The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1964, Page 16

14
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1964
to other nations. Many nations have
embassies in Iceland and Iceland has
embassies in many other countries.
There has been tremendous econom-
ic and industrial expansion in Iceland,
especially since the last war. Iceland
has two modern airlines and a modern
fishing fleet. The Icelandic Steamship
Company, organized in 1914, is fin-
ancially sound and expanding. Recent-
ly a delegation from Canada visited
Iceland to obtain information about
the most modern fishing equipment
and marketing of fish and fish by-
products.
Farms are being rapidly mechanized
and more land brought under culti-
vation. Through cooperative financial
assistance, if required, and independ-
ent of assistance, farm homes are be-
ing equipped with electricity, tele-
phones, radios, modern plumbing and
other household needs.
Then the hotsprings. They appear
to be limitless. Almost all of Reykja-
vik is heated from these springs and
the system is being steadily widened.
But there are current problems, one
of which is the ever present danger of
inflation. Strong measures have had
to be taken to prevent spirals in prices
and wages.
Strange though it may appear to the
outsider, the people of Iceland are
concerned about the Icelandic lan-
guage. There is the constant pressure
of English, in commerce and commun-
ications, and to some extent through
the presence of American troops. Then
there is the American television sta-
tion in Keflavik. It is perhaps feared
more than any other factor as it pro-
jects English-language slang upon the
youth of Iceland. Plans to establish
an Icelandic TV system is under seri-
ous consideration by the government.
Now I return to the other Iceland.
I should remind you that I grew up
in a home where Icelandic was spoken
and where Icelandic books and papers
were in daily use. Like many of you,
the earliest literature with which, as
a child, I became familiar was the
stirring sagas of Icelandic or Nordic
chieftains and heroes. Much of this
literature glorified the past and the
great qualities of a people who had
survived and developed their native
talents despite difficulties and disasters
inflicted on them by men and by na-
ture. This literature taught that sur-
vival and development of a people can
be achieved only by constant vigilance,
constant sacrifices and constant willing-
ness to struggle—often against odds.
The story of Iceland and the story
of the sruggle to survive and develop,
which her people have waged through
centuries, is worth knowing. It is not
a story of conquest, neither is it the
story of an attempt to build an empire
of subject people. It is rather the story
of how a people strove to achieve in-
ternal unity, to overcome handicaps of
environment, and to earn the right to
shape their own destiny without for-
eign control or interference. As such
it is a story worth knowing for its own
sake. More important, however, it is a
story worth knowing because the Ice-
landic records are perhaps more com-
plete or unbroken for a thousand-year
period than similar stories of most
other peoples. I say more complete be-
cause the Icelandic records possess
scope and detail, they cover not only
kings and battles and conquests, but
what is perhaps more important they
cover the essential human story of a
people striving forward to freedom and
liberty.
Knowing and understanding tire
story of Iceland is therefore an im-