreb with their improbable World Cup dream still just about alive after a desperate draw in the goalless first leg in Reykjavik.

That match saw them fight a constant rearguard action against relentless waves of Croatian attacks after being reduced to 10 men for the last 40 minutes after defender Olafur Skulason was sent off.

Yet they still have everything left to play for and should they achieve the unthinkable and win in Zagreb they would become the fist nation with a population of under a million ever to reach the final stages of the competition.

Oliver Stone, Iceland support for Snowden

‘It’s a disgrace that (President) Obama is more concerned with hunting down Snowden than reforming these George Bush-style eavesdropping techniques,’ the outspoken director said Thursday at a Czech film festival. Snowden is reportedly holed up in a Moscow airport waiting for a country to grant him asylum.

Controversial filmmaker Oliver Stone is looking to get in on the fracas surrounding Edward Snowden, calling the fugitive secret-leaker a “hero.”

Stone, no stranger to making contentious statements, was appearing at a July Fourth appearance at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, where he was scheduled to show two episodes of his new TV series, “The Untold History of the United States.”

Stone went on to encourage foreign countries to offer asylum to Snowden, who is reportedly holed up in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after fleeing Hong Kong following his disclosure of confidential cellphone and Internet usage data surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency.

Edward Snowden, a former analyst with a U.S. defense contractor, withdrew his application for asylum in Russia on Monday after President Vladimir Putin said he would have to stop leaking NSA documents.

“To me, Snowden is a hero, because he revealed secrets that we should all know, that the United States has repeatedly violated the Fourth Amendment,” Stone said.

“He should be welcomed, and offered asylum, but he has no place to hide because every country is intimidated by the United States,” he added.

Snowden has applied for asylum in 21 countries and has been rejected by at least 12 of them, including Austria, Brazil, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.

Bolivia and Venezuela remain possible landing places for the fugitive 30-year-old, who faces espionage charges in the U.S.

Member of Iceland’s parliament Ögmundur Jónasson made a proposition to receive Snowden on Thursday morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave.

Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there.

The same tactic helped get eccentric chess master Bobby Fischer to Iceland from Japan in 2005 to escape U.S. prosecution for breaking sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia, according to 21st Century Wire.

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support.

‘We wanted to do this earlier,’ wrote Pirate Party politician Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson on his Facebook page. ‘But citizenship is an extremely delicate issue when it’s granted by parliament instead of granted through ordinary legal processes.’

Iceland’s parliament, known as Althing, saw three Pirate Party members elected in 2013. NPR billed the party as an ‘international online freedom movement.’

Jonasson argued to parliament on Thursday that Snowden ‘is now being chased and has nowhere to go,’ according to Icelandic media.

Snowden also has a friend in former Icelandic presidential candidate Asthor Magnusson, who is collecting signatures from Icelanders as part of a petition to make his a citizen.

‘I appeal to the oldest parliament in the world, the Althing in Iceland to grant a citizenship to Edward Joseph Snowden and issue him with travel documents for safe passage to Reykjavik,’ Magnusson wrote in an appeal to Parliament, according to RT News. ‘As matters have developed, I think that Icelanders should say ‘This is enough’: We support open society and human rights. It’s a basic human right to grant this man asylum in Iceland.’

The ruling Conservative and Moderate parties could halt the bill. And some have speculated that the country’s president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, could succumb to pressure purportedly being placed on international leaders by the U.S. government and veto the legislation. – Daily News/Daily Mail

Whistleblower disappears from Hong Kong hotel

Russia is willing to consider granting political asylum for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who blew the lid on the US PRISM program, Russian media reported. Snowden dropped out of sight Monday after he was last seen checking out of a Hong Kong hotel.

The Mira Hotel, is a self-described “design hotel” near Kowloon park on the mainland.

