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Villi Asgeirsson

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Politics

Barcelona Terror Attack

17 August 2017 by villia Leave a Comment

I wasn’t going to say anything about this because it should be obvious what I think. People that kill for their race or religion are misguided, stupid and morally bankrupt.

If there is a reason for this life that we live, it has to be to treat each other well and try to learn something. Killing innocent people does neither and only shows how a life of a (usually) young man has become a perfect failure.

The USA is in deep trouble and will have to sort itself out. Barcelona will be fine. They’ve been through hell before and came out on top. The city will be fine, but the victims won’t and that makes this all pointless and stupid.

I keep saying pointless and stupid, but that is what this is.

Here is a passage from a novel I wrote. It was inspired by that fire in the people of Barcelona. A passage from a stupid book isn’t going to make any difference, but I’m not there and I can’t help in any other way.

The people of Barcelona were a busy crowd and the streets were full of life. They moved like ants, going about their daily routine. Nothing seemed to stop them from doing whatever they needed to do. Not even a civil war.

So there you have it. Dumb terrorists. Your sacrifice is in vain. Oh, and the virgins? Forget about it. Lemmy is dead. There are no virgins left in Heaven. Not that you’re going there anyway.

Filed Under: Politics, Thoughts Tagged With: barcelona, politics, terrorism

The Loss of Democracy

1 March 2017 by villia Leave a Comment

I have used this blog almost exclusively for talking about literature and my novels. That’s what this site is for. But I have to share this with you because some things must never be silenced. I put the text below in a comment somewhere, but I don’t want to lose it in the chatter that is Facebook. It’s dark and grim, but so be it. Here goes…

We are at a watershed in history. Dangerous times. There is so much misinformation (now with an official name, alternate facts), hate speech, doublespeak, polarisation. I’m not an expert in anything, but I did something as part of a research for a current project. I read the headlines on the cover of a newspaper from 1929 to 1940. Every single day, one after another. I experienced history like they did at the time.

Alþýðublaðið 1 September 1939
Alþýðublaðið 1 September 1939

It was chilling. We all know what happened. Hindsight made it a sinister read. Going from a relatively safe (if turbulent) world towards world war. But you know what? They knew what was going on as early as 1935. Maybe earlier. War was all but certain as early as 1936 and any doubt was gone by 1937. It was the lack of action that allowed it to happen. The few voices that shouted were drowned. No one nation or man was to blame. Everyone that stood by and did nothing contributed to what would happen.

What we need now are strong voices of people that can see the dark version of the future and will do anything in their power to steer us in the other direction. It’s easier to go with the flow, even take part in the march towards the edge, but we really don’t want to go there.

I’m not predicting a war. I hope we’re not that dumb. I’m predicting the stripping of civil rights and some kind of dictatorship. Because the moment we stop believing in democracy, we lose it.

Filed Under: Politics, Thoughts Tagged With: blog, fascism, history, politics, research, social media, thoughts

A Year in the Life

12 September 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s been a year since I completed the first draft. As of 12 September 2015, Blood and Rain existed. The novel was scheduled to be published in spring 2016, but things happened.

Blood and Rain - concept cover
Blood and Rain – concept cover

First, the website went down and my hosting company killed the backup. This is why links to old blog posts on my social media sites are broken. It took a few weeks to fight them, but I lost. My blog was gone. I made some effort to salvage the site, but it’s still in ruins. Never set up a site with FatCow. Never. Absolutely don’t.

Then Bowie died on the day my review copies were returned. He was my idol, someone I looked to for inspiration. I spent the next few weeks clearing out the attic, going through my Bowie collection and disappearing into a dark world that was mine and mine only. Except when I needed to work, do groceries and things. Creativity wasn’t there, my story seemed irrelevant.

Then I created a book of Bowie lyrics for a closed group on Facebook. I also wrote a novella based on his album, Diamond Dogs. Got half way through it. I need to finish that project as well. It was well on its way to become an interesting novella.

And I was busy working with the Pirate Party in Iceland in the weeks before the pre-elections. My work there is done. Elections are at the end of October and it looks like it may turn out extremely well for the party.

A year flies by in an instant. It is interesting though, that I finished the final draft of Blood and Rain two days ago. Pretty much a year after finishing the first draft.

And so here we are. Now it’s time for a cover design and finding the best way to publish the novel. I leave you with a cover idea I coughed up at the time.

It’s good to be back.

