It's my dad's birthday today, the perfect moment to throw in a few photos illustrating his visit last week..
What with the political uproar in the country, we had good and epic times, participating actively in what was later described as the "saucepan revolution" by taking part in the daily (and nightly actually) demonstrations in front of the Parliament, with the Icelandic people calling for the destitution of their government. (for those who didn't follow the recent news, because of the economic crisis, which was in fact induced by political gambling, pretty much)Here is a link to a few videos dad made of the demos in front of the Alþingi.
They reflect the atmosphere pretty well, though it was often a little more intense. Seeing as it was my dad who filmed them, there's a chance you might glimpse a blur of bright orange at some point, and somewhere underneath it, me. The blur is my favourite bright orange scarf, which I was all the happier to be sporting, as orange ("appelsínugull") was declared the colour of non-violence, on the occasion.. hence most people wearing the colour.. Actually, I have no clue whether orange is always the colour of non-violence (or not), but I was lucky in that case, as it makes me look (for once) fashionable, and also sophisticated with a tinge of revolutionary. Wunderbar. :o)
Being French, I'm rather used to very regular demonstrations (she said, very "blasé") and I have to say it was a surprise to seee how pacific people were, and also how confident they were that things would change without having to revert to violence to make themselves heard. (although I also heard that this WAS or had been a violent act, for Iceland)
There was me, sneering, thinking they wouldn't get anywhere without burning the Parliament, like we do in Brittany when we want to prove a point, or without throwing rocks and generally vandalizing.
Well I'm really impressed and happy to see how wrong I was, and also in awe.
Well done, People of Iceland!!
Incidentally though, I have to add that SOME violence emerged occasionnally, and not necessarily on the people's part. Tear gas was used for the first time since 1949, and all that to disperse pacific demonstrators.
Who, fair enough, were lobbing skyr (the local joghourt) at the police, haha!! :o)
The saucepan and joghourt revolution!!
To cut a long story short, the Prime Minister resigned 3 days ago after announcing that he had a throat cancer and therefore would not represent himself for the next elections. (NB, I find it really funny how effecient these demonstartions are in Iceland.. suddenly everyone is catching cancer. Icelandic demonstrators must have a special thing... ) , so yeah, the government fell and we now have someone potentially ready to assume the role of Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir (see here at Icelandic review online :
and here for further details
She is universally (in Iceland ;o) ) loved and respected, has been on the political scene for aaaaaaaaaaages and her time has now come, to paraphrase her..
"Tímin minn er kominn", she said eons ago, and oooooooooooh yesss, she was right, looks like her time HAS come. 
But the road may be long and windy...
Icelandic style...
Papa a un geyser dans le dos..
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