FAROE FRIDAY: NEWS AND VIEWS

A grab bag of information this week from Faroe Man, who still hasn't updated his blog in 6 months, but did convince me to sign up for Facebook using some logic about being able to meet more people from the Faroes through online networking and whatnot. And during a Facebook chat, Mr. Faroe caught me up on several small news stories around the Faroes.

First, he pointed me to an NPR story about Teitur, the Faroese singer who has been on tour in the US. It's a well done story and it's the first chance I'd had to listen to his music. I quite like it.

Next up is a story from the Russian state news agency. They've sent a video news crew over to report on possible Faroese Independence. It's a debate that's been going on for a few hundred years now.

Then my sole English language source of Faroese news got a little dishy. Al Gore came to the Faroe Islands several months ago, and didn't quite impress the locals. Faroe Man says Gore came into town, did his slide show, and left. No interviews with the press, no, shaking hands with the people, no nothing. Then he goes to Iceland and is a little Chatty Kathy with the press.

Contrast this to Bill Clinton's visit last October, where the former president walked the streets of Torshavn and even did a little early Christmas shopping at local businesses.

My facebook chat with Faroe Man also got me one small step closer to my goal of being a professional shill for the Faroes. As it turns out, he's got a distant relative who is the head of the Faroe Islands Tourism Board. I asked if she'd be my friend. No word back yet.

This week's Faroe Photos come from a Facebook group called "The Faroe Islands aren't in Egypt." There are about 150 pictures posted to the group, but they're not all well marked, so I don't have he best information on them. The upper photo is from a Greek man and I believe it's of a park near Torshavn. The second one, well, I don't know anyhing about except that it's really cool.

That's all for this week.