Bjork's Mom Ends 20-Day Hunger Strike
The mother of pop diva Bjork has ended a hunger strike aimed at persuading the world's largest aluminum producer to abandon a US$3 billion project in the Icelandic highlands.
Hildur Runa Hauksdottir said Tuesday that she began eating again on Sunday evening at the start of her fourth week of the loner fast to protest plans by Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc. to build an aluminum smelter and hydroelectric plant in the wilderness area.
Hauksdottir, 56, said she quit because she was satisfied that her message about the plans by Alcoa and the Icelandic government was having a global impact.
"Americans, Europeans, people in the Far East, have all contacted me asking how they can help, how they can stop this," said Hauksdottir, who had begun the hunger strike on Oct. 7. "I thank them for their support and I urge them to keep track by reading the campaign Web site (raddir.is). But a lot more work needs to be done - time is running out."
Alcoa and the Icelandic government have already started work building access roads and tunnels for the scheme above Vatnajokull glacier.
The state-owned power company plans to build 11 dams to create a 22-square mile reservoir, which will provide the hydroelectric power for an Alcoa-owned smelter at Reydarfjordur on the coast.
The area - home to reindeer, rare geese and plants, as well as glacial rivers, snow-covered volcanoes and deep, basalt canyons - was the setting for Bjork's video for the 1997 single "Joga."
Environmentalists say the project will cause massive erosion and pollute rivers and deltas with glacial mud.
Hauksdottir lost more than 14 pounds during her protest, surviving on Icelandic herbal tea and homeopathic tonics.
One reason the hunger strike generated attention is the fame of pop singer Bjork, who is widely considered Iceland's most famous person.
Hauksdottir said that her decision to quit had nothing to do with Bjork's arrival in Iceland on Sunday - the star's first visit since she gave birth to her daughter earlier this month.
"She was pleased to hear that I had decided to stop the strike, of course," said Hauksdottir. "Yet she would have supported me if I had decided to continue, as well I might."
Hauksdottir said Bjork, who also has a son, is enjoying motherhood after 16 years on the road.
By Richard Middleton