The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1957, Qupperneq 20

18
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1957
J4elping, to (BxL
There are many ways in which Ice-
land and its people can be brought
closer to Canada and the United
States and their people, and of course,
more particularly to people in those
two countries of Icelandic extraction.
This magazine would be remiss in its
duty if it did not draw attention to
incidents and undertakings which will
help strengthen the cultural bonds
between these two countries and Ice-
land. Though blood relationship and
ties of kinship will continue to be
a vital ever reinforcing strength to
these bonds, that by itself is not suf-
ficient, and it may be that it is not
desirable that it alone provide the
sustaining cultural strands. There is a
process on this side of the Atlantic
which is at once a frustration and an
encouragement. The blood relation-
ships are thinning very fast, but even
in that process the feeling of a com-
mon cultural and ideological heritage
and the clearer vision of the beauty
and strength of one particular facade
in that structure spread and in the
very spreading gather strength and
become more clear. The strands of
kinship stretching across the Atlantic
are slowly but surely being woven
into cultural bonds of wider content
which will bring Iceland closer to the
two North American countries.
The following are but samples of
what has been taking place and will
continue in the future in ever increas-
ing ways. The first one shows the
profit gained through the visit of Ice-
landic students to the United States,
not only by the students themselves
and Americans of their kin, but equal-
ly if not more so by other Americans
'ge the Atlantic
with whom the students came in con-
tact. The second indicates the re-
action in Iceland to one of the enter-
prises on this side of the Atlantic, an
enterprise which, in the words of that
“Echo” in Visir, reflects that there
are “other (than ithose of Icelandic
blood) in the West, interested in Ice-
landic culture who number many
more” than people in Iceland have
imagined. The thinning process may
be deplored but it has its undoubted
reward.
★
ICELANDIC STUDENTS TAKE A
THREE MONTH’S TRAINING
COURSE IN THE U.S.
In Washington, D.C. there is a
Branch in the Department of Agri-
culture called “International Co-oper-
ation Administration”. This Admin-
istration with “Land-Grant Colleges
Co-operating” put on Programs and
Itineraries for students and trainees
from foreign lands. Such a course was
arranged last fall for 15 participants
from Iceland. The subject was “Farm
Mechanization; Care, Use, Mainten-
ance and Repair of Farm Machinery,”
and the duration of the training was
three months, October 4, 1956 to Jan-
uary 2, 1957.
The itinerary was as follows: Wash-
ington, D.C. October 4-19; University
of Maine, Orono, Maine, October 22-
Novemiber 15; California State Poly-
technic College, San Luis Obispo, Cali-
fornia, November 19-December 14,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln Neb.;
December 17-18; International Harves-
ter Company, Chicago, December 20-