August 28, 2015 at 20:33Street in Reykjavik named after Darth Vader
Iceland has reaffirmed the reputation of the most cyberpunk country in Europe. This is where the most powerful branch of the Pirate Party is located, and the party itself is confidently held among the most popular political parties. It may well get a majority in the national parliament, appoint its ministers and nominate deputies to the European Parliament.
The progressive nature of the nation is manifested in other details. For example, on August 26, 2015, the Reykjavik City Council approved the initiative to rename the street in the industrial center of the capital in honor of the Dark Lord Darth Vader.
The idea of renaming the street arose on the website “For the Best Reykjavik”, where residents express their proposals on how to improve life in the city and what to spend on the city budget. Voting takes place with the help of electronic passports - those same smart cards that are used to identify a citizen when paying taxes and providing public services.
Each month, the proposals with the most votes are discussed in the city council, and the best are included in the city budget. By the way, now the townspeople are actively promoting the project of installing free Wi-Fi hotspots in public transport.
The vote showed that the idea with Darth Vader was supported by many residents of Reykjavik. In addition, the new name is the best suited for a dark street in an industrial quarter.
About renaming a streetannounced the mayor of the city on his twitter.
Í dag var nafni götunnar Bratthöfði breytt í Svarthöfði #betriReykjavik
- Dagur B. Eggertsson (@Dagurb) August 26, 2015The name of the street in Icelandic is Svarthöfði , which literally translates as “Black Head”. The fact is that in Iceland they strictly adhere to the principle of “ purity of language ” and try not to use foreign words if there are local synonyms for them. In an extreme case, they come up with localized names instead of foreign ones. For this reason, when the Star Wars movie was localized in 1977, the main character was given the name Black Head.
The location of the street is shown on the map.
Science fiction lovers have long dreamed that some street in their city would be named after their favorite character. Former Mayor of Reykjavik, comedian Jon Gnarr even appeared in public in the guise of Obi-Wan Kenobi and a Jedi tunic.
Mayor John Gnarr, Yoko Ono, and Lady Gaga
