Smoking ban, put into effect tomorrow!

Tomorrow, the 1'st of July, there will be a smoking ban, put into effect here on the Faroe Islands. No smoking will be allowed in public or private workplaces.

The purpose of this ban, is to inhibit marketing and sale of tobacco as a whole.

National obligation.

Recently, we were headlining a survey, made by National Geographic Traveler. In the wake of this, I think that we, here in the Faroe Islands, have a certain obligation, to maintain this esteemed position, by keeping it tidy here.

The newspaper, Sosialurin, started a series earlier this week, about how we mistreat our nature here in the Faroes, and that we need to... clean up.

Here you can see, really how messy this place is sometimes. I hope this piece by Sosialurin, will make people get their act together, and start tidying.

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Faroese person detained in Danish customs.

A person from the Faroe Islands, was detained in Danish airport customs, because he was carrying 1.7 kilos of whale-blubber. According to the Washington-convention, this is not allowed.

The person didn't get a fine or anything, and was let go right afterwards.

ILVA closing down in Britain.

ILVA, which is owned by Jákup á Dul Jacobsen (Faroese businessman, living in Iceland), are closing down the stores, which they have in Britain. They are located in London, Manchester and Newcastle.

Late last year, they had a deficit of roughly 110-120 million USD.

ILVA, also has stores in Sweden and Denmark. They will now emphasize on managing those stores.

Jákup á Dul Jacobsen, is also the major shareholder, of the company Pier 1.

Amnesty International-report download link.

Here's the report which I referred to last night.

Amnesty-report, doesn't shake Danish government.

Even though an Amnesty International report, says that CIA planes, have flown more than a 100 times, through Danish airspace, and landed 45 times on Danish soil, it doesn't effect the Danish Prime Minister in any way.

He says the report isn't proof in any way, and says that the government can't make any decision, based on hearsays. He will now wait for information, from the USA government.

"This is something, that the government is unaware of, but in light of the information, which have emerged, we will look into this matter, besides getting all the information from USA we're asking for, and we've no reason to think otherwise, than we're getting the correct information from the US."

Huge project revealed in Tórshavn.

Today, a huge project was revealed in Tórshavn. The aim of this project, is to totally expand the centre of the capital city.

The main focus, is from the bay area and outwards.

They're aiming for: 350 apartments, 2200 offices, 12000 squaremetres for a shopping area, hotel with 250 rooms, concert and conference-halls, which will seat 4000 people and 2100 parkingspaces.

Pictures of the project, can be found here

BAe-146 not getting rave reviews.

Our national airplane company, Atlantic Airways, have used the BAe-146, which British Aerospace manufactures, for approx the last 20 years. This make has gotten alot of bad publicity lately.

Since my english is not really up to par, you can check this article out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4025496,00.html

It's an old article, but it covers the problem I was talking about.

This subject has risen again, because of a book, written by this woman. The book i'm talking about, is the book you see right as you enter the page.

APPG on the Faroe Islands.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom, has put together an All-Party Parliamentary Group, where the Faroe Islands, are the base of this group.

The aim is to emphasize on working closely together with the Faroe Islands, on subjects such as, tourism, enviroment, fishery and power supply.

This group is very important, and will serve us greatly in the connection with the UK.

Faroese history in the making.

One of the biggest music festivals in Europe, if not the biggest, the Roskilde Festival, has a stage called the "Orange stage", which is the biggest one, and where all the major names are headlining. This year, the Faroese artist, Teitur, will be opening that stage. The only name, playing that same night, on the Orange stage, is Radiohead.

"Faroe Islands in figures"

"Faroe Islands in figures 2008" is a mini-size pocket booklet in English containing the most relevant statistics about our society. It contains key information about the Faroe Islands - geography, climate, population, labour market, culture, education, industry, trade - and much more.

Download it here

It's Statistics Faroe Islands, which releases this booklet.

The export of fish, has severely decreased.

Our export, is swiftly decreasing. In the first 4 months, it's been around half of what it was the same time last year. In value, it's taken a 26% dive, which is about 370 million Kronas, or around 77 million USD.

Stock-prices dipping.

