HOT OFF THE PRESS: DEMONSTRATIONS IN SL!

Reporting almost live from Second Life:
The first ever virtual embassy of a real life (RL) country, Sweden House (pictured), was finally inaugurated yesterday by the avatar of the Swedish foreign secretary Mr Carl Bildt, who flew to the scene dressed in purple underwear.

The building quickly became a point of discussion amongst the Nordic citizens of Second Life as it was picketed by radical Danish demonstrators. The demonstrators, wearing striking blue-and-yellow outfits, saw Sweden House as a symbol of RL governmental politics that should not be given a role in the utopian world of SL.

The demonstration sparked heated discussions between visitors, onlookers and picketers. Visitors, many of them Swedish, argued that SL was already so political and, indeed, tribalised, that a 'national' House would not be ideologically significantly different from what is already taking place in SL. The demonstrators, however, counter-argued that RL governmental activities within the virtual world was a wholly unwelcome development for SL and possible other virtual worlds to come. They also stressed that they were not against Sweden as such but defended the principle of SL as a non-political zone, free of governmental interference.

The debate continues.

I am happy to report that there were no violent outbreaks and not a single avatar was hurt.

I regret that I only own 6 L$ and therefore was not able to snap any 'photos' from the site of the demo.

UPDATE: The debate obviously doesn't continue: I was dissappointed to notice that although many Swedish newspapers including Aftonbladet, reported (in Swedish) on the inauguration of Second House of Sweden, I found no stories today (31.5) on the demonstration.