Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.05.2002, Blaðsíða 1

a glance
Baldur Stefansson’s stellar
career remembered
Page 6
Friday, 3 May 2002 • Number 15/ Númer 15 • Föstudagur, 3 Maí 2002
Vancouver’s Sunshine Ladies
turn a new leaf
Page 4
Week at
Lögberg
Lögberg stofnað 14. janúar 1888
Heimskringla stofnað 9. september 1886
Sameinuð 20. ágúst 1959
Heimskringla
The Icelandic Weekly
www.logberg.com
Registration no. 08000
Agreement no. 1402161
116th year /116. Árgangur
ISSN 0047-4967
Fréttir • News
Pútín þiggur heim-
boð til íslands
Putin Accepts an
Invitation to Iceland
/
Olafur Ragnar Grímsson
President of Iceland, and
Vladimir Putin, President of
Russia met at the Kremlin in
Moscow on the 20th of April.
At a press conference after
their meeting it was
announced that Ólafur Ragnar
liad invited Putin to an official
visit to Iceland and that Putin
had accepted the invitation.
Before Putin met with
Ólafur Ragnar, he said that
from the time Russia recog-
nized Iceland’s independence
in 1944, nothipg has hap-
pened to cast a shadow on
relations between the two
countries. “On the contrary
your country was the place
where transactions began,”
said Putin, referring to the
meeting between Reagan and
Gorbachev in Reykjavík in
1986.
At the press conference
the Morgunblað asked Putin
whether he thought that
lceland had a role to play in
developing the relationship
between Russia and NATO.
Putin answered that Iceland
wasn’t a large country, but
because of its position both as
a country belonging to
Europe and as a country situ-
ated in the Atlantic Ocean it
could, without a doubt,
become a linkage between
Russia and USA.
Information from Morgunblaðið,
Á. H.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MORGUNBLAÐIÐ
Ólafur Ragnar and Dorrit
Moussaieff greet Putin and
his wife in the Kremlin.
Minneapolis Convention Smashing Success
tion’s Keynote address. Amongst
other things she spoke about free-
dom, and how it has to be handled
with great care. She described the
steps the Icelanders took to
ensure that when they got their
freedom they were prepared for
it. This they did in three ways.
First they began publishing their
learned tradition of the sagas.
Second they sent people to
Denmark to study how to form
schools, so that education could
be achieved in Iceland.
“Educational identity is the fun-
dament of freedom,” she said.
And third they sent students
abroad to study technology, so
that they could build harbours,
roads, bridges, ships, and learn to
harness the natural warm water.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRÍSTIN M. JÓHANNSDÓTTIR
Vígdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland, with Gamlir
Fóstbræður in the background.
Over 400 people attended
the various business, edu-
cational and social ses-
sions at the Icelandic National
League of North America Annual
Convention held in Minneapolis
April 19th to 21 st. By any meas-
ure, it was a huge success. The
trio of Edda Björnson Connell,
Mary Josefson and Haraldur
Bjamason who headed up the
organizing committee, and the
band of volunteers who made
everything - or at least almost
everything - go smoothly, are to
be thanked and congratulated for
such a fine and fun event-.
After a first morning of busi-
ness sessions, and a fabulous
lunch of Icelandic delicacies like
skyr and herring, with water and
chocolates and the all impoilant
Ópal, all imported from Iceland, a
grand opening ceremony of flags
and music set the tone. Sigrid
Johnson, Presidcnt of the
INL/NA, ran the sessions with
style, occasionally throwing out
some fine Icelandic.
Over lunch Hörður
Sigurgestsson, President of the
Board of Directors of Icelandair
spoke. The L-H will report on his
comments in a later issue. Former
President of Iceland Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir gave the conven-
Between sovereignty in 1918 and
independence in 1944 these three
activities made it possible for
Icelanders to eam their freedom.
She spoke of the fact that histori-
cally times of warmer weather
resulted in peaks in cultural and
creative activity. She mentioned
the work of Bragi Arnason, who
has developed a method to pro-
duce energy free of pollutions. In ■
two years, buses powered with
this energy will be driving the
streets of Reykjavík.
Over that first day Gamlir
Fóstbræður, the oldest male choir
in Iceland, sang, Siggi Hall,
famous Icelandic chef, prepared
an absolutely unbelievable dinner
of many Icelandic fishes and
lamb, Guitar Islancio and Egill
Ólafsson entertained us through
and after the meal.
The INL/NA welcomed sev-
eral new clubs into the fold. Brian
Gudmundson of Winnipeg’s
Framfari, Loretta Bernhoft of the
Association of Icelandic
Communities in North Dakota,
Getry Einarson of the Friends of
Iceland in Ottawa, and Gísli
Hermansson from the club in
Northern California accepted
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRÍSTIN M. JÓHANNSDÓTTIR
their chapter status plaques. Each
was then presented with a set of
the Sagas of Icelanders by
Ambassador Hjálmar W.
Hanneson for the Canadian clubs
and Ambassador Jón Baldvin
Hannibalsson for the American
clubs. Introducing the saga gift,
Jón Baldvin said that the sagas
are “acclaimed by so many and
read by so few.” He went on to
say that they were written when
Iceland was the wild west of
Europe, and that their cultural
affinity was with the best of the
wild west stories and the Samurai
tradition of the Japanese.
More conyention news in
lafer íssiiés ofth'e néwspaper.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KENT L. BJÖRNSSON
Siggi Hall, award winning
Icelandic chef.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRÍSTIN M. JÓHANNSDÓTTIR
Flagbearers in national dress,
headed by Edda Björnson
Connell, listen raptly to Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir.
Seven people were honoured with iife memberships in the
Icelandic National League of North America: David Gislason
sponsored by the INL/NA; from the Leif Eiríksson Society in
Calgary Iris Sigriður Frederickson Torfason and Thordis
Gutnik; from the Gimli club Dilla Narfason; Leola Josefson and
Iva Sigurbjörg Magnusson from Minneapolis. Irene Guttormson,
who was unable to be present, from the Lundar club.
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