The Mira Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, a waterfront area popular with tourists, said that an American named Edward Snowden had checked into the hotel on June 1 and stayed for more than a week before checking out Monday afternoon. The hotel is a luxury property that, according to its web site, promises “matchless indulgence for the young-at-heart modern traveler,” where room rates can go for more than $300 a night. […]

A man reached at the Mira Hotel in a room under Mr. Snowden’s name said he wasn’t the person reporters were looking for and then hung up the phone. On dialing the hotel again, the reception said Mr. Snowden’s room was no longer taking phone calls. A few minutes after that, the hotel said Mr. Snowden had checked out.

“If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” Kommersant daily quoted President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, revealed the existence of PRISM, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive data-mining surveillance program which gave the agency backdoor access to emails, videos, chats, photos and search queries from nine worldwide tech giants.

The whistleblower disappeared after checking out of a Hong Kong hotel, Reuters quoted witnesses as saying. A day earlier Snowden revealed his identity to The Guardian newspaper.

The revelations of Edward Snowden have been condemned by senior US lawmakers, who threatened the whistleblower with prosecution. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Monday called Snowden’s NSA leaks an “act of treason.”

Chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee Peter King stressed that if Edward Snowden is the leaker, then the US “must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date.”

On Monday, Regina Ip, formerly Hong Kong’s top official overseeing security, told reporters it would be in Snowden’s “best interest to leave Hong Kong,” citing an extradition treaty with the United States that was signed in 1996.

Visitors walk into The Mira Hotel, where 29-year-old former CIA employee Edward Snowden was reported to have checked out of on Monday, in Hong Kong June 10, 2013 (Reuters / Bobby Yip)

“He won’t find Hong Kong a safe harbor,” Ip said. “Those agreements have been in force for more than 10 years. If the US submits a request, we would act in accordance with the law.”

Iceland MP and privacy rights campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir has offered Snowden assistance in getting asylum in the Nordic island state.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong on May 20. Before that he had been working with the NSA earning approximately $200,000 per year and living in Hawaii.

“I’m willing to sacrifice all that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people all around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building,” he told The Guardian. “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America, of these disclosures, is that nothing will change.”

Snowden copied the last of the documents he planned to release three weeks ago, telling his bosses he needed time off to be treated for epilepsy. He has also said he has a girlfriend who was unaware of his plans to seek refuge in Hong Kong.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he has been in contact with Edward Snowden, saying the NSA contractor was a prime example of what his organization is attempting to do.

“This organization and people like it and our values are forming a new body politic and people like Edward Snowden are part of that phenomena,” Assange said in a telephone interview with The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Emma Alberici on Monday from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who revealed classified US surveillance programs leaked by Snowden, told AP that there will be more ‘significant information’ exposed in the near future. “We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months,” Greenwald told AP.

Iceland wants to ban pornography

The government is considering introducing internet filters, such as those used to block China off form the worldwide web, in order to stop Icelanders downloading or viewing pornography on the internet.

The unprecedented censorship is justified by fears about damaging effects of the internet on children and women.

Ogmundur Jonasson, Iceland’s interior minister, is drafting legislation to stop the access of online pornographic images and videos by young people through computers, games consoles and smartphones.

“We have to be able to discuss a ban on violent pornography, which we all agree has a very harmful effects on young people and can have a clear link to incidences of violent crime,” he said.

Methods under consideration include blocking access to pornographic website addresses and making it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to access pay-per-view pornography.

A law forbidding the printing and distribution of pornography is already in force in Iceland but it has yet to be updated to cover the internet.

The proposals are expected to become law this year despite a general election in April.

“There is a strong consensus building in Iceland. We have so many experts from educationalists to the police and those who work with children behind this, that this has become much broader than party politics,” Halla Gunnarsdottir, a political adviser to Mr Jonasson told the Daily Mail.

“At the moment, we are looking at the best technical ways to achieve this. But surely if we can send a man to the moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the internet.”

The proposed control over online access, that mirrors attempt in dictatorships such as China to restrict the internet, is justified as a defence of vulnerable women and children.

“Iceland is taking a very progressive approach that no other democratic country has tried,” said Professor Gail Dines, an expert on pornography and speaker at a recent conference at Reykjavik University. “It is looking a pornography from a new position – from the perspective of the harm it does to the women who appear in it and as a violation of their civil rights.”