Filed Under: Novel, Personal, Politics, Writing Tagged With: blood and rain, bowie, david bowie, novel, politics, website, writing

Mad World

20 November 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

The day so far.

1. Men are free to rape women in Iceland.

2. Icelandic working class can’t get a payrise because it’ll cause inflation. Politicians will get a 9.4% hike though. Because they’re so useful, I guess.

3. Most of the Paris attackers are either dead or arrested. The rest are known. France has decided to bomb thousands of civilians in Syria though. Tit for tat, because that’ll solve everything and not create more jihadists.

4. American presidential candidates are insane. And fascists.

5. An old man released a new music video. Nobody has a clue what it’s about, but it has been watched 650.000 times in the last 24 hours. I may be responsible for half that, so who is the other fool?

Filed Under: Blog, Music, Politics, Thoughts Tagged With: blackstar, blog, bowie, david bowie, music, personal, politics, terrorism, thoughts

Zouheir

16 November 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

The name of security guard that stopped one of the killers from entering the stadium in Paris is Zouheir. He is a Muslim and this is somehow a big deal. I don’t see why.

Being somehow surprised, relieved or extra happy that the hero is a Muslim seems to indicate some kind of a belief that a Muslim would react differently from a person of another faith. That he would have let the killer in or that he would have had any kind of understanding or sympathy for the killer’s motives.

This is ridiculous. A decent human being will try to stop a murderer and Muslims are just as likely to be decent human beings as people of other faiths.

His name should be remembered and celebrated, but his faith is of no relevance, except to prove to idiots that Muslims are not the problem. Idiots are.

Filed Under: Politics, Thoughts Tagged With: politics, terrorism

Berlin – 25 Years of Freedom

9 November 2014 by villia Leave a Comment

Growing up in the shadow of the atomic bomb was an odd experience. I remember sitting in a sand box, playing with a plastic shovel. Possibly eating the black volcanic sand. Another kid said the Russians had more bombs than the Americans. That was scary, because the Russians were the enemy. He said they could wipe out a whole city with one bomb and they had thousands. I probably took a mouthful of sand at that moment. It was the first time I realised that life was dangerous and that the world could actually come to an end.

BerlinLater, in my teens, I would read the back of the phone books. They had instructions on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Paint the windows they said, then stay away from the windows, cover yourself. Afterwards, see if anyone needed help. They explained how to treat burn wounds and avoid radiation. I wondered if the best thing wouldn’t be to go outside and enjoy the fireworks. Better than survive and die of burns or radiation sickness.

I remember a story from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Someone apparently sat down on the sofa, TV turned on. Gun and a bottle of whisky. Prepared to drink the bottle in no time and use the gun if they announced that the bombs were on the way. Better be gone before the blast got you.

Berlin SnogThat was the paranoia. The fear. Thankfully, we have been spared this madness for 25 years now. When the Berlin Wall fell, the cold war fizzled out and we could become friends with the east. We could finally accept that Russians were people too. It has been a bumpy ride, ups and downs, crisis here and there, but the threat of nuclear war vanished shortly after 20.000 people crossed Bösebrücke, 25 years ago today.

But there are two things bothering me tonight, on this great anniversary. The first, and most obvious, is that we seem to be heading for another cold war. A pointless and unnecessary confrontation between east and west.

Berlin CardThe other thing is that the wall probably wouldn’t have come down, had the east German politburo not made the mistake of telling people they were free to go west. People rose up after being told it was OK. The time had come, communism was crumbling, Poland was experiencing martial laws due to civil unrest, the borders between Hungary and Austria were already open, making the Berlin wall mostly obsolete, but people gathered and the border guards gave up on the day authorities said they could.

What if Günter Schabowski had not said the borders were open? How long would it have taken for the public to denounce their oppressors? How long would the GDR have survived?

The Berlin Wall fell, South-Africa denounced apartheid, but one major wall of shame remains. The one keeping Palestinians trapped. Will they ever be free?

And will we ever be free of the invisible walls we are trapped by? The fear of doing what we think is right? The fear of standing up to authorities that treat us like subjects in a George Orwell novel? Hopefully, some day, we will break down our own private walls of fear. Then the rest will follow.

Happy anniversary, Berlin! See you in three days.
(Photos in this post are taken from my film that will be shown at the Berlin interfilm festival next week)

Filed Under: Film, Personal, Politics, Thoughts Tagged With: berlin, film, germany, history, peace, personal, photography, politics, revolution, thoughts, war

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