FAROE FRIDAY: SOMETHING'S AFOOT

While the there is financial and political turbulence here in the US, there's something brewing in the Faroe Islands as well.

I heard a little about it last week when someone I know in the Faroes told me about a spat over office space between two cabinet ministers. A day or so later, the prime minister fired four cabinet ministers and thus dissolved his ruling coalition.

The rest is kind of a mystery. I don't speak Faroese, and there is no English language news on the subject, but I think the Faroese prime minister may be embattled. The only evidence I have is the above photo. It was the lead photo on portal.fo. I can't read the article that accompanies it, but any time you have a photo of a politician opening a door and scowling while reporters try to take his picture... that's not a good thing.

So this week's highly informative Faroese news update is as follows: There is political upheaval in the Faroes right now, it may have started with an argument over office space, and the prime minister has been seen scowling in photos. Is that clear enough?

Ok, enough of that, here's a lovely photo:

This is Skansin Fort. It was built in 1580 to help protect the trading port of Torshavn. Indeed, soon after it was completed, word came that Turkish pirates had sacked a town on a southern island. The original fort didn't last long, it was a victim of French plundering in the early 1600s. According to the Bradt Guide, the French destroyed the fort "when their final demand for 100 oxen, 200 sheep, 500 pairs of gloves, 1,200 pairs of stockings, and 60 nightshirts couldn't be met by the people of Torshavn within the 12 hour deadline."

It has been said many times: foolish is the man who stands between a Frenchie and his stockings.

The fort is just across the water from the Faroese parliament. Perhaps the prime minister will have time to walk there and sort the (alleged) political mess out.

(And thanks, as always, to Erik Christensen for posting tons of great pictures that he allows folk like me to post.)