First lady of Iceland climbs security fence to join protesters (video)

[EFerrari]

Dorrit Moussaieff, the first lady of Iceland, made a dramatic gesture over the weekend by joining a group of demonstrators hit by the debt crisis.

As the Icelandic president and MPs came under fire from angry protesters on Saturday, on their traditional walk to mass marking the opening of the parliamentary session, the President’s wife broke away to join the protest. Protesters, demanding that the government does more to help struggling households, had lined the streets in central Reykjavik pelting politicians with eggs and yogurt.

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/03/first-lady-of-iceland-climbs-security-fence-to-join-protesters.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=36761

Yogurt?! :)

[MADem]

1. I suppose the yoghurt makes a mess but doesn't really hurt anyone.

A tomato, an apple, those could cause a sting, maybe even a bruise.

Is she pissed at her husband, or triangulating for him?

[Xithras]

3. Maybe she agrees with them?

Keep in mind that we're talking about Iceland, which has a total population of less than 325,000 people. It's a country where everyone may not know everyone, but everyone certainly knows somebody in everybody elses family. The way their government interacts with their people would be fairly foreign to most Americans.

[MADem]

6. Maybe--but it doesn't hurt her husband if she blunts the ire against him.

I'm sure people are harboring less ill-will towards him, personally, if not the government's general austerity, as a consequence of her actions.

She's like anyone else--she can hold two ideas in her head, I'm sure.

[reggie the dog]

19. by her joining the people protesting she adds credibility to the cause

here jest did much more to help the cause than her own husband. perhaps she is a true leftist?????

[MADem]

20. I don't pretend to know her leanings. I will say that, no matter what is in her heart,

her actions helped her husband.

[reggie the dog]

26. and the people protesting

the media has photos of the first lady jumping the fence, and joining the protesters. that is huge, it would be like michelle obama being in new york and suddenly joining the anti wall street protests. it ads a lot of credibility to the movement.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Joining protesters wouldn't be triangulating in the American sense.

Bill Clinton was accused of "triangulation" for taking positions in the center of Congressional Republicans and Congressional Democrats.

[MADem]

8. Sure, it would. Picture Michelle Obama going out and shaking hands with the

OWS protesters--she'd be regarded as an "emissary" for her husband, and people who were griping about him would be more favorably disposed towards him.

I'm not saying with any conviction this is the First Lady of Iceland's motive--I know nothing about the woman. I'm just engaging in idle speculation.

Triangulation is only a bad thing to people who are are allergic to any kind of compromise. For people who want to move forward, and will endure incremental gains, it's not so bad. Triangulation is what allowed Clinton a second term, even after scandal.

[Eric J in MN]

9. I'd call that "reaching out." Or "trying to increase voter support."

..."Triangulating" is about a president being in the center of Congressional Republicans and Congresional Democrats.

[MADem]

10. You're welcome to your own definition of the term. nt

[roguevalley]

16. actually, we are placing this woman's actions in the framework of

our politics and personal experience. I imagine that she is acting on her personal principles and nothing more. Iceland has been pretty damned firm about this wealth bullshit and I give this Viking lady all credit for acting on her conscience.

Sometimes what people in other cultures do is not what it seems to our mores and values. Just sayin'.

[MADem]

21. I am placing her actions in the context of understanding the importance

of public relations, and I'm quite sure she's got that down, based on her skillful interactions with members of that crowd.

Whatever her reasons (and unless we are her, we can't say we know them), her actions had the end result of helping her husband's rep with the people behind that barricade. Some things are universal.

[Gin]

7. not sure of why she did that...I am suspicious of her gesture

[reggie the dog]

17. probably because she supports the demonstrators

her husband is the longest serving left wing president in the history of iceland after all

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[secondwind]

5. Cool! If anyone saw the movie "Inside Job", you would know that the global economic

crisis first reared its ugly head in Iceland.....................

[Brother Buzz]

11. I'm still waiting for our leader to put on some comfy shoes and start walking

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. The Reykjavik Police Dept. Is totally fucked up.

They're not macing or arresting people! WTF is their problem? :sarcasm:

The First Lady was wonderful to do that. She seemed to actually CARE about her people.

[MADem]

22. "Her" people? She's not a queen or a slave owner. She's the wife of a politician.

Ewwww.

[reggie the dog]

27. when i protest i protest for the betterment of my people

my people being fellow residents of france and fellow residents of the usa (my 2 countries) they are "her" people and "my" people not because we posses those people but because we are a part of them, they "are" her and they "are" me. all for one and one for all......

[MADem]

28. Ewwww. Noblesse oblige, I suppose.

It simply sounds condescending to my ear.

It's fine with the "fellow" in there, but without it, it grates -- to me, anyway. YMMV!

[sabrina 1]

13. Good for her.

So far a couple of politicians have shown up on Wall St, Charlie Rangel and Gov Patterson. I have a feeling as it grows and becomes unstoppable, as it will and the more they TRY to stop it, the bigger it will grow, more politicians will try to associate with them.

However, one of the goals of this movement is to take the money out of politics, so any politician who is funded by Wall St. would probably have to give up that funding and rely on the people, who are now about to become much, much more informed, to elect them if they deserve it.

[tama]

14. She was not the only one

Several MPs switched sides and joined the protesters. From representation to participation... :)

[BookSavoury]

15. This is so encouraging!

It feels like real change is possible now. People are sick and tired of the status quo.

[malaise]

18. Love it

Rec

[woo me with science]

23. Wow, she found some comfortable shoes.

Wish we had representation like that.

[Poll_Blind]

24. +1

PB

[seabeyond]

25. what a woman.... nt

[starroute]

29. I think the throwing yogurt thing started in Greece

Yeah, here's a link:

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/09/26/after-yogurt-bottles-and-stones-greeks-add-eggs-to-protest-arsenal/

26 September 2011

After picketing their homes, jeering them, pelting them with yogurt, throwing bottles and stones at them, Greek citizens have taken to venting their frustration with the country’s economic woes by hurling eggs at politicians.

Deputy Minister for Citizen’s Protection Manolis Othonas was in for an unpleasant surprise yesterday as an egg landed on his head right in front of the cameras. Mr Othonas was making statements to local reporters at a sports event in his hometown of Rethimno, Crete, when a woman through him an egg. Mr Othonas is actually the second member of the ruling socialist party that had the “egg experience”. Back in April ,Health Minister Andreas Loverdos and his entourage were attacked with eggs and other projectiles.

But eggs’ popularity doesn’t even come close to the yogurt trend spreading all over the country. In the past six months, more than five Greek deputies have had a yogurt hurled, best known those of Mr Pangalos, Ms Kanelli and Giorgos Petalotis. Less than six months ago, Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos, saw a yogurt cup flying through the air and landing right on his forehead in Keratea , Southeast Attica where he was enjoying a family dinner.

A couple of months ago, Communist Party (KKE) deputy Liana Kanelli had her own little “yogurt treat” on her way to parliament. “I tasted it and it was good quality,” she joked with reporters after being pelted in June. Giorgos Petalotis, the former Greek Government Spokesman was the unluckiest of all since he had eggs, fruit and a yogurt cup-even a chair (!) thrown at him as he was giving a speech at a retirement home in Argiroupolis, a southern suburb of Athens.

[leftstreet]

30. K&R

:-)