Lögberg-Heimskringla - 05.02.1993, Qupperneq 1

( Lögberg 1
eimskringia
The lcelandic Weekly
Lögberg Stofnaö 14. januar 1888
Heimskringla Stofnaö 9. september 1886
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Raising a curtain on success....................5
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107. Árgangur
107th Year
Publications Mail Registration No. 1667
Föstudagur 5. febrúar 1993
Friday, 5 February 1993
Númer 4
Number 4
lcelandic
News
TmARcmEcrtmM.
BWy/
Reykjavík City Hall
■ The Architectural Review, published
in England, features the Reykjavik City
Hall (Ráðhúsið) on its front cover. The
píctures with the article are stunningly
beautiful and the remarks by the
author, Raymund Ryan, are quite com-
plimentary. The unique setting by the
Eond in Reykjavík and the architectural
style created by the architects Margrét
Harðardóttir and Steve Christer, make
the long awaited Ráðhús worth waiting
for.
100 tons in five days
• After a slow start, due to extremely
bad weather conditions, the wínter
fishing season ís well under way. Boats
físhing from the south westem penin-
sula have brought in reasonably good
catches lately. Happascell KE 94,
(Lucky) during a five day period brought
in no less than 100 tons (220 thous.
Lbs).
fianlagahalli
hins opinbera
inokkrumlöndum, sem%
af landsframleiðslu 1992
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
iSLAND
írtand
Danmöfk
Frakkland
Þýskaland
HoOand
Spánn
Portúgal
Delgía
Bredand
ftalia
Grikkland
Svfþjöð
Eœnomist, pjóðhagsstolnun
published
figures
based on
OECD
reveal that
lceland has
the lowest
deficit of
European
countries
only 2.2% of
GNP. In comparison the deficit in
Sweden is 13.8%. This is an impressive
achievement considering that lceland is
to a great extent dependent on a single
industry (fishing).
k Birgir
Defidt
lowest
in
leeland
The Tragedy of He
i
• '
H I I
For more than twenty years,
since the government of
Manitoba tumed Hecla Island
into a provincial park, it has been in
the news on a fairly regular basis,
particularly in Manitoba. It was in
the news again last month — it may
become a national park under feder-
al authority — and will almost cer-
tainly be in the news in the future.
The island has always been news,
of course, in the Western Icelandic
community, in such newspapers as
Framfari, Heimskringla, Lögberg and
— today — Lögberg-Heimskringla.
Hecla, along with Gimli, is a kind of
spiritual centre for Western
Icelanders, a focal point on which
the whole culture, the traditions and
the determination to preserve them
could centre.
Hecla remained the most
Icelandic of North American
Icelandic communities, partly, no
doubt, due to its island isolation.
When Iceland’s president, Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir, visited Canada a few
years ago, she stayed at Hecla. It had
changed mightily by that time,
thanks to the attentions of a succes-
sion of provincial governments, but
she was still deeply moved by the
experience.
One of the things that touched
her most was the graveyard. On the
tombstones of that small cemetery is
written the history of a small and
isolated Icelandic community.
Anyone who walks through it and
reads them for the first time without
being moved almost to tears will
have either a hard heart or very little
imagination. President Vigdís suffers
from neither failing. Another aspect
of the visit that she commented on
enthusiastically was her visit to the
house of Helgi and Helga Tomasson,
two islanders who managed to sur-
vive the purge of the community that
was conducted — more on that later.
President Vigdís was originally
scheduled to spend only about half
an hour there. She stayed for almost
two hours, a fact that I know better
than anyone, since I was sitting in
Gull Harbor twiddling my thumbs
and waiting for the interview with
the president that was to have imme-
diately followed the visit to the
Tomasson home. The interview was
well worth the wait and one of the
more memorable comments she
made directly concerned the delay.
When she walked into the
Tomassons’ kitchen, she said, she
felt as if she had stepped back into
Iceland. She sat at the kitchen table
and drank coffee with Helgi and
Helga and talked to them and simply
didn’t want to leave.
Hecla is Icelandic in its rock,
in its earth, in its grass — it
is Icelandic in its bones. But
outside of the Tomasson home, there
are few visible signs of that today.
When the provincial government
proposed turning it into a park,
many islanders welcomed the idea.
There was not much money in fish-
ing anymore and the farming had
never been much more than subsis-
tence level. Most of them would
regret their co-operation. Most of
them were evicted — or to put it
more politely, their homes and their
land were expropriated to make
■ » ■
By Tom Oleson
room for the park.
Families that had
lived on the island
for generations, that
had fed, clothed,
housed and educated
their children on
fishing and hard-dirt
farming, were forced
out, some with barely enough com-
pensation to buy a lot in Gimli.
/t appears that someone in the
government bureaucracy had
decided that what the new park
on Hecla needed was an “authentic
Icelandic fishing village.” It never
occurred to any of the bright lights
involved in planning this tragedy that
they already had one right there,
probably because the Hecla islanders
did not look quaint enough. They
looked much like you and me, hon-
est working people who dressed for
work and relaxed at home; when
they were dressed in their Sunday
best, they looked much like the then
premier of the time, although not
quite so plump, pretentious and
pompous. They had to go.
And go they did. There is now no
Icelandic fishing village on Hecla
since the government’s plans fell
through. There are only the remnants
of what used to be, a few survivors, a
lot of boarded up, decaying houses
and the resort and golf course at Gull
Harbour, run by the govemment and
losing a potfull of money every year.
If the government cannot unload it
on some private investor soon, it may
also be boarded up and decaying
before long.
Continued on page 3