Af álfum og Alcan

Það er ekki hægt að segja að atkvæðagreiðslan í Hafnarfirði um síðustu helgi hafi vakið mikla athygli hér í Kanada, en nóg samt til þess að stuttar fréttir eru ritaðar um málið, enda Alcan Kanadískt fyrirtæki, með höfuðstöðvar sínar í Montreal.

Einhvern veginn virðast fjölmiðlar hér ekki taka þessa atkvæðagreiðslu mjög alvarlega og fá álfar hér um bil jafn mikið pláss í frétt The Globe and Mail og ál.

En í frétt Globe and Mail má lesa eftirfarandi:

"Perhaps the company didn't campaign hard enough among the Hidden Folk.

The votes of 88 Icelanders who live in a tiny, apparently elf-inhabited municipality near the windswept country's capital, appear to have blocked a $1.2-billion (U.S.) smelter project planned by aluminum giant Alcan Inc.

In a referendum held over the weekend, people in the seaside town of Hafnarfjordur voted 50.3 per cent against allowing the government to move a highway and rezone land as part of a planned expansion of the company's ISAL smelter."

"The company will now have to go back to the drawing board and perhaps resubmit a new project plan to Hafnarfjordur if it still wants to boost capacity at the facility, which is Iceland's oldest smelter and has been in operation since 1969.

"It is indicative of the world as a whole, where large industrial projects are not easily accepted by local communities," said Victor Lazarovici, an analyst with BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in New York.

However, Hafnarfjordur, whose name simply means "harbour fjord," is no stranger to commerce. It has seen business conducted at its port since the 1300s.

According to local folklore, the town also has one of Iceland's largest settlements of elves, dwarves and other mystical beings. It is said that whole clans of Hidden Folk live in the rocks near the town's centre.

According to a local tourist website, stories abound of instances where new roads or housing developments were under construction and strange happenings took place.

There is no evidence that the Hidden Folk were opposed to the smelter expansion. Indeed, the Icelandic government's practice of giving foreign aluminum companies access to cheap hydroelectric and geothermal power to run their smelters has erupted into a national debate."

Fréttina má finna í heild hér. 

Og hér er svo frétt The Toronto Star, en hún er frekar snubbótt.

 

Athugasemdir

[Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, 5.4.2007 kl. 09:31]

Það hvíslaði að mér Hafnfirskur álfur í gær: "Betri er álfur en álver" og hló mikið. 

Bestu kveðjur til Kanada frá álfabænum Hafnarfirði

RagJó 

[G. Tómas Gunnarsson, 7.4.2007 kl. 02:06]

Er ekki viss um ál-far hafi nokkuð á móti ál-verum, enda annálaðir fyrir málmsmíði í gegnum aldirnar rétt eins og frændur þeirra dvergarnir.