Update on post about Icelandic prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

April 26, 2009 8:36 PM

Update to a closed thread: Earlier this year Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was appointed by the president and parliament of Iceland to be caretaker prime minister until new elections could be held, in the process becoming the world's first head of government to be openly gay. Yesterday she lead her Social Democratic party to victory in parliamentary elections, ensuring that she will continue to serve as prime minister for the foreseeable future.
posted by Kattullus to MetaFilter-related at 8:36 PM (49 comments total)

How do you say yay in Icelandic?
posted by Pants! at 8:46 PM on April 26

"Yay! In Icelandic!"
posted by Pronoiac at 8:49 PM on April 26 [3 favorites]

Yáy!
posted by boo_radley at 8:50 PM on April 26

Jibbí!
posted by Kattullus at 8:51 PM on April 26 [3 favorites]

Jibbí indeed.

The Social Democrats and Leftist-Greens have a five-seat majority (20 and 14, respectively). They're in coalition talks right now. The Independence Party, the conservatives who'd run the country for the past 18 years in a row if I remember correctly, dropped from 25 seats to 16. One party that's been around since 1998 lost all four seats, and one that was started nine weeks ago won four. All in the span of about two and a half months. Yeah, it's been a rollercoaster.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 9:26 PM on April 26

So now, if Iceland keeps collapsing, we can blame it on The Lesbians, right?
posted by Meatbomb at 9:56 PM on April 26

Jibbí! Yay! Wow!
posted by rtha at 9:58 PM on April 26

FWIW, The Iceland Weather Report is a decent Icelandic blog, (written in English). Covers political issues pretty well imo.
posted by edgeways at 10:15 PM on April 26

So now, if Iceland keeps collapsing, we can blame it on The Lesbians, right?

No, you have to blame it on a group that has no bearing on the situation at all.
posted by crossoverman at 10:47 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

Jibbí!
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:03 PM on April 26

Cool, but is this what MetaTalk was meant for?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:15 PM on April 26

Looking forward to watching this new Icelandic movie that I read about on Icelandic Weather Report.

Iceland doesn't make enough movies, IMO.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:40 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

Looking forward to watching this new Icelandic movie that I read about on Icelandic Weather Report.

Wow. Just that trailer alone makes me jealous of being an Icelander. It somehow very effectively makes it look like being a citizen of Iceland is equivalent to being a hero of Middle Earth, amazingly only through mentioning modern political issues and without even having to break out any statuesque Icelanders dressed as Vikings or other Hrafnkel's Saga shit.

Wait just a second... does that make the United States into Mordor? Fuck. I don't want to be an orc.
posted by XMLicious at 2:00 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

the world's first head of government to be openly gay

Hmm, I wonder why Alexander the Great never had any heirs?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:01 AM on April 27

Eight-year-olds, dude.
posted by The White Hat at 8:31 AM on April 27

It's certainly been used for this before, Brandon. Where else would you suggest, since the original thread is closed? (And this is almost certainly a more legitimate use than my pathetic excuse for a MeTa post the other day.)
posted by ocherdraco at 8:32 AM on April 27

Jibbí!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:57 AM on April 27

Hmm, I wonder why Alexander the Great never had any heirs?

Because he was bald from birth lol.
posted by ORthey at 8:59 AM on April 27 [2 favorites]

I suppose it's a somewhat arcane difference but as smackfu touched on in the original thread a distinction could be made between being chosen to be head of government after the resignation of the previous prime minister and becoming head of government following an electoral victory. Now Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir has done both.
posted by Kattullus at 9:17 AM on April 27

It's certainly been used for this before, Brandon. Where else would you suggest, since the original thread is closed? (And this is almost certainly a more legitimate use than my pathetic excuse for a MeTa post the other day.)

I'm kinda curious about this myself. I would have just posted it to the Blue with a "Previously on MeFi" link. Isn't that the usual procedure?

I'm not trying to be critical, ocherdraco. I'm a little concerned that I might do something that violates a written (or unwritten,) site guideline in the future.
posted by zarq at 9:27 AM on April 27

And Kattullus, it's great news no matter where it's posted. So, thanks. :)
posted by zarq at 9:29 AM on April 27

Mazel tov, Prime Minister Jóhanna! (Did I do that right, with the personal name instead of the patronymic?)

Anyway, does anyone have any photos of Jóhanna and her wife, Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson, together at any big international summits or the like? I just want to see the looks on the faces of the politicians from backwards, anti-gay countries like Saudi Arabia and the United States.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:43 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Jibbí! Woot!
posted by schyler523 at 9:44 AM on April 27

I would have just posted it to the Blue with a "Previously on MeFi" link.

I'd have done what Kattullus did. I've always thought it was completely appropriate. I see other people do it all the time, without any complaints from the mods, and it always struck me as being part of the definition of Metatalk -- discussion about something that's gone on in this site in the past, i.e. the outcome to a previous post.

I do mostly see it happening with regard to the green rather than the blue though. Perhaps there's a distinction somewhere that I'm missing?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:49 AM on April 27

Hmm, I wonder why Alexander the Great never had any heirs?

He did; Alexander IV of Macedon was assassinated before he could reach majority and inherit.

(schwing) The More You Know!

(also yay iceland)
posted by aihal at 9:49 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Um. Sorry to interrupt the whole gays-r-pederasts-LOL conversation by being pedantic, but Alexander did in fact have an heir - a son by his Bactarian wife, Roxana. Alexander IV Aegus was still in-utero when his father died in Babylon, but he was Alexander's acknowledged heir.