The 2 main banks here in the Faroe Islands. Eik Bank and Føroya Banki, went on the stock-market last year.

The value of the Eik stock, has lowered 60%, while the other one, has lowered a little bit less.

Historically low amount of cod and haddock.

Research, conducted by the Faroese Fisheries Laboratory, shows that there is an historically low amount of cod and haddock in the Faroese waters.

The Fisheries Laboratory, therefore suggests, that the fishing boats, should be allowed to catch a much lower amount next year, than this.

The research, which FFL has conducted, somewhat matches the researches which ICES has made.

Faroese embassy, in New York.

The ministry of foreign affairs, in the Faroes, is planning on opening a Faroes embassy, in New York, sometime next year. Foreign affairs isn't a a part of our area at the moment. That subject, is still controlled by Denmark, so the employees at the embassy in New York, will be affiliated with the Danish embassy in New York. But we'll have our own location, and the Faroese flag will be waving on the building.

The gathering of Chiefs!

The prime minister of Denmark, Faroe Islands and Greenland, will meet later this month, here in the Faroe Islands. This meeting is not formal, but they will be talking about the major issues, in the 3 countries, at the moment.

Crisis looming...?

As it is, all around the world. The price of oil is very high, and this affects our main income, the hunt for fish. At the moment, the trawl and hunt for fish, doesn't pay off, because of the oil price, and thus, many ships are at land. One fish-factory has closed down already.

I hope the coalition walks carefully in the next months, to ensure us, that this 'crisis', will be as painless as possible.

Hacked...

The webpage of the faroese clothing designers, Guðrun&Guðrun - was hacked earlier this week, by a turkish hacker, calling himself... well.. Turkish hacker... genius.

Instead of their usual content, he had placed a picture of the dutch film-maker Geert Wilders there. He's the man, who made the movie Fitna - a movie which deals with islam.

Guðrun Rógvadóttir, called this act, loosely translated, "very rude".

The page is allright now, but if you look for Guðrun og Guðrun on Google, you can see someone has been messing with their page.

One assumption is, that maybe this move was made, because they are using jordanian workforce, for the making of their clothes. And the talk about Islam, is very... hot right there at the moment.

Tension...

The Danish government, is a part of the IWC (International Whaling Commision), because the Faroe Islands and Greenland, to a very certain degree, hunt for whales.

The common thing has been in the past, that whenever a ruling was to be made in the IWC, the danes asked the Faroe Islands and Greenland, what stand they had on the matter, and voted accordingly.

Now the Danes, want to vote in matter of banning whale-hunt in the southern Atlantic oceean, and not abiding the Faroese stand on this matter.

The Faroese government has made it clear to the Danish government, that they are not
happy about Denmarks position in this matter.

News news news...

Sex and the City craze, has also reached our islands, and during the weekend, there was this SATC-themed night in Tórshavn.

Photos are viewable here

Something to do with fashion, and I think Cosmopolitans were served (I think that's what one of those girls in the series, likes to drink).

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I was at a Bryan Adams concert in Tórshavn, last wednesday. It was really fun, the weather was great. And someone even told me, that he'd been in a studio. Either he did some recordings there or wanted to. He stayed here a day and a half, after the concert itself.

He's an avid photographer, so maybe he took some photos.

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Boys In A Band, will be going on a 24 hour tour here in the Faroe Islands, when they release their first album. They will be playing in 24 of our largest towns/villages, in a period of 24 hours.

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In April, we had the TransAtlantic Climate Conference - And one really interesting thing they talked about, was the TransAtlantic Climate Institute.

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In 2009, ENI and Chevron, will drill 2 wells in Faroese area. Tests have shown really positive results outside our area, and that's why they are starting on this side next year.

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That's it for today, slow start... i know... more tomorrow... see ya.

After months of waiting, there is light, at the end of the tunnel...

I'd like to thank ABC-News, for kind of forcing me back on this blog, by quoting this blog, in one of their stories.

Many things have happened, since you last were on here. To many things to recap, so I suggest you read Workmans blog. He has a birds eye view on, what's happening here.

In about 30 minutes... i'll post some updated news...