Winds of Change

Dear friends,

As we enter the new year, most of us are filled with emotions of anticipation, uncertainty and justifiable fear. Yet the feeling of HOPE is still alive in our hearts as we march on to face the daunting challenges that lie ahead.  In a changing world where old ideologies have crumbled, a new brave world must rise from the ashes!  Failure is not an option.

To my Icelandic blog-friends:  I have decided to make the following changes to my blog while I continue to explore other blog-venues that are totally free of censorship.  For the time being I have decided to remain here.

1. From now on, all my posts will be written in English in order to expand my audience to include my American friends and neighbors.  I'm sure most of my Icelandic blog-friends are fluent in English anyway so I hope they will not be affected by this change.  Please feel free to continue to leave comments in Icelandic if you prefer.  I may also post some blogs in both English and Icelandic - especially if I link to news articles on the mbl.is news-site.  I may also translate some of my older posts to English in the near future.

2. As a way to protest the decision of the editors of mbl.is and blog.is to limit the freedom of speech of those individuals who prefer to blog anonymously by preventing them from linking blogs to news articles and trying to make their blogs invisible, I have taken the following steps:

    From now on my full legal name and picture will not appear on the frontpage of this blog.  This is done to show my support to those bloggers whose opinions are being systematically silenced by concervative pro-government editors. 

My full name will still appear on the author page and I will make no efforts to hide my true identity - this is a symbolic protest only!

3. I will not be bullied into silence and wow to make my future writings edgier than ever before!  I will continue to critizise religion and right-wing nuts while also keeping the personal elements and humor intact.  This blog will continue to be a strange mixed bag as I refuse to box myself in to a specific topic or style.  As before, I will write about my personal thoughts and experiences pertaining to my interests which include:  Aviation, Technology, Politics, Gay rights issues, Secularism and the seperation of Church and State, etc.

4. As I continue to evolve as a human being, I reserve the right to make further changes to this blog as I deem fit.

Thanks to all those who encouraged me to continue blogging and thanks for staying with me!  And a very warm welcome to my new readers as I take this step into the wild blue yonder of the international blogosphere!

Athugasemdir

[Ólafur Þórðarson, 3.1.2009 kl. 23:57]

Jes, the Morgunblaðið online is doing the wrong thing by instituting this censorship bullshit. They are chasing screen names, instead of hurtful or obscene blogs. I have noticed that the obscene or rude blogs have nothing to do with the identity of the writer, and that this is a new form of paranoia in Iceland. A lot of people do not realize that forcing people to write under their their social security number (unpublished) and real name (published) is a serious suppression of speech, because many people can not write what they think in fear of losing jobs or becoming unfavorable with others in power, be it a boss or bitchy neighbor that likes to indulge in backstabbing stories about what has been said, and so on.

It is interesting that the most right-wing elements are consistently featured on the blog front page of Morgunblaðið, and I have to think it is because they have access to strings behind the facade. Also interesting is that these same bloggers block readers comments. As one easily figures out, it goes hand in hand that a suppressor of speech would like to incrementally increase it! Where it will end is hard to say, but Iceland has not been in a more important position in the last few decades, than today where free speech is concerned.

With Icelanders entering a really serious collapse financially this year, I would say it has a hell of a lot to do with the monopoly on the media last decade, along with a few other factors. Business-extremism has basically called the shots and caused the financial collapse of a formerly decent country. Greed, excessive competition, bullying, monotheism Friedman style, personality worshiping, party loyalty and pseudo-economic wisdom are some of the problems.

Boy it was a hell of a nice day in New York today!

[Róbert Björnsson, 4.1.2009 kl. 00:09]

Well said veffari!

Thanks for being the first one to comment on my "new blog" hehe...and best wishes to the Big Apple! 

[Andy (IP-tala skráð) 4.1.2009 kl. 20:50]

nice to finally understand your blog.  keep up the good work!

Say hello to Dr. J!