Sadly, the years of war and intrigue that immediately followed the death of Alexander fated his son for a poor end. Roxana murdered her husband's other widow in an attempt to make herself and her progeny the sole line of succession; when Alexander IV was 13 and could have greater control over the empire, his own regent, Cassander, had the boy and his mother assassinated.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:51 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Jibbi is my new favorite word.
posted by trip and a half at 9:53 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

This is cool. Maybe those of us with large amounts of MetaFiltrFavrites™ could move there. I'm sure they're a currency, redeemable for at least 100 Krona each!

Seriously, I wish her the best of luck, and would like to shout one time "Go Civilized World!"
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:46 AM on April 27

Sadly, the years of war and intrigue that immediately followed the death of Alexander fated his son for a poor end. Roxana murdered her husband's other widow in an attempt to make herself and her progeny the sole line of succession; when Alexander IV was 13 and could have greater control over the empire, his own regent, Cassander, had the boy and his mother assassinated.

There's a really cool Hardcore History podcast about this.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:51 AM on April 27

Cool, but is this what MetaTalk was meant for?

I think every thread in MetaTalk was meant for asking this question.
posted by ignignokt at 10:52 AM on April 27

Sorry to interrupt the whole gays-r-pederasts-LOL conversation by being pedantic

Um, I think you may have that reversed: pederasts-have gay sex-and lead conquests of vast swaths of the Earth-LOL.

Also, Alexander was ill from war wounds, ancient medicinals, and heavy drinking, yet he fathered Alex 4, yeah, OK. I'm not saying Roxana got around, but I heard they called her "the Bactrian" because of her humps.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:59 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Yeah, what zarq said, especially since more people read the Blue.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:13 AM on April 27

> Anyway, does anyone have any photos of Jóhanna and her wife, Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson.... Jónína Leósdóttir?

i'd like to see them, too (but for less feint).
posted by de at 11:30 AM on April 27

(schwing) The More You Know!

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

But it's cool anyway. go iceland and your cool islandyness!
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:37 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Well I say a long and profound "boo!"

Obviously, the current liberal inquisitors of this site welcome any unusual European sexuality with open arms (if not open legs). But for we members of the clear-thinking minority, this disgusting flaunt of perverse politics represents naught but a direct threat to American interests.

Imagine! A homosexual Head of Government - of a country that has for longtemps hovered icily, like a threatening storm-cloud, almost directly overnorth our own United States! The threat, metafilter, is open and clear: for when one of our near neighbours harbours such a government within its cold, miserable heart, our doom sounds a menacing knock upon the door.

The point is that America has only recently earned glory and fame throughout the world with the election of a black President. But now Obama is "sooo November 2008" - all the cool countries are electing lesbians. We are losing some serious cool points here.

Let's fight back, by fagging up our own POTUS, big time. Only when Barack O is out and proud can America once again stand before the world and say "yo, my leader is the super hippest, and yours is just some old fucking doofus. Eat that shit, boringstan".
posted by the quidnunc kid at 11:43 AM on April 27

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

No, I get off on correcting other people's historical inaccuracies. For me, masturbation is screaming obscenities at David Irving.
posted by aihal at 11:43 AM on April 27 [1 favorite]

They're like the Vermont of Europe!
posted by klangklangston at 11:46 AM on April 27

Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson.... Jónína Leósdóttir

Oh, gods, I looked at the wrong line on Wikipedia and copied and pasted her ex-husband's name instead her wife's. The whole "-son" instead of "-dottir" thing didn't even register in my brain. My sincerest apologies to Jóhanna and Jónína. My request for photos of uncomfortable-looking ambassadors, however, still stands.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:29 PM on April 27

> They're like the Vermont of Europe!

Substitute fermented shark for maple syrup, and you'd never know the difference.
posted by ardgedee at 12:52 PM on April 27

No, I get off on correcting other people's historical inaccuracies.

Well! Carry on, then.
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:01 PM on April 27

Yeah, what zarq said, especially since more people read the Blue.

It was definitely good enough in the current incarnation to be posted to the Blue, but sometimes it might just appear like single link newsfilter that wouldn't be appropriate over there, so I can see why sometimes people might feel here is more appropriate.

Jesus, have I really been here long enough to start caring about this shit? I need to get a hobby...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:13 PM on April 27 [1 favorite]

Jesus, have I really been here long enough to start caring about this shit? I need to get a hobby...

You've done your job well. Now sit back and watch next time around while someone else carries the torch.
posted by carsonb at 1:50 PM on April 27

The ice storm is coming...
posted by AwkwardPause at 2:04 PM on April 27

Jibbí!

Also, forget the ice storm, AwkwardPause, but do beware the reindeer uprising of 2012 -- it's coming!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 2:46 PM on April 27

They're like the Vermont of Europe!

Half of the country is on the North American plate. Since their currency is busted, we should get them in on the Amero.
posted by ignignokt at 4:48 PM on April 27

So how are things going in Iceland now?
posted by empath at 4:52 PM on April 27

Well, depending on who you ask things are either fucked beyond all hope of recovery or even worse than that.

Personally I remain optimistic that things are merely really fucking awful.
posted by Kattullus at 6:52 PM on April 27

Well, this picture induced a bit of hope in me. These are the leaders and deputy leaders of the two parties leaving a round of talks on the formation of the new cabinet. From left to right, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Dagur B. Eggertsson, deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, deputy leader of the Left-Greens and Steingrímur Sigfússon, leader of the Left-Green party. Happy and smiling without the air of menace emanating from most happy, smiling politicans.

Distrust of happy, smiling politicians may have something to do with having lived under the rule of right-wing parties for 60% of my life.
posted by Kattullus at 9:33 AM on April 30

Happy and smiling without the air of menace emanating from most happy, smiling politicans.

They look awfully like they're menacingly brandishing their aura of happy smileyness to me.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:44 AM on April 30